With a promise that anyone can create content on its platform, online video maker Veed advertises itself as “the fastest and easiest way to make professional-quality videos.” For an online service, that’s quite a tall order, so we thought we’d test it out. 

Veed: Pricing & plans

• A free, well-stocked subscription level, but the more powerful tools are only available if you pay, as always 

Veed is subscription-based, and the more you pay, the more features you’ll access. 

If you want to check out what’s on offer, or are happy with fewer tools, then rejoice: Veed has a free tier to try out. Your videos will be limited to a resolution of 720p, the video editor is locked to 10-minute projects, while auto-subtitling is capped at 30 minutes a month. You’ll get a limited number of templates, too, however, there is a built-in screen recorder to capture your desktop or webcam - even at the same time, and be granted live streaming privileges. All videos are watermarked, but overall, that is pretty good for a free account.

The Basic subscription gives you more interesting tools, like Clean Audio. Interestingly, text-to-speech tools are lauded as a feature for this tier, but we found it available in the free plan too. All templates are available, and you can make videos without watermarks. These can be up to 25 minutes long and be in full HD (1080p). This plan costs $25 a month (approx. £21 / AU$38) or $216 a year (approx. £177 / AU$324).

The Pro plan adds the ability to translate subtitles, and even be able to download STR subtitle files. Brand kits, custom fonts, and custom watermarks are also included here - ideal for teams focused on upping video output. The plan is priced at $38 a month (approx. £32 / AU$57) or  $360 a year (approx. £295 / AU$539).

The Business tier allows up to 4K exports, introduces batch automation, video analysis and custom templates. The organization-oriented plan adds custom tech support, including an account manager, workspace setup, onboarding, single sign-on, and custom privacy and security. It costs $70 a month (approx. £58 / AU$105) or $708 a year (approx. £579 / AU$1060).

• Pricing & plans: 3/5 

Veed: Templates

• Even the free tier offers a decent selection of templates, which are all designed to work in multiple formats 

After creating an account, you’re taken to the template selection. Using one is not compulsory if you prefer to start from scratch, but the advantage of templates is how much time they can save, especially when they’re fully customizable, as these are.

Veed has a good number of them. Even the limited number available to free subscribers seems decent enough to find something specific. You can apply filters, or just use the search field to narrow down your choices.

We very much liked that all templates we checked out were designed to work in multiple formats. Landscape, portrait, square, and the like are all present and correct, even if the thumbnail appears to show otherwise. Select one, and you’re offered the choice of formats before getting to customizing the project. Note that once you’re in the editing section, you’ll be offered multiple other format options, and you can switch between them at any time during the creation process.

This is also where you’ll find a video preview of said template, so you can be sure it contains what you want.

• Templates: 3.5/5 

Veed: Interface

• A simple and effective design, that isn’t dissimilar to most of Veed’s competitors 

Having chosen a template or selected a blank canvas, it’s time to explore the editing interface. If you’ve looking into other online video makers, you’ll find it instantly familiar, with a sidebar on the left containing all the tools and media you need, followed by an inspector section showcasing specific changeable parameters. The main main preview pane is the core focus, with the timeline at the foot of the screen. 

It’s an effective and easy to understand style, not a million miles away from many video editors for beginners, so it’s not surprising it’s adopted by most. The interface is the same for all subscription tiers, but if you’re on a lower subscription level, you’ll encounter some tools bearing a small orange icon - it’s there to remind you that those features are unavailable unless you upgrade your subscription. Tools are divided by category: media, subtitle, elements, transitions, and so on. Click on one and the Inspector section will be populated with all available options. 

• Interface: 4/5 

Veed: Tools

• An excellent selection of well-designed tools, especially considering so many are free 

Once you click on an element you’d like to use, it usually gets added at the playhead or at the start of your video. However, it’s easy to drag it to another location along the Timeline. The same applies for trimming your footage: just grab the edge of the clip and drag it inwards. 

