Comparison of the 12 Best Video Transcription Software in 2024

Around 83% of viewers prefer watching videos without sound, and this is especially true for mobile viewers (92%). So, how do you make your videos more accessible to this silent majority?

With video transcription software. 

These tools bring you one step closer to descriptive closed captioning on your videos, but that’s not their only use case. They’re also used by tons of legal, corporate, and medical professionals to accurately transcribe important videos. 

But with countless options, finding the right solution can be overwhelming. 

Luckily, this guide covers everything you need to know about video transcription apps. We’ve also compared the top 12 options in detail so you can find the best one for your needs. Keep reading to find out how you can pair Dacast with the perfect video transcription app for SEO-friendly closed captions.

Table of Contents:

• What is a Video Transcription Platform?
• What Are the Uses of Video Transcription Platforms?
• What Are the Benefits of Video Transcription Platforms?
• How Does Video Transcription Work?
• Video Transcription Stats
• The Role of AI in Video Transcription
• The 12 Best Video Transcription Platforms for Business
• Why Choose the Dacast Video Marketing Platform?
• Conclusion

What is a Video Transcription Platform?

A video transcription platform converts spoken words in videos into text. It’s like watching a video with subtitles – that’s the basic idea. 

But it’s much more than that. These platforms use natural language processing and speech recognition technology to accurately transcribe audio, even in noisy environments.

Why is this important? Well, accessibility is key. Closed captioning for web video support is crucial for people with hearing impairments. Plus, transcriptions make content searchable, shareable, and easier to analyze.

The video transcription market is growing faster than ever. It’s expected to skyrocket by 2027, especially in sectors such as media and entertainment (14.8% CAGR), education (20.5% CAGR), healthcare (23.4% CAGR), and business (22.5% CAGR).

What Are the Uses of Video Transcription Platforms?

Video transcription isn’t just for adding closed captions on a video – let’s look at five of the main use cases of these transcription programs. 

Video Accessibility

Transcripts make your videos accessible to people with hearing impairments. For businesses, closed captioning can make your videos comply with the Rehabilitation Act and ADA.

More importantly, the CVAA requires that any video content originally broadcast on television with captions must also be captioned when made available online. So, if you’re planning to broadcast your video content, video transcription is a must. 

Even those without disabilities find transcripts helpful. Non-native viewers can read along, improve vocabulary, and understand your content better if it has been transcribed.

SEO and Discoverability

Search engines can’t “watch” videos. Luckily, transcripts provide text content, making your videos searchable and discoverable. The right keywords and phrases in the transcript can also improve your search rankings.

Plus, you can use video transcription tools to repurpose content. Transcripts can also be used to create blog posts, articles, or social media content if you want to expand your reach and engagement.

Engagement and Shareability

Transcripts let viewers quickly find specific information, increasing engagement and watch time. In fact, YouTube videos with captions received 13.48% more views in the first couple of weeks and 7.32% more lifetime views compared to those without captions! Also, videos with captions can lead to an increase in watch duration by up to 38%.

Plus, viewers are more likely to share videos with transcripts, as they can easily reference specific points or quotes. 80% are also more likely to watch an entire video with captions.

Business and Legal Applications

Transcription services can be used to create accurate records of meetings, earnings calls, and conference calls. This allows stakeholders to access important details without looking through audio or video recordings. 

Businesses, especially call centers, also use transcription to document interactions with customers. This not only helps maintain a record for quality assurance but also helps train new hires.

Most importantly, transcription is crucial in legal contexts to create accurate records of depositions, trials, and other proceedings. These transcripts serve as official documentation and can be used in court.

Language Learning and Translation

Transcription also compels learners to listen more attentively. It improved their ability to discern sounds and understand spoken language. A study found that students often experience “eureka” moments when they notice phoneme-grapheme relationships during transcription tasks.

What Are the Benefits of Video Transcription Platforms?

A digital transcription software can benefit both the creator and the viewer – here’s how:

1. Increased Accessibility: Transcripts make videos accessible to a wider audience, including people with hearing impairments, which make up over 48 million Americans.
2. Improved SEO: Transcripts provide search engines with text content to boost your video’s discoverability. A study by 3PlayMedia found that videos with transcripts have a 7.32% higher chance of reaching more people.
3. Enhanced Engagement: Transcripts can increase viewer engagement by allowing users to search for specific details within the video. A study by Wistia found that videos with interactive transcripts have a much higher average watch time.

