GetCaptions vs SmartSub

GetCaptions automatically transcribes speech and creates, edits and exports video captions. Its transcription supports more than 100 languages with word-level timing. Users can style captions with animated templates, including karaoke, highlight, neon and pop designs, then translate finished captions into dozens of languages. A brand kit can apply a logo, colors and fonts, importing them from a website or YouTube channel. Videos can be exported with captions burned in, or subtitles can be downloaded as SRT or VTT files. MP4, MOV and WebM are listed upload formats. The free Starter plan includes 60 minutes of transcription per month, videos up to five minutes and three projects. Pro costs $15 a month and includes 500 transcription minutes monthly, videos up to 60 minutes and 50 projects. Studio costs $35 a month and adds one-click publishing to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, API access and unlimited usage subject to fair use. Uploaded audio is transcribed on GetCaptions' servers rather than sent to a third-party transcription service. Video files are retained for reopening and editing until the project or account is deleted.

SmartSub is an open-source desktop app for transcription, subtitle translation, proofreading, AI dubbing and video subtitle rendering. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and is free with no local usage limits. For local processing, its maker says models process files on the user's computer, so those files do not leave the device. Transcription options include whisper.cpp, faster-whisper, FunASR, Qwen3-ASR and FireRedASR. Translation includes 20 services, including built-in free translation and integrations such as DeepSeek, Gemini and Ollama. The proofreading workspace offers video-synced editing, undo and redo, search and replace, and AI proofreading. SmartSub can generate speech from subtitle lines, align audio to the timeline and clone voices with ZipVoice, Volcengine or ElevenLabs. It can burn subtitles into video or package soft subtitles, preview styles and include dubbed audio. It also downloads videos from links using yt-dlp and lux, supporting more than 1,800 sites. Cloud transcription uploads audio to the configured provider endpoint; the README advises against using it for sensitive content.