What hiring a freelancer actually involves
The rate is the easy part. The real cost of a freelance editor is everything around the edit:
- Finding one. Posting the job, reviewing portfolios, paying for test edits. Good short-form editors are hard to find and in demand.
- Briefing every episode. Which moments, which style, which captions, which length.
- Reviewing and sending revisions. Every clip, back and forth.
- Chasing deadlines. When the freelancer is busy with a bigger client, your clips wait.
- Starting over. When they move on, you find, test and brief someone new.
Managing freelancers is a full-time job in itself. Most podcasters who try it find they swapped editing time for management time.
Freelancer vs in-house editor vs PromptPlay
| Cost | Your time | Consistency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelance editor | $50 to $150 per clip, so 20 clips is $1,000 to $3,000 | Hours a week: briefs, reviews, chasing | Depends on one person's availability |
| PromptPlay | $1,000 to $3,000 a month for 20 to 90 clips | About an hour a week of review | Your style locked once, applied to every clip |
| In-house editor | $3,000+ a month, plus recruiting and software | Managing an employee | Good, until they leave or get busy |
Freelancer and in-house figures are typical market ranges; quotes vary by editor and city.
With us, your job is three things
Share your footage and style
Give us access to your episodes and show us what your channel looks like: colors, fonts, clips you love. We lock your style from that.
We do the whole job
A human editor picks the moments, cuts, reframes, captions, brands and titles every clip, sized for Shorts, Reels and TikTok.
You review and post
Approve the clips you like, flag the ones you do not. That is the whole job on your side.
Plans
Starter
- 20 finished clips a month
- Sized for Shorts, Reels and TikTok
- Captions and your branding
- 72 hour turnaround
- Titles and descriptions
Growth (most popular)
- 50 finished clips a month
- Audio-only episodes covered
- Back catalogue clipped too
- 72 hour turnaround
- Titles and descriptions
Scale
- 90 finished clips a month
- Multiple shows on one plan
- Custom motion graphics
- 48 hour priority turnaround
- Titles and descriptions
Month to month, no contract. Your first clip is free. Every clip stays yours, even if you stop.