When you’re starting to look into hiring a video editor, there are a million different options out there. Video editing subscriptions are some of the most heavily-promoted.
In return for a monthly fee, these services promise you unlimited video edits.
And in the age of subscriptions – from Netflix to Spotify – signing up for a video editing subscription seems like a no-brainer.
However, there are several drawbacks you need to be aware of with “unlimited” video editing. Here’s everything you need to know before you make your choice.
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They’re Not Actually Unlimited
First off – what a shock – “unlimited” video editing subscriptions are not, in fact, unlimited.
While you can submit as many orders as you like to these video editing services, they’ll only get edited one after the other.
In short, they trap you with the fine print.
To a certain degree, this makes sense. Subscription video editing services have a limited capacity to edit videos. If a client suddenly submitted twenty orders at once and expected them to get done by the day after tomorrow, that would cause major trouble.
Still, signing up for a video editing subscription and expecting it to perfectly match your creation pace is unrealistic.
In fact – unless you have a very specific content creation rhythm – it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get the most out of your subscription. It’s way more likely that most months, video editing subscriptions will either slow you down or lose you money.
They Slow You Down
Let’s say you have a good, productive month. You’re brimming with video ideas, shooting goes smoothly, and you have a few new partnerships with different brands that all expect you to have content ready asap.
As a result, you need six videos edited pronto.
Not only will a subscription video editing service only take care of these orders sequentially. It’s actually likely that not all six of them will get edited that month!
Let’s do the math with some realistic assumptions. Say that you submit an order and the initial turnaround time for the first draft is 48 hours, and the turnaround time for each revision is 24 hours. The video editing company works five days a week. You need two revisions until you’re happy with the video. And you might not be able to review each draft and leave feedback the moment it is ready.
Realistically, that means you’ll need between five and six working days to get a single video edited. Which puts a cap of four videos per month on your video editing subscription.
You need six videos edited that month? You’re out of luck.
They Lose You Money
Then there’s the reverse case – the months when you’re putting out fewer videos than normal.
Maybe you’re working on one very complex project. It’s taking much longer than usual, but will be an absolute banger once it’s done. Or maybe you’re taking a few weeks off to kick back and recharge your creative juices.
Either way, you’ll still have to pay your video editing subscription, even if you’re not taking full advantage of it. The bottom line? You end up wasting money.
The Alternative: Project-Based Pricing
So what’s the alternative to video editing subscriptions?
Enter project-based pricing.
With this pricing model, you pay on a per-video basis. Usually, the rates are fixed and depend on whether you want short- or long-form edits, how long your raw footage is, and sometimes the complexity of edits that you need. Some video editing services, like Tasty Edits, give you bulk discounts when you buy multiple edits at once.
There are two main advantages of project-based pricing in comparison to video editing subscriptions.
First, you only pay for the edits you actually need. Have a calmer month? No need to waste money. Want to ramp up your content production? No problem!
Second, most video editing services working with project-based pricing are happy to edit multiple videos in parallel. Especially if they get a bit of a heads-up so they can make sure that enough editors are available to handle all the orders to meet the deadline you need.
The bottom line? If you have a very regular, low-volume content creation rhythm, video editing subscriptions can work out for you.
As soon as your video production varies between months, or you need more than one video edited at the same time, it’s better to opt for project-based pricing.
