The best automatic transcription software is a fantastic resource that makes transcribing audio and video into text easy.
Thanks to the integration of artificial intelligence with the latest technology, they automatically transcribe with great accuracy and speed in just a few moments.
And not only that, they offer editing tools, advanced features, shared workspaces and much more. Whatever your area of study, occupation or professional practice, these tools will make everything easier.
So that you can get to know them and decide on the most suitable one, here is our selection of the best automatic transcription software for 2023.
What to look for before hiring transcription software
Nowadays, there are many software options available, and this complicates the decision to hire one. Some offer free trial days for you to experience their service; it's excellent and will help a lot with the decision.
But beyond that possibility, each software has several features we recommend you consider before deciding on one.
This way, you can compare each service and realize which software best meets your needs, expectations and work style.
1. Ease of use and user-friendly interface
The interface of the best transcription software is simple and intuitive. It should let you know how to upload audio and videos to get the transcript and how to download it easily and quickly when you have it.
The attractive and functional design of the interface is something we recommend you explore. You must feel you can navigate and use all the resources to get the most out of it.
2. Speed and accuracy of the transcription
With the support of artificial intelligence, automatic transcriptions are obtained in minutes. It is a machine that converts audio or video into text and can do it live, in real time.
If we talk about accuracy, depending on the quality and complexity of the audio, the best transcription software varies between 85% and 99% accuracy.
But imagine all the time and money you save. Human transcription services are more expensive, and once you have the automatic transcription, you can download it, edit it and take it to 100%.
How fast and accurate a software transcribes is a determining factor, especially if you are in a place where you process a large volume of transcripts.
3. Languages, functions and file formats
The languages a tool supports determine your interest in software, especially if you need transcriptions in several or non-English speaking languages.
In general, the best transcription software supports many languages and dialects. However, this is something to look out for because some services do not include non-Latin languages, affecting people, organizations and companies in the Middle East and Asia.
Another feature where transcription software varies is its functions. Check their design and consider the purpose for which you want the service.
As we will show you if you require the service for meeting transcriptions, podcasting, or subtitling, some transcription software is preferable to others because it is designed for those specific areas.
When it comes to file formats, there are also differences. If you are in collaborative work or study spaces where different file formats are shared, the more options the tool offers, the better.
If you are in the communications area, everything that includes advertising, digital media, electronic media, marketing or technology, look for software with various options to enhance your work.
4. Online Editor
Automatic transcriptions are not perfect, especially if the audios are of low quality, the speakers have accents in particular dialects, or the content is complex or technical.
This type of transcription is done by a machine, which cannot pick up context elements, possibly overlooking some words or phrases it does not recognize.
Therefore, ensuring that a transcription service has an online editor is essential.
The online editor will allow you to review, clean up and correct the text. If you see an error in the transcription, click on the section with the time stamp, listen to the words, and transcribe independently.
5. Pricing and plans
Transcription software offers you their services for a price; most of them charge per minute of transcription, which can be expensive.
Almost all of them offer the possibility to subscribe to a plan, which will be your best option if you need to transcribe frequently.
You also can do automatic transcriptions for free. Remember that they may not have additional or advanced features to get better transcriptions.
6. Technical Support
Eventually, any breakdown or failure may occur, and if the software company has an efficient technical support team, you can fix it quickly.
It is essential that any transcription software you consider hiring offers technical support services to ensure a satisfactory customer experience.
Top 10 Best automatic transcription services to convert audio to text
The best automated transcription services rely on software that listens to the audio, identifies the words used by the speakers and converts them into text.
This is made possible by sophisticated speech recognition technology, consisting of acoustic and linguistic components hosted on servers.
Although automatic transcriptions do not yet reach human transcriptions' accuracy, the software's accuracy can be as high as 95%.
Now that you know the basics of how they work, here are what we think are the ten best automatic transcription services. They feature excellent platforms, powerful editing tools and attractive pricing and service plans.
1. ScriptMe
ScriptMe has powerful artificial intelligence software. That's why Warner, ITV and Fremantle, among other companies, and thousands of university students, entrepreneurs and professionals worldwide, have chosen it as their transcription service provider.
Main features
Its user-friendly interface and full-featured online editor are handy for media, television and production.
The tool allows editing and exporting transcripts and subtitles in multiple formats such as Avid Markers, Adobe Premiere, Web VTT, SRT, STL and Word.
Its software accurately recognizes and transcribes audio with several speakers; despite having different accents, it will deliver a professionally created transcription.
