CASTMAGIC ALTERNATIVE

shortshort vs Castmagic.

shortshort cuts one long video into vertical shorts that end where the sentence ends, frames the face with automatic zooms, and costs €0.05 per minute of video. Below: the numbers first, then 18 criteria with a check or a cross, then the plans of both.

Try it on a video · free See the 18 criteria

60 free credits, no cardUp to 3 hours per videoMP4 · 1080 × 1920

shortshort vs Castmagic: the short answer

shortshort turns one video of up to 3 hours into 9:16 shorts that end where the sentence ends, framed on the face on screen with automatic emphasis zooms, captioned word by word, for €0.05 per minute of source video. 60 minutes are free, no card.

Castmagic turns a recording into written content and clips for social. It may fit better for bigger files, link import, translation or dubbing; the table below says where, with the source.

Price per minute of video: €0.05 here, hobby at $29 per month billed monthly at Castmagic
Free plan: Yes, permanent here; Castmagic's site does not say
Longest video: 3 h per video here, no stated limit per file at Castmagic

Facts checked against the product on 20 September 2026. Prices before VAT.

Why shortshort

Four things the product does by design; the table below checks the rest, both ways.

Priced by the minute, not by the short

€0.05 per minute on Starter, whatever the number of shorts. 60 minutes are free at sign-up, no card.

Cuts that finish the sentence

The AI reads the whole transcript and keeps complete, quotable passages: a short opens and closes on a sentence, never mid-thought.

Framing that follows the face, with motion

The 9:16 crop tracks the face on screen and adds emphasis zooms between x1.0 and x1.6; slides and wide shots stay whole. Framing is automatic; cuts, title and captions stay editable.

One page, nothing to learn

Drop the file, choose how many shorts and how long, check the proposals, export the MP4s. No timeline, no template to configure.

18 criteria, side by side

One line per criterion, the same shape on both sides. The Castmagic column is derived from Castmagic's own site: the number after a cell points to the source, and the exact wording is under the table.

Reading note. Castmagic produces mostly written content from a recording, show notes, posts and transcripts; clips are one output.

