YouTubers

Captionly for YouTubers: Burn karaoke captions onto your clips, all on your own hardware

Burn karaoke captions onto your clips, all on your own hardware.

YouTubers pay monthly for screen recording, captions, clipping and scheduling before the channel earns a cent. One-time tools fix the cost of production at the price of a single video's ad revenue.

The tool this job usually means renting is Submagic, at $18–39/mo — roughly $216 a year, every year. Captionly does the job for a one-time $34 — running locally on your own machine.

Fit check

Why it fits how youtubers work

🎙 Local Whisper transcription

whisper.cpp with word-level timestamps; the engine and model download once on first run, then run fully offline.

For youtubers, local Whisper transcription pays off between filming and the upload deadline — and it's covered by the same one-time $34, not metered per month.

🎤 Karaoke word-highlight captions

Real ASS timing tags per word for the TikTok and Reels look, rendered by ffmpeg exactly as previewed.

For youtubers, karaoke word-highlight captions pays off between filming and the upload deadline — and it's covered by the same one-time $34, not metered per month.

🎨 3 style presets

Karaoke Highlight, Bold Center and Classic Subtitle, plus font size, position and highlight color controls.

For youtubers, 3 style presets pays off between filming and the upload deadline — and it's covered by the same one-time $34, not metered per month.

Workflow

A typical workflow

STEP 01

Buy once on Whop

One payment of $34 gets you the signed Windows installer, or clone the MIT source and build it yourself for free.

STEP 02

Transcribe locally

Drop a video and run whisper.cpp on your machine for word-level timestamps, then fix any misheard words inline.

STEP 03

Burn and post

Pick a style, burn a ready-to-post MP4 with ffmpeg, or export SRT and ASS for elsewhere.

What it costs, honestly

Captionly is $34, once. Submagic at $18–39/mo — roughly $216 a year, every year. Costs about one month of Submagic, then captions the rest of your clips for free.

FAQ

YouTubers ask

Is Captionly worth it for youtubers?

Costs about one month of Submagic, then captions the rest of your clips for free. Captionly costs $34 once; Submagic charges $18–39/mo — about $216 a year. For youtubers, that fixed cost is the whole point: the tool is a one-time line item, not a monthly one.

Is it really free on GitHub?

Yes — Captionly is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/video-clip-captioner-mvp. The $34 buys the signed Windows installer; building from source is free.

Does my footage get uploaded?

Never. Captionly runs Whisper and ffmpeg entirely on your machine — your footage never leaves it, with no accounts or telemetry.

Own Captionly forever — $34