If the audio you want to convert to text is of good quality, the results will be great. And if you want to change something in the transcript or think there is a mistake, it can be done quickly with the editor.
The software supports more than 30 languages: Swedish, Danish, English, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, French, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian and Ukrainian.
Advantages and disadvantages of ScriptMe
Among other advantages:
- Easy-to-use, feature-rich online editor
- Accurate transcriptions and subtitles
- AI is faster than real-time
- Unlimited users in Enterprise accounts
- Specially created for Media, TV and Broadcast.
- World-class support team
- Seven times cheaper and four times faster than manual transcription
Disadvantages:
- Currently, there is no mobile application
Why choose ScriptMe as your transcription software?
Because it offers a highly accurate service and fast turnaround, you will also find an easy-to-use platform and efficient support service to meet your requirements.
And another reason to choose ScriptMe is its fair prices, with which you can save up to 7 times in costs.
ScriptMe Pricing and Plans
ScriptMe offers a 15-minute free trial and will soon offer complete transcription with desktop software.
It currently offers a $29 per-hour use transcription service for occasional transcriptionists. And the $45 per month Scripte Pro Plus service for professionals with more demand for transcription services and resources.
Additionally, there is the Enterprise account with the possibility of unlimited users. Designed for projects, with all the features of Scripte Pro Plus, shared workspaces, content search and support for contracting companies.
2. Happy Scribe
Happy Scribe is another of the best transcription and subtitling websites, noted for its compatibility with multiple languages (more than 60), high accuracy, and fast turnaround times.
Main features of Happy Scribe
Its automatic transcription tool is very robust, allowing you to upload files of any size, import them from platforms such as Vimeo and YouTube and export transcripts in many different formats.
It works exceptionally well for transcribing podcasts and interviews and has an interactive editor that makes it easy to add timestamps, mark sections and correct errors.
Its platform is a valuable resource for collaborative work. It is easy to incorporate team members, such as proofreaders and editors, synchronize their tools and work very smoothly.
In addition to the most widely spoken languages in the world, the platform supports Amharic, Basque, Bosnian, Cantonese, Catalan, Filipino, Galician, Georgian, Hebrew, Icelandic, Indonesian, Khmer (spoken in Cambodia), Mandarin and many more.
Advantages and disadvantages of Happy Scribe
Advantages:
- Easy to use and reliable transcription tool with which you can make high-quality transcriptions
- Supports a large number of languages and dialects
- Fast turnaround
Disadvantages:
- Synchronization between voice and text could be improved.
- Technical support is not the best due to the number of users.
Happy Scribe Pricing and Plans
It offers automatic transcription services at $0.21 per minute, with 85% accuracy and delivery in 5 minutes.
The professional transcription option at $2.00 per minute guarantees 99% accuracy and delivery within 24 hours.
3. Rev
Large companies such as Viacom, Amazon, Microsoft, CBS and PBS use the services of Rev. It is a recognized company that stands out for its quality, accuracy and speed of delivery; Spotify, Forbes and CNBC have praised it.
Main features of Rev
Rev is ideal for professionals who regularly use the service. Specifically, the automated transcription service offers 90% accuracy for high-quality audio with minimal background noise.
It works very well and has intuitive software; you only need to upload the audio file, and once the transcript is delivered, you can edit it if you want and share it with whomever you choose.
The software includes an interactive transcription editor and a customized glossary of terms.
It transcribes 31 languages, including Mandarin, Malay and Korean. It is ADA and FCC-compliant, and its software integrates with YouTube, Vimeo, JW Player and others.
Advantages and disadvantages of Rev
Advantages:
- Quality-assured transcription service
- Easy-to-use software
- Fast turnaround
- Variety of options to meet all needs
- 24x7 customer support
- Very few transcription errors
Disadvantages:
- Customer service may be delayed
- The quality of the automatic transcription could offer a little more accuracy
Rev pricing and plans
Automatic transcription costs $0.25 per minute, but you can try the service and get 45 minutes for free.
Standard service is also available for 29.99 per month, with which you can transcribe up to 20 hours of content. For companies, there are specific contracts according to their needs.
4. TranscribeMe
One of the best transcription services, its clients include UCLA, Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University, Facebook and Udemy, among others.
Main features of TranscribeMe
TranscribeMe is ideal for high-demand transcription users, frequently used by lawyers, journalists, educators, students, podcasters, authors and professional transcriptionists worldwide.
It has the lowest price for automatic transcriptions, $0.07 per minute of audio.
Offers a range of speech-to-text conversion products that can be used in any case and several languages, specializing in the following: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Danish, Catalan, Hindi, Russian and Mandarin.