Criterion	shortshort	Castmagic
Getting the video in
Longest video	3 h per videoOne file of up to 3 hours, on every plan.	Any length, 30 to 400 h of library by plan^[1]No per file limit is stated, only a library pool of 30, 100 or 400 transcribed hours; output clips themselves are capped at 3 minutes.
Largest file	2 GB per fileMP4, MOV or WebM.	10 GB by plan, 1 GB in the web uploader^[2]The pricing table and the API both cap files at 10 GB while the uploader on the site rejects anything over 1 GB; storage runs 50 GB to 1 TB by plan.
How the video gets in	File upload onlyNo YouTube or Drive link import; the file leaves your disk.	12 import sources: upload, RSS feed, 10 platforms^[1]Paste a YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TikTok or Reel link, drop a file, connect Zoom, Loom or Google Drive, or import a whole RSS back catalogue.
What comes out
Crop follows the speaker	Face and scene trackingThe 9:16 crop moves with the speaker; slides and wide shots stay full frame; framing set automatically.	Not stated on their siteTranscripts are speaker labelled and captions follow whoever is talking, but no face tracking, active speaker detection or auto reframe is described.
Automatic captions	Word by word, 4 stylesSpotlight, Impact, Karaoke, Minimal; timed on the audio; SRT import.	Yes, karaoke captions, no watermark^[4]Word by word highlighting in three styles, colours and position adjustable, burned in or exported as SRT, over transcription in 60 plus languages.
Aspect ratios	9:16 only	9:16, 1:1, 4:5 and 16:9^[4]The clip pages list four ratios and the API adds original, while the features page and every editor mock show only 9:16, 1:1 and 16:9.
Export	MP4 1080 × 1920, 30 fpsH.264, rendered in the browser or on the server on Creator and Studio.	Not stated on their site
Editing and export
Manual editor	Yes, free, no account neededBounds, caption words, caption style and title.	Yes, a multi clip timeline in Studio^[4]Trim, reorder, change the ratio and caption style with a preview before export, edit the transcript in place, or start a clip by highlighting a line.
Brand presets	One preset, Studio planCaption colour and font, preselected on every new video.	Brand voice and templates for written output^[5]Tone settings, a vocabulary list and editable templates shape written drafts, but no saved visual brand kit for clips; caption style is picked per clip.
Edit export	JSON edit plan, Studio planFor rendering on your own server; no Premiere or DaVinci export.	Not stated on their siteNo Premiere, Final Cut, DaVinci, XML or EDL export is mentioned; exports are transcripts in TXT, SRT, VTT, PDF, DOCX or CSV plus the finished video file.
Extras
Translation or dubbing	Not offeredCaptions are in the language spoken in the video.	Translated transcripts, no dubbing^[3]The transcription page says 11 translation languages with timestamps intact while the features page says 60 plus; no dubbing or voice cloning is mentioned.
Virality score	None, by designThe AI keeps complete, quotable sentences; you choose what goes out.	No score shown, moments flagged by type^[6]The API calls them AI scored highlight windows but exposes no score field, and the app labels moments as hook, story or takeaway with no number.
B-roll, music, titles	None addedThe short is your video, reframed and captioned.	Not stated on their siteSearching every page for b-roll, stock, footage and music returns nothing; only karaoke captions and an overlay title sit on the footage, plus still AI images for posts.
Publishes to social	Download and post yourselfOne MP4 per short, or one ZIP with every short with and without captions; nothing is published from the studio.	Not stated on their siteThe Distribute step says publish or export from one dashboard and the board shows Published and Scheduled statuses, but no destination or connected account is named.
Team and price
Team seats	One account, one login	Yes, 3 seats to unlimited by plan^[2]Three seats on Hobby, five on Starter, unlimited on Team at $19 per extra seat a month, with roles, comments and a draft to publish workflow.
API	None	Yes from Starter, clip endpoints Business only^[8]A v1 REST API with webhooks and an MCP server; Hobby has no access, Team unlocks automation, and clip suggestions and renders need Business and up.
Free plan	60 credits, no cardPermanent: up to 3 shorts per video, watermarked, exports join the public community.	Not stated on their siteNo free or trial column on the pricing page, and two FAQs say plans start at $29 a month; one page links four times to a free signup whose terms are nowhere stated.
How you pay	1 credit = 1 minute of videoWhatever the number of shorts. Plans from 12 EUR a month for 240 minutes.	Subscription metered by transcribed hours^[2]Monthly or annual billing against a pool of transcribed hours, 30 to 400 by plan, with clipping and audiograms unlimited on every plan.

Offered
On some plans, or with a limit
Not offered
A fact, not a yes or no
Not stated on their site

