What a Happy Scribe alternative changes, and what it does not
A Happy Scribe alternative, the short answer
Happy Scribe has a subtitle editor with styling, burn-in and a human service. Kotosay is AI transcription with one flat plan, made for people who record a lot. If you need styled subtitles burned into the video or human proofreading, Happy Scribe fits that work. If you mostly need transcripts and SRT files, a happyscribe alternative with a flat price may suit you better.
Minutes or one flat plan
On November 9, 2026, Happy Scribe's pricing page listed its Basic plan at 17 USD monthly or 8.50 USD a month billed yearly, with 120 minutes a month for uploaded files and extra minutes at 0.20 USD each. Its Pro plan listed 600 minutes at 29 USD monthly or 19 USD a month billed yearly.
Kotosay Unlimited counts no minutes. It costs $9.99 a month, or $119 paid once a year, for files up to 10 hours. Very heavy use, around 300 hours a month, may be moved to a slower lane and is never blocked. Which plan costs less depends on how many hours you record.
A worked example with those November 9 figures: 10 hours of uploaded audio in one month is 600 minutes. Basic includes 120, and the other 480 at 0.20 USD each come to 96 USD on top of the plan. Pro includes exactly 600 minutes, so for that month Pro is the Happy Scribe plan to compare.
Is Happy Scribe free?
Happy Scribe's pricing page lists 10 free minutes for uploaded files, once. On Kotosay, the first file shows 5 minutes without an account, and a free account transcribes the first 5 minutes of 3 files every day. That makes Kotosay a Happy Scribe alternative free to start, with no card.
Testing both with one short recording
- Pick a clip of about 10 minutes, the size of Happy Scribe's one-time free allowance.
- Upload the same file to Kotosay. Its first 5 minutes show without an account, and Single file opens the whole clip for $4.99.
- Compare the first 5 minutes line by line, with names and figures first.
- For subtitles, look at where each tool breaks the lines. Kotosay's SRT uses cues of up to 2 lines with 42 characters per line.
- Fix one name in each editor and check that the timing of the line stays where it was.
Moving your files over
Download the transcripts and subtitle files you want to keep from Happy Scribe before you change plans. If you still have the original recordings, upload them to Kotosay and transcribe them again, then export what you need with Unlimited. A folder per project keeps the old and the new files easy to find.
If you used Happy Scribe's subtitle styling or burn-in, keep those finished videos as well. An SRT file holds only the words and their timing, so the styling stays with the exported video.
Confidential files
On Kotosay, your browser normally sends only the sound of a video, and we delete that audio file automatically 24 hours after transcribing it, and your transcript stays until you delete it. You can remove a single file, your whole account, or ask support to delete your data. Happy Scribe publishes its own security terms, so read those if you compare the two for sensitive work.
Where Happy Scribe is the better fit
- A subtitle editor where you adjust timing on the waveform and pick fonts and animations.
- Subtitles burned into the video in one click.
- Human-made subtitles and human proofreading, listed from 2.00 USD a minute on November 9, 2026.
Does the alternative export SRT and VTT like Happy Scribe?
Yes. Kotosay Unlimited exports SRT and VTT, plus TXT, DOCX and PDF. Fix words in the editor first, and the timing stays. For styling or burn-in, import the SRT into a video editor such as Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve or CapCut.