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Captioner vs Submagic

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Captioner starts at $10, Submagic at $19. Both have a free tier. Only Submagic ships a public API.

CaptionerTranscribes videos into subtitles in 98+ languages, then lets you edit timing and burn captions into the export.SubmagicAuto-captions and clip editing for short-form vertical video

Side by side

FactCaptionerSubmagic
CategorySubtitles & CaptionsSubtitles & Captions
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$10 month$19 month
Public APINoYes
PlatformsWebWeb, API
CompanyBotisan AISubmagic
Launched—2023
Last verifiedSep 1, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

Captioner

Captioner does one job, turning spoken video into edited subtitles, and its editor makes it straightforward to fix misheard words before export. The free tier is watermarked and one-time rather than recurring, so anyone captioning video regularly will need a paid plan within the first hour of use.

Pros

  • Transcribes and time-aligns subtitles in 98+ languages
  • Editor lets you correct text before exporting rather than trusting the raw transcript
  • Exports both subtitle files and burned-in video

Cons

  • Free tier is a one-time 60-minute allowance, not a recurring monthly amount
  • Video uploads capped at 2GB and 2 hours
  • No mention of speaker diarization for multi-speaker videos

Submagic

The quickest route from a talking-head recording to captioned vertical clips, and the caption styling is what people actually pay for. If you already cut in Premiere or DaVinci, their built-in speech-to-text plus one saved template gets you most of the way for nothing.

Pros

  • caption presets track short-form trends rather than looking like generic subtitle burn-in
  • transcript-based trimming is far faster than scrubbing a timeline
  • the Business tier exposes an API so the pipeline can be automated
  • 4K/60fps export at the top tier, which most caption tools cap below

Cons

  • quotas count finished videos, not minutes, so short clips waste allowance
  • clip-length ceilings of 2 minutes on Starter and 5 on Pro rule out most podcast episodes
  • API access is gated behind the $69 tier
  • everything on the free plan carries a watermark

Which one fits

Choose Captioner if you need

  • Solo creators captioning short videos for social platforms
  • Anyone who needs SRT or VTT files quickly rather than manual transcription
  • Non-English creators needing translated subtitles

Choose Submagic if you need

  • agencies and podcasters slicing one long recording into a week of shorts
  • creators who want caption styles that match what is currently working on short-form feeds
  • non-English content, since transcription covers a wide language set

More comparisons

Browse all Subtitles & Captions →