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Claude vs Heista

vs

Claude can only answer in text. Heista answers with the work.

Ask Claude for three campaign ideas and you get three write-ups to picture. Ask Heista and you get three, art-directed, with the imagery made as it answers, on the client’s brand, ready to put on a board.

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The Heista workspace developing a campaign: single-minded propositions, out-of-home placements and the reasoning behind each one
The difference

Writing about the work, or making it?

Claude

A chat that answers in text

Reasoning, writing, research and code, across any subject you bring it. No image model and no video model, so the only route to a visual is connecting an outside service and asking for one thing at a time.

HEISTA

Built for the whole job

A chat for the thinking, on the client’s brand, answering with directions that arrive art-directed. Then surfaces built specifically for production imagery and for film, and a board you present the result from.

Side by side

HEISTA vs Claude

Heista compared with Claude, on the same ten measures used across every Heista comparison
HEISTAClaude
SurfaceA creative workspace for agenciesA chat assistant for everything
Work starts fromA brief, a pitch, or an ad that is workingA message in a thread
CoversIdeas, art direction, film and socialThinking, writing and code
Client brandsA brand brain for every clientProjects and memory
Where the work livesSearchable by brand, person and dateThreads inside projects
Showing the workBoards you present fromCopy it out of the chat
ModelsEvery major provider, newest firstTheir own text models only
What the AI costs$1 buys $1 of generationIncluded in a monthly seat
Built forAgencies running several brandsEveryone, for everything
Best forThe whole job, brief to filmThinking and writing it down
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Why switch

What a workspace does that a chat window does not

A chat in Heista answering a brief with three art-directed campaign directions

Ask in a chat, get work back

Same conversational way in. Ask for three campaign ideas and three arrive art-directed, with the imagery generated as it answers, laid out so you can compare them rather than imagine them.

A brand in Heista showing voice, mission, values and palette

A brain for every brand you work on

Each client carries its own voice, palette, logos, values and documents, and the work is made against it automatically. Not a project folder you drop documents into and hope the context survives the thread.

Creative Assets in Heista, showing ideas, copy, visuals and motion

Nothing good gets lost in a thread

Every idea, script, visual and film your team makes lands in one searchable library, filtered by brand, by person and by date. Not buried in a conversation from three weeks ago that nobody can find.

A Heista board with the share panel open

Present it without rebuilding it

Pull directions, copy, storyboards, key visuals and film onto one shared board, take feedback in place and present from the board itself. No copying answers out of a chat and into a deck.

The Heista branding editor, showing a workspace branded as another agency

Brand it and sell it as yours

Put your name, colours and logo on the workspace and run it from your own URL. Take it into new business as your agency’s capability, not a subscription every client already has.

Heista spend history broken down by tool, by type and by member

Specialised, not general purpose

A chat for the thinking, then surfaces built specifically for production imagery and for film, running the best models from every major provider at the provider’s list price. Each part tuned to one creative job instead of one box that tries to do everything.

Which should you choose

Heista or Claude?

Claude is built to help anyone think and write about anything. Heista is built for agencies running the whole creative operation, from the brief through the pitch to the finished campaign.

Choose Heista when you

  • ✓

    The thinking has to become work

    Territories, art direction, campaign imagery and film, made in the same place the thinking happened. Nothing gets retyped into another tool, and nothing loses the brand it was for on the way.

  • ✓

    You need images and film, not descriptions of them

    Both are generated in the workspace, across every major provider, against the client brand. Not an outside service bolted on for one request at a time.

  • ✓

    You run work across several client brands

    Each client carries its own brand brain holding voice, palette, logos, values and documents, so the work stays on strategy and never bleeds between accounts.

  • ✓

    You are pitching, not just planning

    Develop the strongest direction into pitch-ready work and present it from the board, without rebuilding it in a deck.

  • ✓

    The work has to be findable next quarter

    Everything the team makes lands in one library, searchable by brand, by person and by date, instead of living in somebody’s chat history.

Choose Claude when you

  • ›

    You want one tool for everything

    Writing, analysis, research, code, long documents. Claude covers far more ground than Heista sets out to, and none of that breadth is what Heista is for.