What Are the Pros and Cons?

Video transcription platforms have tons of benefits, but before you invest in one, learn how they weigh against the cons.

Pros

• Quick turnaround, saves time.
• Not as resource-intensive as manual transcription.
• Closed captioning for all viewers.
• Better search engine rankings with transcripts.
• Extract insights from video content.

Cons

• Potential errors in transcription.
• Dependency on audio quality.
• Lack of context understanding – may struggle with accents and jargon.

How Does Video Transcription Work?

The typical workflow of an easy transcription software includes these steps.

1. The first step in video transcription is extracting the audio track from the video file. The extracted audio is typically in formats like WAV or MP3, which are more suitable for processing.
2. The audio is often segmented based on periods of silence to improve transcription accuracy. This step helps isolate distinct speech segments, making it easier to transcribe and analyze the content.
3. The core of the transcription process relies on speech recognition technology. It uses algorithms and ML models to convert audio into text. 
4. Finally, timestamps are added to indicate when each segment of text was spoken. This allows users to sync the text with the video and easily reference specific moments. 
5. Once the transcription is complete, the text is formatted for readability. This may include speaker identification (if multiple speakers are present) and structuring the text into paragraphs or bullet points for clarity. 
6. The final transcription can then be saved in various formats, such as plain text (.txt) or subtitle files (.srt).

Video Transcription Stats

• Adding transcripts boosts SEO. A study with This American Life showed the number of unique visitors who discovered them through organic search results increased by 6.68%. (3PlayMedia)
• YouTube videos with captions had 13.48% more views in the first couple of weeks and 7.32% more lifetime views, as compared to videos without captions. (3PlayMedia)
• 85% of Facebook videos are viewed without sound. (DigiDay)
• One hour of audio file or interview takes around 4–6 hours to manually transcript. (GoTranscript)
• A person can speak around 150–170 words per minute and an average of around 10,000 words per hour. People also speak seven times faster than they write. (GoTranscript)
• The speech recognition industry is expected to triple by 2022 – from $4 billion to $12 billion. (GoTranscript)
• Websites with video transcripts rank higher than those that don’t have transcripts.  (GoTranscript)
• The video transcription market is projected to grow significantly by 2027 across sectors like media & entertainment (14.8% CAGR), education (20.5% CAGR), healthcare (23.4% CAGR), and business (22.5% CAGR).  (GoTranscript)

What is the best software for transcribing video-to-text?

Otter.ai is considered the best AI-powered transcription software in the market. It has garnered over 1 million users since its launch in 2016. It’s known for its live transcription, making it the top meeting transcription software, too. 

The Role of AI in Video Transcription

Transcription apps that run on artificial intelligence, better known as AI transcription software, can rapidly convert video speech to text. This boosts efficiency and reduces costs, so you don’t have to spend hundreds on human transcriptionists. 

Its accuracy is impressive – many AI systems surpass 80% in ideal scenarios. Combined with human editing, near-perfect 99% accuracy is also achievable.

The use of AI in video streaming is becoming more prevalent than ever. You can find built-in transcription features in any modern AI video editing app. That means users can generate highlights, subtitles, and even translations automatically. 

Can ChatGPT transcribe video?

No, you can’t use the ChatGPT software to transcribe audio and video.

ChatGPT is a large language model trained to engage in conversational interactions and assist with various text-based tasks, but it cannot process audio or video files.

To transcribe videos using AI, you would need to use a dedicated AI video transcription software that integrates automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology.

What is the AI tool to transcribe YouTube videos?

Transkriptor is an advanced AI transcription tool that can rapidly convert YouTube videos to text. Users can add subtitles, create scripts, or edit captions. It offers up to 99% accuracy in over 100+ languages and can complete transcriptions within minutes.

Is there an AI tool to transcribe for free?

Riverside.fm is considered the best free transcription software with 99% accuracy in over 100 languages. Users can upload audio or video files in any format, and the tool starts to auto-transcribe. Riverside allows unlimited transcriptions without requiring a sign-up.

The 12 Best Video Transcription Platforms for Business

We’ve broken down the top video transcription platforms in the industry – their core features, video transcription capabilities, and pricing plans. Use this online video platform comparison to find the best transcription software. 

