Sonix

Pros

It's an amazing achievement that saves hours of your time transcribing and timecoding for video. It's incredibly easy to use and set-up for the first time.

Cons

Loved everything about the software, didn't found any bug or error so far. Speech-to-text transcription is a very hard affair and it's very understandable that it won't be a 100% perfect outcome, but it gets around 80-90% perfect, just needs a little check on some words and that's it.

Pros

Sonix is very easy to use - and compared to AI software I’ve tried much more accurate with transcriptions - and the turnaround continues to become faster.

Cons

The only issue with the software - and I think it’s more of just the ability to read the sometimes difficult change between speakers when uploading an interview is breaking dialogue paragraphs when one speaker is done and telling the difference. This may likely change as technology grows.

Pros

I like how easy it is to upload, edit and export. I find new features to use every time I edit a transcript

Cons

Wish the transcription was a bit closer to the audio, however, do understand it depends on the quality of the audio.

Pros

The editing functionality is very good it does a very good job of transcription, so it really is not necessary to make many modifications to the transcribed text. The design is very clear, which facilitates its use and allows you to upload files in a fast and efficient way, the editing functionality that you have is very complete allowing the audio track and the transcribed text to be synchronized so that it is really easy to follow the audio and make online editions of the transcribed text

Pros

It's an really good web editor. Innovative with SEO friendly media embeds, and provides good automated service with a nice group of editing tools.

Cons

Prices are high prices and its performance could be iffy, unreliable if you work with complex files.

Pros

- amazing UI
- good quality transcription for German language even though sometimes low quality recording
- easy to refine transcription manually
- great price, great bargain + you can quit monthly

Cons

- to be honest I expected nothing but was amazed, so cannot really say anything although there is always room for improvement like the accuracy of transcription etc.

Pros

Sonix provides me with a highly reliable automatic audio/video transcription service. After uploading the file on the server, usually it takes up to 30-40 seconds to complete the transcription process for a 1 minute audio file. I use it to make an interactive listening practice tool for my students.

As it supports a powerful sharing options, I can easily share the contents even on the web itself! Also it has two kinds of offers: subscription or pay-as-go. So I can choose the one that fits my current situation.

Cons

I have not found anything that I dislike with this tool. Compared to its competitors, nothing had a superior quality or features than Sonix. I am quite sure that I'd love to pay for the subscription even after the free trial (30 minutes).

Pros

It's very easy to use, just by entering a few topics and keywords a very high-quality transcription will appear!

Cons

Sometimes transcriptions that appear repeatedly and do not fit the topic but only occur if the topic being discussed is indeed less focused and too general

Pros

Wow. I'm so impressed with this product! Since using Sonix.ai I've been able to edit audio transcriptions (for user research interviews) at lightning speed compared to traditional software.

I especially love how intuitive the controls are to pick up - there was literally 0 time spent to learn it! I also really enjoy the ability to dive into the anatomy of the transcript - being able to visualize and break down the files...like automatically detect the software's confidence levels in picking up a word. Makes this an even more powerful tool. Highly recommended - this is one of my favorite arsenal of tools online!

Pros

Easy to learn, easy to use, very useful in case of short time to elaborate documents

Cons

Italian language is OK, but could be better :-)

Pros

Makes very good and accurate transcription, very user friendly software.

Pros

It did a great job in transcribing speech from accented English, it clearly identified speakers and was amazingly accurate.

Cons

I didn't find anything about the experience unlikeable.

Pros

The transcriptions were very accurate. Additionally the sonix.ai website has a very user friendly interface, useful functionalities, and attractive design.

Cons

Does not support multilingual speech recognition.

Pros

I am a Game Developer and film-maker, I generally upload my game videos on YouTube and it is really very much important for me to provide subtitles on my videos but it becomes way boring to write all the subtitles when the Video is really lengthy and sometimes it also becomes impossible to write everything in time, So in this case Sonix is the best software for me to use and transcribe all my Audio and video files and get them in written formats so that I could easily check them and place them on my videos, this whole process becomes so much easy and interesting. Transcribing an audio or video file doesn't actually takes more time than expected when using Sonix and this is the best second most important point that I would prefer everyone to once give it a try as Sonix provides a 30 minute free trial for newbies and after that, it will be paid but still a convenient way. Sonix doesn't always provides 100% accuracy but still we get atleast 80-90% accuracy rate or even more but to get everything working correctly, Sonix provides a feature of doing corrections manually and when doing so, when we select a mistaken word the audio or video file continues exactly from there irrespective of where it was before. Sonix has a nice and easy to understanding interface which gives it a charm look and makes the mood of doing the work.

