Descript

Transcription management and video & audio editing software

About Descript

Descript is a transcription management and video editing software that is designed for businesses in multiple industries, such as marketing, sales, user research, online learning, and customer support. It helps team members collaborate on projects, send feedback, create shared folders, add comments, and track document versions.

Descript enables staff members to upload audio files to automatically generate and edit text transcriptions on a centralized platform. Employees can use the video editing tool to update transcriptions and automatically edit or crop video and audio files accordingly. It lets users add introductions, title cards, captions, transitions, animations, and shapes across videos, images, and GIFs. Supervisors can create shareable links, search transcripts, and embed videos across multiple platforms, such as blog posts, help documents, and other content management systems.

Descript provides an API, which lets businesses integrate the platform with several third party solutions, including Evernote, Slack, Google Drive, DropBox, and Box. The overdub functionality lets staff members utilize text-to-speech technology to automatically generate voiceovers.


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Not sure about Descript? Compare with a popular alternative

Descript

4.8 (162)
Not available in your country
VS.

Starting Price

US$15.00
month
US$34.99
month

Pricing Options

Free version
Free trial
Free version
Free trial

Features

60
14

Integrations

9
No integrations found

Ease of Use

4.5 (162)
3.9 (75)

Value for Money

4.6 (162)
4.1 (75)

Customer Service

4.4 (162)
4.0 (75)

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Reviews

Overall rating

4.8 /5
(162)
Value for Money
4.6/5
Features
4.6/5
Ease of Use
4.5/5
Customer Support
4.4/5

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Software buyers need your help! Product reviews help the rest of us make great decisions.

Showing 5 reviews of 162
Yann
Overall rating
  • Industry: Online Media
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

A must-have for every video content creator

Reviewed on 14/05/2021

Pros

I have been using Descript for a while now, and have noticed a new series of features being added to the platform.

However, even though those additions have been more than welcome, what I consider the platform's top feature is something that has been at its core for quite some time: Descript's transcription tool.

In particular, I was really impressed by the accuracy of the transcription tool's AI. If I had to estimate, I would say that the accuracy of the transcriptions Descript has done for my video content has been around 90%, which is really good.

Cons

While the transcription tool has been very good and accurate, I feel that its user interface could be improved.

In fact, it has happened to me a few times to accidentally delete parts of a video (since Descript can be used for video editing too), while I was trying to edit some of the captions/subtitles that were created by the tool's automated transcription feature.

Luckily, I have also noticed this in time but this could have very well have led to a video having missing parts because of this "accident".

Aemyn
Overall rating
  • Industry: Online Media
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

The future of podcasting is still just over the horizon

Reviewed on 20/05/2021

Overall, using Descript is a super positive experience.

We're able to preview episode scripts...

Overall, using Descript is a super positive experience.

We're able to preview episode scripts with clients which makes the approval process a better experience for them. Our scriptwriters are able to work directly with the audio and transcript at the same time and when they're done, we can export the raw project for cleanup and sound design in an external DAW which is awesome forethought from Descript. With other projects, editing and sound design and exporting can be done entirely in Descript and I'm really happy with the results.

Despite its limitations and bugs, I still struggle not to recommend Descript to anyone making a podcast.
Whatever you're doing, there is a good chance you will find a place for it in your process, just maybe not as much or as reliably as you would like.

Pros

Descript is a strong collection of audio tools that just weren't available when I started making podcasts. The ability to organise, collaborate and publish an audio project in the cloud with a friendly interface is great and used to be a huge pain to figure out. Editing audio with the transcript and the waveform at the same time allows you to skip a bunch of technicalities and focus on your creativity. Video capabilities expand the possibilities, and the overall suite of tools make me rethink entirely what podcast editing can or should be in a good way.

Cons

Stability is the biggest problem I have with this. After working on about a lot of different projects with different collaborators, I'm still coming up against things that make it freeze, make it crash, or break a project (usually salvageable at least), and end up needing to work around issues to keep things rolling.

Also, while Descript has a lot of features, in comparison to any long-standing audio software it leaves so much to be desired. There are many missing tools that would add a lot of room for creativity and technical cleanup. Things like audio meters, noise gate, spectrum analysis, filters to automate creatively, ducking, but also the more unexpected effects like reverb, stereo delay, pitch shifting, layered FX, these are all things podcasters of any kind might want to use for effect at some point and many folks I know can't, or don't want to tell their stories without them.

This is especially true for video which misses on some basic transformations like rotation for text and images.

