Captioner vs Submagic

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
• +every paid tier includes some API minutes, so the pipeline can be automated
• +4K/60fps export at the top tier, which most caption tools cap below

Cons

• −quotas count finished videos (3 credits each), not minutes, so short clips waste allowance
• −clip-length ceilings of 2 minutes on Starter and 5 on Pro rule out most podcast episodes
• −Starter and Pro include only 10 API minutes a month; 100 needs the $69 Business tier
• −no free plan is listed on the pricing page, only a 'try for free' signup

Is Captioner cheaper than Submagic?

They charge in different units, so there is no like-for-like answer: Captioner starts at $10/mo, Submagic at $19/seat/mo. Entry price is the lowest paid plan as we last verified it.

Does Captioner or Submagic have a free tier?

Both: Captioner has a free tier, and Submagic has a free tier.

Which has a public API, Captioner or Submagic?

Submagic ships a public API, as of our last verification. A public API for Captioner is not confirmed by us — check its developer docs before you plan an integration.