1. Otter

Otter.ai is considered the best transcribing software in the industry, with over 1 million users since its launch in 2016. It’s also AI-powered, making it the ideal pick if you need good transcription software for corporate transcription services on a budget and time crunch.

Video Transcription Features

• Transcription Accuracy: According to a Notta AI case study, Otter has a transcription accuracy of 83%.
• Supported File Formats: Users can import audio and video files for transcription and can export transcripts in formats such as TXT, DOCX, PDF, and SRT (for subtitles). 
• Transcription Speed: Otter’s transcription happens in real-time, meaning that as audio is recorded, it is transcribed almost instantaneously. 
• Language Support: Currently, Otter.ai only supports English transcription in multiple accents.
• Speaker Identification: Otter can identify and differentiate between speakers in a conversation.
• Transcript Editing: Users can edit their Otter transcripts post-recording. They can highlight text, add comments, and assign action items directly within the transcript. 
• Timestamping: Otter automatically includes timestamps in its transcriptions.

Pricing and Plans

• Basic: Free
• Pro: $8.33
• Business: $20
• Enterprise: Schedule a Demo

2. GoTranscript

GoTranscript was founded in 2005 and has over 100,000 customers today. It doesn’t offer automated translation – only human-generated translations. 

Video Transcription Features

• Transcription Accuracy: GoTranscript claims to have a high transcription accuracy rate of 99.4% for human-generated transcriptions.
• Supported File Formats: GoTranscript supports MP3, MP4, WAV, WMA, AVI, and FLV for audio and video. Additionally, it allows users to export transcripts in TXT, DOCX, PDF, and SRT (for subtitles). 
• Transcription Speed: GoTranscript offers a turnaround time of around 24 hours for most projects. For shorter recordings – around 15 minutes – the transcription can take around 1 hour to complete. 
• Language Support: GoTranscript provides business transcription services in over 50 languages.
• Speaker Identification: Since they have human transcriptionists, they’re trained to distinguish between different speakers.

Pricing and Plans

• Transcription: $0.84 per minute
• Automated Transcripts: $0.20 per minute
• Captions: $1.22 per minute
• Audio Translation: $8.80 per minute
• Foreign Subtitles: $11.80 per minute

3. Rev

Rev has been delivering high-quality human-generated transcripts since its launch in 2010. With over 1 million users, Rev is considered one of the best audio transcription software for captioning and subtitles. 

Video Transcription Features

• Transcription Accuracy: Rev guarantees a transcription accuracy of 99% for its human-generated transcripts and 80% to 90% for automated translations. 
• Supported File Formats: Rev supports MP3, MP4, WAV, AIF, M4A, MOV, AVI, WMV, AMR, WMA, and OGG.
• Transcription Speed: Rev offers a turnaround time of around 12 hours for human transcription services. Automated transcription can take about 5 minutes. 
• Language Support: Rev mainly offers transcription services in English. However, it also offers translated subtitles in 38 languages for video content. 
• Speaker Identification: Rev offers speaker identification in its transcripts, especially for human-generated services.

Pricing and Plans

• Free: $0
• Basic: $9.99/month
• Pro: $29.99/month
• Enterprise: Request a demo

4. Scribie

Scribie has been one of the best transcription companies and providers of high-quality human-generated transcripts since 2008. 

Video Transcription Features

• Transcription Accuracy: Scribie guarantees a transcription accuracy of 99% for its human-generated transcripts.
• Supported File Formats: Scribie accepts audio and video in MP3, MP4, WAV, AIF, M4A, MOV, AVI, WMV, AMR, and OGG formats. Users can also download transcripts in TXT, DOCX, and SRT.
• Transcription Speed: Scribie delivers transcriptions in approximately 24 hours.
• Language Support: Scribie only works with English for its transcription services. 

Pricing and Plans

• Basic: $0.80/min
• Strict verbatim: Additional $0.50/min
• Rush Order: Additional $1.25/min
• Burnt-in time coding (BITC): Additional $0.50/min
• Noisy/accented audio: Additional $0.50 – $1.00/min

5. TranscribeMe

Founded in 2011, TranscribeMe provides human-generated transcriptions with guaranteed accuracy. 

