6 Best Closed Captioning Services (Free & Paid)

‍Key takeaways: 

• Accessibility and inclusivity: Closed captions make content accessible to a broader audience, including those with hearing impairments or non-native speakers.
• Human vs. automated captions: While human-generated captions are typically more accurate, automated services are faster and more cost-effective, catering to different needs and budgets.‍
• Time savings: Closed captioning solutions, especially automated ones like Riverside, save time by handling transcription quickly and accurately. They also offer customization options (font, size, color).

Creating captions for your videos manually is a tedious and time-consuming process.  Thankfully, plenty of close captioning services can help you streamline this type of work. 

This article guides you through how to choose a captioning service, what to look for, and some of the best free and paid services to take a look at. And, if you’re not convinced you need a closed captioning service, we’ll show you just how easy it is to create closed captions with a tool like Riverside.

What is a closed captioning service?

A closed captioning service provides text transcriptions of audio and video content. Unlike regular captions, which only display dialogue,  closed captions make content accessible to a broader audience by including spoken words and non-verbal sounds like music and sound effects.

Closed captioning services usually offer human or automated transcription. Some offer both. Their pricing depends on turnaround time, audio volume, and whether you choose human or automated transcription.

Choosing a closed captioning service can be tricky, especially when many platforms offer similar services. We'll delve into some of the best services and their unique selling points, and show you how to use one of the fastest and most efficient automated alternative to these services, Riverside.

Benefits of using closed captioning services

When discussing the advantages of closed captions, the conversation generally focuses on why using closed captions services is a better and option than trying to create captions for your videos independently:

• Time saver: If you’re pressed for time, a captioning service can quickly take care of transcription for you.
• Accuracy: Closed captioning services offer human-generated transcriptions which guarantee a high level of accuracy.
• Multiple languages: Many services offer multilingual captioning by native speakers.
• Add-ons: Closed captioning services often offer additional features such as multilingual translation or live captioning solutions - real-time text transcriptions of  during live events, broadcasts, or meetings.

6 best closed captioning services (paid and unpaid)

Let's take a look at some of the most popular closed captioning services on the market based on the services and key features they offer, their prices, turnaround time, and user ratings.

Rev

Rev promises users 99% accurate closed captions and is a well-known captioning service that works with over 750,000 customers. Since you can choose between their automated or human transcription service, Rev caters to all kinds of creators and budgets. 

Also, you can upload your video file or drop them the link to your already-uploaded content. This makes it easy to add captions to work that you have already published. 

Price: 

Rev’s fees vary depending on the type of transcription: 

• $1.99/minute for human transcription
• $0.25/minute for automated transcription 
• $6.49 to $15.99 per minute for translated captions (Global Subtitles) 

If you have substantial captioning needs (over 100 hours), you can try Rev for Enterprise to cut costs and access Rev’s premium features. 

Turnaround time:

‍The turnaround time also depends on which type of service you choose: 

• 5-minute turnaround time for automated transcription 
• 24-hour average turnaround time 
• 48-hour turnaround time for translated subtitles

What do people say about Rev?

According to online reviews, Rev is a reliable service that delivers on its promises of accuracy and speed. The accuracy of their transcriptions is nearly flawless, captions are timed perfectly, and they almost always provide their services on time.

As one user on Reddit perfectly summarized:

‍
“Good enough that I've never even learned the names of any other company that does this stuff. Always Rev!”

Key Features:

• Privacy & security: Your files are securely stored and are safe from unauthorized access. 
• Integrates into your existing workflow: You can request captions for your content directly from Dropbox, YouTube, Vimeo, or your Google Drive account. 
• Free caption editor tool to polish up your captions: If your transcription isn’t perfect, you can make adjustments using Rev’s caption editor tool. 
• Multiple file formats: Rev supports various file formats, including .srt, .scc, .ttml, .dfxp, .cap, .mcc, and more. 
• Multilingual captioning: Rev also offers a subtitle translator service to help you expand your reach. 
• Customization options: Supports open captions and lets you customize their font, size, and color. 

Amara 

Amara is a cloud-based subtitling platform where you can create AI-generated captions independently. Here, you can edit, adjust, and customize your captions as you deem fit.

However, Amara also offers a professional subtitle service called Amara on Demand that includes human-created and human-assisted captioning services. This means you have choices and a range of services at different price points.

Price:

Ama is free if you use the subtitle editor on the Amara Public plan. You can also upgrade to Amara Plus, which costs $24/month for 2 users. 

Their professional subtitling and translation services include:

• AI-generated captions at $0.35/minute.
• Auto captions with human proofreading at $1.25/minute. ‍
• Professional human-created captions start at $2.50/minute.
• Professional human-translated subtitles start at $7.50/minute.

Turnaround Time:

Amara takes 2-3 business days for content that is 30 minutes long or less (or 1 business day for “rush” requests), plus 1 day for each additional 30 minutes.