The exact wording of each Castmagic cell, as read on their site

Longest video: No per-file length limit stated. The features page says transcription takes "Audio and video, any length, with translation built in", and the transcription page gives a speed rather than a cap: "~3 min per hour of audio" (their API docs say a transcript is "typically complete in around 15 minutes or less"). Their clip-maker FAQ answers "How long can the source video be?" with a category, not a number: "Full-length recordings: podcasts, webinars, lectures, livestream replays." What is capped is the plan's total library: "Transcribed hours (library total)" is "30 hrs" on Hobby, "100 hrs" on Starter, "400 hrs" on Team, with "Buy more hours anytime". Separately, output clips are limited: the API docs say "Clips are capped at 3 minutes" ("window max 3 minutes").^[1]
Largest file: Their own pages disagree, so both figures belong on the record. The pricing comparison table says "Maximum file size" is "10GB" on Hobby, Starter and Team alike, alongside "Maximum concurrent uploads: 50 uploads" and "File uploads: Unlimited", and their API docs agree: "Files are capped at 10 GB." But the web uploader on both the homepage and /transcription says "MP3 · WAV · M4A · MP4 , up to 1GB", and the uploader markup on both pages carries the error string data-msg-toobig="File exceeds the 1GB limit." So 10GB is the plan/API limit; 1GB is what the browser uploader enforces. Storage caps by plan: 50GB (Hobby), 250GB (Starter), 1TB (Team), with uploads over the hard limit rejected by the API with a 402 "storage limit exceeded".^[2]
How the video gets in: Links, files, feeds and integrations. Features page: "Paste a YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Reel or TikTok link. Drop a file. Connect Zoom, Loom or Google Drive. Or point Castmagic at an RSS feed and it imports the whole back catalog." Also "Autopilot pulls every new episode the morning it publishes", "Record straight into a space from the iOS app, or leave a voice memo", and "Zapier and the API for everything else". The homepage import panel lists 12 sources: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, TikTok, Reels, X, Google Drive, Vimeo, Twitch, Loom, Wistia, RSS feed, Upload. Clip pages add "Works with 1,800+ platforms , or upload files directly." Web upload file types: "MP3 · WAV · M4A · MP4". The API is narrower on both counts: supported formats are aac, m4a, mp4, mpeg, wav and "Public YouTube videos", and the imports endpoint says "Supported sources include YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, Google Drive, and direct media URLs."^[1]
Crop follows the speaker: Corrected from "Not stated": speaker separation is stated plainly and repeatedly, video speaker-framing is not. The transcription page has a named feature, "Speaker Detection , Sections for each unique voice, automatically detected", plus "Label Your Speakers"; the API docs say "Transcription supports speaker diarization by default. You will find paragraphs labeled by speaker in the 'utterances' key"; and a Speakers endpoint maintains a per-space directory (name, email, bio, pronouns, role, ai_summary) whose members are mapped onto raw transcript labels "Speaker 0", "Speaker 1". This follows through to clips: "Multi-guest episodes keep their speakers straight", "the clip is cut to the sentence, attributed to the right speaker", and "the captions follow whoever is talking". What is not stated anywhere: active-speaker detection in the video frame, face tracking, auto-reframe or a split-screen layout for multi-camera recordings. The only framing control described is the aspect ratio you pick.^[3]
Automatic captions: Yes, automatic. "Karaoke captions with the active word lit, in your caption style, at 9:16 for Shorts and Reels, 1:1 or 4:5 for the feed, 16:9 for YouTube." FAQ on styles: "Karaoke captions where the active word is highlighted as it is spoken, in a set of caption styles you pick per clip. Colours and position are adjustable in the editor." The Studio mock names three styles: Classic, Highlight, Pop. Transcription behind the captions is "60+ languages", "Speaker-labelled, timestamped, filler words removed", and "The transcript that drives the clips has filler words removed, so captions read cleanly." On watermarks the site is explicit twice: "No watermark on exports", and in the clip-maker FAQ, "Is there a watermark? No. Exports carry no Castmagic branding on any plan." Captions are also offered burned-in or exported: "Subtitles & SRT , Burned-in or exported, ready for any platform."^[4]