Video Transcription Features

• Transcription Accuracy: TranscribeMe has a transcription accuracy of 99% for its human-generated transcripts. For automated transcriptions, it can range from 85% to 90%.
• Supported File Formats: TranscribeMe supports audio and video file formats like MP3, MP4, WAV, M4A, AIF, and MOV.
• Transcription Speed: TranscribeMe’s transcription services typically take around 12 hours.
• Custom Vocabulary: Users can provide specific terms or jargon to improve the accuracy of the transcripts, which is particularly useful for medical or legal transcription.
• API Access: TranscribeMe provides API functionality for businesses looking to integrate transcription services into their apps or workflows.

Pricing and Plans

• Transcription: $0.79/minute
• Automated Transcription: $0.07/minute
• AI Training Datasets: $2/minute
• Data Annotation: $0.10/task
• Translation: $0.11/word

6. Trint

Trint is an AI-powered transcription service that has been turning audio and video into searchable text since 2017. 

Video Transcription Features

• Transcription Accuracy: Trint’s AI-powered transcription service can achieve up to 99% accuracy for clear audio with minimal background noise. The platform uses automated speech recognition (ASR) and natural language processing (NLP) to generate highly accurate transcripts.
• Supported File Formats: Trint supports MP3, MP4, WAV, AIF, M4A, MOV, AVI, WMV, AMR, and OGG.
• Transcription Speed: In a test by Action Items Lab, a 4-minute and 45-second audio file uploaded from the desktop took just under 1 minute and 40 seconds to transcribe
• Language Support: Trint supports transcription and translation in over 40 languages.
• Timestamping: Trint automatically includes timestamping in its transcripts.
• Translation: Trint can translate transcripts into over 50 languages – applied with a single click after the initial transcription

Pricing and Plans

• Starter 300: $53/seat/month
• Advanced 1200: $60/seat/month
• Enterprise: Contact for pricing

7. Descript

Although Descript was only launched in 2017, it has over 10 million users today.

Video Transcription Features

• Transcription Accuracy: Descript’s automatic transcription is generally up to 95% accurate.
• Supported File Formats: Descript supports MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4, AVI, and MOV. 
• Language Support: Currently, Descript only supports English transcription services.
• Transcript Editing: Users can easily edit their transcripts within the platform, allowing for corrections, formatting changes, and the addition of notes.
• Timestamping: Descript automatically includes timestamping in its transcripts.
• Overdub: This allows you to create a synthetic voice that can be used to edit audio content. Users can type text, and Descript will generate audio in their voice, making it easy to correct mistakes or add new content without re-recording.

Pricing and Plans

• Hobbyist: $12 per person/month
• Creator: $24 per person/month
• Business: $40 per person/month

8. Beey

Beey is an AI-driven transcription service that has been simplifying audio and video transcription since in 2020.

Video Transcription Features

• Transcription Accuracy: Beey claims to achieve over 90% accuracy in its transcriptions.
• Supported File Formats: Beey supports MP3, WAV, OGG, and WebM.
• Media Monitoring Capabilities: This allows users to keep track of audio and video content. This can be particularly beneficial for journalists and media professionals who need to monitor relevant content continuously.

Pricing and Plans

• Start: €8.4/hour
• Plus: €25/month
• Business: €45/month
• Enterprise: Contact for pricing

9. Speechnotes

Speechnotes mobile app has been downloaded over 5 million times on the Google Play Store since its launch in 2016. 

Video Transcription Features

• Transcription Accuracy: Speechnotes claims to have up to 95% accuracy in English dictation and transcription. This auto-transcription software uses speech recognition AI engines from leading providers like Google and Microsoft.
• Supported File Formats: Speechnotes provides instant text conversion.
• Speaker Identification: Speechnotes does not offer speaker identification capabilities – the transcriptions are in a plain, continuous format.
• Transcript Editing: Speechnotes has a web-based notepad interface that allows users to edit their transcripts directly.

Pricing and Plans

• Free: $0
• Dictation Premium: $1.9/month
• Transcription: $0.1/minute

10. Braina

Braina is a virtual assistant and audio-to-text transcription software developed by Brainasoft, launched in 2015.

Video Transcription Features

• Transcription Accuracy: Braina claims up to 99% accuracy for its transcription capabilities. 
• Supported File Formats:
• Transcription Speed: Braina is claimed to be three times faster than typing if you use it for speech-to-text, while video transcription services are instantaneous.
• Language Support: Braina supports over 100 languages and dialects for speech recognition and transcription.
• Virtual Assistant: Braina also doubles as a virtual assistant. Users can issue voice commands to Braina for various tasks, such as:
  • Searching the web
  • Transcribing programs and websites 
  • Playing songs and videos
  • Setting reminders and alarms
  • Automating processes

Pricing and Plans

Braina is the best free transcription app in the industry.