Cons

Though, there's nothing bad about Sonix but there could be some instances when transcribing an audio becomes hard as it becomes laggy when using a heavy audio file. Also, they should provide a longer trial duration so that newbies can learn if they should use it or not.

Pros

The speaker on the uploaded 15 minutes audio file sometimes garbled or slurred his words, and yet Sonix was able to complete a transcription that was 90 % accurate in only 3 min. The audio editor is remarkable - I've never seen anything like it. Each word in the transcription is highlighted perfectly in sync as the audio is played. You can click the mouse in between a few words before the current word and the audio will start again at that point. There is absolutely no lag time after clicking to start the audio playing again - it's immediate!

I have produced transcriptions before using the MPC audio player positioned in a small rectangle of space on the bottom of my screen widened to fit the entire width of the screen to make it easier to move the pointer back a few seconds while checking the accuracy of the transcription using Word. I manually transcribed 6 hours of audio this way years ago. I think it took me 20-25 hours to do this. What a chore!

Now there is Sonix that can transcribe audio in a fraction of the time, with 90+ percent accuracy. And it's so very much easier to just click a few words back to check accuracy, instead of trying to manipulate an audio pointer.

PLUS - not only can I download a Word doc but also a .srt captions file that can be added to the original video to produce a captioned video from the same original transcription! This is the only way I will produce transcriptions from now on, saving so much time and effort!

Cons

Just a little more time and I will get completely used to the editor interface. It's already very intuitive, but I just have to increase my "muscle memory" to hit tab to start and stop, click here to start somewhere new, etc. Really, no cons at all to speak of. Can't wait to think of new features for Sonix to add. I'm sure they will be very responsivee to customer requests

Pros

Our company was looking for a way to quickly transcribe videos accurately, effectively, and quickly as we were on a time crunch. Sonix came through in a big way. The customer service team is extremely friendly and helpful. The ease of use of the software is straightforward with no major snags that I can remember. Our team was so impressed with how quickly the transcription was done and accurately upon receiving it. Our team went through line by line to check for any inconsistencies and we could not find any. I am beyond impressed with it and can't recommend it enough.

Cons

The pricing is a bit confusing but that is a very minor issue if I can even call it that. If they could simplify it then it would be perfect. There is the monthly subscription which gives you access to the transcription services which is billed based on usage. I understand that they do this so you don't pay for a transcription service which you may not need but then you are paying for a subscription already so it would just make sense to pay once for everything. But again, this is a very minor issue that doesn't take away from the terrific service it already provides.

Pros

Sonix is extremely easy to use and provides great value for the money. It speeds the time I need to handle recorded interviews. There's no comparison to what I did prior to Sonix, which was grinding it out on my computer with earbuds on.

Cons

Occasionally, but not often, it seems to crash, but no data is lost and all I have to do to fix the system is to return to home page and re-click on the recording. Takes just a few mins but can be irritating.

Pros

The great thing about SONIX is the interface and transcription are easy and quick. Several of us in different cities needed access to the transcription and it was easy to share.

Cons

There really were no cons for us. We used it to transcribe scripts for syndicated radio replay and it was easy.

Pros

The uploading of the audio files works fairly quickly, as well as, the transcription. The quality of the transcript is quite high in terms of accuracy of the language and alternating between speakers. Also it really helps to have the timestamps feature.

Cons

I think that the voice recognition still has some improvement. It is perfect with English native speakers, but it becomes less accurate with non-native speakers.

Pros

The product is easy to use, and I recommend it. Easy to use software

Pros

Accuracy, ease of use. Great editing software.

Cons

Everything was great. My ease of using this software was great.

Pros

I am very impressed at the quality of the transcriptions. I have so far used it in three languages (English, Japanese and French) and they have been the most accurate I have seen around. As a freelancer here in Tokyo I also like the option of buying time by the hour as I don’t always need to transcribe on a regular basis. Also love the time code option

Cons

There were a few weird linguistic glitches which needed to be cleaned up later (such as foreign loan words in Japanese - such as diversity and inclusion which came out as totally different words) but that is sort of to expected for automatic transcriptions. (I presume this will improve over time?).

Pros

So far, the results have been spot on. No matter which service you use, you really need to check the output, and this service rarely requires any correction. I trust this is to do with the quality of the recording as well.

Cons

It appears to be mandatory to find something that we liked least, and I will have to disappoint you because when it does what we need, then all we could wish for is free delivered coffee to the office.

Pros

The software is very intuitive to use and contains really helpful features like being able to review and correct details in the transcript while listening to the audio. This is the first software I have used that recognises and differentiates between multiple voices with a functional level of accuracy.

