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Transcribe Review

Wednesday, December 11th

2024 Transcription Service Reviews

Transcribe Review 1.5 Star Rating

Transcribe

1.5 Star Rating
  • $20 per year +$6 per hour for automatic transcription
  • Self-serve transcription software
  • Yearly subscription model
  • Focus on privacy
  • Supports transcription of speech in more than 80 languages
  • Geared towards freelance transcriptionists
  • Self Transcription plan with keyboard shortcuts, unlimited dictation, integrated editor and media player, and playback loops
  • Automatic Transcription plan with machine transcription, turnaround in less than an hour, timecodes, speaker identification, and video subtitle creation
  • Can be used offline

Transcribe by Wreally is a self-serve transcription software with two plans based on a yearly subscription model. They say their focus is on privacy and that they support transcription of speech in more than 80 languages.

Primarily a tool for freelance transcriptionists

It seems like Transcribe by Wreally is more geared towards freelance transcriptionists, helping them streamline their workflow. It may not be the ideal solution for people in other industries who are in need of a comprehensive transcription service. For $20 a year, you can take advantage of their Self Transcription plan, which includes keyboard shortcuts, unlimited dictation, their integrated editor and media player, and playback loops.

Yearly subscription plus $6 per hour

Transcribe also offers an Automatic Transcription plan. For $20 per year plus $6 per audio hour, you get all the same Self Transcription features plus machine transcription, turnaround in less than an hour (although most automatic services provide this in minutes), timecodes, speaker identification, and video subtitle creation. How affordable this plan is in comparison to other services depends on how often you need transcription services.

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Mixed customer reviews

What do Transcribe's users have to say? There's a page full of glowing testimonials on their website, but we did some digging into less biased reviews and came back with a different picture. Some users find it affordable and handy for taking notes and doing interviews. But many point out significant issues that decrease Transcribe's value as a time-saving tool.

Editing Transcribe's mistakes is time-consuming

Customers mention problems like random capital letters, added words, and misspelled words, such as "acreditacion" instead of "accreditation." Common words like "been" are often wrongly changed to "being," and saying "comma" can give unexpected words like "karma" or "comedy." Some users feel cheated, as they had to spend extra time fixing many errors and dealing with poor punctuation. While it helps a bit with making timecodes and subtitles, many users are frustrated and wish it saved them more time and effort.

Can be used offline

If Transcribe has benefits, it's that it can be used with no internet connection - your work will be saved in your browser's local storage. However, this is another benefit that will probably be most valued by freelance transcriptionists.

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Your files never leave your computer

When using the self-transcribe feature, Transcribe by Wreally prioritizes privacy. Your audio and video files are played directly from your computer and are not stored elsewhere. Similarly, any text you type into the editor is only saved in your browser and doesn't leave your computer. This ensures that both your media files and text remain private. However, for the auto-transcribe feature, your audio and video files are uploaded to their servers for machine transcription since speech recognition requires significant computing resources. Rest assured, the uploaded files are deleted shortly after processing. You have full control over your data and can choose to delete the transcript from the servers once you export it.

Doesn't shine

Honestly, there isn't much more we need to say about Transcribe. There are cheaper and higher quality services out there in both human transcription and AI transcription models. Transcribe by Wreally doesn't seem to edge out the competition in any area, and in fact may cause you to lose more time than you save with extensive editing made necessary by poor speech recognition. We recommend you check out one of our better-ranked AI speech-to-text services, if that's what you're in the market for, or one of our human transcription services if you don't want to leave all the editing to a professional.

Where Can You Find the Best Transcription Service?

Imagine you've just wrapped up a lively brainstorming session with your marketing team. Ideas were flowing freely - but no one remembered to take detailed notes. Here's where transcription services come to the rescue. They can turn all those spoken words into a clear, written format, so no winning idea gets lost.

