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TranscribeCat vs Descript
Descript is a video editor that transcribes, from $24 a month per editor. TranscribeCat is $2.00 an hour for the transcript alone. Most of what you pay Descript for is not transcription.
What Descript is
Descript is a video and podcast editor whose central trick is that you edit the media by editing its transcript. Transcription is the mechanism, not the product. The allowance is per editor — ten hours a month on Hobbyist, thirty on Creator — and there is no published overage rate, so running out means waiting for the reset or upgrading.
Cost per hour of audio
| Hours per month | 1 h | 2 h | 5 h | 10 h | 20 h | 40 h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TranscribeCat | $2.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Descript | $24 | $12 | $4.80 | $2.40 | $1.75 | $1.63 |
The break-even is 17.5 hours of audio a month. Below that we cost less; above it, Descript does.
Where Descript is the better choice
Nothing we do resembles editing a video by deleting words from its transcript, and for anyone producing a podcast or a video that feature alone justifies the subscription. Their Creator tier is thirty hours for thirty-five dollars, which beats our rate above about seventeen and a half hours a month.
Where we are
If you do not need an editor, you are renting one anyway, per seat, per month. No published overage means the cost of exceeding your allowance is not a number you can look up before you commit. We publish one rate and no allowance exists to exceed.
Which to pick
Pick Descript if you are editing the media, not just reading it.
Pick us if you want the transcript and will do whatever comes next somewhere else.
What you get either way, from us
$2.00 per hour of audio, $2.00 minimum per file, tax included. No subscription, no seats and no expiring credits. If a transcription fails, the card authorization is cancelled and no money is taken. Audio is deleted 90 days after your last sign-in.