Cons

This hardly seems like a disadvantage however, there is an investment of time required in reviewing and correcting 'misinterpretations' of words and phrases in the produced transcript. You also need to manually give an identity to the speaker of each transcribed passage of text though this takes a fraction of the time and cost expended on manual transcription.

Pros

It's incredibly fast, and it sets the timing for subtitles perfectly. I dread having to time everything myself, and with Sonix I can do that just by pressing Enter.

Cons

I honestly have nothing to complain about. The transcription only went down on inaccuracy because of the video itself at some specific times, naturally, but mostly it would nail it. So really, no complaints.

Pros

SUPER FAST workflow for transcription. AI does nearly 95% accurate work, even in german, not only english. And after that it took me only 25 % to 50 % of time of the total interview time to transcribe the inaccurate words. Also compatible with MAXQDA. I compared it to many other tools and its just the best.

Cons

The are no cons about sonix...! I can't think of anything bad.

Pros

Easy to load, and used to be helpful. Don't understand what changed

Cons

It used to be good until 6 months ago, now, it just sucks and has become a waste of money

Pros

This is one of the few services that can handle multy-language and translations. I enjoyed the user friendly UI and the ability to export to software like Adobe and Atlas.ti. Best part is the easy way to edit transcriptions

Cons

The thing that I didn't love is that they have basic qualitative analysis for an extra fee. I'd love it to be included, but I understand that my license was a basic one.

Pros

I did like that I could easily upload my coaching calls and take notes on them based off of the transcript.

Cons

Where do I start...first of all, it did not transcribe all of my calls properly and would sometimes make it look like there was just one speaker speaking in paragraphs which wasn't helpful at all. Secondly, the pricing structure is unclear and WAY too expensive for what it is. And my favorite part - when I reached out to support because I panicked when I saw what was charged to my account, they were VERY rude and antagonizing rather than just explaining to me why I was charged that amount and trying to keep me as a customer. Seriously...you guys need to hire better people because that was ridiculous.

Pros

Out of all the AI transcription services I tried, Sonix was the best at accurately identifying who was speaking when in a group meeting, as well as discerning regional accents.

Cons

It sometimes split paragraphs in the middle of a sentence when the speaker paused

Cons

nothing - it was perfect from the beginning to the end.

Pros

Automatically transcribe AND translate into different languages. Really great as a video editor working in multiple languages. Makes it so easy, not many platforms allow you to do that.

Cons

If you need to transcribe and translate a interview, for example, it costs double- first eats into your credits by transcribing in native language and then again if you choose to translate. It would be great to automatically do that function as one purchase- rather than doubling the cost.

Pros

I am completely impressed by Sonix. It reduces the time that usually is needed for what I wanted to achieve and it made it a pleasure to work on the project.

Cons

I had no problems using Sonix, once i had worked on it, I intuitively learnt how to use the product for the project I needed to complete.

Pros

Used this to do interviews for the book I'm writing. Easy to use, fast and accurate. A game-changer!

Cons

No cons for me, it did the job I needed it to do.

Pros

Totally phenomenal AI transcription. Close to 100% accurate for our 2 hour meetings.

Cons

The summaries on Sonix Pro were not as complete as Zoom Pros. I am sure that Sonix could make better summaries, because their AI transcription was the best by far. They should have two levels of summaries, the longer one to gather more elaborative details and really separate its level of content more distinctly from bullet points. So there would be Levels I and II in summarizations and also have bullet points available. I could be wrong as I did not have the opportunity to see if that is actually possible to modify in Sonix. Our agency's secretary needed the summary, only for meeting notes.

Pros

I love this software. It's better than any other speech-recognition software I have used, and it doesn't seem to have much trouble with technical terms, either. Plus, there's a dictionary function so you can teach it unusual terms you need it to recognize.

Cons

I would love to be able to use it offline as a downloadable program, but I guess that's not possible. Note that if you want to not pay for the minutes of "credits music" at the end, you will need to trim the end part of the soundtrack. Lead-in music you need unless you are going to go through the .srt file and time-offset everything.

Pros

fast in transcription , very fast realy I liked it

Cons

some mistakes bei transcription due to bilang usage

Pros

The accuracy of translation was excellent considering the quality of the interviews. Native English speakers interviews were exceptional - over 98-99% accuracy.I was impressed.Also interviews in romanian were very very good - over 95% accuracy

Cons

bit slow, I've loaded 14 interview and took more than 1 hour

Pros

The transcriptions and their accuracy and easy to use.

Cons

Maybe the price, 10 USD per hour. Sometime the budgets for the evaluations are low, NGOs pay very little for the actual evalation work.