They perform general, technical and specialized financial, medical and legal transcriptions. Transcripts can be downloaded in almost any format, such as TXT, Word, HTML, PDF and SRT.
Pros and cons of TranscribeMe
Pros:
- Very low prices for automatic transcriptions
- If you buy an automatic transcription that does not meet your expectations, you can exchange it for a human transcription by paying the price difference.
- Accuracy and fast turnaround
Cons:
- It can be challenging to get a team account
If you want a human transcript, it can take up to 5 five days
TranscribeMe Pricing and Plans
As we mentioned, they have the lowest cost in the market for automatic transcriptions. They offer other types of transcription with variable prices and have customized plans for companies based on their needs and requirements.
5. Trint
Trint is another of the best transcription services; it has editorial tools and is used by vital media such as The Washington Post, AP, Nike, Airbnb, Der Spiegel and many more.
Main features of Trint
This service is ideal for journalists, media producers, researchers, academics, writers and freelancers; we believe it is the best video transcription software.
It has excellent online editing software that allows you to add bookmarks, assign names to speakers, search for words, insert reminders through comments and more.
Once the transcript is processed, it can be exported in Word and CSV format, and it is also possible to share it with team members to facilitate collaborative work.
This service has an exciting feature; it is possible to join text with audio and create a video that can be embedded in a website. This is a unique tool to attract traffic to the web: it means creating SEO and growing the platform.
Additionally, it has a robust mobile application and can make transcriptions in more than 31 languages.
Trint advantages and disadvantages
Advantages:
- Excellent performance of online software and mobile application
- Good transcription accuracy
- Allows you to suspend the plan if you do not need it
- Mobile application available
Disadvantages:
- No pay-per-use option
- More expensive than other options
- Interface, for now, does not have many sharing options
Print Pricing and Plans
Those interested in Trint can have free access and test the platform for seven days. To continue using it, there is a fee, and it is one of the most expensive services, starting at $48 per person per month, and up to 7 transcriptions can be made.
If more transcriptions are required, they are unlimited and cost $60 per month. For companies, it offers customized options based on your requirements.
6. Otter
Otter has a great image and reputation within transcription services; its prominent clients are IBM, Zoom and Dropbox.
This software is specially designed for transcribing conversations and voice memos, offering the best free transcription software.
Main features of Otter
With Otter, you can record audio from your cell phone or use a web browser to transcribe it on the spot. It goes beyond transcription, and it is possible to add speaker ID, notes, highlight key phrases, screenshots, and customized glossary, so you don't have to resort to other tools.
If you are a professional, you will find this platform attractive because the software can be added to virtual meetings such as Google Meets, Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and get a meeting summary.
Otter's transcription accuracy is between 80% and 95%. It can transcribe files from Zoom, video and audio recordings and export the transcript in various formats, such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint presentations or PDF.
It features attractive discounts on transcription services for students, teachers or full-time employees of non-profit educational institutions or recognized primary, secondary, tertiary, school district or regional service agencies.
Advantages and disadvantages of Otter
Advantages:
- Offers a very generous free plan
- Very modern and easy-to-use application
- Compatible with all significant videoconferencing platforms
- Mobile application
Disadvantages:
- The software is currently only in English
- Its accuracy in complex transcriptions could be better
- Occasionally, customer service can be a bit sketchy
Otter Pricing and Plans
Offers a Basic plan for free use; it is a meeting assistant that records and transcribes in real time 300 minutes of transcription; it is 30 minutes per conversation.
Pro Plan, costing $8.33 per month, includes 1200 minutes per month of transcription; 90 minutes per conversation.
Business Plan is aimed at small groups and organizations, costs $20 per month and includes 6000 minutes of transcription, 4 hours per conversation.
Commercial Enterprise Plan with negotiable prices for large organizations.
7. Sonix
Sonix is another well-known and prestigious transcription services company with clients in over 100 countries, including ABC News, The New Yorker and Wall Street Journal.
Key features of Sonix
This software has specific tools for finding information in transcripts, such as advanced keyword searches. It also allows the creation of customized glossaries, which is very useful for organizations with numerous media.
Sonix enables fast, automatic transcriptions in more than 40 languages, including Cantonese, Mandarin, Hebrew, Hindi, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese, automatically and quickly.
It is a tool that provides accurate transcriptions that require little or no further editing and, if needed, has an editor to help you refine the content.
Each line of text has timestamps for easy reference. The tool also features automatic speech recognition, punctuation and noise cancellation.
