The other half of the same edit
This is the one comparison where the honest answer is "they're not really competitors". AutoPod decides which camera is on screen and cuts the silence out of a multicam podcast. Backstage Cut takes the sequence that comes out of that and captions, zooms and chapters it. Both are Premiere Pro extensions; neither replaces the other.
AutoPod pricing as published on their own pricing page, September 2026 · $29/month · Backstage Cut is $9/month with a 7-day free trial
The short version: AutoPod cuts multicam and jump cuts inside Premiere. Backstage Cut captions, zooms and chapters inside Premiere. Most editors who use one want the other.
| AutoPod | Backstage Cut | |
|---|---|---|
| The job it does | Multicam switching, jump cuts, silence removal on multi-track podcasts. | Captions, punch-in zooms, B-roll matching, chapters, silence cutting. |
| Where it runs | Inside Premiere Pro. Same as us — no round-trip either. | Inside Premiere Pro, on your open sequence. |
| Price | $29/month, Individual plan. | $9/month for 300 minutes. Free 7-day trial to start. |
| Setup it needs | Multiple cameras on separate tracks with separate audio. | One sequence with dialogue in it. Single-camera talking head is fine. |
| Premiere version | Premiere Pro 2023 or newer. | Premiere Pro 2021 (15.0) or newer. |
Where AutoPod wins
Every comparison page on the internet says the other tool is worse at everything. Here is where AutoPod genuinely beats us — if one of these is your situation, buy theirs and save yourself the trial.
AutoPod does it better
- Multicam switching is their entire craft and we do not attempt it
- A mature, commercially signed product — theirs installs without the unverified-publisher warning ours shows
- If you cut multi-camera podcasts, AutoPod saves more hours per episode than we do
What you get here instead
- Works on single-camera talking head, where AutoPod's multicam editor can't help
- Captions, zooms, chapters and B-roll, which AutoPod doesn't do at all
- Runs on Premiere 2021 and later, two years further back
- $9/month against $29 for a completely different feature set, not a cheaper version of theirs
- $59/year (about $4.92/month) if you'd rather pay once
You cut multi-camera podcasts and the switching is your time sink — buy AutoPod, honestly. Then come back for the captions and chapters, because that's the half it leaves you.
Asked about AutoPod
AutoPod cuts multicam and jump cuts inside Premiere. Backstage Cut captions, zooms and chapters inside Premiere. Most editors who use one want the other. Backstage Cut is $9/month (₹699/month in India) for 300 transcribed minutes per rolling 30 days, after a 7-day free trial with no card, so the cheapest way to answer this for your own edit is to run the free trial on the video you are working on now and compare the result against AutoPod directly.
AutoPod is $29/month, as published on their own pricing page in September 2026. Backstage Cut is $9/month (₹699/month in India) for 300 transcribed minutes per rolling 30 days, after a 7-day free trial with no card. Prices move, so check theirs before deciding — the date here is when we last read it.
Genuinely, these: Multicam switching is their entire craft and we do not attempt it; A mature, commercially signed product — theirs installs without the unverified-publisher warning ours shows; If you cut multi-camera podcasts, AutoPod saves more hours per episode than we do. If one of those is your situation, AutoPod is the better buy and the trial will only cost you an evening finding that out.
Choose AutoPod if: You cut multi-camera podcasts and the switching is your time sink — buy AutoPod, honestly. Then come back for the captions and chapters, because that's the half it leaves you. Choose Backstage Cut if what you want is: Works on single-camera talking head, where AutoPod's multicam editor can't help; Captions, zooms, chapters and B-roll, which AutoPod doesn't do at all; Runs on Premiere 2021 and later, two years further back; $9/month against $29 for a completely different feature set, not a cheaper version of theirs; $59/year (about $4.92/month) if you'd rather pay once.
Try it on the video
you're editing tonight
7 days of unlimited transcription is plenty for a whole video, start to finish, on your own footage — no card, and nothing to undo if you don't like it.