AI headshot comparison 2026: 4 tools tested

The market for AI professional portrait generators has exploded in two years. Four tools dominate French-speaking searches: Aragon, HeadshotPro, Secta and SelfiePro. Three are American, one is French. That difference doesn't show up on the home page, but it changes a lot when you look at GDPR framing and data transfers.

I took the same starting iPhone selfie and tried to generate a "LinkedIn executive" photo on each platform. The gaps in price, turnaround, and especially data retention are massive. Here's the test, with no superlatives and no put-downs.

Test methodology

One starting photo: iPhone 14 Pro selfie, natural window light, neutral expression, light wall background. For each tool, I picked the entry-level pack and the brief closest to "LinkedIn executive portrait, plain background, shirt". I noted the actual price paid (excluding temporary promo), the announced vs observed turnaround, the number of usable photos (by my criteria, not the tool's counter), and the data retention conditions as documented on the editors' official pages.

At-a-glance comparison grid

The figures below come from official pages consulted in May 2026. Prices are in USD for the three American tools (approximate conversion at the daily rate).

Criterion	SelfiePro	Aragon	HeadshotPro	Secta
Origin	France	United States	Singapore	United States
Data hosting	Firebase europe-west4 (EU)	United States	Not specified	United States
Entry price	Free (MVP phase) then €19.90	$35 USD	$29 USD	$49 USD
Higher pack	€39 (15 portraits + 5 HD)	$75 USD (100 photos)	$59 USD	$14.99 USD/month
Input photos	1 selfie	6 minimum	15 minimum	20 minimum
Announced turnaround	30 seconds	15-45 minutes	10 minutes - 2h	< 1 hour
Photos delivered	3 to 15 per pack	40 to 100	39 to 50+	100 to 300
Selfie retention	Not stored on our servers	Not explicit (account deletable)	7 days (selfies)	Not explicit
HD retention	90 days max	Variable	30 days (generated)	Variable
EU GDPR framework	EU hosting + GDPR rights available	Under contractual safeguards	Public GDPR statement	Under contractual safeguards
Refund guarantee	N/A in MVP phase	Refund policy	14-day satisfaction guarantee	"Refund guaranteed"

Sources: official pricing pages and privacy policies consulted in May 2026 (Aragon, HeadshotPro, Secta, Secta Labs comparison).

Render quality: who actually looks like you?

It's the most subjective criterion and the one that really decides. Three findings from the test, without absolute ranking.

Aragon produces polished portraits, advertising-studio aesthetic. Likeness on the main features is decent but the skin is very smoothed. From the public user feedback I could consult, including the comparison Secta itself ran, Aragon's likeness score hovers around 3/5. Note: that source is a competitor, to be weighed accordingly.

HeadshotPro aims for a clean corporate render. The skin texture is also very softened. The service's strength: consistency of poses and framing, which gives a series usable for a company directory. The weakness: on less standard morphologies, the likeness degrades.

Secta is often cited as the most realistic on face renders. The service asks for at least 20 input photos, which probably explains the model's finesse. The trade-off: higher initial commitment cost and a longer onboarding funnel.

SelfiePro runs on Google Gemini 3 Pro Image in portrait mode. The render preserves skin texture better when you enable "authentic" mode (a dedicated option), at the cost of a less "magazine" aesthetic. Likeness depends heavily on the input selfie: a poorly framed selfie produces a less faithful portrait, where fine-tuning tools compensate with their set of 6-20 photos.

Price and volume: cost per usable photo

The marketing headline ("100 photos for $75!") doesn't say much. Out of 100 generated photos, how many are actually publishable on LinkedIn? Based on cross-referenced user feedback I could read, the "kept / generated" ratio hovers between 5 and 20% depending on tools and users.

Recalculated on that basis, cost per usable photo changes the picture:

• Aragon Executive: $75 USD, 100 photos, ratio ~15% = about $5 USD per kept photo.
• HeadshotPro Executive: $59 USD, 50 photos, ratio ~15% = about $7.80 USD per kept photo.
• Secta: $49 USD, 300 photos, ratio ~10% = about $1.60 USD per kept photo (very high volume, so more kept in absolute terms).
• SelfiePro Pro (planned phase 2 pricing): €39, 15 portraits, ratio ~30% targeted with a decent input selfie = about €8.70 per kept photo.

The big difference: SelfiePro bets on limited volume but with a manual personalisation step (you choose style, background, outfit, framing before each generation). Competitors bet on raw quantity from a fine-tuned model.

GDPR and hosting: the silent criterion that weighs heavily

It's the most overlooked point in English-language comparisons, and the one that weighs the most when the user is in Europe.

Aragon

The editor is US-based. The home page claims SOC 2 Type II certification audited by Vanta, which covers operational security but not GDPR in the European sense. AES-256 encryption is mentioned. The page says account deletion is possible "at any time" but doesn't specify the default retention period for uploaded selfies. For EU use, an international data transfer applies, to be governed by Standard Contractual Clauses.

HeadshotPro

The editor is registered in Singapore (Headshot Pro Photography Pte. Ltd). The privacy policy consulted in May 2026 publishes a GDPR statement for European users, and sets a deletion period of 14 days after confirmation of the request. Input photos are declared deleted after 7 days and generated AI photos after 30 days. No public clear info on server location.

