MakeBOF vs Captions: which fits TikTok Shop affiliates who don't film?
If you're looking for a Captions AI alternative for TikTok Shop, start with who Captions is for. Captions (captions.ai, also listed as Captions by Mirage) is a phone-first video editor for creators who film themselves. It captions your clips automatically and cleans up the footage, and from its Max plan up it can put AI actors or an AI twin of you on screen.
MakeBOF is for TikTok Shop affiliates who don't want to film at all. You paste a TikTok Shop product link or a shop username, pick a style, and each product becomes a vertical video of about 8 seconds with captions burned on. Prices on this page are as listed on October 16, 2026.
The short answer
Captions is the better app if you're on camera: it captions and edits what you film, and its Max and Frontier plans add AI actors and AI twins. MakeBOF fits affiliates who want product videos without filming, made in batches straight from TikTok Shop listings. For generated clips it also costs less, about $0.25 for a Standard video on MakeBOF Max against roughly $1.07 for 8 seconds of Captions' Prompt to Video on its Max plan.
Pick MakeBOF if
- You promote TikTok Shop products and don't want to film anything or appear on camera.
- You'd rather paste a product link or shop username than describe each product by hand.
- You need dozens of videos a week. A Standard video on Max works out to about $0.25 ($49 / 200 credits).
- You run several TikTok accounts and want finished videos sorted by the account that will post them.
- You don't want to pay for failures. MakeBOF charges credits only when a video finishes.
Pick Captions if
- You film yourself and mainly need good-looking captions and quick edits on your phone.
- You want a talking presenter, either an AI actor or an AI twin of you, reading a script.
- You need voiceover, translation or longer edits, none of which MakeBOF does.
- You want the cheapest way in. Basic is $9.99 a month in Captions' help docs.
- You have long videos to cut into short ones. The Clips tool on Max does that.
MakeBOF vs Captions: side by side
| MakeBOF | Captions | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | TikTok Shop affiliates and sellers who want product videos without filming | Creators who film themselves and want captions and AI edits |
| Input | A TikTok Shop product link, or a shop or creator username (bulk import) | Your own footage, or a text prompt for AI-generated video |
| Video format | Vertical 9:16, about 8 seconds, one clip per product | Whatever you film and edit; Prompt to Video is priced per 6 seconds |
| Talking avatars | No | Yes, AI actors and AI twins on Max and up |
| Batch / bulk | Queue a whole product list; 1, 2, 4 or 6 videos generate at once depending on plan | No product batch tool found. Clips (Max) cuts one long video into several short ones. |
| TikTok Shop import | Yes, with optional re-scraping every 1, 6, 12 or 24 hours | Not found |
| Captions | Burned on automatically, with emoji (English) | Its core tool: automatic captions, 100+ caption templates on Max and up, translation |
| Editing | No timeline editor; the style you pick shapes every video | Full editor with AI Edit styles, pause trimming and chat-based edits |
| Free plan | Yes, 10 credits a month, no card needed | Yes, basic editing tools; its help docs and pricing page disagree on AI credits |
| Paid plans from | $19/mo (Pro), or $190/yr | $9.99/mo Basic (help docs); the pricing page starts at Max, $24.99/mo (iOS prices) |
| Failed generations | Not charged; credits come off only when a video finishes | Not stated in the help pages we read |
| API | None advertised | Not found |
Captions details come from its public website on October 16, 2026. Plans change often, so check the Captions pricing page before you buy.
Pricing: MakeBOF vs Captions
MakeBOF
- Free$010 credits a month (10 Standard or 5 Premium videos), 20 products, 1 posting account
- Pro$19/mo50 credits a month, 250 products, 3 posting accounts, 2 videos at once. $190 a year if paid annually.
- Max$49/mo200 credits a month, 1,000 products, 10 posting accounts, 4 videos at once. $490 a year if paid annually.
- Scale$99/mo500 credits a month, 5,000 products, 20 posting accounts, 6 videos at once. $990 a year if paid annually.
A Standard video uses 1 credit and a Premium video uses 2. Credits are charged only when a video finishes, so a failed video costs nothing. Subscribers can add credit packs (20 for $7, 60 for $18, 200 for $50) that never expire.
Captions
- Free$0Basic editing tools and 1 caption template. Help docs and pricing page disagree on AI credits.
- Basic$9.99/mo200 credits a month. Listed in the help docs, not on the pricing page.