What do people say about Amara?

Users who tested Amara appreciate it for the user-friendliness and simplicity of its interface. Automated captions are quite precise, even if the timing cannot be narrowed down to milliseconds. According to a review of the service on PC World, Amara "doesn’t get everything right–but it’s definitely a step in the right direction."

Key Features:

• Many captioning options: Options include auto-captioning, human captions, and a hybrid model. 
• User-generated glossary: You can send Amara your specific vocabulary glossary to ensure consistency during transcriptions and translations.
• Multilingual translations: Support for more than 50 different languages.

GoTranscript

GoTranscript is a British audio and video transcription service. Although they offer automated transcripts, they mainly focus on high-quality, 100% human captions and transcriptions. 

GoTranscript pride themselves on offering highly-accurate services by certified professionals at an affordable price.

Price and Turnaround Time: 

GoTranscripts prices depend on the following factors:

• Turnaround time
• Language
• Amount of audio that needs transcribing
• Quality of the original audio
• Whether the transcript must be clean or full verbatim
• Number of speakers
• Timestamps

For example: 

• For a 5-day turnaround for less than 2,500 minutes of good quality audio in English with no timestamps, you’ll pay $1.43 per minute. 
• For a 3-day turnaround of less than 2,500 minutes of good quality audio in English with no timestamps, GoTranscript charges $1.65/minute. 

On top of all that, GoTranscript offers additional discounts for Enterprises translating more than 10,000 minutes or for bulk orders.

What do people say about GoTranscript?

Customers' opinions about GoTranscript are generally good, and it’s described as a reliable, timely, and affordable service. 

However, some complain that the website navigation can sometimes be overly complex. Also, more complicated or heavily technical audio may sometimes contain inconsistencies (especially for non-English languages).

Quoting a podcaster reviewing their services:

“The turnaround times are fantastic, but I wish the website was a bit more user-friendly.”

Key features: 

• Full range of services: Transcribe, caption, and translate your content. 
• 100% human captions: Human transcription only with meticulous reviews and quality assurance. 
• Multilingual translations: They support more than 50 languages.
• iPhone support: iPhone app for transcribing voice memos. 
• Enterprise solutions: Unique enterprise services for high-volume professional projects.
• Specialized services: Well-versed in niche areas such as legal and medical material. 

3PlayMedia

3PlayMedia is a specialist service that offers live and closed captioning, transcription, audio description, translations, and more. 

They also offer proprietary REST APIs for building customized automated workflows that can integrate with your tool stack.

Price:

3PlayMedia offers three types of plans: for individuals (Express), teams (Pro), and businesses (Enterprise).

• The Express plan is a pay-as-you-go option for individuals, costing $2.95 per minute for closed captioning and transcription.
• The Pro and Enterprise plans are subscription-based and use customized pricing, depending on factors like the hours of media you need to caption, the type of service, the language of your audio, and more.

Turnaround Time:

3PlayMedia’s turnaround times range from 10 business days to 2 hours (with a standard of 4 business days). Your choice of turnaround time also affects pricing.

For example, if you choose the “2 Hours” turnaround option, there is a $5.50 per minute surcharge to pay. If you are okay with the 10-day “Extended” option, you will receive a discount of -$0.20 per minute. 

What do people say about 3PlayMedia?

According to user reviews, 3PlayMedia can be trusted in terms of speed and accuracy, as well as in ensuring compliance. They’re particularly appreciated for their timely delivery, especially for time-sensitive projects.

However, users note that prices are higher than average, especially for rushed projects.

As one user puts it:

"The pricing is higher than I thought it would be, and if you're transcribing a lot of material - or longer form videos on a shorter timeframe, the prices can really add up."

Key Features: 

• Extended compliance: Help you to ensure compliance with video accessibility laws (FCC, Section 508, WCAG 2.0, and ADA). 
• Guaranteed accuracy: A multi-step quality assurance process is used to ensure accuracy. 
• Customizable workflows: Flexible REST APIs and online portal for easy management of your ongoing projects. 
• Multiple formats: Download your captions in over 10 file formats. 
• Multilingual translation: You can also create a dedicated “translation profile” that lets you communicate any specific context to help your translator. 

VITAC

VITAC has been offering captioning and accessibility services since 1986, and it is the largest company in this niche in the United States. They work with major television networks in North America and offer live and post-production captioning for various content.

They offer AI-powered open and closed captions, and transcription services curated and edited by humans to guarantee maximum accuracy.

Price: 

For pricing information, you need to get in touch with VITAC directly. 

Turnaround Time: 

VITAC promises quality and fast turnaround times. But for more specific timelines, you need to contact them. 

What do people say about VITAC?

Although there are no user-generated reviews about VITAC on the web, their reputation precedes them. They provide captioning services for Hollywood, captioned the Academy Awards, and work for broadcasting companies such as BBC America, CNN, and CNBC.