Advantages and disadvantages of Sonix
Pros:
- Supports many languages
- It has handy tools for editing and sharing transcripts
Disadvantages:
- Does not yet have a mobile application
- Its user interface is a bit confusing
Sonix Pricing and Plans
Sonix offers 30 minutes of free transcription. Additionally, it provides a Basic pay-per-use plan for $10 per hour of transcription.
It also has a Premium transcription service for $22 per month; and a customized enterprise package for organizations that require a large volume of transcription.
8. Amberscript
Amberscript is another popular transcription service, with more than one million customers worldwide, including Disney, Microsoft and WB.
Amberscript Features
This well-known transcription company serves the education and research sector, medical, legal, media, technology and communication companies.
It offers 39 languages for its automatic transcriptions, including English with all accents, English Australia, English UK, English USA, English Canada, Arabic, Bahasa, Bangladeshi Bengali, Indian Bengali, Mandarin Chinese, Farsi, Indian Urdu and Pakistani Urdu.
Its automatic transcriptions reach 85% accuracy, and its deliveries are fast through its mobile and desktop application.
It has a text editor that connects your audio to the text, where you can easily adjust text, highlight parts, and search for content.
You can import video and audio files in different formats and export the transcript in Word, JSON or text, with optional timestamps and speaker identification.
Advantages and disadvantages of Amberscript
Advantages:
- Fast and accurate service
- Several languages
- Affordable prices
Disadvantages:
- Could have more file options for exporting transcripts
Amberscript Pricing and Plans
Its price for automatic transcription is $0.13 per minute, and in 5 minutes, you will have the delivery.
With Amberscript, you can free upload 10 minutes of audio or video and try the tool. It offers a Prepaid plan for $10 for 1 hour of audio or video subscription for $20 for 3 hours per month.
9. Descript
Descript offers editing tools and is used by The New York Times, The Washington Post and Al Jazeera.
Main features of Descript
It has several features for organizing transcripts, including speaker tags, automatic language filtering such as "us", and detecting and removing repeated words.
It offers 95% accuracy in automatic transcription. Its platform is straightforward, and everyone finds its various features very useful.
Descript offers a free version for transcription. It is one of the most powerful platforms for recording, editing, podcasting and transcribing audio and video.
It gives importance to the technical support service and has enabled customer service through email, phone, chat and forum.
Advantages and disadvantages of Descript
Advantages:
- Accuracy and near-instant transcription
- Useful editing tools
- Free version
Disadvantages:
- No mobile application for Android yet
Descript pricing and plans
It has a free plan of 1 hour per month to try the service. The Creator plan costs $12 per user per month, and you have 10 hours of transcription; the Pro plan for $24 per month for 30 hours of transcription and a negotiable plan with companies based on their requirements.
10. Temi
Temi is arguably the best audio transcription software, with clients including ESPN, the University of Texas at Austin, and many more.
Main features of Temi
It is a transcription software that supports any type of audio or video file and automatically transcribes the content. It is ideal for transcribing meetings, presentations, interviews, podcasts and conferences, with up to 95% accuracy if the audio is of good quality.
It features advanced speech recognition, transcription tools, Zapier integration, file editing and sharing tools, standard data security and much more.
Additionally, it has a transcript editor with which you can add timestamps, correct the transcript, synchronize transcripts with slides and add tags to speakers.
You can download its mobile app for IOS and Android devices to record audio and order transcription services.
Advantages and disadvantages of Temi
Advantages:
- Accuracy and speed
- Easy to use
- Varied editing options
- Mobile application available
Disadvantages:
- Currently, only English transcripts are supported
Temi Pricing and Plans
A free trial includes a transcript of up to 45 minutes. It does not offer plans or subscriptions; you pay $0.25 per audio minute.
Conclusions
The best transcription software is helpful for individuals, students, professionals and organizations worldwide.
And especially for those who work in the media, writing and news, in which every day they depend on transcriptions to inform, quote and make references in real-time.
Likewise, fast and accurate transcription services are essential for the proper functioning of medical offices and legal instances.
We have shown you our selection of the best transcription software. They have various functions, support many languages, and, like everything else, have advantages and disadvantages.
If you are unfamiliar with these services, it is time to explore what they offer. We invite you to visit their websites and carefully read all their information. This will help you decide which one is right for you.
At ScriptMe, we would be glad if you considered us an option.
We have told you what we can offer you; if you want more information, write to us, and we will get back to you immediately.
And if you can tell us about your experience with our service, or any other, all information is very welcome. We will take it into account to keep working on our continuous improvement and position ourselves as leaders in the sector.
