Why I Built Subify: An Affordable Subtitle Tool

I recently launched Subify, a small project I've been working on to make creating subtitles for videos a bit easier and more affordable. Here's how it came about.

I've been messing around with videos for a while, both helping a mate with some of their YouTube videos and doing a few things of my own.

One of the things that kept slowing me down was creating subtitles.

I was using DaVinci Resolve for a lot of this, and while it can obviously handle subtitles, I found myself spending quite a bit of time getting everything configured properly. Timing, formatting, styles, all the little things you don't really want to spend your time on when the main goal is just to get a video finished.

So I started looking for something that could do more of the work for me. I came across a few of the more mainstream subtitling services, things like VEED and Kapwing, and they were pretty much what I was looking for.

The thing that caught my attention was the price.

That might not be a huge issue if you're running a business or a YouTube channel that's already making decent money, but I was also thinking about the smaller channels I was helping. A lot of people are still trying to get started, aren't making any money from their videos yet, and probably don't want to spend a significant amount every month just to add subtitles.

And that's not even getting into people in countries where that kind of monthly subscription can be a much bigger expense relative to what they earn.

It made me think there was probably room for something aimed at people who are just starting out and might not have the spare money for these more expensive options, but still want decent quality. Something that could offer the same sort of automated subtitling without costing a fortune to get started.

That became the idea behind Subify.

I wanted to build something that could do more than just generate subtitles, with some of the flexibility you'd expect from the more established services. Different subtitle formats, styling options, the ability to burn subtitles directly into a video, and features like word-by-word synchronisation, karaoke-style subtitles and translation.

Privacy was something I wanted to take seriously too. When you're uploading personal videos, old home recordings or other content you might not want sitting on somebody else's servers indefinitely, I wanted to make sure that was considered from the beginning.

I've also used the kind of workflow I was building for my own projects. I digitised some old VHS home videos, and subtitles are one of those things that can make older footage more accessible. Rather than spending hours manually working through the timing, being able to upload a video and have the subtitles generated automatically seemed like a much better approach.

So I decided to try building it.

There was just one small problem. I didn't really know how.

I've always liked the idea of learning new things and picking up new skills, so I decided to see if I could figure it out. What started as a thought of "surely I can make something that does this" turned into months of learning how all the different pieces needed to work together and figuring things out as I went.

I ended up spending a lot more time on it than I'd originally expected, if I'm honest. Eventually, after plenty of trial and error, I managed to get the service to a point where I could actually deploy it, with the features working and the privacy measures I'd wanted to include in place.

And that's how Subify.co.uk came about.

The basic idea is pretty simple. Upload a video or audio file, let it generate the subtitles, and get your subtitle file back without having to work through all the timing manually. There are also options to translate subtitles or burn them directly into the video on supported paid plans.

I've tried to keep the pricing low as well. The cheapest plan works out at £2 a month when paid annually, or £2.50 if you pay monthly.

I'm not going to pretend I've suddenly built the next big SaaS company. I'm still figuring things out as I go.

But the product is live now, which is something I wasn't entirely sure I'd manage when I started.

And, as I'm discovering, actually building the thing is only one part of the problem.

Now I have to figure out how to get people to use it.

That's probably where the next part starts.