Aspect ratios: Four, but the site is not consistent about it. The clip generator and clip maker pages both say "9:16 for TikTok, Reels and Shorts; 1:1 and 4:5 for feeds; 16:9 for YouTube and LinkedIn", with a stat block reading "4 aspect ratios: 9:16, 1:1, 4:5 and 16:9", and the clip page's own structured data lists "9:16, 1:1, 4:5 and 16:9 export". The features page, describing the same Studio, lists only "9:16, 1:1 or 16:9", and every Studio editor mock on the site (features page and clip pages alike) draws just three ratio buttons: 9:16, 1:1, 16:9. The API render endpoint offers one more than any marketing page: aspect_ratio "9:16 (default) · 1:1 · 16:9 · 4:5 · original". Audiograms come "in the same aspect ratios".^[4]
Export: Not stated on their site.
Manual editor: Yes, called Studio. "Can I edit the clip before exporting? Yes. Studio has a multi-clip timeline where you trim, reorder, change the ratio and the caption style, and preview before you export" , the same answer appears verbatim on the clip-maker page. The features page describes clips "on a multi-clip timeline", and the transcript itself is editable: "Edit in place and the timestamps hold", "Edit and fine-tune, find & replace words, and split by section." You can also start a clip by hand rather than from a suggestion: "read the transcript and highlight any line", and "the clip is cut where the words are, not where the scrubber lands".^[4]
Brand presets: Partly, and only for written output. The homepage lists "Brand voice training + editable templates" and "AI That Matches Your Brand's Voice", with a tone panel (casual/formal, playful/serious, concise/detailed), a vocabulary allow/deny list, and a Templates list whose three examples are all written pieces: "Show notes", "Newsletter intro", "LinkedIn hook". The features page says "Brand voice and custom prompts shape every draft", and for Studio carousels "AI drafts the slides and caption, you style them to your brand" , styling by hand, not from a saved kit. No saved visual brand kit (logo, fonts, colour preset reusable across clips) is described anywhere, and the pricing table has no brand-kit row. Clip captions are picked per clip from named styles ("Classic", "Highlight", "Pop") with "Colours and position are adjustable in the editor".^[5]
Edit export: No export to Premiere, Final Cut, DaVinci, XML, EDL or any NLE project format is mentioned anywhere on the site or in the docs. What is exportable is the transcript and the rendered file: "TXT, SRT, VTT, PDF, DOCX, and CSV , every format, every language, one menu", with captions "Burned-in or exported", and via the API transcripts can be read "in json, txt, vtt, srt, csv, pdf, or docx". A rendered clip comes back as a finished video at a signed asset_url valid about an hour, not as an edit decision list. The closest machine-readable edit plan is the clip-suggestions API, which returns highlight windows as start_ms / end_ms with a title, which can be handed straight back to POST /v1/renders.^[3]
Translation or dubbing: Translated text, not dubbed audio , but the site gives two different language counts for translation. Transcription page comparison row: "60+ transcription languages; translate any transcript into 11 languages with timestamps and speaker labels intact", and the transcript mock is annotated "Translated in one click , speakers and timestamps preserved." The features page's own translation utility card contradicts that number: "Translation , The whole transcript in 60+ languages." Their API docs give a third figure for transcription itself: the Overview says "18 languages (or auto-detect)" and the Supported Languages reference lists exactly 18 codes (en, de, es, fr, hi, id, it, ja, ko, nl, no, pl, pt, ru, sv, tr, uk, zh), with language_code defaulting to "auto". No dubbing, voice cloning or translated audio track is mentioned anywhere on the site or in the docs.^[3]
Virality score: There is scoring, but no published virality number. Their API docs call the endpoint Clip Suggestions and describe it as "Fetch AI-scored highlight windows for a recording" , "the raw material for renders"; the sample response returns id, title, excerpt, kind and start_ms/end_ms, with no score field exposed. On the marketing side the language is qualitative, not numeric: "Studio reads the episode transcript and flags the moments a listener would replay: the hook, the story, the takeaway", labelled in the mock as "Hook", "Story" and "Takeaway" under the heading "Magic moments", and the clip-maker FAQ says only "Castmagic flags moments from the transcript, the passages with a complete thought and a strong hook." No 0-100 score, ranking percentage or virality metric is shown for clips. The one percentage on the site ("96% match" in the homepage search mock) is semantic-search relevance, not a clip score.^[6]
B-roll, music, titles: No b-roll, stock footage, stock-image library or music library is mentioned anywhere on the site or in the docs , searching every page I opened for b-roll, stock, footage and music returns nothing. What sits on top of the footage is thin: an overlay title (API render request body, "title | Overlay title") and karaoke captions, and for audio-only episodes an audiogram, "a waveform video with your cover art and the same karaoke captions". Two adjacent image features exist but are not b-roll: "AI image generation" is a ✓ row on every pricing tier, and the homepage campaign mock lists "Quote cards , 4 graphics"; both are still images for posts, not footage dropped into a clip.^[7]
