Submagic vs Montage:
a detailed comparison
The short answer
Here's the thing: Submagic is good at one job. It makes shorts, fast. Captions, cuts, B-roll, in one click, then scheduled to your channels. If that's your job, keep it. But if you want the whole video, made the way you'd make it, Montage is the Submagic alternative built for that. You say what you want, you watch, you comment on the picture, and Montage makes the changes.
How you edit
In Submagic, the AI makes a first pass in one click: captions, silences, B-roll, key moments. Then you fix it by editing the transcript, inside a caption template. Fast, sure. But the choices start from a template, and the fixing is yours.
In Montage, there's no timeline and no template to fill. Let me explain. You drop your takes, you say what the video is for, and Montage makes the whole edit. Then you watch it, and when something's off, you pause and point at the picture: « cut this pause », « make this word bigger ». Hit Fix all, and it's done.
Shorts, and everything else
Submagic is made for shorts, and its plans cap the length of a video: 2, 5 or 30 minutes. Montage makes the video you ask for, a short, a YouTube video, an ad, a long video in chapters. Same loop every time.
Your footage and your style
Submagic starts from caption templates, its own or ones you save with your brand assets. Montage starts from you: your takes, your fonts, your colors. Say your style once, and it's kept for every video after. And your originals never leave your computer: the export is made from them, at full size.
Working with a client
Submagic gives your team a shared workspace. Montage gives your client a link. Your client watches, comments right on the picture, with no account, and presses Approve. Their notes land next to yours, and Montage takes care of them too.
Price
Submagic is Starter at $19, Pro at $39 and Business at $69 per member a month, or $12, $23 and $41 billed yearly, as submagic.co/pricing shows it. Montage is free to start, then Plus at $25, Pro at $50, Max at $100 and Ultra at $200 a month, less on a yearly plan. Different ways to pay, so compare what you'd actually make with each.
Who should stay on Submagic
Let's be clear: if you cut podcasts into dozens of clips a week, stay. If you want your shorts scheduled and posted for you, stay. Montage doesn't publish for you: it makes the video, and you post it.
Who should switch
You film yourself, and you want more than captions on a clip: the cuts, the B-roll, the titles, the music, your style, in a short or a long video. Or you make videos for clients, and you're done with timecodes in emails. Then try Montage on one video. Just one. You'll see.