Simply put, transcription services take what's said in audio or video and turn it into text. And this isn't only useful for missing meeting notes. It also spans across various fields like legal, medical, and business, making sure important spoken information is accurately captured and easily revisited in text form.

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Transcription Service FAQ

Transcription services convert live or recorded speech into text for legal, medical, educational, or business purposes. A university student may record a lecture and have it transcribed to more easily take notes, or a court reporter may record the audio of a criminal trial and submit it to one of these services for transcription. Many transcription services also provide captioning for YouTube videos or other mp4 files.
By outsourcing the transcription of your file, you save yourself frustration and time, and as we all know, time is money. However, if you are determined to transcribe your audio all by yourself, some transcription services provide in-site dictation, editing, and automatic speech-to-text tools.
The pricing model of transcription is based on dollars-per-minute. Depending on the service you choose, the language and complexity of the audio, how polished you want your final transcript to be and how fast you need it, manual transcription will run you anywhere between $0.75-$3 per minute.
Most transcription services offer both automated and manual transcription options. Automated transcription is done by running your audio through speech recognition software, and the quality of the finished product will depend on whether or not the audio you submitted was clear enough to be understood by the AI. Manual transcription is done by an actual person. Automated transcription is cheaper, generally costing $0.10 per minute of audio. Manual transcription is more expensive, but it is typically much more accurate and is the only viable option for difficult audio files.
Most transcription services offer a 99% accuracy guarantee. If you are unhappy with your transcript, they will rework it until it meets 99% accuracy or until you are satisfied.
If you opt for automated transcription, turnaround typically takes between 5 minutes and 5x the length of the audio. Manual transcription turnaround times will depend on the service and the length and complexity of the audio, but most services advertise 24 hours between when you submit your audio or video file and when you receive your finished transcript.
Yes, you can. Most services offer foreign language transcription, though you should be aware that you may be paying as much as $7 per minute of audio depending on the language.
Most transcription services offer transcription for medical, academic, and legal purposes for an extra fee. Some services only do this sort of transcription. A mark of a transcription service well-suited to medical, legal, and academic transcription is their commitment to customer security. These services bind their employees to a non-disclosure agreement, and, at your request, will destroy their copy of your files upon completion of your order.
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Continued from above...

You'll find two main types of transcription: manual and automated. Manual involves a person listening to the audio and typing it out, capturing nuances and context but potentially taking more time and being a bit pricier. Automated uses technology to transcribe quickly and usually at a lower cost, but may miss the mark on accuracy, especially with tricky audios or specific jargon.

Some services offer both manual and automated types of transcription services, while others offer just one. Some transcription services even give customers complete control over the transcription process by providing them with tools to dictate and edit within the platform themselves.

What you may not know is that transcription services can do more than just turn spoken words into text. Some services offer extras like identifying different speakers, adding time stamps, and keeping track of specialized terms. Also, given that some recordings can contain sensitive information, top-tier services prioritize robust data protection to keep your information safe.

In terms of user experience, high-quality transcription services focus on making things easy for clients from start to finish. This includes an easy-to-navigate website, straightforward file uploading, clear pricing, and timely delivery of transcriptions.

Trying to find a trustworthy online transcription service can be tough. Most have thousands of transcriptionists, which means the quality can vary a lot from project to project, and reading customer reviews might not give you a clear picture of what to expect.

Before you pick a transcription service, think about these points to make sure you know what you're looking for:

  • Pricing. Understand what you're paying for. Good services will tell you upfront about extra costs for things like poor audio quality, strong accents, adding timestamps, or handling multiple speakers.
  • Quality control. A quality control team should review your final transcription before it makes it to your inbox to make sure it's good quality, meeting both the service's and your standards.
  • Customer service. If your transcription isn't satisfactory, the transcription service should offer to fix it or refund you some of your money.

Top Consumer Reviews has reviewed and ranked the best transcription services available online today. We hope our evaluation will help you find the right service, where every spoken word will be accurately - and affordably - captured in text!

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