Comparison
Subtitles King vs Self-hosted MCP
Same tools. Same protocol. Different tradeoffs.
TL;DR
At a glance.
| Feature | Subtitles King | Self-hosted MCP |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 1 line | ~5 minutes |
| Cost | Free tier | Your hardware |
| Privacy | Sent to our backend | 100% your network |
| Rate limits | Yes (free tier) | None |
| Updates | Auto | Manual |
| MCP tools exposed | Same 4 | Same 4 |
| Air-gap possible | ✗ | ✓ |
| Hardware needed | None | CPU + (GPU) |
When Self-hosted MCP wins
- Videos never leave your network — full data residency control.
- No rate limits — process as many videos as your hardware allows.
- Customize the pipeline (different Whisper model, different ffmpeg flags).
- Works behind a corporate firewall.
When Subtitles King wins
- No hardware to provision, no ffmpeg or Whisper to install.
- Always running the latest version.
- Lower latency for occasional/bursty workloads (no cold starts).
- Free tier covers most individual developer needs.
Code
Setup, side by side.
Subtitles King
# Hosted: register one URL
claude mcp add --transport http subtitlesking \
https://brains.subtitlesking.com/mcpSelf-hosted MCP
# Self-host: install the bridge, point at your backend
curl -L https://github.com/kirillzubovsky/subtitlesking-mcp/releases/latest/download/subtitlesking-mcp-darwin-arm64.tar.gz \
| tar -xz
sudo mv subtitlesking-mcp /usr/local/bin/
SUBTITLESKING_URL=http://your-server:8080 \
claude mcp add subtitlesking $(which subtitlesking-mcp)FAQ
Common questions.
Can I switch from hosted to self-host later?+
Yes — it's the same MCP tools either way. Your agents and prompts don't change. Just swap the URL or binary.
Is the protocol the same?+
Yes. Both flavors expose the same four tools (start_upload, get_video_status, get_transcript, get_download_url) over JSON-RPC 2.0. Bytes never travel through the LLM context — start_upload returns a presigned URL the agent uploads to with curl.
What about a hybrid — local MCP binary, hosted backend?+
That's actually the default. The MCP binary defaults to forwarding to brains.subtitlesking.com. Useful if your client doesn't support streamable-HTTP yet.