Whishper vs Scriberr vs Txtify
Three popular self-hosted, Whisper-based transcription tools — pulling in three different directions. Here's the honest version, including where our own tool (Txtify) falls short, so you can pick the one that fits your job.
Side by side
| Txtify | Whishper | Scriberr | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core focus | File/URL → subtitles + translation | Subtitle editing UI | Notes, chat, diarization |
| License | Apache 2.0 | Open source | Open source |
| Setup | One Docker container | Multi-service stack | Medium |
| YouTube / URL input | Yes | Yes (yt-dlp) | Upload / record |
| Speaker diarization | Not yet | No | Yes |
| Translation | Yes (DeepL) | Yes (LibreTranslate) | No |
| Subtitle editor | Export only | Yes | Notes/annotations |
| Exports | TXT/SRT/VTT/SBV/PDF | TXT/JSON/VTT/SRT | Text/notes |
| Chat / LLM over transcript | No | No | Yes (Ollama/OpenAI) |
| Maintenance (2026) | Active | Stable line frozen (v4 rewrite) | Active |
Details change fast — confirm on each project's repository before deciding.
Whishper — the subtitle editor
Whishper wraps Faster-Whisper in a pleasant subtitle-editing UI with LibreTranslate for translation and yt-dlp for URLs. It's the most comfortable of the three for hand-correcting subtitles. Two things to know in 2026: its stable release line is frozen while work shifts to a v4 rewrite, and it runs a heavier multi-service setup than a single container.
Pick Whishper if: you edit subtitles by hand and want a dedicated editor, and you're comfortable running a multi-container stack.
Scriberr — the notes-and-diarization workhorse
Scriberr is the most feature-broad of the three: speaker diarization, batch upload, annotations, a folder watcher and chat over your transcripts via Ollama or OpenAI-compatible models. It's actively developed. It has no built-in translation, and it's more to run and learn than a single-purpose tool.
Pick Scriberr if: you need speaker labels, want to chat with your transcripts, or process many files with notes and annotations.
Txtify — the simple file-to-subtitles-with-translation tool
Txtify is the smallest-surface option: one Docker container, a web UI, paste a link or upload a file, pick a Whisper model, get TXT/SRT/VTT/SBV/PDF back — with optional DeepL translation into 30+ languages and no account. Honest gaps: no speaker diarization yet, no subtitle editor (export only), no live capture, and DeepL translation is an external API call.
Pick Txtify if: you want the fastest path from a file or YouTube link to translated subtitles, with the lightest possible setup. Try the demo.
Short version: Whishper for editing subtitles, Scriberr for diarization and notes, Txtify for the simplest file-to-subtitle-plus-translation workflow. They're genuinely different tools, not clones.
Related: Otter.ai open-source alternative · Best self-hosted transcription tools · Generate SRT subtitles · Transcribe YouTube videos · Private, offline transcription