There was a time when subtitles and closed captions were pretty much limited to foreign films and silent movies…but, nowadays, they’re critical for all sorts of different video content.
They’re much more than just a convenience – they make your content accessible to a wider audience, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing, non-native speakers, and people watching video on the move, or in noisy, crowded environments.
By providing accurate transcripts, subtitles, and closed captions, you’re not only making your content more accessible – you’re also improving the overall user experience.
Happy Scribe is one of several software tools designed to make it easy for businesses and creators to transcribe their video and audio content accurately and efficiently.
But how does it stack up?
In this article we’ll take a deep dive into the world of Happy Scribe and rate how it performs compared to other tools on the market.
Let’s start with a bit of background: Happy Scribe was established in 2017 with a mission to simplify the transcription process for businesses, professionals, and individuals alike.
Recognising the time-consuming and often frustrating nature of transcribing audio and video content, Happy Scribe was designed to streamline the process and provide accurate – and quick – results.
However, while it was originally focused solely on transcription (as the name suggests) the platform has evolved over time to provide a suite of features, including subtitling, translation, and audio editing.
The tool has also adapted to ever evolving technology – incorporating advanced machine learning algorithms to improve the accuracy and speed of its transcription services.
Today, Happy Scribe has become a trusted name in the transcription industry, serving 100,000+ users in countries all around the world, in 50+ languages. They’ve built up an outstanding list of clients including BBC, Forbes, Spotify and even the U.N.!
As we’ve already said – Happy Scribe’s core offering since the business was founded has been transcription: the conversion of audio or video files to text. And that remains a key part of their offering.
But, further to that, they also offer subtitles – the ability to generate subtitles in the original language and then ‘burn’ these into your video file, which you can export and share.
Translation is also an option – the ability to burn foreign language subtitles onto a video file. By breaking down each word of your transcript, and associating each line with a specific part of the video, Happy Scribe is then able to overlay your whole video with translated subtitles that match up to the timings of your video script.
All of these services can be done either automatically, or by an actual person (at an extra charge and with a short delay – we’ll cover pricing in more detail shortly!)
From your dashboard, you simply start by hitting ‘New file,’ and then selecting which service you want – Transcription, Subtitles or Foreign subtitles.
Machine generated transcriptions take just a few minutes to produce – with an ‘ETA’ visible on your dashboard.
Maybe we’re nitpicking but it did seem to take a little longer than some other tools. However this is a marginal thing.
Once your transcript is complete, you’re able to check it, edit it to correct any errors, and export it in your chosen format.
You can apply various styles to edit the look and feel of subtitles. The options available are perhaps fewer than other tools – for example, you can’t ‘drag and drop’ your subtitles to appear anywhere on screen, you can simply hit the ‘Move up’ or ‘Move down’ buttons.
However, it’s still relatively easy with options to edit font, colour and background, to create a subtitle look and feel that compliments your brand and video style.
The good news for those on a budget is that Happy Scribe offers a generous ‘free’ plan for individuals with what they call ‘occasional language needs.’
This allows you to upload and transcribe up to 5 files per month, which can be exported in a variety of formats – including exporting un-watermarked videos, which we have to say, having tried a number of these tools, is really unusual and a great benefit.
If you work in a business or team that requires a higher volume or frequency of transcription/subtitling, you’ll want to upgrade to the reasonably priced Pro & Teams plan. This will set you back £19 per user, per month.
For larger businesses, Happy Scribe offers a ‘Custom’ enterprise plan with a variety of other bells and whistles, and bespoke pricing.
It’s also important to note that these prices will cover you for machine-generated services – but if you want, or need, to use the human transcription services, you’re looking at a fee of £1.50 per minute for transcription, £2 per minute for subtitles, or £8 per minute for translation.
When evaluating a software tool like Happy Scribe, it’s important to consider both its strengths and weaknesses.
Here’s our take:
Honestly, one of the most notable aspects of Happy Scribe is its user-friendly nature. The tool is designed to make the transcription process as easy and straightforward as possible, even for users who have no prior experience with transcription.
Firstly, the interface of Happy Scribe is intuitive and user-friendly. The tool provides a clear and simple layout, with all the necessary options and settings easily accessible. This makes it easy for users to get started with the transcription process, without being overwhelmed by complicated features or confusing menus.
Happy Scribe also allows users to make edits to their transcriptions easily. The tool provides an editor that’s user-friendly and easy to navigate, enabling users to make corrections to their transcripts with ease. It even highlights words it’s less confident about in red, flagging them up for particular attention.
Overall, Happy Scribe’s ease of use makes it an attractive option for users who are new to transcription or who need to transcribe files quickly and easily.
Its user-friendly interface and range of tools make it an excellent choice for anyone who wants to streamline their transcription process and save time.
Like any automated transcription service, Happy Scribe makes some mistakes.
They certainly don’t hide this – when you upload your file, you’re given the option to choose between human made and machine generated subtitles, with a clear disclaimer that the latter option comes with ‘80% accuracy,’ while the former offers 99%.
In our experience, 80% is really underselling it – our transcript was much more accurate than this. We uploaded a video around 4 and a half minutes long, and there were a couple of words here and there that the tool got wrong – and a few grammatical errors, such as rogue full-stops – but seriously, we’re talking tiny errors that would be easily corrected with a quick proof read.
A lot of this might come down to the type of video/audio being transcribed – our video was recorded to-camera, with a quality audio setup, which – by definition – would presumably make transcription errors less likely.
If accuracy is super-important to you, or the quality of your audio is less than ideal, you can go with the human made subtitles – these will take around 24 hours to turn around and, as previously mentioned, they’ll cost £1.50 for a text transcript, £2 for video subtitles, or £8 for foreign language subtitles.
As of writing, Happy Scribe offers 62 languages for automatic transcription and translation – from Afrikaans all the way through to Zulu: you can check out the latest list here but it’s pretty extensive!
Human transcription is available in a narrower range of languages – which is definitely something to be aware of:
Overall, Happy Scribe is an excellent tool for anyone in need of accurate and convenient transcription services. With its user-friendly interface, automatic transcription feature, and convenient editing tools, it’s a fantastic option for users who need to transcribe files quickly and easily.
We rate Happy Scribe at 4.5 stars out of 5, marking it down only because of the less advanced style editing options, and the inability to export with different aspect ratios for different video platforms.
However, its ease of use, accuracy, and convenience make it an amazing option for anyone in need of transcription services, especially those who are new to transcription or need to transcribe files quickly and efficiently.
With its generous free plan and range of useful features, Happy Scribe is a tool that we love – and highly recommend!
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