Subtitling Service Prices & Why It Isn’t Everything

Learn the factors that subtitling service providers consider when pricing their services and why the prices are not everything when choosing a suitable provider.

The world has become a global village thanks to the internet. Video content has become popular, whether it’s for entertainment, educational, or marketing purposes. Platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok help creators reach a global audience despite their language, demography, or physical ability.

Videos are all about visuals and audio. But how can you use videos to reach deaf or hard-of-hearing persons? How about reaching and relating with international customers?

Subtitling and captioning services help you reach the hearing impaired, foreigners who don’t understand your native language, and get a global audience. Despite their locality or language, you can sell your products and services to anyone accessing your video content. When your video provides multilingual captions and subtitles, foreigners can relate to your content and thus purchase your services or products.

How Subtitling Services are Priced & Why the Price isn’t Everything

How Subtitling Services are Priced & Why the Price isn't Everything

Subtitling services prices vary from one provider to the other. High prices do not guarantee quality services, while low prices don’t always give you a return on investment. But what factors influence the amount of money you will be charged for subtitling or captioning services?

Factors that Determine Subtitling Service Prices

When you search for subtitling service prices on the search bar, you will get different prices, as low as $1 per minute to $ 50 per minute. The cost depends on a variety of factors, including the following:

> Video duration

> Turnaround time(urgency)

> Multilingual/monolingual

> Audio quality

> File format

> The experience and competency of subtitling provider

Video Duration

Most subtitling service prices depend on the video duration. The longer the video, the higher the price. Some companies will charge different rates for corporate, educational, and entertainment content. At Wordsburg, we charge the videos per minute, whether a movie, corporate presentation, or university lecture.

Turnaround Time (urgency)

You will pay more for urgent orders. Most subtitling services pricing models have a turnaround option where the agency determines your quote based on the turnaround time.

Multilingual or Monolingual

Most subtitling services providers offer English subtitles and captions, but only a few offer excellent multilingual subtitling services. Multilingual subtitling services prices differ from monolingual ones. This is because the former needs translation into a different language first before the subtitling process.

Audio Quality

When searching for subtitling service prices online, you will come across many agencies without a straightforward pricing model. Most will ask you to fill a form and attach your file to get a quote. The providers want to gauge the audio quality before giving you an estimate.

Poor quality audio on a video will have you paying more because the subtitling process depends on accurate transcription.

File Format

There are different subtitle formats, and most agencies have a different price for each format. At Wordsburg, we produce closed captions(CC) in the following formats:

> Direct on video

> Subrip

> Scenarist

> MacCaption

> Timed Text

> Quicktime Timed Text

> Transcript

> WebVTT

> DFXP

> Cheetah. CAP

> Spruce Subtitle File

> Avid DS Subtitle File

> Facebook ready SubRip

Get in touch with us for the best subtitling service prices on any of the following formats.

Experience and Competency of Subtitling Provider

A provider with a solid portfolio and years of experience will charge more than a startup trying to woo customers into giving them gigs. When you hire an experienced provider, you will get high-quality services that will provide you with a good return on investment.

We are a trusted choice for video subtitling services, with a team of over twenty editors to subtitle your work in over a hundred languages.

What are the Steps in the Subtitling Process?

What are the Steps in the Subtitling Process?

The subtitling process entails five steps. These are:

#1: Quality control- we use top-tier software and technology to check the audio quality, video quality, time codes, and whether the file is complete.

#2: Transcription and formatting- our experienced transcriptionists will accurately convert the audio into text and format the time codes and time stamps.

#3: Translation- our team of over 1000 translators will translate the transcript into the language of your choice if need be.

#4: Placing the subtitles in the right place will break down the subtitles and synchronize them with the video to appear in the right place. This involves making sure the words are not interfering with the clarity of the video.

#5: File output- polishing up the file to make it viewer-ready by embedding the subtitles correctly in the file.

Subtitling Service Prices for the Top 5 Agencies Globally

We have compiled subtitling service prices for the top 5 agencies globally. Take a look.

#1 Wordsburg

Wordsburg Translations

Wordsburg is a top subtitling services provider with offices in the UK, Singapore, and Malaysia. We offer subtitling and captioning services at affordable rates and fast turnaround. Our pool of over 1000 translators will translate your project to the language of your choice, while the team of over twenty editors will ensure you get industry-standard subtitles.

We also offer transcription, voiceover, translation, legalization, and interpretation services, making us a one-stop-shop for most of your content creation and distribution needs.

Wordsburg charges $4.44 per minute, but the price could go up to $10 for videos with a short turnaround time. The best way to get a detailed price card is to contact us for a personalized quote.

#2 Day Translations

Day Translations is a leading New York-based communications agency specializing in subtitling, captioning, translation, localization, and interpretation services. It offers subtitling services for businesses and entertainment sectors such as movies, documentaries, tutorials, corporate videos, and public announcements.

Day Translations subtitling prices are quite pricey, starting at $15 per minute.

#3 GoTranscript

GoTranscript is a global agency that provides subtitling services alongside other services such as transcriptions and translation. It is a pretty modest subtitling provider offering the service in around forty languages. However, the agency outsources work to offshore employees, who sometimes compromise the accuracy of subtitles with accents, typos, etc.

GoTranscript subtitling rates start from $8.50 per minute. The price may vary according to language requirements, the number of speakers, audio quality, and the urgency of work.

#4 Voquent

Voquent is a top language services agency specializing in voiceover, subtitling, translation, and captioning. It offers subtitles in over 100 languages with industry-standard accuracy. However, their services are pricey.

Voquent price model depends on whether your project is an entertainment, educational or corporate video. The firm price ranges from$ 18 to $33 per minute, the most expensive being corporate videos.

#5 Happyscribe

Happycribe is a leading language services agency specializing in transcription, translation, and subtitling.  The firm offers both AI-aided and human subtitling to guarantee businesses satisfactory captions. They have a native translator and subtitling experts that maintain the original meaning of captions in multilingual subtitling.

Happyscribe charges different rates for AI and human subtitling, with the latter pricing starting at $23.56 per minute.

Wrap Up

Subtitling service prices vary from one agency to another. The prices depend on the length of your video, the urgency, the audio quality, subtitle format, and language requirements. When choosing a subtitling service, the price is not everything, but it is a significant factor.