11. Fireflies

Fireflies.ai is used by over 300,000 organizations globally, with features like real-time transcription, speaker identification, and sentiment analysis. The platform supports transcription in 69 languages and allows users to record meetings across various platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. 

Video Transcription Features

• Transcription Accuracy: Fireflies.ai claims to achieve up to 90% accuracy for most types of meetings.
• Supported File Formats: Fireflies.ai supports importing audio files in formats like MP3, M4A, and WAV. It can also automatically transcribe meetings from Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and GoToMeeting.
• Language Support: Fireflies.ai supports transcription in English and several foreign languages, including Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian.
• Speaker Identification: Fireflies.ai has a speaker identification feature that can recognize multiple speakers in a conversation.
• Transcript Editing: The platform has an interface for editing transcripts, so users can make corrections and add notes as needed. It also offers collaboration features like soundbites, threads, and reactions to facilitate teamwork.
• Video Conferencing Bot: Fireflies AI can join meetings on behalf of users through its video conferencing bot. This allows the platform to automatically capture and transcribe meetings across various video conferencing platforms.

Pricing and Plans

• Free: $0
• Pro: $10 per seat/month
• Business: $19 per seat/month
• Enterprise: $39 per seat/month

12. Amazon Transcribe

If you’re in search of a secure transcription, this may be a good choice. Amazon Transcribe was launched in 2017 and has quickly become a key player in the automatic speech recognition market. 

Video Transcription Features

• Transcription Accuracy: Amazon Transcribe has recently improved its accuracy from 20% to 50% across multiple languages, thanks to its recent integration of generative AI and a foundation model trained on millions of hours of audio data. 
• Supported File Formats: Amazon Transcribe supports WAV, MP3, M4A, and FLAC.
• Language Support: Amazon Transcribe now supports over 100 languages and dialects, making it one of the most versatile ASR services available. 
• Custom Vocabulary: Users can add custom vocabulary to improve transcription accuracy for specific terms, such as product names or industry jargon. 
• Channel Identification: This service can process audio where each speaker is recorded on different channels, allowing it to produce a single transcript with annotated channel labels. 
• Streaming Transcription: Amazon Transcribe can handle live audio streams, providing real-time transcription capabilities for events, meetings, or broadcasts

Pricing and Plans

• Free: 60 minutes per month for 12 months
• Premium: Request pricing 

Why Choose the Dacast Video Marketing Platform?

Now that you’ve exported your video transcriptions, it’s time to share them with the world using Dacast’s video marketing platform with live streaming and video-on-demand hosting capabilities. Dacast is a live streaming solution and VOD platform with OTT technology features. 

Dacast allows you to manually add subtitles and closed captions on VOD using the extracted transcript. Essentially, it’s a live-streaming video provider with 608 and 708 caption support. 

Users can add subtitles to video content on Dacast and insert closed captions on a Dacast livestream. With clear and accurate subtitles, you’re ready to effectively market your video using Dacast’s robust video marketing features.

Dacast’s Online Video Platform lets you broadcast your transcribed videos worldwide. You can enjoy seamless playback on any device with its HTML5 video delivery and even expand your reach by sharing broadcast links on social media.

The platform offers diverse streaming features like multi-bitrate streaming for live video and VOD, cloud video transcoding with true adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR), and live encoding support for the top video encoders. 

Dacast also doubles as a video content management system (CMS). The videos will also be stored in an EXPO video gallery protected by a password and AES video encryption. 

Conclusion

Video transcription is now a necessity for businesses that want to reach more clients. Transcriptions add robustness to your video marketing efforts, make your content accessible, boost SEO, and even enhance viewer engagement. 

We’ve broken down the 12 best transcription sites in the industry. Now, it’s time to transcribe your videos and show them off with Dacast – a video marketing with closed captioning for video education.

With Dacast’s complete end-to-end solution, you can host, stream, and monetize your video content to millions.

You can try Dacast today completely free for 14 days with our free trial.

Get Started For Free

There are no long-term contracts to sign or hefty start-up fees to pay, and you don’t need to give us your credit card information to get started. Give it a try today!