SmartSub vs VideoCaptioner
SmartSub
github.comVideoCaptioner
videocaptioner.cnSide by side
| Figure | SmartSub | VideoCaptioner |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · AI Video Caption Generators | 9.0 (#6) | 8.5 (#25) |
| Burn-in captions | Yes | Yes |
| Caption styling | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Local processing | The maker says local models process files on the user's computer, so files do not leave the device during local processing. | The homepage says the application can run locally on CPU, with optional GPU acceleration, and offers cloud or local processing. |
| Purpose | SmartSub is an open-source desktop app for transcription, subtitle translation, proofreading, AI dubbing, and video subtitle rendering. | VideoCaptioner processes video subtitles with speech transcription, semantic segmentation, correction, translation, and video synthesis. |
| Subtitle export | other formats | other formats |
| Translation integrations | The product lists 20 translation services, including free Bing/Google endpoints, Chinese vendors, DeepLX, Ollama, DeepSeek, Gemini, Qwen, Azure OpenAI and other OpenAI-compatible endpoints. | The guide lists LLM translation, Bing Translate, Google Translate, and DeepLX as translation options. |
Plans
In their own words
SmartSub
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.
VideoCaptioner
VideoCaptioner processes video subtitles through speech transcription, segmentation, correction, translation, and video synthesis. It supports SRT, ASS, and VTT subtitle files, and can produce captions burned into the picture or subtitles embedded as a separate track. The homepage lists recognition for 99 languages and translation into 37. Recognition choices include FasterWhisper, WhisperCpp, and Whisper API; translation options include LLM translation, Bing Translate, Google Translate, and DeepLX. Listed LLM integrations include OpenAI, DeepSeek, SiliconCloud, Gemini, Ollama, LM Studio, and ChatGLM. Users can supply video files or YouTube and Bilibili links, and a batch workflow queues multiple videos. Processing can be local or cloud-based; local use can run on a CPU, with optional GPU acceleration. The homepage says user data stays local when processing locally. Platforms listed are Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted. VideoCaptioner is free and open source under the MIT license. Docker deployment is marked experimental and basic; the guide specifies Windows 10/11 64-bit, macOS 10.15 or later, and Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, or Fedora 35+ for Linux.