We were impressed with the Timeline - it’s quite advanced, granting you multiple layers to work with, and automatically deleting empty layers to keep your project compact and easy to navigate. To make more in-depth customizations, click on a clip for the Inspector section to reveal all changeable parameters. Again, everything is easy to navigate through and make the alterations you need.

More advanced features, such as recording your screen, webcam, or both at the same time, are made surprisingly easy. Just make sure you grant permission for that webpage to access those features when prompted, and everything will work as expected. Even some potentially complex VFX tools like green screen keying were quite effective considering you have few parameters to control.

With so much good here, we were somewhat disappointed by the low number of transitions, and the fact you don’t appear to be able to alter their length, or anything about them for that matter. Still, that’s a minor issue for a service that's well-designed, responsive, and simple to use.

• Tools: 4.5/5 

Veed: Media & buffering

• Adding your own footage seems to stress Veed out, the usual responsiveness replaced by endless buffering 

Despite all the great things this video maker offers, there is a downside. The interface is responsive when using the available templates, and adding stock media, but the good vibes disappear when you try to use your own media.

First of all, although you’ll find a large ‘Upload a file’ button in the Media section, clips aren’t stored in a dedicated library. Instead, they’re immediately added to your project, which becomes a real issue if you upload multiple clips at the same time. Worse still, delete them, and later change your mind, and you’ll have to re-upload them. The same applies if you want to use the same clips in another project. Since uploading footage is very time-consuming for online video makers, this is not a positive aspect of the service.

We noticed that once we’d added our own media, the whole responsiveness we lauded earlier fell apart. We were now faced with constant buffering delays, clips appearing and disappearing at random, while the service made us wait for things to settle down - which never seemed to happen. It reached a point when we thought it might be best to stick to the stock videos offered by Veed instead. 

• Media & buffering: 1/5 

Veed: Scorecard

Should I buy?

Buy it if...

You want a professional level of video editing straight from your browser, appreciate a responsive interface, and like to have many powerful options on hand. 

Don't buy it if...

You need to use your own media as opposed to stock footage, you prefer dedicated software rather than an online service, and don’t want ongoing subscriptions. 

Veed: Alternatives

We've tested, reviewed, and rated a range of video makers and editors, including the best video editing apps and the best Adobe Premiere Pro alternatives.  

For alternatives to Veed, we recommend seeing our reviews for similar video makers Vimeo Create, FlexClip, and Clipchamp. 

• Best video editing computers: For high-performance post production processes

 One of the biggest advantages of making videos online, as opposed to working with software installed on a local computer, is how easy it can be to collaborate with others. This is one of the many features offered by Biteable.  

Biteable: Pricing & plans

• An expensive subscription service, mostly broken down by number of users  

Biteable’s monthly/annual subscription plans are based on whether or not you’re working with others or on your own.

The Pro plan is best for individual creators. With it, you get unlimited cloud storage and HD exports, access to hundreds of animated characters, icons, and other media. It includes millions of royalty-free stock video, analytics, and round the clock tech support. It costs $99 a month (approx. £82 / AU$150), or $588 a year (approx. £480 / AU$880) should you choose to pay yearly.

The Teams plan is built for online collaboration. This subscription offers the same features as Pro, but adds collaborative editing, premium business soundtracks, many scenes and templates, and a dedicated account management and onboarding program. It’s available for $199 a month (approx. £164 / AU$300), or $1188 a year (approx. £970 / AU$1778). This allows you to work in a 3-person team. Should you wish to add additional members, each will cost you an additional $33 a month (approx. £27 / AU$50). .

This is on the higher side compared to rival video maker platforms. Thankfully, Biteable has a 7-day trial of the Teams plan, so you can check if this is the right service for you.

• Pricing & plans: 2.5/5  

Biteable: Interface & experience

• Biteable is well designed, making it easy to navigate through its various features 

First off, Mac users will be disappointed to learn that Biteable does not support Safari. However, Firefox and Chrome will work fine.

