Hailuo (the export brand for MiniMax's Video-01 engine) is the budget pick for serious creators. At ~$0.09/second, you're paying half what Kling charges, and the gap in quality is narrower than that price difference suggests.
Hailuo's strength is fast, punchy 6-second clips suitable for social. Its weakness is sustained coherence on 10s+ extensions and complex multi-character scenes.
The vendor ships rapidly - every quarter we re-test, the gap with Kling narrows. We expect Hailuo to be a real Kling competitor by end of 2026.
Verdict: the best budget pick if quality isn't your top priority. We score it 7.8/10.