Best Descript Alternatives for Your Video Content

Looking for a good Descript alternative for your company? There are plenty of Descript alternatives on review sites, but they don't make the choice any easier. The crux of the issue is - to make the right choice, you need to account for your priorities: your different jobs to be done, your budget, and the size of the company. But don't worry - we're coming to help! In this post, we'll discuss exactly that - which Descript competitor is best depending on the different criteria that your company may have. Let's dive in!

TL;DR

• Descript excels in audio editing and transcription, ideal for podcasters and text-based video editing.
• Pictory stands out with its versatile video editing features, including Script to Video and Blog to Video.
• Veed.io is a feature-rich video editor with AI-powered tools and translation capabilities for global production scaling.
• InVideo is an online video editor offering Studio for existing content and AI for text-to-video generation.
• Steve.ai provides AI-powered text-to-video conversion with tiered pricing options and blog-to-video functionality.

What is Descript?

Descript is the only tool you need to write, record, transcribe, edit, collaborate, and share your videos and podcasts. It positions itself as a tool for podcasts specifically, with editing features built around sound design and editing content from transcripts. It also has a screen recorder, meaning the idea to finished-podcast pipeline can be completed all within the app.

Descript for video editing

Descript offers a very basic timeline video editor paired with a text-based editor. It works best for videos that are fully formed, or only need basic edits. When you upload a video into Descript, as it processes your transcript, you can select how many speakers the software should look for, and input the names of the speakers to add to the transcript. Here you can also select the language being spoken in the video. Here are some of the features available in the video editor:

• Hold down C to move through the transcript and edit any translation mistakes.
• Shorten gaps between words and remove pauses to help your video flow better.
• Remove filler words from your transcript, either individually or all at once.
• Record audio, camera, or screen straight into video projects.
• Add basic text and effects to your video.

Descript for blog to video

Descript does not offer a blog-to-video feature. To convert blogs or published text into video, users will need to download or copy text content and input it into a new video project.

Descript for intro videos

Descript does not have a dedicated intro video feature. To make intro videos in Descript you would either need to upload a video you had already created and edit it from the transcript. You could also upload clips into multiple scenes to create a snappier intro. Descript has templates in its editor, which includes a series of intro video templates.

Descript for slideshow videos

To make slideshow videos, users can create a series of scenes in a project and upload images and videos into each. They can add background music and text, along with keyframe animations. Descript has a series of templates for slides. The platform also supports picture-in-picture video recording.

Descript pricing

There are multiple pricing tiers in Descript that offer different benefits to users:

• Free - The free plan gives you one hour of transcription a month, with limited stock footage, AI voices, and only one non-watermarked video a month.
• Creator - $15/month - the creator plan gives each user 10 hours of transcription and screen recording a month, with unlimited videos watermark free, but still has limited use of AI functions.
• Pro - $30/month - the pro plan comes with 30 hours of transcription and screen recording a month, with unlimited access to all of Descripts AI features.
• Enterprise - custom pricing for custom services depending on business needs.

Pros of Descript

There are many positive points to note about Descript as an online editor, including:

• Great automated editing features for audio, like removing background noise and enhancing audio quality.
• The software is precise and easy to use.
• The text-based video editor for transcripts is easy to use.

Cons of Descript

But there are, as with every piece of software, some issues as well.

• Users report that the app crashes frequently, which can be frustrating, and adds time to a supposedly time-saving process.
• There are also reports of poor customer service within the app.
• The screen recorder is unreliable.
• You have to download software onto your device to use Descript, which is good for using offline but does take up memory space that an online video editor wouldn’t.

Descript alternative 1 - Pictory

Pictory is an online video generator and editor designed to democratize video content creation. Its AI-powered features enable content marketers, social media managers, and online course creators to make videos fast and without fuss. Pictory’s video editing features include Script to Video, Blog to Video, and Edit Videos Using Text. These different features allow users to edit pre-existing footage, add captions and music, or delete pauses. It also means people with little to no video editing experience can create videos quickly from a script or web page.

Pros of Pictory

There are many pros to using Pictory as a video editor, whether you are a total editing novice or a social pro.