As with other video makers, you have the ability to start a project from scratch, or take inspiration from one of their numerous templates. These are broken down by category and aspect ratio, and you have hundreds to use. Once you start working, the interface is pretty easy to get to grips with. To the left is a sidebar with the options Add, Style, Edit, and Publish videos. The rest of the interface changes depending on which of these four you’re currently using.

Under Add, you’ll find another sidebar listing the various types of assets, such as text boxes, various animated and still backgrounds, even characters. This section lets you add entirely new scenes onto your project, or objects within existing scenes.

Style is a great place to change the look of one, some or all of your project’s scenes. That way you can make sure your look remains consistent from scene to scene, with the same colors and fonts throughout.

Edit is where you build your project, and where the bulk of your customizations lie. Most of the interface consists of a preview section where you see the currently selected scene. All scenes are displayed at the bottom of the interface in a scrollable timeline. To its right are changeable parameters depending on the selected object. A text box for instance will showcase text-based parameters, such as colors, fonts, size, and alignment - while a video clip would offer you the option to replace it, trim it, alter its volume, and so on.

Should you need to move or resize objects in your scene, you do that straight from the main preview window. Snapping guides appear as you drag an object around, helping you place it in the right location. It’s all very self-contained and easy to understand.

Applying transitions between scenes is done in the Timeline. You’ll find a little circular icon in between two scenes. Click on that to reveal all available transitions. There aren’t that many, but they’re well-implemented.

And finally, ‘Share’ is where you get a link to your finished products to distribute to others. The video is hosted by biteable, and the page where it resides allows for comments should you want them. You also have the option of getting some embed code to place it within the body of some other webpage.

If you need to download your video for use elsewhere, that can only be done once you purchase a subscription.

• Interface & experience: 4.5/5 

Biteable: Assets

• Biteable has a list of interesting and unique assets you can add to your projects, making your creations entertaining to watch 

It’s worth spending a little time with the assets offered by the video maker. For one thing, you have direct access to the Shutterstock media library, making adding any clips or images from there fast and easy. You can of course upload your own footage, although you have to deal with the usual delay that entails, which all such services suffer from.

If you work with a team, you get to choose between storing assets in your personal folder, or the team folder. It’s clear that if you need your colleagues to access them, they have to be in the right location.

As we review many such services, we appreciate it when one offers something more unique and personal. And Biteable does shine in that department, especially with the Icons and Characters sections.

Icons are pre-made templates, with unique monochrome animated graphics you can use, resize and reposition. 

Characters is a similar concept, but those generic graphics are replaced with 2D or 3D models. Each comes with a cute and friendly animation that makes the scene come alive and more enjoyable to watch. The customizations are pretty limited, although you do have eight different styles to choose from, including ‘clay’, ‘bear’ and ‘robot’. They’re a lot of fun to peruse through and use. 

• Assets: 4.5/5 

Biteable: Buffering

• The downside to this service appears to be the endless buffering 

We did encounter an annoying recurring problem when we tried out the service: buffering; endless buffering. Whether it’s seeing a preview animation of a template, or to play back a scene or the entire project, or to even watch the video of the completed project, we had to wait for Biteable to load what we wanted to see. And it wasn’t a case of loading it in the buffer once and viewing it again later. Every time we wanted to watch a preview, even of one we’d just seen, we had to wait for it to load. This was frustrating to say the least and hampered an otherwise solid workflow.  

• Buffering: 1/5 

Biteable: Scorecard

Should I buy?

Buy it if...

You need to collaborate on your video maker projects, and like adding unique and original elements to your creations. 

Don't buy it if...

You don’t like waiting for everything to buffer, and don't want to invest in the high subscription prices. 

Biteable: Alternatives

We've tested a wide range of video makers and video editors, including the best video editing software for beginners and the best Premiere Pro alternatives.

For a strong alternative to Biteable, check out our reviews for Vimeo Create, FlexClip, and InVideo.