Alternatives Considered

Soundtrap

Reasons for Switching to Descript

Soundtrap as an editing-with-transcript tool was way too limited when I looked into it. Although it would fill a lot of gaps missing among the Descript audio tools, it wasn't anywhere close to a worthy comparison.
Nathan
Overall rating
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

Potential game changer for podcast editing

Reviewed on 18/05/2021

The concept is amazing and could save hours on a podcast edit…
but, it just doesn't work correctly...

The concept is amazing and could save hours on a podcast edit…
but, it just doesn't work correctly or as you would expect a lot of the time. Once the automated transcription improves and the workflow stabilizes, this could potentially replace the various tools I use to edit audio and video.

Pros

The ability to edit an interview or podcast just by editing the text is incredible.
The workflow is fairly straight forward – import audio file, choose how to transcribe, wait…, edit the transcript & audio in various ways, export or publish as needed.

Cons

The automated transcription is good, but not great. There are always little errors that seem obvious to a human – capitalize the first letter in a sentence, don't capitalize a word in the middle of a sentence, abbreviate doctor as Dr. when a name follows, etc. – and they seem to always show up, even when they've been corrected previously, so it's unclear whether the 'machine' is actually 'learning'.
The app appears to not be built as a native app for macOS which means it lacks certain core features. The most annoying to me is that the window always opens in the default size (i.e. small) and never remembers the sizing or positioning that I choose every time I open it.
The developers are rapidly adding features, but almost too quickly. Once I get used to a feature or function, it doesn't take long for the menu item to be changed or moved (Share, Export, Publish all do similar–though different–things, and have each had their turn as a unique menu item or being grouped together in various ways). I got very efficient at correcting the transcription (which, unfortunately, must be done frequently) until they changed the entire process of editing the transcript.

Alternatives Considered

Otter and Rev

Reasons for Switching to Descript

Descript has the potential to do it all – transcribe, edit, publish – for one subscription.
Rohit
Overall rating
  • Industry: Broadcast Media
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Most amazing audio editing tool I’ve used in 20 years

Reviewed on 15/06/2021

I love editing audio and video again. I feel like I’m editing a taking Word Document. Simply...

I love editing audio and video again. I feel like I’m editing a taking Word Document. Simply amazing. Try it and you won’t go back to editing only using a waveform.

Pros

This is a whole new way to edit audio and video content. I love the fact that there are frequent updates and new features. Simply amazing to edit content.

Cons

Not much in terms of audio processing. No noise reduction, etc.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Audition

Reasons for Choosing Descript

Audition was getting to be too expensive as part of the CC Suite.

Switched From

Adobe Audition

Reasons for Switching to Descript

At the time I chose it because of price. But when I used the free version I was hooked and signed up for a paid version.
April
Overall rating
  • Industry: Marketing & Advertising
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

I use Descript for multiple things!

Reviewed on 13/09/2021

Editing video and audio for podcasts is so much easier in Descript. I can see exactly what I am...

Editing video and audio for podcasts is so much easier in Descript. I can see exactly what I am editing out and it has made my workflow about twice as fast!

Pros

I love that to edit the audio or video, you just make the edits in the transcription instead of trying to find the exact place in the audio file. Makes it so much easier! My favorite is that it can take out all the "filler words" like "um" in about 2 clicks and make the audio sound great! So much faster than how I was doing it before with having to listen and take them out one at a time.

Cons

There are constant updates to the software, about 1 a week. This can be annoying since there is always a pop-up that says you need to update and restart almost everytime I open the app. Also, if you have multiple accounts (I have multiple clients I work with), it is hard to sign out of one account and then sign into another. Not sure why this isn't straightforward, but often when I sign out of one account and then try to sign into another, it just puts me back into the same account.

Showing 5 reviews of 162 Read all reviews

Descript FAQs

Below are some frequently asked questions for Descript.

Descript offers the following pricing plans:

  • Starting from: US$15.00/month
  • Pricing model: Free Version, Subscription
  • Free Trial: Available

Descript offers a free basic account with screen recording, collaboration features, and 3 hours of transcription. Only editors pay. The three types of paid accounts include: • Creator: $12/editor/month (annual) or $15/editor/month (monthly) • Pro: $24/editor/month (annual) or $30/editor/month (monthly) • Enterprise: Get in touch with us for custom pricing.

Descript has the following typical customers:

Self Employed, 2–10, 11–50, 51–200, 201–500, 501–1,000, 1,001–5,000

Descript supports the following languages:

English

Descript supports the following devices:

Descript integrates with the following applications:

Asana, Box, Dropbox Business, Evernote Teams, Gmail, Google Drive, OneDrive, Slack, Zapier

Descript offers the following support options:

Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support, Chat

Related categories

See all software categories found for Descript.