Subtitles or dubbing: which should you use for a translated video?

The short version

When subtitles win

• The voice is the point: interviews, testimonials, talks, comedy and anything where tone carries meaning.
• The video plays muted in a feed.
• You may need to fix or update the wording later: a subtitle is text.

HeyGen, which sells dubbing, agrees on these points. Its guide to multilingual client videos lists among the pros of subtitles “Preserves the presenter's original voice exactly”, “Easy to update by editing text files” and “Works on nearly every video platform”. Another HeyGen article says “Subtitles keep the original voice and emotion intact”, and its list of video translators says subtitles “work well in muted social feeds, and help with accessibility”.

When dubbing wins

• Viewers cannot read fast, or at all, in the language: young children, for example.
• Viewers must watch the screen while they follow instructions. The same HeyGen guide lists as a con of subtitles that “Viewers must read while watching, which is hard during software walkthroughs or detailed instructions.”
• You want viewers to forget the video was translated. HeyGen writes that dubbing “can offer a more immersive experience since audiences can watch without reading subtitles.”
• The face on screen should appear to speak the new language, which needs lip sync.

HeyGen's own rule of thumb has a middle case: “If the screen is the star, such as a software walkthrough, audio dubbing or subtitles are usually enough.” Lip-synced dubbing matters most when a face fills the frame.

What can go wrong with each

With subtitles, a wrong word is on screen for everyone to see, but it is also easy to spot and fix, and a line can be too long to read in time. With dubbing, the same translation errors are spoken, and the voice or the lip movements can be off too. HeyGen lists among its own cons that “Lip-sync is less precise on side angles and in low light”, and writes that “every language version still needs a fluent human reviewer before it reaches clients.”

What each costs

Per finished minute, the subtitle plans in our comparison range from about $0.03 a translation minute (annual billing) on Kapwing Pro at full use to about $0.63 a minute (monthly billing) on Submagic Starter with 2-minute videos. A single Vid Hub video is about $0.15 a minute for a 20-minute video, and Vid Hub Creator is about $0.25 a minute at the base price. HeyGen's Creator plan works out at about $0.19 a minute without lip sync, $0.29 with Speed lip sync and $0.48 with Precision lip sync, if all 600 credits go to translation (our calculation). HeyGen's API charges $0.57 a minute for audio only, $0.81 with Speed lip sync and $1.50 with Precision lip sync. On the plans, heyGen says credit usage can vary by feature, model, duration and generation type.

So per minute, dubbing is not always the more expensive choice. HeyGen's audio-only rate on Creator is above Kapwing Pro at full use and a single Vid Hub video, but below Vid Hub Creator, Maestra Basic at about $0.22 a translated minute and Submagic Starter. Lip sync raises it. Choose the method for what the viewer needs, then compare the plans you would actually use.

The full table, with every source, is in How much does it cost to translate a video.

Accessibility: translated subtitles are not captions

The W3C's accessibility guidance separates the two. Captions are for people who are deaf or hard of hearing and are “a text version of the speech and non-speech audio information needed to understand the content”, in the language of the audio. Subtitles translate the speech into another language, and the W3C says “subtitles in other languages are not directly an accessibility accommodation.”

So a translated subtitle track helps viewers who speak another language, while deaf viewers who speak the video's language still need captions. Vid Hub's SRT in the original language is a transcript of the speech: it does not describe music or other sounds. For more, see Subtitles vs captions and Video accessibility and captions.

Who should pick what

• Interviews, testimonials, talks and comedy: subtitles.
• Social clips that autoplay muted: subtitles.
• Software walkthroughs and detailed instructions: either. HeyGen says audio dubbing or subtitles are usually enough when the screen is the star.
• Children's videos and viewers who do not read the language well: dubbing.
• Wording you may need to fix or update later: subtitles, because a subtitle is text.

Vid Hub does the subtitle side, into languages such as Spanish and French, at the prices on Pricing. For dubbing, compare Vid Hub and HeyGen or Vid Hub and Captions.