Maestra alternative
Maestra is a media suite for audio and video: transcription, subtitles, dubbing and voiceover in 125+ languages, priced by the minute — Lite is $23 a month for 180 minutes. Transcrib Si does one thing, text from sound, and charges $10 a month for 1,500 minutes of audio.
Two different products wearing the same word
Maestra began as a transcription tool and grew into a post-production suite. Its own navigation lists audio and video translation, live translation, an AI interpreter, subtitle generation and editing, subtitle shifting, audio and video dubbing, movie dubbing with AI voices and text to speech. You can caption a video, translate it, redub it and voice it in other languages from the same account. The price page sells exactly that suite, and the minutes you buy can be spent on any of it.
We are a transcription service. A file goes in and a transcript with timecodes comes out, with speaker names on request and an export in the format you need. There is no dubbing, no voiceover, no subtitle shifter. If you need a caption for a film and a transcript for an interview, Maestra answers both and we answer one.
The prices and the limits below were read from the two pricing pages on 25 October 2026, and every figure carries the page it came from. The last table on this page is our own arithmetic on those published prices, and it is marked as such.
| What we compared | Maestra | Transcrib Si |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | a media suite: transcription, subtitles, dubbing, translation, voiceover and live tools (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | a transcription service with a REST API, an MCP server and plugins for Claude and ChatGPT |
| Smallest paid plan | Lite at $23 a month billed annually, with 180 minutes a month (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | Pro at $10 a month paid yearly, or $20 a month paid monthly (pricing, checked ) |
| Middle plan | Basic at $39 a month billed annually, with 360 minutes a month, an AI summary, a custom dictionary and MaestraCloud file sharing (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | no middle plan; Pro covers the paid tier and Team is priced on request (pricing, checked ) |
| Largest self-serve plan | Premium at $79 a month billed annually, with 900 minutes a month, Maestra Teams, centralized billing, API access and priority support (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | Pro at $10 a month paid yearly with 1,500 minutes of fair use a month (pricing, checked ) |
| Paying per use | Pay As You Go at $12 per 60 credits, which is 60 minutes (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | the API is priced on the volume you send (pricing, checked ) |
| Top tier | Enterprise at a custom price, with custom development, live event captioning, a custom MSA and SCORM import and export (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | Team is priced on request (contact, checked ) |
| Discounts | 20% for students, teachers and non-profit organizations, refunded after the first payment, and 20% off the yearly price (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | the yearly price of $120 works out at $10 a month against $20 a month (pricing, checked ) |
| Transcription languages | 125+, according to its own price page | 2 — Russian and English, with automatic detection (the general guide, checked ) |
| What one credit buys | up to 3,000 characters per credit, with the same amount for each translation, against an average of 750 characters a minute of speech (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | one minute of audio on every plan, and 1,500 minutes a month on Pro (pricing, checked ) |
| Export formats | transcripts, captions and voiceovers, with public links and embeddable players that survive a cancellation (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | TXT, Markdown, SRT, VTT and CSV on every plan, DOCX on Pro (pricing, checked ) |
| Working with other people | Maestra Teams shares files and works on them together in real time (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | a transcript stays in your account, and the API and the MCP server put it into your own tools (the app, checked ) |
What a free account is worth on each side
Maestra has a free sign-up and a pay-as-you-go option, but the price page we read does not publish a free tier with its own limits, so there is no number to compare against our 3 files a day. What can be compared is where each service makes you pay: our free plan is 3 files a day of up to 30 minutes, and Maestra asks for $12 for the first 60 credits.
| Starting point | Maestra | Transcrib Si |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of the first minute | $12 per 60 credits, which is 60 minutes of transcription (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | $0 on the free plan, which covers 3 files a day of up to 30 minutes each (pricing, checked ) |
| What the free sign-up gives | a free account and a free trial, with no published limit we could read on 25 October 2026 (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | 3 files a day, 30 minutes per file, transcripts kept for 7 days (pricing, checked ) |
| Where the audio is read | not stated on the price page we read (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | our own infrastructure outside the United States, with a US cloud provider for pure English when that fallback is on (privacy, checked ) |
Minutes for the money, calculated by us
The figures in this table are our own division of the published prices above, not something either company states. We show them because minutes are the unit both services sell, and because a reader comparing them will do this arithmetic anyway.
