Looking for tools for video editing? In this post, we compare the best video editing platforms that could be an alternative to Pictory!

Published In ToolsMarch 8, 2024

Pictory logo with the 'Pictory alternatives' text and a cartoon man looking quizzical

Looking for a good Pictory alternative for your company?

There are plenty of Pictory 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 Pictory competitor is best depending on the different criteria that your company may have.

Let’s dive in!

  • Pictory is an efficient online video generator and editor, ideal for quick and hassle-free video content creation.
  • Veed.io is a powerful video editor with AI tools but may be complex and pricey.
  • Descript is excellent for podcasts, offering precise editing and transcript-based video editing.
  • InVideo offers AI and template-based editing, suitable for various video creators.
  • Steve.ai converts text to various videos with high quality and customization options.

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What is Pictory?

pictory homepage

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.

Pictory for video editing

video editing in Pictory

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.

And 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 for blog to video

blog to video in pictory

If you have a published article, newsletter, product release notes, or any other published text, it couldn’t be easier to turn that content into a professional video.

In this way, you can extend the reach of your content to different platforms and drive new audiences back to your website.

1. Upload the URL of your blog into the Article to Video feature in Pictory.

2. The AI processes your article, showing the original piece alongside the video transcript compiled of AI-selected article highlights.

3. Now you can select or deselect extra sentences as desired to customize your video outline.

4. When you choose to proceed, Pictory’s AI scans the images from your link and adds additional stock footage to match the keywords in your article. It also turns your article into automatic video captions.

5. Here you can edit the style and text of your captions, choose a voiceover and music for your video, and add branding and element scenes to your project.

Pictory for intro videos

intro to video in pictory

Pictory has two options for this, depending on whether you want to add an intro to an existing video or create an independent intro video for your YouTube, website, or video content.

If you want to add an intro to an existing video, in your project, make sure you have a Brand Kit applied, available in the Branding tab.

From there you can add a scene at the front of your video project, and customize it with your branding, text, and elements.

You can also add any text to the storyboard, which be turned into captions and narrated in any voiceover.

Perfect for showing the audience what they are in for, and introducing the brand.

For stand-alone intro videos, it’s easy to make a clip compilation in Pictory, perfect for YouTube or a business site.

1. Upload all the photos and video clips you want for your intro video into the Visuals to Video feature on the Pictory account homepage.

2. You can tag or name the photos at this stage too for easier sorting later.

3. Proceed and Pictory will organize your assets into a storyboard, where you can drag and sort your clips into the right order for your video.

4. Add text to each scene, or in the storyboard to add captions.

5. By adjusting the length of the scenes, you can turn your photos into a snappy video intro in minutes, complete with music.

Pictory for slideshow videos

slideshow videos in pictory

Slideshow videos are perfect for corporate videos, holidays, and sharing celebrations either internally or on social media.

And in Pictory you can make our slideshow videos without laboring over every individual scene.

1. Upload all of your photos and videos into the Visuals to Video feature on the Pictory account homepage.

2. Proceed and Pictory will organize your assets into a storyboard, where you can drag and sort your clips into the right order for your video.

3. Add text to each scene, or in the storyboard to add captions.

4. You can adjust the length of each scene, allowing you to easily make long shots for a party presentation, or short scenes for a snappier social video.

5. Add music to your video from Pictory’s massive library, filtering by genre, mood, or style. You can also upload your music as desired.

6. You can then download your video, ready to entertain.

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, which 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.
pricing page in pictory

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.

Cons of Pictory

But, with any tool, there will be drawbacks for some users, depending on your specific needs from an online video generator.

      • Pictory lacks AI avatars which some marketers use for news videos etc.
      • It doesn’t have a template library independent of brand kits, which might not appeal to users who do not have the need or iconography for a brand kit.
      • Pictory does not have some of the more detailed video editing features that experienced editors might want.
      • The standard plan restricts access to ElevenLabs voiceovers and Getty Images assets, though these can be purchased with add-ons, meaning users get a smaller and more basic range of voices, music, and stock footage.

Pictory alternative 1 – Veed.io

veed homepage

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 receives its fair share of positive feedback from its users.

One such five-star review likes that the platform “offer[s] all the basic features you would need, such as slow motion, cropping, titles, and overlays.

One thing that is fantastic about VEED is that implementation is easy. Because it is hosted online, it saves me a large amount of storage space.”

positive review of veed

But VEED also receives some critique of its software, citing a lack of communication and buggy platform as some of the reasons the platform causes issues for users.

“The product is buggy. The live support is okay but the overall communication from the company is poor. Their help center is poorly maintained. They make product changes without telling their customers. Overall a bad experience.”

Veed.io for video editing

VEED offers a powerful and feature-rich timeline video editor.

When you upload a video into their video editor, you are met with a large library of tools for different experience levels.

There is a mix of manual and AI-powered tools to edit content in a variety of ways.

One-click features include adding music, translating videos into different languages, and optimizing content for different platforms.

You can also trim, loop, and crop scenes, as well as add new scenes and visual effects.

The mix of tools available might be too complex for beginner editors, but gives a comprehensive suite for those with some experience, or the want for precise editing.

It also means more time will be taken on each video, but there are still time savings vs. editing in a standard editor.

video editing in veed

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.

pricing in veed

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video content than VEED.IO

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Pictory alternative 2 – Descript

Descript homepage

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.

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.
positive review for descript

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.
descript pricing page

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.

Pictory 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.

Pictory alternative 4 – Steve

Homepage in Steve.AI

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.
positive review of Steve.AI

Steve pricing

Pricing page in Steve.AI

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.

Slideshow videos in Steve.AI

Conclusion – so what is the best Pictory alternative?

While Veed.io is a good solution for video editing or intro videos, there are many alternatives to Pictory 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!

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