Tools and costs
What the software stack around a channel really costs, what each tool is for, and where the categories overlap enough that you are paying twice.
- Tools and costs · 6 min read
AI generated video vs real clips
23 of the short-video tools we checked on 23 August 2026 produce or handle moving images, and exactly one of them draws its footage from real archive material.
- Tools and costs · 6 min read
The real AI video tool stack in 2026
On 23 August 2026 we fetched the pricing page of every competitor tool we track, with JavaScript turned off, and 17 of the 22 pages published a dollar amount a
- Tools and costs · 7 min read
API access across AI video tools
On 23 August 2026 we pulled the server-side HTML of 13 AI video tool homepages without executing JavaScript.
- Tools and costs · 6 min read
Captioning tools compared
ViewMade ships 7 built-in caption styles that render burned into the frame, measured on 22 August 2026.
- Tools and costs · 7 min read
The cheapest way to produce 30 Shorts a month
On 23 August 2026 we pulled the pricing pages of 17 tools in the faceless short video category directly from their servers, without running JavaScript, and
- Tools and costs · 6 min read
Credits explained across AI video tools
On 23 August 2026 we pulled the pricing pages of 23 AI video tools over plain HTTP, without executing JavaScript, and could read an actual price from 17 of
- Tools and costs · 6 min read
Free AI video generators and what you give up
On 23 August 2026, four of the nineteen pricing pages we could read directly listed a free plan at $0: Opus Clip, Medeo, Vicsee and Quso.
- Tools and costs · 7 min read
The GPU cost behind an AI Short
In a direct HTTP fetch on 23 August 2026, 17 of the 23 measured price pages in the AI short-video category returned readable prices from server-side HTML, and
- Tools and costs · 7 min read
How video tools count a minute
On 23 August 2026 we pulled the pricing pages of 17 short-video tools directly from their servers, without running JavaScript.
- Tools and costs · 6 min read
Lifetime deals in AI video: the arithmetic
On 23 August 2026 we pulled the pricing pages of 24 AI video tools over plain HTTP, without executing any JavaScript.
- Tools and costs · 6 min read
Refund policies across AI video tools
On 23 August 2026 we pulled the pricing pages of 24 AI video tools directly over HTTP, without running JavaScript.
- Tools and costs · 7 min read
Scheduling and publishing tools
On 23 August 2026 we loaded the pricing pages of every tool we track in this category with JavaScript turned off. 7 of them returned no price at all.
- Tools and costs · 7 min read
Stock footage vs archive footage
On 23 August 2026, we pulled the home pages of 13 competing short-video tools without executing JavaScript and recorded how much readable text each one
- Tools and costs · 7 min read
Switching costs between video tools
On 23 August 2026, we pulled the pricing pages of 24 short-video tools directly from their servers and could read a usable price from 17 of them; 7 did not
- Tools and costs · 7 min read
Team plans compared
On 23 August 2026 we pulled the pricing pages of 23 tools in this category directly from their servers, without running JavaScript, and 17 of them returned at
- Tools and costs · 7 min read
Thumbnail generators compared
On 23 August 2026 we pulled the pricing pages of 23 tools in this category directly over HTTP, with JavaScript disabled, and 17 returned a usable price while 7
- Tools and costs · 6 min read
Text to speech cost per minute compared
On 22 August 2026, ViewMade's Starter plan was listed at 29 USD per month for 50 renders, which comes to 0.58 USD per finished vertical Short, with voiceover
- Tools and costs · 7 min read
Voice cloning tools and the rules
ViewMade ships voiceover in 5 languages per its product documentation, measured on 2026-08-22.
- Tools and costs · 6 min read
Watermarks across AI video tools
On 2026-08-23 we pulled the pricing pages of 17 AI video tools directly over HTTP, without executing JavaScript, and could read a published price on all 17.
- Tools and costs · 8 min read
What a full faceless stack costs monthly
On 23 August 2026 we pulled the pricing pages of 23 short-video tools straight from each vendor's server, without running JavaScript.
- Tools and costs · 7 min read
When an AI video tool is not worth it
On 23 August 2026, direct reads of competitor price pages put the lowest entry plan in this category at $10 per month (Fluxnote, Rise plan) and the highest at
- Tools and costs · 7 min read
Where creators pay twice for the same job
On 23 August 2026 we pulled the homepages and pricing pages of 22 competing short-video tools without running JavaScript, and read what each product says it
- Tools and costs · 6 min read
What a faceless YouTube channel really costs in 2026, for 30 Shorts a month
The compute cost of thirty finished vertical documentaries, taken from a production ledger of 20 real jobs, set against what the subscriptions charge and what the whole thing costs in hours.
- Tools and costs · 6 min read
InVideo vs Revid vs ViewMade — the six measurements that decide it
A comparison of three faceless video tools that refuses to score products it has not measured, and instead hands over the six numbers you can check on any of them in twenty minutes.
- Tools and costs · 3 min read
What one AI Short actually costs to make
A production-ledger view of what a finished vertical documentary costs to produce, measured across 20 real jobs with the range, median and delivery time shown.
Other subjects
- Faceless channels
Starting and running a channel that never shows a face: picking the subject, judging whether a niche is really saturated, and what the format costs to sustain.
- YouTube SEO
How discovery actually works on YouTube, and which parts of the metadata are worth your time versus which ones creators over-invest in.
- Shorts
The vertical format on its own terms: cut rhythm, the first two seconds, and why a Short that holds attention looks nothing like a trimmed long-form video.
- Scripts
Writing the thing before filming it: hooks that are not clickbait, structure that survives the middle, and how much of a script is worth writing at all.
- Growth and money
Subscribers, watch time and revenue: reading your own analytics without flattering yourself, and what changes between the first hundred and the first thousand.