Ask three people what a product video costs and you get three numbers that share no digits. That is not because anyone is lying. It is because "product video" describes assets that have almost nothing in common, and because the quoted price hides most of the actual cost.
We are not going to invent market rates here, because they vary too much by country, format and who you know. What is worth understanding is the structure underneath the number, because that is what tells you whether a quote is reasonable for your stage.
A product video costs more than its quote because the quote only prices production. The full cost is five things: direction, production, revisions, maintenance when the product changes, and the founder attention that never appears on an invoice. For an early-stage team the useful figure is cost per asset per month rather than cost per project, since a launch is followed by a feature, a beta and a fundraise within the same quarter. ShipTeaser sits at the low end of that structure: the first video is free with no credit card, then $99 a month for one video a week, $149 for two and $199 for four.
What you are actually paying for
Almost every product video quote is a bundle of five things. Some options remove one or two of them, and that is where the price differences come from.
| Cost driver | What it means | Who carries it |
|---|---|---|
| Direction | Deciding what the video says and in what order | Agency, freelancer, or you |
| Production | Making the frames exist: animation, capture, design | Whoever holds the tools |
| Revisions | Rounds of changes, each with a wait between them | Usually billed, always slow |
| Maintenance | Redoing it when the product or brand moves | Almost never quoted upfront |
| Your attention | Briefings, feedback, approvals, chasing | Always you, never on the invoice |
The invoice covers production. The expensive parts are revisions, maintenance and the week of founder attention nobody prices.
The four options, honestly compared
Set aside the price tags for a second and compare what each route actually gives you.
- An agency. Highest quality ceiling, highest coordination cost, slowest. Worth it for one flagship asset that has to be perfect: a funding announcement, a category-defining launch. Not worth it for the fourth feature drop this quarter.
- A freelance motion designer. Better value than an agency and often better taste, but you become the project manager. The relationship works when you have steady work for them; it stalls when you need something on Thursday and they are booked.
- Doing it yourself in an editor. Free in money, expensive in the only resource an early-stage founder is actually short of. It also tends to look like it was made by someone learning the tool, because it was.
- Generating it. Cheapest per asset and fastest by a wide margin. The tradeoff is control: you are choosing a system's judgement over your own, so the question becomes whether the output is good enough to represent you.
The number that actually matters
Not the price of one video. The price of the tenth. Early-stage teams do not have a video problem, they have a video cadence problem: a launch, then a feature, then a beta, then a fundraise, then another feature. Any option that is affordable once and unaffordable ten times is the wrong option for a company that ships continuously.
That is why the useful unit is cost per asset per month, not cost per project. A route that produces one excellent video per quarter loses to a route that produces one decent video per ship, because launch content compounds through frequency, not polish. The cadence argument is laid out in video content for startups.
What ShipTeaser costs
Since we are talking about price: the first video is free, with no credit card. After that it is $99 a month for one video a week, $149 for two, and $199 for four. You paste a product URL and get a 15-second, 1080p silent motion-graphics teaser in about two minutes.
What that price does not include is equally worth stating. There is no editor or timeline, no voice-over or avatars, no screen recording, and no stock footage. If your asset needs a narrated walkthrough or a hand-crafted 60-second brand film, this is the wrong tool and an honest freelancer is the better spend.
How to decide in five minutes
- Count the assets you need this quarter. One? Consider paying a human. Six or more? Cadence wins, and hand production will quietly not happen.
- Check whether the video has to be exact. Regulated claim, investor-facing, category-defining message: pay a person. Launch-day attention: generate it.
- Price your own hours honestly. A week of founder time is the most expensive line item in any of these options.
- Ask what happens when the product changes. If the answer is "re-brief and re-pay," you bought an asset with an expiry date.
The last question is the one founders skip and regret. Products move fast at this stage: the headline changes, the screenshots change, the brand colours get tightened. Anything generated from your live page reflects that automatically. Anything hand-built from a snapshot starts drifting out of date the moment it is delivered, which is why the URL to video approach exists in the first place.
FAQ
What does a product video cost?
There is no single rate, because a product video can mean a hand-animated brand film or a fifteen-second text-led teaser, and those are different jobs. What stays constant is the structure of the bill: direction, production, revisions, maintenance and your own hours. Ask any quote which of those five it covers, because the ones it leaves out are the ones that surprise you later. ShipTeaser is priced as a subscription rather than per project, at $99 a month for one video a week, $149 for two and $199 for four, with the first video free and no credit card.
Why do product video quotes vary so much?
Because the phrase covers assets with nothing in common, and because each route carries a different set of the five cost drivers. An agency prices direction, production and revisions together and absorbs the coordination itself. A freelancer prices production and hands the direction and project management back to you. Generating the video removes production and revisions from the bill entirely and trades control for speed. The number moves because the bundle moves.
Is a product video worth it for an early-stage startup?
It is worth it when you can produce one on every ship rather than once a quarter. A single polished video for a launch that nobody sees is a worse spend than a decent video attached to each release, because launch content compounds through frequency rather than polish. If the route you pick is affordable once and unaffordable ten times, it is the wrong route for a company that ships continuously.
How much does it cost to make a product video yourself?
Nothing in cash and a great deal in the resource founders are actually short of. A first video in an editor typically eats several days between learning the tool, sourcing assets and re-cutting, and it usually looks like a first video. The honest way to compare options is to price your own week alongside the invoice, because founder attention is the largest line item in every route and the only one that never appears on paper.
What is not included when you generate a product video?
With ShipTeaser specifically: there is no editor or timeline, no voice-over or avatars, no screen recording and no stock footage. It produces a 15-second, 1080p silent motion-graphics teaser built from a product URL in about two minutes. A narrated walkthrough or a hand-crafted 60-second brand film is a different job, and a freelancer is the better spend for it.