  • ›

    Long-form reasoning is the job

    For working through a complicated argument, editing a long document or thinking at length, a strong general model in a plain text box is hard to beat and does not need a workspace around it.

  • ›

    You are not producing creative work

    If nothing you make has to be art-directed, put on a brand, shown to a client or found again six months later, almost everything Heista adds is overhead you do not need.

Why creative teams switch
from Claude to Heista

Your whole creative operation runs here, brand by brand.

Not the generation step on its own. The brief, the territories, the thinking, the art direction, the campaign imagery, the film, the social, and the board you present it from. Every client carries its own brand brain holding voice, palette, logos and values, so the work stays on strategy and never bleeds between accounts. Everything your team makes lands in one searchable library. It works the same for an agency of forty and a team of one.

  1. Brief→
  2. Territories→
  3. Ideas→
  4. Development→
  5. Execution→
  6. Pitch
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The difference

Built for creative work. Made for agencies.

Explore. Develop. Present.

Rapidly explore ideas, creative directions and executions for your next brief or pitch, then take the strongest one all the way to finished work.

A brain for every client

Voice, palette, logos, values and documents per brand, so the work stays on strategy and never bleeds between accounts.

Not another tab

Ideation, art direction, imagery, film and social in one workspace, so nothing gets exported into the next tool and loses its context.

Pay provider prices

Generation at list price with no markup, itemised by tool, person and brand. No subscription required to start.

From the brief to the work

Rapidly explore ideas, creative directions and executions for your next brief or pitch. Develop the thinking, sell the direction, and create every visual, film and format the work needs.

  1. 01Explore

    Several campaign executions developed from one brief in Heista

    More ways into the brief

    Drop the brief in and get several real directions back, not ten versions of the obvious one. The first idea everybody has is the one to get past.

  2. 02Develop

    A single creative direction opened into a full execution with imagery and reasoning

    Take the strongest one further

    Pick a direction and open it up. Territories, executions, art direction, the thinking behind each one. This is the part that usually happens in a document nobody reads twice.

  3. 03Present

    A finished board of campaign imagery and art direction, ready to present

    Put it in front of the client

    Art direction, campaign imagery and film, made against the brand you are already working in, then straight onto a board you present from. No deck build, no export.

Frequently asked questions

Everything else worth knowing before you try either one.

Talk to us
Can Claude generate images or video?
No. It has no image model and no video model of its own. You can connect an outside service and ask it for one image or one clip at a time, which is a second subscription and a separate bill. Heista generates both in the workspace, across every major provider, against the client brand the work is for.
Should I stop using Claude?
For briefs, ideation and campaign work, yes. Heista is a chat too, with the same way in, but it holds the client’s brand and answers with directions you can look at rather than paragraphs you have to imagine. From there you move into the surfaces built for production imagery and film, so the brief and the finished work happen in one place.
Does Heista help with the idea, not just the execution?
That is the part it is built around. Drop a brief in and get genuinely different creative territories back with the thinking behind each one, then open the strongest into executions, art direction and finished film. The thinking and the making are the same session, not two tools.
Are Claude Projects the same as a brand in Heista?
Not really. A project groups chats and documents you have dropped in. A Heista brand holds voice, palette, logos, values and documents, and everything you make is generated against it automatically, so a new person on the account picks the brand up in a day and nothing bleeds between clients.
Which models does each one run?
Claude runs its own text models, and that is the whole list. Heista runs the best image, video and reasoning models from every major provider, newest first, with the cost and the speed of each one shown before you use it, so a piece of work is never held back by one lab’s release schedule.
How does the pricing compare?
Claude is a monthly seat with usage included, which is simple and good value for thinking and writing. Heista is $59 per seat a month with a free tier on one brand, and generation billed separately at the provider’s list price: a dollar buys a dollar, itemised by tool, by person and by brand, so a pitch carries a real number you can put in front of a client.

Keep reading

  • All comparisonsHow Heista compares to the tools you know
  • Heista vs ChatGPTA general chat against a creative workspace
  • Heista vs SpringboardsA strategy chat against a workspace
  • Heista vs FloraA node canvas against a workspace
  • Creative DevelopmentBriefs into visible creative directions
  • Heista for agenciesA brain per client, branded as yours
  • Pricing$59 a seat, generation at provider cost

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