Pros

Intuitive functionality and ease of use. Excellent accuracy overall.

Cons

Some audio transcription was off, though in each case Sonix could do little about it due to signal to noise issues (too much background noise or poor microphones present).

Pros

Sonix is super friendly to use. It offers you great results, in a very short time

Cons

It is very expensive for a Latin person.

Pros

Way better than Otter.ai and Microsoft Office, especially for accents and poor sound qual.Pricing is very reasonable and well worth all the saved hours compared to inferior free transcription services.

Cons

Little language support, but acceptable.It is not free, but is so cheap I do not view this as a con.

Pros

This service exceeded my expectations. It was very easy to use, I love the GUI, and I found this accurate enough for my needs.

Cons

With openai's Whisper and the ability to do the same thing for free, it no longer made sense to continue paying for Sonix.

Pros

Sonix is easy to learn, use and deploy. We used it for focus group and interview transcripts, and the level of accuracy was high. I recommend Sonix to anyone doing not-for-profit management consulting and strategic planning with teams.

Cons

I didn't feel there were any downsides. Sonix did what we needed it to do.

Pros

Highly ergonomic, it works even for speeches in noisy environments

Cons

In Romanian the recognition index is in the range of 80-85%

Pros

What's not to like? Pricing is good, output is fantastic (given my awful input files), the speed of transcription is fantastic. Being able to change input timecode saved my day. Output to PDF. Perfect.

Cons

A hundred years from now, language recognition will probably have improved a bit, but technology isn't there yet so I can't expect Sonix to be way ahead in the game compared to others. That said, I tried a few services and Sonix stood out as the best.

Pros

Accuracy in:
Transcribing, translating into other languages, splitting subtitles.

Cons

Just not applicable. So far, it has delivered every single time.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Sonix

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Sonix

Pros

The initial trial (which was free and did NOT require any payment information from me in order to try it out), provided more than enough insight into the software's functionality & quality. From the first upload, Sonix provided me with the most quality transcription I'd ever seen. I've tried multiple transcription services in the past; Sonix provided quality results, has an easy to navigate platform, and seamlessly connected with Zoom (my primary method for recording conversations) - an added bonus.

Cons

One *very* minor complaint is the speed by which recording is transcribed, but for the quality it’s worth the wait. Other than that small thing, there’s really nothing I dislike about the software, but there are a couple of improvements and/or additions I’d like to see.
First, a direct recording & transcription function built into the Sonix.ai platform (something like a speech to text function). This would be tremendously useful for me – especially if it extended to a mobile app and/or mobile site (to help capture those “organic” / “on the fly” conversations that happen so often throughout the day).
Second (and I’m not sure this is even possible but raising it nonetheless), would be the ability to upload zoom meeting links (to have them transcribed) that I don’t own, but that I have access to.

Pros

It is very easy to setup and use with our Zoom accounts. The pay-as-needed feature is perfect for us as sometimes we need it and sometimes we don't. I will spin up a zoom meeting and read a draft blog post or other content. With two clicks, have Sonix transcribe the meeting and I saved time on typing! We also have technical meetings that require specific notes from the meetings. It's nice to not have to pay a monthly or yearly subscription when we won't use it that often.

Cons

The entire setup process is very intuitive. It would be great if the transcription picked out the speaker so that when the first speaker is labeled, whenever that person speaks again, the speaker is "guessed" and I would have the ability to adjust as needed. This would save us a lot of time.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Sonix

Pros

The user interface works intuitively and smooth. Over the time that I used Sonix that introduced new features and everytime it was an improvement. One improvement that I loved was that the audio would stop playing when you edit the text and start playing immediately after. This really sped up the process of finalizing the transcripts. Customer service (just for questions, I never had any complaints) was super responsive and friendly. The quality of the transcriptions is really good. I cannot recommend Sonix enough.

Cons

In my experience, there were 2 types of situations where the quality of the transcriptions suffered. The first is when there are more than 2 speakers, especially when some interviewees were sitting around a large table and therefore sat physically too far from my recorder. In those cases, the first couple of words or a sentence from a new speaker would often not be picked up.
The second is when there was loud background music playing. In those cases the sentences in the transcripts would be cut short, meaning that after every couple of words there would be a period followed by a capitalized word.
But, I cannot stress this enough, this is to be expected from any transcription service. It is just something to keep in mind: if you do plan to transcribe your recordings just make sure that speakers are reasonably close to your recorder and that you avoid bars/restaurants. Otherwise, the transcripts were very good and the editing experience was even better. I cannot recommend Sonix enough.