Comparison
Subtitles King vs Self-hosted Whisper
You can run Whisper yourself. Or skip the plumbing.
TL;DR
At a glance.
| Feature | Subtitles King | Self-hosted Whisper |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free / Pro waitlist | GPU $$ |
| Setup time | ~3 lines | Hours |
| Pipeline (compress + burn) | ✓ included | DIY |
| MCP server | ✓ | DIY |
| Hardware needed | Free hosted | GPU recommended |
| Privacy / air-gap | Self-host option | ✓ always |
| Custom models / fine-tunes | ✗ | ✓ |
| Maintenance | None | Yours |
When Self-hosted Whisper wins
- Total control over the model and runtime.
- No API limits, no rate caps, runs on your iron.
- Privacy by default — videos never leave your network.
- Custom model fine-tuning on your domain.
When Subtitles King wins
- No GPU to provision, no Python deps to manage.
- Compression and subtitle burn-in are built in.
- Free hosted tier or open-source self-host — your choice.
- MCP-native — wire it into Claude/Cursor/Windsurf in one line.
Code
Setup, side by side.
Subtitles King
# Subtitles King: 3 lines
curl -X POST https://brains.subtitlesking.com/presign \
-H "X-API-KEY: $KEY" -d '{"filename":"clip.mp4"}'
curl -X POST "$URL" -F "file=@clip.mp4"
curl -X POST https://brains.subtitlesking.com/queue -d '{"authToken":"$T"}'Self-hosted Whisper
# Self-hosted Whisper: GPU + Python + the rest of the pipeline
# 1. Provision a GPU box
# 2. Install CUDA / cuDNN / PyTorch
pip install openai-whisper
# 3. Transcribe
whisper clip.mp4 --model large --output_format srt
# 4. Compress (you'll want to)
ffmpeg -i clip.mp4 -vf scale=1280:-2 -c:v libx264 -crf 23 small.mp4
# 5. Burn the subtitles back into the video yourself
ffmpeg -i small.mp4 -vf subtitles=clip.srt out.mp4
# Now wire all that up behind an HTTP API for your agents...FAQ
Common questions.
When is self-hosted Whisper actually the right choice?+
When you need full air-gap (videos can't leave your network), or when you have predictable high volume that justifies a dedicated GPU.
Does Subtitles King let me self-host but skip the DIY pipeline?+
Yes — that's the whole point of our self-host option. Same code we run, you run on your hardware. Pipeline included.
Can I bring my own fine-tuned Whisper model?+
Not yet on the hosted tier. On self-host, you can swap in any Whisper-compatible model since the upload server just shells out to the whisper CLI.