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Submagic is the caption-and-edit tool for footage you already have: talking heads, podcasts and long videos cut into clips. ShortFast is for when there is no footage: it writes a short from a topic, builds every scene and posts it on a schedule.
Submagic and ShortFast are often listed side by side, but they do opposite jobs. Submagic starts from a video you recorded and makes it better: animated captions, auto B-roll, zooms, silence cuts, and Magic Clips that pull shorts out of a long podcast or interview. ShortFast starts from a topic with no footage at all: it writes the script, builds every scene from stock footage or an AI art style, adds a voice and captions, and posts the result.
Submagic is the better pick if you film yourself, run a podcast, or have long videos to cut into clips, and want them captioned and polished fast. ShortFast is the better pick if you do not want to be on camera, have nothing to cut from, and want a new video published to TikTok, Reels and Shorts every day without opening an editor.
Both start at $19 a month. Submagic's Starter covers 15 videos of up to 2 minutes and publishes each video you schedule; ShortFast's Starter is 1,000 credits, about 80 stock-footage or 40 illustrated videos at typical costs, generated and posted by an automation. Some creators use both: Submagic for the clips from their own recordings, ShortFast for the faceless channel next to it.
Side by side
| Dimension | ShortFast | Submagic |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | A topic, a prompt or a script. No footage needed. | A video you upload: a recording, podcast or long video. |
| Core job | Generate faceless short videos and publish them on a recurring schedule. | Caption, edit and clip existing footage, then schedule each post. |
| Visuals | 27 styles: licensed stock footage, AI video, or AI images in a fixed art style. AI actors for UGC-style video. | Your footage, with auto B-roll (Storyblocks on Pro and up), zooms and transitions. AI Actors Studio for avatars. |
| Captions | Burned-in captions on every video. | Its specialty: animated caption styles in 100+ languages, plus an AI video translator. |
| Video length | Short-form by default; up to 15 minutes on Advanced. | 2 minutes on Starter, 5 on Pro, 30 on Business (4K, 60 fps). |
| Publishing | Recurring automations post a new video daily, or up to 3 times a day on Pro. | Schedule each video to TikTok, Instagram (Reels and Stories) and YouTube Shorts. Future dates need Pro or Business. |
| Accounts | 1, 3 or 6 social accounts by plan. | 1 profile per platform on Starter and Pro, 3 on Business. |
| Refunds | At ShortFast's discretion, per its terms; the $1 three-day trial lets you test first. | Fees are non-refundable, with a 14-day withdrawal right for consumers, per its terms. Free to try without a card. |
| Developer access | REST API, webhooks and an MCP server, on the same plan credits. | API for captions, B-roll and zooms, billed in minutes from $57 a month for 250 minutes. |
Submagic changes its product and pricing independently of us. Check their site for current details before deciding, and tell us if anything here is out of date.
ShortFast and Submagic plans
Prices from each vendor's pricing page, checked
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly, per month | What the plan includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ShortFast Starter | $19 | $15 | 1,000 credits: about 80 stock-footage or 40 AI art-style videos (typical), 1 automation |
| ShortFast Pro | $39 | $31 | 5,000 credits, 3 automations, up to 3 posts a day each |
| ShortFast Advanced | $99 | $79 | 10,000 credits, 6 automations, videos up to 15 minutes |
| Submagic Starter | $19 | $12 | 45 credits = 15 videos, up to 2 minutes |
| Submagic Pro | $39 | $23 | 120 credits = 40 videos, up to 5 minutes, scheduling ahead |
| Submagic Business | $69 | $41 | 300 credits = 100 videos, up to 30 minutes, 4K 60 fps, 3 profiles per platform |
Submagic prices are per member. ShortFast video counts are typical, not limits: about 12 credits for a stock-footage video and 25 for an AI art-style video (October 2026 averages).
Sources: ShortFast pricing · Submagic pricing
Submagic assumes you have a recording. Upload a talking-head video and it adds animated captions, cuts silences, zooms on emphasis and drops in B-roll; upload a podcast or interview and Magic Clips finds the moments worth a short. Its captions run in more than 100 languages and its AI video translator dubs the result. If you already film, that is hard to beat for speed.
ShortFast assumes you have nothing but a topic. Most faceless channels, in history, finance, psychology, scary stories or kids learning, never had footage to edit. ShortFast writes the script and builds every scene: licensed stock footage matched to each line, or AI images in one of 27 styles such as stick figures, cartoon explainer, whiteboard, comic book, anime, 3D animation or claymation. Captions and a voice are added, and UGC-style videos use AI actors when a product needs a person.
Submagic has a social scheduler: pick a finished video, a date and the platforms, and it posts to TikTok, Instagram Reels and Stories, and YouTube Shorts. Scheduling for future dates needs Pro or Business, and LinkedIn, Facebook and X are listed as coming soon. Each post is still one video you made and scheduled.
ShortFast's automations generate the videos as well as post them. Set a theme, a style and a cadence once, and it writes a new script each day, renders it and publishes it to your connected accounts in the audience's timezone. Pro runs three automations with up to three posts a day each. YouTube and TikTok push back on mass-produced, repetitive uploads, so vary the topics and check the first videos of any series.
Submagic's Starter is $19 a month, or $12 billed yearly, for 45 credits, which it counts as 15 videos of up to 2 minutes. Pro is $39 ($23 yearly) for 40 videos of up to 5 minutes, and Business $69 ($41 yearly) for 100 videos of up to 30 minutes in 4K. Prices are per member. Its API is billed separately in minutes, from $57 a month for 250 minutes.
ShortFast's Starter is also $19 a month, or $15 yearly, for 1,000 credits. A typical stock-footage video uses about 12 credits and an AI art-style video about 25, so Starter covers roughly 40 to 80 videos a month; a fully animated video uses about 464. Pro is $39 for 5,000 credits and Advanced $99 for 10,000, and the API and MCP server draw on the same credits.
FAQ
Keep going
Clipping a recording versus generating from a topic.
Learn moreComparisonEditing what you filmed versus faceless daily shorts.
Learn moreFeatureHow ShortFast burns captions into every video.
Learn moreToolA topic turned into a faceless short.
Learn moreGuideHow a scheduled Shorts pipeline works end to end.
Learn moreThree days of full access. If Submagic suits you better, that's a useful thing to find out cheaply.