Subtitle Edit
A subtitle workbench with Whisper bolted in; ugly enough to be trustworthy, useful enough to stay installed.
Technical Profile & Specs
verified 2026-08-10
- Cost
- $0 / forever (Open Source)
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Hosting Model
- Local (on your machine)
- Platforms
- desktopone-click install
- Installation
- Windows installer or portable ZIP; Linux/macOS users use the separate cross-platform build and its platform prerequisites
- Operational Setup
- For a Mac user the first obstacle is that Subtitle Edit is Windows-first, and speech-to-text normally requires an additional engine/model download before the transcription menu becomes useful.
- Where Your Data Lives
- Media, subtitle projects, dictionaries, downloaded speech models, and exported SRT/VTT/ASS and other subtitle formats live on disk; choosing a cloud speech backend sends the relevant audio to that provider.
- The Catch / Trade-off
- Subtitle Edit is a Windows-first subtitle workshop whose dense interface and separate engine downloads are a poor substitute for MacWhisper's native drag-and-drop transcription experience.
Replaces 1 paid app
Subtitle Edit FAQ
Common questions
Is Subtitle Edit free and open source?+
Subtitle Edit is an open-source tool licensed under GPL-3.0 that runs on local. A subtitle workbench with Whisper bolted in; ugly enough to be trustworthy, useful enough to stay installed.
What paid software does Subtitle Edit replace?+
Subtitle Edit serves as a free replacement for 1 paid SaaS application: MacWhisper.
How do you install and set up Subtitle Edit?+
Installation: Windows installer or portable ZIP; Linux/macOS users use the separate cross-platform build and its platform prerequisites. Setup notes: For a Mac user the first obstacle is that Subtitle Edit is Windows-first, and speech-to-text normally requires an additional engine/model download before the transcription menu becomes useful.
What is the catch or trade-off with Subtitle Edit?+
Subtitle Edit is a Windows-first subtitle workshop whose dense interface and separate engine downloads are a poor substitute for MacWhisper's native drag-and-drop transcription experience.