Publishes to social: No social publishing or scheduling integration is named. The homepage's "Distribute" step claims "Publish or export, all from a single dashboard", and the content pipeline shows a kanban with "Published", "Scheduled only" and a card field "Scheduled for Oct 1, 2024" , but these are content statuses and a date field in the workflow, with no destination platform, connected account or scheduler described anywhere. The pricing table's own Integrations section is import-only: Zoom, Google Drive, Zapier, RSS, and "YouTube / TikTok / Instagram import". The clip workflow ends with a download: step 4 is "Export and post" and reads "Download the clip, then keep going".^[5]
Team seats: Yes, on every plan. Pricing table: "Invite team members & collaborate" ✓ on all three, "Share recordings & blocks" ✓ on all three, and "Max team size" of "3 seats" (Hobby), "5 seats" (Starter), "Unlimited" (Team). Team is priced "5 seats included · +$19/mo per seat" monthly, "+$159/yr per seat" annually. Workspaces are split into "Spaces": up to 3, 10 or 25 by plan. The homepage describes a "Multi-brand, multi-client CMS" to "Manage content across multiple brands or clients , with user permissions, folders, and custom workflows", with roles shown as Admin, Editor and Viewer, and the content pipeline adds comments, mentions, live editing, assignment and a Draft → Review → Publish workflow. Support is Standard on Hobby and Starter, Priority on Team; the onboarding call is ✕ on Hobby only.^[2]
API: Yes, on paid plans above Hobby. Features page: "The v1 REST API imports recordings, pulls transcripts and fetches generated content" with "Transcripts · Content · Imports", plus "Zapier for the no-code path". Pricing table row "API access": Hobby ✕, Starter ✓, Team ✓. Their own docs subdomain (docs.castmagic.io, a GitBook site on Castmagic's domain) documents a v1 REST API under base URL https://app.castmagic.io/v1, with endpoints for transcripts, uploads, imports, recordings, spaces, search, prompts, generation, chat, speakers, clip suggestions, renders and usage, plus webhooks ("transcript.completed" and "output.completed") and an "MCP server , connect Claude or any MCP client with OAuth, no key copying" at https://app.castmagic.io/mcp. Docs gate endpoints by tier: "core" = "Starter and up", "automation" = "Team and up", "platform" = "Business and up" (clip suggestions, renders, usage are platform-only). Rate limits per key per minute: core 60, automation 300, platform 1,000. Caveat for anyone following the site: the footer's "API Documentation" link points to https://api.castmagic.io/docs and the features-page curl mock calls api.castmagic.io , that host does not resolve in DNS, and the live docs at docs.castmagic.io are not linked from the footer.^[8]
Free plan: Corrected from a flat "No free plan" to what the site actually supports. No free tier is shown on the pricing page: the comparison table has exactly three self-serve columns (Hobby, Starter, Team) plus Business & Scale by quote, and no free or trial column. Two of their own tool FAQs answer the question directly , "Is there a free version?" and "Is it free?" both reply "Castmagic plans start at $29 a month and include Studio, transcription and the written content." In their own comparison table the "Free tier" row for Castmagic says only "See pricing". Against that, their /content-pipeline page advertises "Try Castmagic Free" three times and "Get Started Free" once, every one of them linking to app.castmagic.io/users/register, so a free way in may exist behind sign-up. No trial length, no credit-card-free promise and no money-back guarantee is stated anywhere on the site.^[2]
How you pay: Flat per-plan subscription, monthly or annual ("Save 30% Annually"), metered by a transcription allowance rather than by export or clip count. The allowance is a "Transcribed hours (library total)" pool: 30 hrs on Hobby, 100 on Starter, 400 on Team, with "Buy more hours anytime". Clipping itself is not metered: "Media clipping: Unlimited" and "Audiogram generation: Unlimited" on every plan, as are re-generations and file uploads. Storage is capped separately (50GB / 250GB / 1TB). Team adds per-seat pricing on top of the base: "5 seats included · +$19/mo per seat" monthly, or "+$159/yr per seat" annually. Their own FAQ: "You can buy more hours anytime and upgrade or downgrade whenever you like." One caveat their API docs introduce: the GET /v1/usage sample returns a period-bound allowance ("unit": "minute", "limit": 6000, "cumulative": false, with period_start/period_end), which reads as a monthly minute pool rather than the cumulative library total the pricing page describes.^[2]

