Is there an open source alternative to SendShort?

SendShort itself is closed source and cloud only. OpenShorts is MIT-licensed with the full source at github.com/mutonby/openshorts, which matters if you need to audit what happens to your video or change how the reframing behaves.

How do I switch from SendShort to OpenShorts?

If you subscribed only to clip long videos, note that SendShort offers a refund within 24 hours of paying. Check which plan you are really on: long-video clipping starts on Professional ($29/month, $23 yearly), not Starter. Clip the same long recording in OpenShorts; the free plan clips your first video whole up to 60 minutes. Keep SendShort for the faceless and avatar formats if you use them, and move the clipping alone.

Does SendShort add a watermark, and does OpenShorts?

SendShort has no free plan; its Starter plan ($19/month, $15 yearly) exports without a watermark but does not include long-video clipping. OpenShorts self-hosted never does. On OpenShorts Cloud the free plan is watermarked; every paid plan from $12/month is not, and upgrading removes the mark from the clips you already made.

There is no free plan: SendShort gives 3 free videos at sign-up and offers a refund within 24 hours of paying. Plans cost $19, $29 and $59 a month, or $15, $23 and $47 billed yearly, and clipping long videos starts on the $29 Professional plan. OpenShorts self-hosted is free; OpenShorts Cloud clips your first video free up to 60 minutes, then 20 minutes a month.

Home Alternatives SendShort

SendShort AI: plans, limits, and the open source alternative

Checked October 2026 Prices and plans read on SendShort's public pricing page; vendors change them without notice.

By the OpenShorts team· Published 2026-10-05· Updated 2026-10-05

SendShort is a short-form video suite from $19/month ($15 yearly), but clipping long videos starts on the $29/month plan. OpenShorts is open source: free when you run it yourself, or hosted from $12/month with clipping on every plan.

SendShort covers faceless videos, avatars and caption translation into 100+ languages. OpenShorts goes deeper on the clipping itself: moment scoring, face tracking, two-speaker and screencast layouts, dubbing into 30+ languages.

Pick SendShort for many formats in one tool. Pick OpenShorts to clip your own long recordings, self-host, or keep the cost down.

Free planNone3 free videos at sign-up

Clipping from$29/moProfessional ($23 yearly); Starter has none

Billed byShorts20, 50 or unlimited a month

Open sourceNoCloud only. OpenShorts: MIT, self-hostable

Try it Paste a link, get vertical clips

Your first video free up to 60 minutes, then 20 free minutes a month, no credit card. Or self-host it free under MIT.

Get free clips

What is SendShort (sendshort.ai)?

SendShort is a short-form video suite rather than a pure clipper. It cuts long videos into shorts, and also makes faceless videos from a text prompt, AI avatar videos, music videos and TikTok slideshows, with word-by-word captions, caption translation, AI voice-over, a scheduler for TikTok and YouTube, and an API.

Is OpenShorts a real alternative to SendShort?

Yes, with one honest caveat. SendShort is a suite of short-video formats, and clipping long videos is one of them, from its $29 plan. OpenShorts is only the clipping, on every plan, the free one included. Where it goes further is the clipping itself: two speakers stacked when both are on camera, screen recordings kept readable over the presenter, and a webcam inset enlarged instead of cropped out. The caveat is the setup: the free edition runs on your own machine with Docker, and the no-setup version is OpenShorts Cloud, a paid service above 20 minutes a month.

Real OpenShorts output, not a mock-up. A two-person podcast: both speakers stacked in half-frames, captions on the seam where they cover nobody. Source: Turn the Tables with Dan and Shoshana Jordan, Heritage of Faith, CC BY.

What does SendShort cost?

Free: No free plan. 3 free videos at sign-up, refund within 24 hours of paying.
Starter: $19/month, or $15/month billed yearly: 20 shorts a month up to 90 seconds, 1080p, no watermark. Long-video clipping is not included.
Professional: $29/month, or $23/month billed yearly: 50 shorts a month up to 3 minutes, long-video clipping, avatars, auto-translate, AI hooks, B-roll, voice-over
Business: $59/month, or $47/month billed yearly: unlimited shorts up to 10 minutes, 4K at 60 fps

The part that catches people out

The entry price is not the clipping price. Turning a long video into clips starts on the Professional plan at $29/month ($23 billed yearly); Starter is for shorts made from prompts and templates.

What does OpenShorts cost?

Where SendShort is metered in shorts per month, OpenShorts Cloud counts minutes of source video, with trims and hooks not counted: the first video clipped whole up to 60 minutes, then 20 minutes a month with a watermark and no credit card, then $12, $29 or $59 a month for 100, 300 or 750 minutes ($10, $24.17 and $49.17 a month billed yearly). The self-hosted edition counts nothing: free under MIT with Docker and your own keys, no watermark, no cap.