• The 10 million+ stock assets library means you don’t have to record your own footage. The AI automatically applies the visuals, saving you even more time.
• Script to Video and Blog to Video means users can create professional, faceless videos without spending any money on recording equipment or marketing agencies.
• Choose between adding your own voiceover, or applying a hyper-realistic AI voiceover in 29 different languages, increasing your content’s reach globally.
• Onboarding is simple for newcomers to the platform, with a large Knowledge Base and tutorials available to new users. The YouTube channel is also full of handy walkthroughs of the product to show you different features.
• Creating Brand Kits from your assets allows for consistent customization of video content across projects, applying the selected assets in one click to any video.
• Teams plan lets users share products and brand kits, as well as easily preview content across devices.

There are many features in Pictory that users enjoy, including the features available for the different types of content repurposing. Users compliment the quality of the footage provided, the variety in voices and languages, and the ease of use of the click-to-add platform. Pictory helps people from a variety of businesses, such as online course creators, YouTube creators, and marketers, and they all state the benefits of an online video editor that doesn’t need time, money, or experience to produce quality results. One user wrote that Pictory was their go-to platform for creating professional video content that is “informative, entertaining, and promote[s] what [they’re] marketing.”

Of course, not everyone will be pleased with products all the time. Some users note that sometimes Pictory can be slow to process clips and downloads, with one comment stating “‘it’s slow, sluggish, and laggy.” Whilst these issues often aren’t consistent, it can understandably be frustrating to be held up by processing issues.

Pictory for video editing

With Pictory you can edit pre-existing content or content you’ve created within the app. For content created through the Script to Video or other generation tools, there is a large library of editing tools available. From changing aspect ratios to the style of the captions and scene transitions, it’s easy to get a start on editing your project. The images Pictory’s AI generates can also be replaced from the library of stock assets, along with choosing your own voiceovers and music. One-click editing for most features means editing any video project is easy for editors of any experience level. If you’re looking to edit pre-existing video content, Pictory is a perfect tool for the job. In minutes the software will automatically caption your content, detecting different speakers and the language of the video, and provide you with a transcription to edit from. Here’s how it works: 1. Upload any video into the Edit Videos Using Text tool on the Pictory homepage. 2. Watch as Pictory adds captions to your video. 3. Use the transcription script on the side to make initial edits to your video.

• Deleting sentences removes them from the video.
• You can mass-replace words spelled incorrectly to change all cases of them in the captions.

Pictory pricing

Pictory has three pricing tiers for users:

• The Standard plan, starting at $19 a month, gives users access to all the standard features, with 30 videos a month.
• The Professional plan, starting at $39 a month, grants additional access to Elevenlabs premium voices and languages, Getty Images Library, and 60 videos a month.
• The Teams plan, starting at $99 a month for three users in the same team, has perks including more ElevenLabs minutes, more customizable brand kits, and 90 videos a month.

How is Pictory better than Descript?

If you are looking for an alternative to Descript, Pictory is a great choice for an online video editor that can help with social and marketing video content. Here are some reasons you might switch:

• Pictory is optimized specifically for video; social shorts, product videos, explainers, not just podcast recordings.
• Pictory’s script-to-video feature allows users to create faceless videos without manually selecting B-roll.
• Pictory’s auto-sync feature allows users to automatically sync their own narration to videos.

Descript alternative 2 - Veed.io

VEED.io is an all-in-one platform for businesses that want to scale video production. It is a high-powered video editor, equipped with every tool a creative might need during the video editing process. It comes with a host of templates to suit every style of video and has a range of manual and AI-powered editing tools, some of which are suited to more experienced video editors. VEED can also create captions for your content and translate these into over 125 languages, which makes it a good choice for businesses wanting to scale their production globally.

Pros of Veed.io

For those recording their own video content, and with the editing skills to make use of the features, VEED can be a good option for businesses with the right budget. Here are some reasons VEED is a solid choice for an online video editor:

• It has a feature-rich video editor. The Pro and Business plans come equipped with a wealth of features to enhance any video project.
• There is a variety of both traditional editing tools and AI-assisted editing, giving you creative control of your project, and most of these are high quality.
• It has a large and polished template library to start creating content.

Veed.io pricing

All things considered, VEED is one of the pricier options for an online video editor. And, with needing the Pro or Business plan to have access to the most valuable tools such as translation and stock footage, it might price itself out of the budgets of some creators. The price for a single user on all plans is as follows: Basic: $25 a month per user. Pro: $38 a month per user. Business: $70 a month per user. Enterprise: Custom price for business needs.