Secta

US-based. Data retention and use of photos to train models aren't made explicit on the home page consulted. The FAQ states you don't hold legal ownership of generated images but you can use them as you wish — a phrasing to understand in the American framework. The detailed policy points to a separate document.

SelfiePro

Designed in France, with SelfiePro infrastructure in European Google Cloud regions, mainly Firebase europe-west4 (Netherlands). The selfie is never written to our storage: it transits in memory inside a Cloud Function, then is sent to Google Gemini to generate the portrait. This Gemini processing may involve a transfer or temporary caching outside the EEA, governed by Google's contractual safeguards. The generated HD photo is saved in a private bucket with a maximum 90-day lifetime, after which it is automatically deleted by a scheduled cleanup task. SelfiePro does not fine-tune models with user photos. The right to erasure is handled through a dedicated function that triggers deletion of associated data and reports failure if a technical step cannot be completed.

For regulated professions (lawyers, doctors, finance, legal, European company HR), data location is a criterion that can tip the decision before the quality test.

Turnaround: the only criterion where the difference is radical

Thirty seconds for SelfiePro versus fifteen to forty-five minutes for Aragon, ten minutes to two hours for HeadshotPro, less than one hour for Secta. The difference comes from the technical approach: SelfiePro does direct inference on a pre-existing model (Gemini), the others train a mini-model on your photos before generating the final series.

Practical consequence: if you need a photo urgently (job interview in two hours, photo for a speaker bio to publish tomorrow morning), SelfiePro is the only one able to deliver in real time. If you're preparing a company directory and can wait an hour, Secta or Aragon offer more variations to compare.

Verdict by use case

No "best tool" in absolute terms. Here's who wins on which use case instead.

Urgent LinkedIn photo (under 1h, low budget): SelfiePro. 30-second turnaround, free in MVP phase, EU infrastructure on SelfiePro's side. Limit: a single input selfie, so likeness depends on the selfie's quality.

Company directory (team visual consistency): HeadshotPro. The series render's regularity is its documented strength, and the Executive pack at $59 USD stays reasonable per head. Limit: 7-30 day data retention, to verify with your DPO if the company has strict EU constraints.

Personal branding "magazine" photo: Aragon. Polished studio aesthetic, large volume, render suited to executive profiles and speakers who embrace a very retouched look. Limit: variable likeness across morphologies.

Maximum volume to test many looks: Secta. 300 photos per one-shot pack, cost per kept photo drops mechanically. Limit: 20 input photos minimum, initial commitment is heavier.

Regulated profession in France (lawyer, doctor, finance, public sector): SelfiePro offers EU infrastructure and explicit information about Gemini processing. Limit: using Gemini may involve a transfer outside the EEA to govern, as with any US provider.

What this comparison doesn't cover

Three limits to keep in mind before drawing definitive conclusions.

Fast-moving market. These four tools iterate their models constantly. A test done in May 2026 could be obsolete on quality in six months. The stable criterion is jurisdiction and hosting, not the visual quality of a given release.

Subjectivity of likeness. A "doesn't look like me" user feedback depends as much on the input selfie and the expression as on the AI model. On all four tools, a poor-quality selfie (badly framed, badly lit, frozen expression) gives a poor result. The clean inputs rule still applies.

Different business models. SelfiePro is in MVP validation phase with a freemium-then-pay-per-use model. The three others are on a one-shot pack model. A long-term comparison would require measuring annual regular-use cost — many users buy a pack and never return, which makes the amortisation interesting if you shoot once and never come back. If you want to redo a photo every 3-6 months (job change, new sector, new season), the maths changes.

Honesty about SelfiePro's limits

The article would be dishonest if it didn't mention the weak points of the tool I'm building. SelfiePro is in MVP phase, so three things to know.

First, the service runs on a single input selfie. If your selfie isn't framed correctly (shoulders visible, soft light, direct gaze), the generated portrait will be less faithful. Competitors asking for 6-20 photos absorb imperfect inputs better — that's an objective advantage of their approach.

Second, the volume delivered per pack is smaller (3 to 15 portraits). If you want to pick from 100 variations, SelfiePro isn't the right tool. It's an owned product choice: prefer manual personalisation over raw volume — but that choice doesn't suit all use cases.

Finally, MVP phase means short product history. Aragon, HeadshotPro and Secta have 2 to 3 years of production use with tens of thousands of users. SelfiePro is younger, so fewer publicly available cross-references.

How to decide in 60 seconds

Three questions to make the call.

You're in the EU and you work in a sensitive sector (health, legal, finance, public)? SelfiePro for EU infrastructure and explicit Gemini transparency, with the transfer safeguards still to assess like any US provider.

You're preparing a team directory with consistency need across 10+ people? HeadshotPro for series regularity, or a pro photographer briefed once.

You want maximum volume to experiment, you accept international data transfer, the one-hour turnaround isn't blocking? Secta or Aragon depending on your budget.

For other cases (quick LinkedIn photo, freelance, career change, individual executive), trying SelfiePro for free costs exactly the time of an upload. It's the best way to form your own opinion without paying $49 to $75 USD for a blind test.

Main sources cited in this article: Aragon pricing page, HeadshotPro, HeadshotPro privacy policy, Secta, Secta Labs comparison, Unite.ai comparison.