How to choose a subtitling company: ten questions that actually separate suppliers

Subtitling is easy to buy badly, because the thing you are buying is invisible until it is wrong. Two quotes for the same forty-minute film can differ by a factor of four, and the cheaper one may be the same work, or may be a machine translation dropped onto existing timings. The way to tell is not to ask who is best. It is to ask questions whose answers are numbers, standards and named steps.

Here are the ten we would ask if we were buying. Nothing here is specific to us — use them on any supplier, including us.

1. What reading speed do you work to?

A good answer is a number: characters per second, usually between 15 and 20 for adult content, lower for children’s. A vague answer means nobody is measuring, and reading speed is the single most common reason a file is rejected. The reason is arithmetic: translations run longer than the original in most language pairs, so a faithful translation that is not condensed will breach the limit. Condensing without losing the meaning is the skill you are paying for. You can check any file yourself with our free subtitle reading speed checker.

2. Where is this file going, and do you build to its spec?

This should be the supplier’s first question, not yours. Broadcasters and streaming services each publish their own timed-text specification — character limits, line counts, reading speed, safe area, frame rate, file format — and a file that passes one will often fail another. A supplier who asks for the destination before quoting is building to it. A supplier who converts a generic SRT at the end is hoping.

3. Who translates each language, and are they a native speaker of it?

Ask per language, not in general. The honest answers are: a native linguist, a non-native linguist, or machine translation with a post-edit. All three exist in this market at different prices, and all three are legitimate for different jobs — but you should know which one you are buying. Machine output with a light edit is a different product, not a cheaper version of the same one.

4. What does this language do that others don’t?

This is the question that separates a subtitling company from a translation company that also does subtitles. Every language has conventions that break a file when they are missed. Arabic and Hebrew break lines right to left, and a left-to-right break puts the wrong half of the sentence on top. Simplified and Traditional Chinese count characters, not words, so a character limit written for English is the wrong limit. French takes a space before a question mark and an exclamation mark. Spanish for Spain writes a decimal as 2,50 and Latin American Spanish as 2.50 — the same style guide, separated on exactly the detail that breaks a reused file without raising an error. A supplier who can name the conventions for your language has done it before.

5. Subtitles, captions or SDH — which am I actually getting?

They are three different deliverables and people use the words interchangeably. Subtitles carry the dialogue for a viewer who cannot follow the language. Captions carry the dialogue plus sound effects, music cues and speaker identification for a viewer who cannot hear it. SDH combines both and is what most accessibility requirements and broadcaster specs actually ask for. Confirm in writing which one is quoted, because the price difference is real and the compliance difference is larger. Our guide on subtitles vs captions vs SDH covers the distinction in detail.

6. Which file formats do you deliver, and which do I need?

SRT works across most video platforms and editing tools. VTT is the web and live-streaming standard. STL and EBU-STL are used for UK and European broadcast. TTML and IMSC are what the streaming platforms ask for. Burned-in subtitles are a separate job again. Ask for the list, then check it against where the video is going — and ask whether you receive the source timing file or only a rendered output.

7. What is in the per-minute price, and what is extra?

Per minute of finished video is the comparable unit. Per word is not, because it prices the translation and hides the timing, adaptation and quality check, which are most of the work. Ask what the rate includes: transcription where there is no script, translation, timing, reading-speed adaptation, a quality check by a second person, and delivery in how many formats. Then ask what is extra. Two quotes that look 40% apart are often the same number once both are itemised. Ours are published on the subtitling rates page.

8. What happens when the video is re-edited?

It will be. Someone will trim eight seconds from the middle after the subtitles are done, and every timing after that point is now wrong. Ask how re-timing is handled and what it costs — before it happens, while you still have leverage. A supplier who has a clear answer has been through it; a supplier who waves it away will invoice you for it.

9. Who checks the work, and against what?

“Quality checked” means nothing on its own. Ask who does it — the same linguist, a second linguist, an automated pass — and against what: the reading-speed target, the platform spec, a glossary of your product and character names, the source audio. The useful answer names a person and a standard.

10. Can I see a sample on my own footage?

Not a showreel. Two minutes of your video, in your actual language pair, delivered in the format you will need. It shows reading speed, line breaking, how names and numbers are handled and whether the file imports cleanly into your system — four things no portfolio can show you, and the cheapest due diligence available. Any supplier confident in the work will do it.

The short version

Adjectives are free and numbers are not. A supplier who gives you a CPS target, asks where the file is going, names the conventions for your language, itemises the per-minute rate and subtitles two minutes of your own footage is describing work they actually do. One who answers all ten with reassurance is describing work they hope to figure out on your project.

We publish our answers to all ten: a stated reading-speed target checked on every file, files built to the destination spec, native linguists across 91 languages each with their own conventions, and itemised per-minute rates from £15 backed by our Price Match Promise. Send us two minutes of your videoand judge the answers against anyone else’s.