- Max$24.99/mo500 credits a month. AI Edit, AI actors and digital twins, chat-based editing, Clips.
- Frontier$69.99/mo1,400 credits a month, plus Captions' top tier of AI models.
- Frontier 2x$139.99/mo2,800 credits a month
- Frontier 4x$279.99/mo5,600 credits a month
- EnterpriseCustomBulk credit discounts and custom seats
As listed on October 16, 2026. Captions' pricing page says its prices reflect iOS plans, and it mentions discounted yearly billing without showing yearly prices. Unused credits roll over, up to 3× the monthly allowance.
What one short video costs
Captions' help docs give one per-second rate: Prompt to Video costs 16 credits for every 6 seconds. On Max, $24.99 buys 500 credits, so a credit is about $0.05 ($24.99 / 500). A 6-second clip is 16 credits, about $0.80. Stretched to 8 seconds to match a MakeBOF clip, it's about 21.3 credits (16 / 6 × 8), or about $1.07, if the rate is applied pro rata. If it rounds up to whole 6-second blocks, 8 seconds would be 32 credits, about $1.60. Every Captions plan works out to about $0.05 a credit, so a bigger plan doesn't lower the price per clip.
On MakeBOF Max, $49 buys 200 credits and a Standard video uses 1, so each one costs $0.245. A Premium video uses 2 or more credits, so $0.49 or more. Captions' help docs say actual credit costs vary with video length, model and settings, so treat its figure as an estimate. If you film your own footage and only edit it in Captions, this math doesn't apply.
What is Captions?
Captions is a video editing app for iPhone, Android and the web. It handles the editing a creator who talks to camera does every day: automatic captions in many styles, AI Edit styles that cut and polish a clip, pause trimming, eye-contact correction, noise removal and translation. The Max plan adds a chat-based editor, generated B-roll and music, and AI actors or a digital twin of you that can present a script. Captions' help docs describe these as Mirage-generated actors, and Mirage Studio has been merged into Captions, which is why you'll see both names.
Billing runs on monthly credits. Basic, at $9.99 a month with 200 credits, appears in Captions' help docs, while the pricing page starts at Max. The pricing page also says its prices reflect iOS plans, so check the price where you actually subscribe.
Where Captions is the better choice
If you're the face of your TikTok, Captions does more for you than MakeBOF can. You film a try-on or a product review, and Captions adds the captions, trims the pauses and fixes eye contact. MakeBOF has no timeline editor and makes its videos from product listings, so it won't help much with footage you shot yourself.
Captions also covers formats MakeBOF leaves out. MakeBOF has no talking avatars and no voiceover, makes one clip of about 8 seconds per product, and writes captions in English. Captions has AI actors and AI twins that read a script, voiceover and translation tools, and a full editor for your own longer videos. Its Clips tool turns one long video into several short ones, which helps if you record long reviews or streams. If a talking presenter is the main thing you're after, our MakeBOF vs HeyGen page covers another tool built around that.
It's also cheaper to start. Basic at $9.99 a month is about half the price of MakeBOF Pro, and if captions on your own clips are all you need, Basic may be enough.
Where MakeBOF is the better choice
MakeBOF fits affiliates who want a steady supply of product videos without filming. Paste a product link, or a shop or creator username to pull in a whole catalog with photos, price and sales. You can set a source to re-scrape every 1, 6, 12 or 24 hours, so new listings show up on their own.
Then you pick a ready-made style, such as a GirlyPop try-on, a "That Price" in-store find, a Flash Sale promo or furniture in a real room. Every video in the batch follows it, and there are no prompts to write. MakeBOF has AI make a styled image of the product, turns it into a short vertical video and burns on captions with emoji. A Standard video costs 1 credit. Premium costs 2 and uses several product photos as reference for a multi-shot clip.
The batch runs without you. Videos generate several at a time (1, 2, 4 or 6 at once on Free, Pro, Max and Scale), the rest wait in a queue and start automatically, and you can watch progress live. Finished videos can be sorted by the TikTok accounts you post from. Credits come off only when a video finishes, so a failed one costs nothing. We didn't find a TikTok Shop import or a product batch queue in Captions.
