Line 21 vs Verbit
Verbit and Line 21 both combine AI with human captioners for live events. Verbit runs a large managed transcription service, strong in education, legal and broadcast through VITAC; Line 21 is a platform you run yourself, with any captioners you choose and a choice of AI engines.
At a glance
| Feature | Line 21 | Verbit |
|---|---|---|
| Live AI captions | Yes, in 100+ languages | Yes: its own speech recognition |
| Human (CART) captioners | Yes: accredited stenographers and respeakers, or your own captioners, free | Yes: Verbit's transcribers and CART captioners |
| Speech recognition engines | Choose per language: Speechmatics, Deepgram, Gladia, AWS Transcribe, Microsoft | Its own engine |
| Correcting AI captions | AI Proofreader checks every line against your event's names and terms | Human transcribers review AI output |
| Live translation | Yes, 90+ languages with DeepL, Google, Azure and OpenAI | Not stated publicly for live events |
| Live AI dubbing | Yes (beta): 75 languages with Gemini Live Translate | Not stated publicly |
| Captions encoded into streams | Yes: CEA-608 into RTMP and SRT, in the cloud | Broadcast captioning through its VITAC business |
| Multi-language HLS player | Yes: a caption and dubbed audio track per language | Not stated publicly |
| Zoom and Teams | Yes: caption token for Zoom and Teams, plus a Zoom app | Yes: Zoom through a caption token |
| Pricing | Free pay as you go; plans from $199 a month | Not published |
Key differences
Managed service or open platform
Verbit supplies its own transcribers as a service. On Line 21 you can book our captioners, bring your own, or run AI alone, all in the same project.
Choice of AI
Verbit uses its own speech recognition. Line 21 lets you choose from several engines per language.
Translation and dubbing
Line 21 translates every caption line live into 90+ languages and can dub speech into 75 languages, on the same platform.
Delivery
Line 21 encodes captions into RTMP and SRT streams and publishes multi-language HLS itself, with no separate broadcast service.
Choose Line 21 if
- You want to run captioning yourself, with your own or our captioners
- You need live translation or AI dubbing alongside captions
- You stream to several platforms and want captions in each
- You want published, predictable pricing
Choose Verbit if
- You want a fully managed transcription service across many courses or hearings
- Your captioning is tied to US broadcast workflows already served by VITAC
About Verbit
Verbit combines its own speech recognition with human transcribers, and offers live CART captioning that can be delivered into Zoom. In 2021 it acquired VITAC, one of North America's largest broadcast captioning providers.
Sources
- Verbit real-time transcription (CART) announcement
- Verbit and Zoom integration
- Verbit acquires VITAC (TV Technology)
Based on Verbit's public information, reviewed October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
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