Veed.io for blog to video

VEED does not have a dedicated blog-to-video feature, where one might upload a URL directly into the software. Users can paste blog text into VEED’s script generator, upload any relevant media, and manually select stock footage to create a video from a blog.

Descript alternative 3 - InVideo

InVideo is an online video generator and editor that offers two video products. InVideo Studio is based on video templates that creators can use to edit and format their existing video content. InVideo AI is a prompt-based text-to-video AI generator. The two tools together combine to make a comprehensive option for any content marketer.

Pros of InVideo

There are many benefits to using the different InVideo formats for different kinds of video creators. Some of the pros for users include:

• InVideo AI takes users from prompt to video with minimal time and effort.
• InVideo Studio offers a variety of features and editing formats (Storyboard and timeline editors, traditional and AI-enabled tools).
• Large and polished template library.

InVideo pricing

InVideo has different pricing plans depending on whether you are purchasing InVideo AI or InVideo Studio. This also means that your membership is only valid for the plan you sign on to, meaning all prices double for users who want access to both sets of features. InVideo AI pricing is as follows:

• Free plan - Gives you 10 minutes of AI generation a week, four videos all with watermark, and no access to the iStock library.
• Plus - $25/month - Allows for 50 mins of AI generation a month, but unlimited video exports with no watermark and limited access to the iStock library.
• Max - $60/ month - Gives users 200 mins a month of AI generation, as well as quadrupling the allowance of iStock, and upping storage allowance to 400GB.

InVideo Studio pricing is as follows:

• Free plan - Access to 6000 video templates and the standard asset library, as well as the AI script generator and automated text-to-speech.
• Business - $30/month - All the benefits of the free plan, plus no watermarks on videos, increased export allowance, some iStock, and background removal capabilities.
• Unlimited - $60/month - All of the above, but with unlimited exports and a far greater allowance of iStock, with over a million additional premium assets.

InVideo for intro videos

Invideo offers templates for intro videos appropriate for a variety of genres and industries. Any video project starts with choosing from its large template library, and the bold visuals and transitions make for perfect intros. You can then customize these with your brand’s logos, colors, and assets. You can also add additional images from InVideo’s free stock library and personalize the template further for your video intro.

Descript alternative 4 - Steve

Steve.ai is an AI platform that converts text to video. It prides itself on converting text, scripts, or prompts, to various different kinds of video, including Gen AI, to create a personalized user experience for whatever kind of video your business requires. It uses a variety of AI tools to create images, avatars, subtitles, and a range of other features for your video editing.

Pros of Steve

Steve AI has several positive points that address a variety of issues within video generation.

• The software allows users to create a wide variety of high-quality content with the range of video outputs available.
• There is a large and polished set of templates for users to start from.
• The auto-selected animation library is a unique offering within the market.

Steve pricing

Whilst Steve.AI has a free plan available, it also comes with four tiers of paid plan, to give users greater customization of their content. The following are some of the features included in each plan, along with the cost.

• • Basic - $20/month - The Basic plan allows for five video downloads a month in multiple styles with no watermarks. Videos can only be downloaded up to 720p resolution, and users only have access to 10 credits for premium assets and AI image generation a month.
  • Starter - $60/month - The Starter plan increases downloads to 15 videos a month in 1080p. Users also gain access to 10 voiceover accents in English, as well as an increase in credits for premium assets.
  • Pro - $80/month - The Pro plan, among other things, increases the allowance for all features again. This includes voiceovers, downloads per month, and credits for premium assets, with the latter increasing to 50 a month, plus AI image and GenAI video generation.
  • Enterprise - Custom - The Enterprise plan is for larger businesses looking to create content at scale at a greater rate than the Pro plan. The plan allows you unlimited monthly video downloads with 4k video resolution. It also comes with custom voiceovers and a dedicated account manager.

Steve for slideshow videos

Users wanting to create a slideshow video can choose from a variety of templates to start from. Creating a live video uses stock visuals to start, but powerpoints are also easy to turn into slideshow videos. Scripts can be uploaded into the editor, and then visuals selected by the AI can be swapped from uploaded images. Text, transitions, and music can also be added and customized to create the perfect slideshow video.

Conclusion - so what is the best Descript alternative?

While Pictory is a good solution for video editing or intro videos, there are many alternatives to Descript that may be more suitable and provide better value for money for your use case. For video content creation and editing, we'll always maintain that Pictory is the best option. Start with a free trial today and see how quickly you can improve your video creation process!