Sources for the Castmagic column, read on 20 September 2026

Their pages can change after that date; the table does not update itself.

What a month costs

shortshort prices before VAT, from the product. Castmagic plans as listed on their pricing page^[2].

shortshort

Free€0, no card60 welcome credits, one hour of videoUp to 3 shorts per videoWatermarked exportExported shorts join the community
Starter€12 a month240 min of video a month, 4 hoursUp to 5 shorts per videoNo watermarkPrivate exports: nothing posted to the public community gallery
Creator€29 a month800 min of video a month, 13 h 20Everything in StarterUp to 10 shorts per videoRenders on our servers: close the tab and come back to finished shorts
Studio€79 a month3,000 min of video a month, 50 hoursEverything in CreatorUp to 20 shorts per videoOne brand preset: your caption colors and font, preselected on every new video

Annual billing: Starter €115 a year, Creator €278 a year, Studio €758 a year. Full detail on the pricing page.

Castmagic

Hobby$29 a month, $19 billed yearly30 transcribed hours, library totalUnlimited clipping and audiograms, no watermarkUp to 3 spaces, 3 seats, 50 GB storageNo API access and no onboarding callZoom, Google Drive, Zapier and RSS import
Starter$69 a month, $48 billed yearly100 transcribed hours, library totalAPI access, core tier at 60 requests a minuteUp to 10 spaces, 5 seats, 250 GB storageOnboarding call included
Team$199 a month, $139 billed yearly400 transcribed hours, library total5 seats included, then $19 per seat a monthUnlimited seats, 25 spaces, 1 TB storageAPI automation tier at 300 requests a minutePriority support
Business & ScaleFrom $999 a month, $699 billed yearlyCustom volume, quote onlyCustom seats, storage and implementationsOnly tier with clip suggestions and renders in APIVolume discounts, SLA and dedicated support

As written on their pricing page

Hobby: $29 per month billed monthly, or $19 per month "billed annually · $239/yr". USD is not an assumption: the clip pages' own structured data carries offers price "29", priceCurrency "USD", description "From $29 per month". The pricing page container defaults to data-billing="annual", so $19 is what a visitor sees first; the $29 monthly figure comes from the same element's data-monthly attribute (data-annual="19" data-monthly="29") and is confirmed by two FAQs: "Castmagic plans start at $29 a month".: Tagline "Try it for real". "Transcribed hours (library total)" 30 hrs, "Buy more hours anytime", 60+ supported languages, timestamps, audio & video playback, editing & collaboration. AI strategist + Magic Chat, instant AI outputs, custom prompts, community prompts, edit AI outputs, 2000+ word outputs, unlimited re-generations. Studio: media clipping Unlimited, audiogram generation Unlimited, public sharing, AI image generation. Spaces "Up to 3", storage 50GB, file uploads Unlimited, maximum file size 10GB, maximum concurrent uploads 50, media library. Max team size 3 seats. Integrations: Zoom, Google Drive, Zapier, RSS, YouTube / TikTok / Instagram import. Standard support, Slack community (1.7k+ members), live chat.. API access is ✕ on this plan, and so is the onboarding call. This is the cheapest way in; the signup link is app.castmagic.io/users/register?plan=hobby-year or hobby-month.
Starter: $69 per month billed monthly (data-monthly="69"), or $48 per month "billed annually · $579/yr". USD per the site's own structured data.: Tagline "Your content home". Everything in Hobby plus: transcribed hours (library total) 100 hrs, spaces "Up to 10", storage 250GB, max team size 5 seats, API access ✓, onboarding call ✓. Maximum file size still 10GB, 50 concurrent uploads, unlimited file uploads, standard support.. First plan with API access. In the API docs this unlocks the "core" tier only: transcribe, upload, import, all reads, all transcript formats, at 60 requests per minute.
Team: $199 per month billed monthly (data-monthly="199"), with "5 seats included · +$19/mo per seat"; or $139 per month "billed annually · $1,669/yr", with "+$159/yr per seat". USD per the site's own structured data.: Tagline "Your team's content engine". Everything in Starter plus: transcribed hours (library total) 400 hrs, spaces "Up to 25", storage 1TB, max team size Unlimited, priority support. API access ✓, onboarding call ✓.. Unlocks the API "automation" tier per the docs: webhooks, generation, prompts, chat, translations and speaker writes, at 300 requests per minute. Clip suggestions and renders over the API are still out of reach here.
Business & Scale: "From $999/mo" under monthly billing; the annual toggle shows "From $699/mo". Custom quote, "Book a demo" — there is no self-serve signup link.: "Everything in Team, with custom volume, more seats and storage, and dedicated support — for studios, platforms, and publishers." Bullets: "Enterprise-level transcription, seats & storage", "Custom implementations & use cases", "For studios, platforms & publishing houses", "Volume discounts, SLA & dedicated support".. Only this tier unlocks the API "platform" tier, which is where clip suggestions, renders and usage live, at 1,000 requests per minute. So clipping through the API is a Business-and-up feature even though clipping in the app is unlimited from Hobby.

The verdict

shortshort for the price per minute, the cuts and the framing; Castmagic when you need bigger files or link import. Both lists come from the table.

