OneTimeBurn karaoke captions onto your clips, all on your own hardware.
Submagic charges $18–39 a month to run Whisper and ffmpeg on your clips. Captionly is $34 once. Drop a video, run Whisper locally for word-level timestamps, pick a caption style, fix any misheard words inline, and burn a ready-to-post MP4 — 100% on your machine. Same pipeline, your hardware, zero subscription.
Captionly in 60 seconds
Everything in the box
Local Whisper auto-captions with karaoke word-highlight styles and ffmpeg burn-in export.
Local Whisper transcription
whisper.cpp with word-level timestamps; the engine and model download once on first run, then run fully offline.
Karaoke word-highlight captions
Real ASS timing tags per word for the TikTok and Reels look, rendered by ffmpeg exactly as previewed.
3 style presets
Karaoke Highlight, Bold Center and Classic Subtitle, plus font size, position and highlight color controls.
Inline editing with re-sync
Click a caption, fix the words, and timings redistribute proportionally across the cue with no re-transcribing.
Keyword to emoji decoration
Optional mapping turns words like money into an emoji, with 50+ built-in mappings.
Burn-in export
ffmpeg ass filter to H.264 MP4 with audio stream-copied and live progress.
SRT and ASS export
Export subtitle files for YouTube uploads or further editing.
100% local
Your footage never leaves your machine — no accounts, no telemetry.
Captionly vs Submagic
Submagic charges $18–39/mo. Here's what actually differs.
| Captionly | Submagic | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $34 once | $18–39/mo |
| Yearly cost | $0 after purchase | $216–468 |
| Word-level auto captions | Yes | Yes |
| Karaoke word-highlight styles | Yes | Yes |
| Edit transcript + re-sync | Yes | Yes |
| AI b-roll / zooms / sound effects | No | Yes |
| Works offline | Yes | No |
| Upload limits | None | Plan-based |
Costs about one month of Submagic, then captions the rest of your clips for free.
One price. No asterisks.
Desktop app — pay once, it's yours on your machine forever.
Download Captionly
install, then sign in with Whop. Your purchase unlocks it; there is no licence key to enter.
Captionly
Windows and macOS. Buy once, download any time — this page always links the current build.
Up and running in three steps
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.
Transcribe locally
Drop a video and run whisper.cpp on your machine for word-level timestamps, then fix any misheard words inline.
Burn and post
Pick a style, burn a ready-to-post MP4 with ffmpeg, or export SRT and ASS for elsewhere.
Fair questions
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.
Does it do everything Submagic does?
No. Submagic's AI b-roll, auto-zoom and template marketplace are real value if you use them. If what you use is transcribe, pretty word captions and export, Captionly does that pipeline locally for one month's price.
Related tools
More pay-once apps from the OneTimeSuite catalog.
More about Captionly
Every page we publish about this app — comparisons, personas, platforms and the problems it solves.
For you
Stop renting. Own Captionly.
Local Whisper auto-captions with karaoke word-highlight styles and ffmpeg burn-in export.
Get Captionly — $34 once