Choosing how to make videos can be very complicated for small businesses. An internal editor provides consistency and intimate knowledge of the brand, while freelance editors give flexibility and do not commit the business to hiring a full-time staff member.
AI video tools introduce another option, especially for businesses producing frequent, straightforward content on a tighter budget. But the monthly price or hourly rate only tells part of the story.
Additional advantages, software used, equipment required, time spent coordinating the work, contribution to the process from the creativity perspective, and the volume of videos created all contribute to the true price of video making.
The Full Cost of an In-House Editor
Salary data for video editors differs across sources, but a reasonably consistent picture emerges: entry-level editors in the US typically earn somewhere around $19–20/hour ($45,000/year), mid-level editors around $27–35/hour (roughly $58,000–$70,000/year), and senior editors around $34–40/hour (up to $76,000/year or more). These numbers come from several independent salary aggregators and should be read as a general range instead of a precise universal number, since location, specialization, and individual negotiation shift them meaningfully.
The salary itself, though, is only part of the real price. Benefits, payroll taxes, equipment, software licenses, and management time add a substantial amount on top, commonly estimated at somewhere between 25% and 50% above base salary for a full-time employee once these are accounted for. This means an in-house editor earning a $60,000 salary usually represents a genuine cost closer to $75,000–$90,000 once the full picture is included. That cost is fixed and ongoing regardless of how much video work exists in a given month, which is exactly what makes an in-house hire the right call at high, consistent volume and a genuinely costly mismatch at low or uncommon volume.
The Full Cost of A Freelancer
Freelance video editor rates span a wide range depending on experience and specialization, roughly $20–40/hour for junior to mid-level work by several salary-aggregator estimates, with specialized platforms citing senior and expert freelance rates broadly higher, sometimes $75–130/hour or more for editors with deep experience leading complex projects. Freelance rates tend to run comparable to or somewhat higher than an equivalent in-house hourly rate, which makes sense once you believe that a freelancer’s rate has to cover their own benefits, taxes, software, and the gaps between paid projects that a salaried employee doesn’t have to personally absorb.
But the price that is underestimated with freelancing is not the price per hour. Finding a qualified freelancer, vetting their work, briefing them on a project’s context and expectations, and reviewing the result all take real time, and that time repeats to some degree with every new freelancer relationship unless the same person is retained repeatedly. A company using freelance editors for genuinely occasional, variable work absorbs this coordination cost far more efficiently than a business trying to use freelance editors as a substitute for a role that actually needs full-time, consistent attention.
The Full Cost of an AI Video Tool
An AI video tool’s expense is the most straightforward of the three: a monthly subscription, generally free at a basic tier, with paid plans commonly in the range of $10–30/month for individual or small-team use, occasionally higher for larger team plans or heavier feature sets. There’s no equivalent to salary, benefits, or freelance coordination overhead, since the tool doesn’t need to manage a person’s schedule, workload, or professional development.
What this cost comparison misses if left at the subscription price alone is that an AI tool shifts the creative direction and judgment work onto whoever on the business’s team is operating it. When one hires a professional editor or a freelancer, one is paying for their creative decision-making skills. An AI tool brings execution efficiency, but the business still needs to supply the direction, what the video should say, how it should feel, what “done” looks like, since that judgment doesn’t disappear; it just moves in-house to whoever is directing the tool.
Matching the Option to What the Business Actually Needs
High, consistent volume with content requiring ongoing creative judgment favors an in-house hire, since the fixed price is justified by high, steady utilization, and having someone embedded in the company who understands its brand and audience deeply pays off over many videos rather than being re-established with every new project.
Variable, moderate volume where sophisticated creative judgment matters but doesn’t justify full-time headcount favors a freelancer, particularly one retained repeatedly so the coordination cost of re-briefing a new person each time doesn’t repeat.
High-frequency, straightforward content, product videos, social posts, routine updates, where speed and consistency matter more than bespoke creative direction favors an AI video tool, since the content type doesn’t require the depth of judgment a specialist would bring, and the cost savings compound directly with volume in a way a per-project freelance rate doesn’t.
Invideo Editor fits this last category directly: it’s a free, professional timeline that reviews raw footage and assembles a structured cut from a plain-language description, managing the execution work a small business would otherwise be paying an editor or freelancer to do manually, while leaving the actual creative direction — what the video wants to say and how it should feel — with whoever on the team is directing it. For a small business producing a steady stream of straightforward product or marketing videos, this removes a meaningful share of the execution cost without requiring a full-time hire or a recurring freelance relationship.
Conclusion
Comparing an in-house editor, a freelancer, and an AI video tool honestly requires looking past the headline number for each—salary, hourly rate, subscription price — to the full cost each option actually carries: benefits and overhead for an in-house hire, coordination and rate premiums for a freelancer, and the shifted burden of creative direction for an AI tool.
The proper selection of the alternative will depend upon finding the best match between the cost structure of the alternative selected and the business’s content requirements.
FAQs
What will be the cost of employing a video editor in-house?
It will cost roughly $45,000 to $76,000 a year depending on the experience and the geographical location. When you consider other costs like benefits, equipment, software, etc., the actual cost will be even more than that.
What will be the cost of an AI video editor?
AI video editors provide free services as well as paid services at the price of roughly $10 to $30 per month.
Is an AI video tool cheaper than a video editor?
The cost of the subscription itself is much less than the salary of a person or any freelance charges. But one still needs an employee or a freelancer to create input and make decisions regarding the video.
When is hiring a freelancer justified?
If the demand for video editing services is not very regular but still the input from a professional is required, the company might benefit from hiring a freelancer.