Workflow: making 30 product videos in each tool
In Captions
There are two routes. You can film the 30 products yourself, which means having samples on hand, then caption and edit each clip in the app. Or you can use Prompt to Video and describe each product in a prompt, since we found no way to bring in TikTok Shop listings. At 6 seconds each, 30 clips use 480 credits (30 × 16), almost all of Max's 500 for the month. At 8 seconds each you'd need about 640, more than Max includes.
In MakeBOF
Paste the shop username, select 30 products from the imported list, pick a style and start the batch. On Max, four videos generate at a time and the other 26 queue up and start by themselves. The batch uses 30 of Max's 200 monthly credits, about $7.35 at $0.245 each. When it's done, assign the videos to the accounts you'll post from. Any video that fails costs nothing.
Cost at real TikTok Shop volume
Three videos a day on one account is about 90 a month. Ten a day spread across a few accounts is about 300. The examples below assume 8-second clips at the rates worked out above.
100 videos a month
- MakeBOF: Pro ($19, 50 credits) plus a 60-credit pack ($18) gives 110 Standard videos for $37. Max ($49) gives 200 Standard videos.
- Captions: 100 × 21.3 is about 2,130 credits. Frontier ($69.99, 1,400 credits) covers about 65 such clips, so you'd need Frontier 2x ($139.99, 2,800 credits).
300 videos a month
- MakeBOF: Scale ($99) has 500 credits, enough for 300 Standard videos with 200 to spare, or 250 Premium videos.
- Captions: 300 × 21.3 is about 6,400 credits. The largest listed plan, Frontier 4x ($279.99, 5,600 credits), covers about 262. At 6 seconds a clip, 300 videos use 4,800 credits and fit inside Frontier 4x.
Captions rolls unused credits over, up to 3× the monthly allowance, so a slow month can carry into a busy one. MakeBOF credit packs never expire. Neither changes the price per clip.
Questions people ask
How much does Captions cost?
As listed on October 16, 2026, Captions' pricing page shows Max at $24.99 a month (500 credits), Frontier at $69.99 (1,400), Frontier 2x at $139.99 (2,800) and Frontier 4x at $279.99 (5,600), plus custom Enterprise pricing. Its help docs also list Basic at $9.99 a month with 200 credits. The pricing page says these are iOS prices. Yearly plans are billed upfront at a discount, but the page doesn't show the yearly prices.
How do Captions AI credits work?
Paid plans come with a monthly credit allowance, and the AI tools draw from it. The one per-second rate in Captions' help docs is Prompt to Video at 16 credits per 6 seconds; other tools vary by model and length. Unused credits roll over, and your balance can hold up to 3× your monthly allowance. MakeBOF is easier to predict: a Standard video is 1 credit, a Premium video is 2, and you're charged only when the video finishes.
Is Captions good for TikTok Shop?
It's good for TikTok Shop creators who film themselves. If you post try-ons, reviews or unboxings with your own face and voice, Captions will caption them fast and clean them up. It's a weaker fit for products you never touch. We didn't find a TikTok Shop import or a bulk product tool, so each product has to be filmed or described by hand.
What's a cheaper Captions alternative for TikTok Shop?
For generated product videos, MakeBOF costs less per clip. A Standard video on MakeBOF Max is $0.245, while 8 seconds of Captions' Prompt to Video on its Max plan works out to about $1.07. The Free plan gives you 10 credits a month with no card, so you can try it on your own products first. If you only need captions on footage you already shot, Captions Basic at $9.99 is cheaper than any paid MakeBOF plan.
Captions vs CapCut: which is better for TikTok Shop affiliates?
Both are editing apps, so both assume you have footage to work with. We haven't compared CapCut in detail here. If you're choosing between editors, compare caption styles, AI editing and price for the way you film. If you don't want to film at all, a tool that starts from the product listing, like MakeBOF, is the better fit. For an editor with stock footage and many AI models in one place, see MakeBOF vs InVideo AI.
Can MakeBOF make AI actor ads like Captions?
No. MakeBOF doesn't make talking avatars, AI presenters or voiceovers. Its videos are short product clips in the style you pick, such as a try-on or an in-store find, with captions on top, and nobody reads a script. If you want someone speaking to camera, Captions' AI actors are one option, and avatar-first tools like Arcads are built around that format.
How we compared
We read each tool's public pricing page, help docs and terms on October 16, 2026, and noted where their own pages disagree. MakeBOF figures come from our live plans. We make MakeBOF, so weigh that, and tell us at [email protected] if anything here is out of date and we'll fix it.