subtitleedit

SubtitleEdit is the desktop tool video editors and translators have used to fix subtitles for over fifteen years. You load a video, see the audio waveform, and edit subtitle timing and text against it. Handles 300+ subtitle formats, batch conversions, OCR for image-based subs, and optional integrations with translation and speech-to-text APIs. MIT licensed, fully free.

It is a desktop app. Windows users get a clean installer. macOS users have to install mpv and ffmpeg through Homebrew, then clear the unsigned-app quarantine flag the first time they launch it. Linux users can use Flatpak or install through their package manager.

For one-off subtitle fixes, batch format conversions, or cleaning up raw transcription output, this is the standard. Paid cloud tools like Kapwing or Rev offer one-click translation and automated transcription, but you pay per minute and lose the format flexibility.

The catch: the UI looks like Windows software from 2010 because that is the era it is from. Functional, dense, no design system. If you want something that feels modern, this is not it.