Features:

• Multiple services: They offer captioning and transcription, as well as subtitling, localization, and audio description services.
• Zoom captions: Can add closed captions to Zoom meetings to make them more accessible.
• Multi-language, real-time captions: Live captions are available in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.
• Vast experience: VITAC has worked with many large clients, including media and entertainment companies, broadcast programs, and Fortune 500s.

Scribie

Scribie offers hassle-free hybrid automated and manual transcription. It’s easy to use, reasonably priced, and provides a speedy turnaround (24 hours max).

Despite its AI-first approach, Scribie’s transcripts are pretty accurate, with a multi-layer checking process that reduces mistakes and inaccuracies.

Price: 

They offer Basic and Advanced services:

• Basic: $0.80/minute, available for clear audio files only.
• Advanced: Same as basic, plus extra features, including:
  • Strict verbatim: + $0.50/minute
  • Rush Order: + $1.25/minute
  • Noisy/accented audio: + $0.50 - $1.00/minute

Turnaround Time: 

For transcriptions of files with clear audio, Scribie promises a 24-hour turnaround time. They also offer a “Rush Order” option that will prioritize your files, ensuring they are delivered three times faster.

What do people say about Scribie?

User reviews about Scribie are generally very positive. People are enthusiastic about the speed of the service, the accuracy of the transcripts, and the high quality of customer support.

The only user complaints relate to Scribie’s editor interface, which can be clunky and hard to use. As one happy customer put it:

"My only quibble is that the editor difficult to use. It's keyboard-command driven, and I have to keep a paper cheatsheet to hand. However, I live with it since the Scribie editor, for all its problems, has more functionality than any of the other services I've tried."

Features: 

• Confidential and secure: Scribie’s transcribers are all under NDA. 
• Affordable pricing: Low pricing with flexible add-ons for rushed orders or heavily accented audio.
• Customizable edits: Online editor that lets you verify your transcript and make changes yourself.
• Lightning-fast turnaround: Scribie guarantees all orders will be completed within 24 hours or even less with high-priority orders.

Why you should Riverside for closed captioning instead

If you’re producing a lot of content and using closed caption services regularly, it can get pretty expensive.

Consider this: the average price for a human-made closed captioning service is between $1.50 and $2.00 per minute. If you produce at least two 60-minute podcast episodes per week, that’s nearly $750–$1,000 per month, and that doesn’t even include translations!

Riverside offers a faster, more cost-effective alternative with its automated transcription feature. 

Let’s take a look at why Riverside is such a great option: 

• It’s quick: Automated transcription takes just minutes, saving you time. 
• It’s accurate: Riverside uses a proprietary AI-powered speech recognition algorithm. This ensures very high accuracy that often surpasses most non-human transcribed captions.
• No, wait, it’s VERY accurate: Riverside records each participant on their own device rather than over the internet. This results in higher-quality audio, which in turn means more accurate transcriptions. 
• It’s simple: Riverside is extremely simple to use and has a very user-friendly, text-based editing interface. 
• It’s versatile: On Riverside, you can record and edit your videos, create transcriptions, and burn closed captions directly into your video, all on a single platform.
• It’s smart: Transcripts include speaker differentiation, making it easy to see who’s speaking at any time.
• It’s customizable: Customize your captions by choosing fonts, style, size, color, and position.
• It’s accessible: Transcriptions are available in over 100 languages.
• It’s also great for your brand: Add your logo and a background that matches your brand theme and colors.

Still can’t believe how easy it is to create and add closed captions to your videos on Riverside? Just follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Open the editor

Select a Project from your studio, then hover over the video where you want to add captions and click “Edit.”

You will see the text-based editor on the left side of your screen. Here you can proofread your automatically generated captions, and make sure they’re 100% accurate. You can edit this text to cut and trim your video and clean up filler words and unwanted silences.

Once you’re done, click the “Captions” button from the right toolbar to add your closed captions. You can customize them by selecting a style, color, font, and size, then drag and position them wherever you like.

Once you’re done, click the “Export” button, and your video is ready!

FAQs on Closed Captioning Services

Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about closed captioning services.

How much does it cost to use a closed captioning service?

Closed captioning pricing usually depends on the length of audio you’re transcribing and the desired turnaround time. Different platforms and service providers have varying pricing structures. Riverside’s automated transcription feature is native, so you won’t need to pay for a third-party tool or split up your workflow. 

What is the difference between closed captioning and CC?

There’s no difference: "CC" is just the acronym for "Closed captioning," so they both mean the same thing.

How does closed captioning differ from subtitles?

Subtitles are transcripts of a video displaying only spoken dialogue, often used to translate content from foreign languages. Closed captions, however, include both spoken words and non-verbal sounds like music or sound effects, making content accessible to those who are deaf or hard of hearing.