SendShort vs OpenShorts, feature by feature

Feature	OpenShorts	SendShort
Entry price	$0 self-hosted · $0 hosted for 20 min/mo · $12/mo hosted without watermark	$19/month ($15 billed yearly)
Open source	Yes, MIT	No
Self-hostable	Yes, Docker Compose	No, cloud only
Source video stays on your machine	Yes when self-hosted	No
AI viral moment detection	Yes, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite	Yes
Face-tracked 9:16 reframing	Yes, MediaPipe + YOLOv8	Yes
Word-level auto subtitles	Yes, faster-whisper	Yes
AI voice dubbing, 30+ languages	Yes, with your own ElevenLabs key	Caption translation and AI voice-over ($29 plan and up)
AI UGC video with lip-synced actors	Yes, from $0.65/video	AI avatar videos ($29 plan and up)
Free AI YouTube thumbnail & title studio	Yes when self-hosted · thumbnails on paid Cloud plans	No
Usage cap	None when self-hosted · metered on Cloud	Metered in shorts per month

What SendShort does better

Covers more formats than a clipper: faceless prompt-to-video, avatars, slideshows and music videos
Captions and caption translation in 100+ languages, plus AI voice-over
An API and an agent interface for Claude, ChatGPT and Grok

When to stay on SendShort

You make faceless, avatar or prompt-to-video shorts, which OpenShorts does not.
You need captions translated into 100+ languages with AI voice-over.
One subscription for many formats matters more to you than depth in clipping.

Where the two differ

OpenShorts is MIT-licensed and self-hostable; SendShort is a closed cloud service.
OpenShorts clips long videos on every plan, the free one included; SendShort starts long-video clipping at $29/month.
OpenShorts reframes with face tracking plus two-speaker, screencast and webcam-inset layouts, which is the hard part of clipping a podcast or a stream.
SendShort makes more kinds of short video than we do. If faceless or prompt-to-video content is the plan, it covers that and we do not.

Migrating from SendShort to OpenShorts

If you subscribed only to clip long videos, note that SendShort offers a refund within 24 hours of paying.
Check which plan you are really on: long-video clipping starts on Professional ($29/month, $23 yearly), not Starter.
Clip the same long recording in OpenShorts; the free plan clips your first video whole up to 60 minutes.
Keep SendShort for the faceless and avatar formats if you use them, and move the clipping alone.

Which one should you pick?

Pick SendShort if

You want faceless, avatar and prompt-to-video shorts too
You want captions translated into 100+ languages
One subscription for many formats matters more than depth

Pick OpenShorts if

The job is clipping your own long recordings
You want clipping on every plan, the free one included
You want to self-host or keep the cost near zero

SendShort is the better pick if you want one subscription for faceless videos, avatars and clips. OpenShorts is the better pick if the job is turning your own long recordings into clips, cheaply or self-hosted.

Common questions

Is there a free alternative to SendShort?: Yes. OpenShorts self-hosted is free and open source under MIT, with no watermark and no usage cap, on your own machine with Docker. OpenShorts Cloud has a free plan too: the first video clipped whole up to 60 minutes, then 20 minutes a month with a watermark and no credit card. SendShort's own free side, checked October 2026: No free plan. 3 free videos at sign-up, refund within 24 hours of paying.
Is there an open source alternative to SendShort?: SendShort itself is closed source and cloud only. OpenShorts is MIT-licensed with the full source at github.com/mutonby/openshorts, which matters if you need to audit what happens to your video or change how the reframing behaves.
How do I switch from SendShort to OpenShorts?: If you subscribed only to clip long videos, note that SendShort offers a refund within 24 hours of paying. Check which plan you are really on: long-video clipping starts on Professional ($29/month, $23 yearly), not Starter. Clip the same long recording in OpenShorts; the free plan clips your first video whole up to 60 minutes. Keep SendShort for the faceless and avatar formats if you use them, and move the clipping alone.
Does SendShort add a watermark, and does OpenShorts?: SendShort has no free plan; its Starter plan ($19/month, $15 yearly) exports without a watermark but does not include long-video clipping. OpenShorts self-hosted never does. On OpenShorts Cloud the free plan is watermarked; every paid plan from $12/month is not, and upgrading removes the mark from the clips you already made.
Is SendShort free?: There is no free plan: SendShort gives 3 free videos at sign-up and offers a refund within 24 hours of paying. Plans cost $19, $29 and $59 a month, or $15, $23 and $47 billed yearly, and clipping long videos starts on the $29 Professional plan. OpenShorts self-hosted is free; OpenShorts Cloud clips your first video free up to 60 minutes, then 20 minutes a month.

Sources

SendShort pricing, checked 2026-10-05 on the vendor's public pricing page.
OpenShorts pipeline details from the project source at github.com/mutonby/openshorts.

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