Most hosts who look at our pricing page spend about ten seconds on it, right, they see two plans, they see that one is 100 dollars more than the other, and they assume the expensive one is the better one and the cheap one is the compromise, and honestly that is the wrong way to think about it, because the two plans are not good and better versions of the same thing, they are built for two different kinds of show.
So I want to walk through how I would actually choose between Starter and Studio if I were in your seat, what each one includes, where people overbuy and where they underbuy, and how episode length, packs and the monthly plan change the numbers, because the right answer is usually obvious once you look at your own show instead of at the price.
What is the real difference between Starter and Studio?
Starter is built for single camera shows and Studio is built for multi-cam shows, and almost every other difference follows from that one fact.
On Starter, an hour or less costs 199 dollars per episode, right, and for that one camera gets edited properly, an editor watches the whole thing, makes the cuts, evens out the levels and pulls down the room noise, drops your intro, outro and sponsor reads in place, and hands it back as a 1080p file with one round of changes included. Studio costs 299 dollars for the same hour, and the extra hundred pays for the work that only exists once there are several angles, lining up two, three or four cameras and choosing between them moment by moment, matching the colour so they look like one room, building name cards and custom graphics, laying in premium music and sound effects, rendering in 4K, and taking notes from you as many times as you want to send them. The clock is identical on both, two days from upload to first cut. So the question is not "do I want the better edit", because both plans get the same editors and the same listen-through, the question is what your recording actually looks like.
Who should pick Starter?
Hosts who record on one camera, a solo show, a webcam interview or a single locked off angle, and who usually know what they want from the edit the first time.
That is one, the solo show, where it is you talking to the camera and the edit is about pacing, cutting restarts and keeping the energy up. Secondly, the remote interview where each person records on their own camera, which still needs a proper edit but not the multi-cam treatment. And the third one, the show that is just starting, where you are still finding your format and do not need 4K graphics yet. The single camera case is covered in more depth on single camera shows, and to be very honest, a well edited single camera show beats a badly edited three camera show every single time, so Starter is not a downgrade, it is the right tool for that job.
Who should pick Studio?
Shows with two or more cameras, shows with a brand look that needs lower thirds and graphics, and hosts who like to refine the cut with a couple of rounds of notes.
The moment you have a second camera, the edit changes completely, right, because now somebody has to decide which angle to show at every moment, and good multi-cam cutting follows the conversation, the camera moves when the energy does, which is a lot more work than trimming a single angle. Studio also includes colour balancing, which matters more than people expect, because two cameras rarely see a room the same way and a show where the colour jumps between angles looks cheap even when everything else is good. If that is your setup, the details are on multi-cam episodes, and I would not try to save money by putting a multi-cam show on the single camera plan, it simply does not fit.
How does episode length change the price?
Both plans have printed prices for 30, 60 and 90 minute episodes, so a short show pays less and a long one pays more, and anything past 90 minutes is quoted on the call.
On Starter, an episode up to 30 minutes is 150 dollars, up to 60 minutes is 199 dollars and up to 90 minutes is 260 dollars. On Studio, it is 225 dollars, 299 dollars and 390 dollars for the same lengths. I keep the length tiers printed because the biggest source of surprise invoices in this industry is the episode that ran long, and I would rather you know exactly what a 75 minute episode costs before you record it than find out on the invoice.
Should I pay per episode, buy a pack or go monthly?
Pay per episode while you are testing, buy a 4 episode pack once you know the show will run, and switch to monthly when you publish on a steady schedule.
Buying four at once takes 15% off, so an hour on Starter becomes 170 dollars and an hour on Studio becomes 255 dollars. Going monthly takes a quarter off instead, so the same hours cost 150 and 225, and if you skip a week, that unused episode is not lost, it simply moves over to the following month, which is the part people worry about before they sign up. For instance, say you publish a two camera show every week and the episodes run about 50 minutes, that is four Studio episodes a month at 225 each on the monthly plan, so about 900 dollars a month, against 1,196 dollars if you paid the single episode price every time, and that gap is the whole argument for committing once you know the show is staying. There is no lock-in on any of this, you can stop at any time, and the full picture of when a subscription makes sense versus paying per episode is on subscription versus per episode. My honest advice is to start per episode, because the first two or three episodes are where you find out whether you like working with us, and only commit once you do.
The cheapest plan is the one that matches how you actually record, not the one with the smaller number on the page.
What about clips, show notes and rush delivery?
Three extras sit on top of either plan, vertical clips at 25 dollars apiece, chapters with show notes at 35 dollars an episode, and a one day rush for 75 dollars on the days we have room for it.
Clips are the add-on most hosts end up using, right, because every episode has four or five moments worth pulling out, and we cut them vertical and captioned from the same footage while the episode is already open, which is why they cost 25 dollars instead of the price of a separate edit. Show notes and chapters are worth it for longer episodes, because chapters let people jump to the part they care about on YouTube. Rush delivery is for the occasional emergency, not a habit, and it depends on slot availability. The clip side of the service is on shorts and clips.
Where do hosts usually overbuy or underbuy?
They overbuy when a single camera show goes on Studio for the 4K, and they underbuy when a multi-cam show goes on Starter to save 100 dollars.
The overbuying case is common with new shows, right, someone records on one good camera, picks Studio because it sounds more professional, and pays for colour balancing and angle switching that their footage does not need. If you want lower thirds and graphics on a single camera show, we can talk about that on the call, but the plan itself is built around cameras. The underbuying case is more painful, because a multi-cam show on the single camera plan either gets edited as if it were single camera, which wastes the second angle, or it needs to be moved to the right plan anyway. And the third mistake I see is choosing on revisions, people who know they will send one clear round of notes do not need unlimited revisions, and people who like to refine a cut over two or three passes should not be on a plan with one.
How do I know which plan is right before I commit?
Bring your last episode or a test recording to a 15 minute call, and you leave with the plan I would choose and what it would cost per month at your schedule.
The call is basically me doing out loud what this post does on paper, I open the footage, count the angles, check the running time and the graphics you use, and name the plan I would put it on, and if the show has an established style you would like preserved, I will ask for your last two or three episodes so the editor can copy the intro, the name cards, the pacing and the colour before touching yours. And because you pay episode by episode, the plan follows the recording rather than a contract, so the week you add a second camera is simply the week that episode becomes a Studio episode, and nothing else about the arrangement has to change. Everything above is also printed on the pricing section, along with the episode packages if you prefer to read it yourself, and if you want the broader case for working with us at all, I wrote that in why hosts move their editing to Pixel Samy. The audio master we deliver is built for podcast apps, and if you are curious what the apps ask for, Apple publishes its audio requirements openly.
At the end of the day, picking a plan is not about how serious you are about the show, it is about how the show is recorded and how you like to give notes, and once you answer those two questions honestly, the choice between Starter and Studio basically makes itself. So yeah. That's my way of saying it.