| Plan | Minutes a month | Price | Minutes per dollar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transcrib Si Pro | 1,500 | $10 a month paid yearly (transcrib.si/pricing.html, checked ) | 150 |
| Maestra Lite | 180 | $23 a month billed annually (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | about 7.8 |
| Maestra Basic | 360 | $39 a month billed annually (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | about 9.2 |
| Maestra Premium | 900 | $79 a month billed annually (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | about 11.4 |
| Maestra Pay As You Go | 60 | $12 per 60 credits (maestra.ai/pricing, checked ) | 5 |
The Maestra figures come from maestra.ai/pricing and the Transcrib Si figure from transcrib.si/pricing.html, both checked on 25 October 2026. The division itself is ours.
When Maestra is the right tool
- You need the video, not only the words. Subtitle generation and editing, subtitle shifting, and embeddable players are Maestra products and we have nothing like them.
- You need the file in another language. Translation of transcripts, live translation and an AI interpreter sit in the same account as the transcription.
- You need dubbing or a synthetic voice. Audio dubbing, video dubber, movie dubbing with AI voices and text to speech are all priced in the same minutes.
- You work in 125 languages. That is the number Maestra publishes and our 2 does not approach.
- You are a school or a non-profit. Maestra gives 20% off to students, teachers and non-profit organizations.
When our service is the right tool
- You only need the text. We do one job, and the minutes you buy go on transcription instead of being shared with dubbing and voiceover.
- Your work is in Russian. Two languages, Russian and English, and an engine built for the mixed conversation rather than for 125 languages.
- You want the transcript in a machine-readable form. TXT, Markdown, SRT, VTT, CSV, DOCX, a REST API and an MCP server with 4 tools.
- You want to know what happens to the audio. Our own infrastructure outside the United States, a named US cloud provider for pure English, no training on your audio, and a deleted file gone from the live system at once and from backups within 30 days.
- You would rather not pay by the minute. A file of 64 MB and 120 minutes is one upload on the free plan, and Pro covers 1,500 minutes a month.
How to decide
- Choose Maestra if the video pipeline matters more than the transcript, or if 125 languages and dubbing are part of the job.
- Choose Transcrib Si if the transcript is the deliverable and it has to be in Russian, cheap per hour, and ready for your own tools.
- Choose both if a single recording has to become a captioned, dubbed, translated video and a clean text file for the archive.
Put a file on the page and read the first lines.
The widget below is the same one as on the home page: file → transcript with timecodes and speakers → export. The transcript is saved to your account.
Drop an audio or video file
or — mp3, wav, m4a, mp4, up to 64 MB and two hours
Transcription runs under your account: sign in or create a free account.
No account yet? The free plan needs no card. Create a free account or sign in.
Questions this page answers.
Which service gives more minutes for the money?
Our Pro plan gives 1,500 minutes a month for $10. Maestra Lite gives 180 minutes for $23, Basic 360 minutes for $39 and Premium 900 minutes for $79. Dividing those gives about 7.8, 9.2 and 11.4 minutes per dollar against our 150, and that division is our own arithmetic.
Can Maestra do the things a video editor needs?
Yes, and that is the point of it: subtitle generation and editing, subtitle shifting, embedding players, audio and video dubbing, movie dubbing with AI voices and text to speech. We produce a transcript and its exports, and nothing else.
Does Maestra have a free plan with limits?
The price page offers a free sign-up and a free trial, but it publishes no limits for the free tier, so there is nothing for us to compare against our 3 files a day of 30 minutes.
How many languages does Maestra support?
125 or more, stated on its own price page, and one credit covers up to 3,000 characters with the same amount again for each translation. Our number is 2, Russian and English.
What happens to my file if I cancel Maestra?
Its price page says that you keep access to your transcripts, captions and voiceovers, and that public links and embeddable players keep working. With us the file and the transcript stay in your account until you delete them, and a deleted file leaves the live system at once.
Related pages.
The other service that works from a file.
A meeting assistant with a bot of its own.
A browser extension for your calls.
A recorder with a compliance story.
How seven services split the voices.
The general guide to the whole service.
When the file is bigger than the limit.
The sound of a video file.
Where a file is processed and how long it is kept.
Mark Burmistrov, Founder.
Every number on this page comes from a public pricing page we opened ourselves, from the service contract or from our own measurements. The author of the page and the publisher of the site are the same person. Questions and corrections: support@transcrib.si.