How Cast compares

Both let you edit audio by editing a transcript. Descript is a broad all-in-one that also does video and screen recording, and it has automatic speaker detection. Cast is a finisher, not an all-in-one: audio only, no video timeline, no stock-music rabbit hole. Descript gives you a library to search and a fader to ride; Cast generates the track for the episode, hands you the stems, ducks it under the voice on its own, and clears it for commercial use.

Pick Descript if the deliverable is video. On speakers, Descript will guess who is talking; Cast asks you to say so once (⇧S) and then remembers. On a two-mic recording the guess is usually right; on one shared mic no tool is, and a wrong guess costs more to unpick than a right label costs to type.

Pick Cast if the output is audio and the music is part of the job. In Descript, scoring an episode means finding a track and riding its volume around the speech. In Cast the music is generated for the episode, in stems, and it ducks under the voice on its own — and on Plus and Max it comes with a commercial license, so a sponsored show does not become a rights question later.

The difference that shows up on a bad day: Cast never writes over your recording. Every cut, mute, filler removal and AI enhancement is a layer on top of an untouched original, and one Restore button puts it back — including after export. There is no "save a copy first" ritual, because there is nothing to lose.

• BothEdit audio by editing the transcript. Filler-word and pause removal. AI voice cleanup.
• Descript onlyVideo and screen recording. Automatic speaker detection. Overdub-style voice tools.
• Cast onlyGenerative music per episode, in stems, with a commercial license. Automatic ducking. Platform loudness presets. Non-destructive — nothing is ever overwritten.