Where shortshort comes out ahead

Cuts on complete sentencesEach short opens and closes on a sentence boundary, with a 25% margin around the target length; nothing ends mid-thought.
Framing that follows the face, with emphasis zoomsFace and scene tracking move the 9:16 crop; zooms between x1.0 and x1.6 add motion; slides and wide shots stay whole.
One page, nothing to learnDrop, choose the count and the length, check, export. No timeline or template to set up.
A free manual editor, no account neededBounds, caption words, caption style and title; the MP4 export works without signing in.
A public before-and-after galleryEach short next to the video it came from, with the transcript, so the result can be judged before trying.

Where Castmagic may fit better

Bigger files^[2]10 GB, 1 GB in the browser against 2 GB here. The pricing table and the API both cap files at 10 GB while the uploader on the site rejects anything over 1 GB; storage runs 50 GB to 1 TB by plan.
Link import^[1]12 import sources: upload, RSS feed, 10 platforms. Paste a YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TikTok or Reel link, drop a file, connect Zoom, Loom or Google Drive, or import a whole RSS back catalogue.
Translation or dubbing^[3]Translated transcripts, no dubbing. The transcription page says 11 translation languages with timestamps intact while the features page says 60 plus; no dubbing or voice cloning is mentioned.
Virality score^[6]No score shown, moments flagged by type. The API calls them AI scored highlight windows but exposes no score field, and the app labels moments as hook, story or takeaway with no number.
Team seats^[2]Yes, 3 seats to unlimited by plan. Three seats on Hobby, five on Starter, unlimited on Team at $19 per extra seat a month, with roles, comments and a draft to publish workflow.
API^[8]Yes from Starter, clip endpoints Business only. A v1 REST API with webhooks and an MCP server; Hobby has no access, Team unlocks automation, and clip suggestions and renders need Business and up.

What shortshort produces, on a real video

A published transformation from the community: the original on top, the shorts it became below. Click one to see it with its transcript.

Frame of the original video: The Sun Doesn't Stop for Anyone

23 sStarting Before the Sun Rises

25 sYour Life Is a Book

26 sThe Sun Doesn't Stop for Anyone

3 of 10 shorts shown · The Sun Doesn't Stop for Anyone · watch it in the community, with the transcript

How shortshort cuts, frames and captions

Three things the table can only name. The passage, the frame and the captions below are illustrations; the community shows the real thing.

1 · The cut ends on the sentence

Cut at the target

The reason most clips fail is that they stop before the idea lands, and a viewer who never hears the end of the sentence has no reason to share it.

Cut at the sentence

The reason most clips fail is that they stop before the idea lands, and a viewer who never hears the end of the sentence has no reason to share it.

Same passage, same 30-second target. shortshort keeps going to the end of the sentence, 37 seconds here, which is inside the 25% margin it allows.

2 · The 9:16 crop follows the speaker

The face is tracked; the 9:16 window moves with it, zoomed between x1.0 and x1.6.

A slide, a shared screen or a wide shot is detected and kept whole in the 9:16 short, with bands above and below.

3 · Captions timed word by word

Spotlight, one of the four caption styles. Impact, Karaoke and Minimal use the same word timing.

Questions people ask

Is shortshort a good Castmagic alternative?

It depends on what you need. shortshort turns one video of up to 3 hours into vertical shorts, 3 per video on the free plan and up to 20 on Studio, cut on complete sentences, framed on the speaker and captioned word by word in one of four styles. If that is the job, try it with the 60 free credits and compare the result with what you get from Castmagic.

How does shortshort pricing compare with Castmagic?

shortshort charges 1 credit per minute of source video, whatever the number of shorts. Starter is 12 EUR for 240 credits, Creator 29 EUR for 800 and Studio 79 EUR for 3,000, and every account starts with 60 free credits. Castmagic's own plans, as written on their pricing page, are listed on this page under "What a month costs".

Can I try shortshort before leaving Castmagic?

Yes. The 60 free credits cover a one-hour video with up to 3 shorts, no card needed. Your source video stays private; only the shorts you export join the community, and every paid plan lets you keep them out of it.

Cuts that finish the sentence, at a price by the minute.

The fastest comparison is your own video: 60 minutes are free, no card. Your source video stays yours; the shorts you export join the community, and any paid plan keeps them out of it.

Open the studio See the plans