Do you really want the stress of building video editing software?

You'll need to manage and maintain servers and containers, CPU and memory utilization, queues, auto-scaling, concurrency, storage, codecs, and video editing software. And that's before building a UI and getting creative with video editing and motion graphics.

Developing your own video editing API isn't as simple as launching a server and installing an FFmpeg library. What happens when hundreds of users want to create videos at the same time, or you need to resolve obscure bugs and errors.

Building your own infrastructure requires experienced engineers, years of development and ongoing maintenance and optimisation.

Other solutions might provide you with the software you need but you need to manage your own infrastructure, or they provide the infrastructure, but you are limited by their inflexible constraints.

video editing api infrastructure as code
It would have taken a lot of research on what technologies we needed to leverage technically for us to achieve the desired outcome. This would have taken at least two months of engineering time for a simple use case, and up to 6 months if the scope widened. Hector Zarate, Spotify

You could spend thousands of hours developing your own video editing API, increasing time to market and costing money.

Build with a battle tested video editing API

Develop video centric applications and workflows using a cloud hosted, fully managed, automated video editing service that will save you hundreds of hours developing and configuring software and eliminate the need to deploy, manage, monitor, and maintain your own infrastructure.

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High Availability

Keep your application up and running

You can relax when it comes to rendering hundreds of video at the same time. Our video editing API will automatically scale to render thousands of videos.

We manage the infrastructure and provide an uptime guarantee.

video editing api uptime chart

High Performance

Deliver video to your users faster

We generate thousands of videos every day for hundreds of different use cases. We've worked out the bottlenecks and optimisations to make our system fast.

To speed up rendering we split an edit into multiple parts, render them in parallel, and stitch them back together again.

Your videos will be ready in seconds instead of minutes.

video renders per hour

Easy and Flexible

Build without constraints

With our API first approach you aren't tied into someone else's template system, workflow, or framework. Build applications on your terms, the way you want.

Our video editing API uses industry standard RESTful architecture and easy to understand JSON templates that follow well established video editing principles.

Editing a video using JSON and Postman

Integrations

Send videos to where you need them

We integrate with all the major cloud providers, video hosting platforms and social media platforms.

As soon as your video is rendered it will be available on the platform of your choice.

Video editing API documentation

SHOTSTACK VIDEO EDITING API

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Shotstack's API automate the creation of personalized videos?
Yes. The Shotstack API supports automation for personalized video creation, allowing you to upload and combine different video and audio segments, add fixed intro videos, and automate rendering and exporting.
Can we upload and combine different video and audio segments using Shotstack?
Yes. You can combine unlimited video and audio segments. You can upload these to Shotstack or reference them dynamically to create unique variations of a video.
Does Shotstack support auto-captioning?
Yes. You can automatically add stylized captions to your videos with Shotstack by referencing an SRT or VTT file, which can be automatically generated with Shotstack.
Does Shotstack support adding background music?
Yes. You can add background music to your videos and add effects such as fade in and fade out.
Can I use any image or video on the internet to create videos with?
You can reference any publicly accessible URL on the internet to create videos with Shotstack.
Do you provide a video editor SDK and photo editor SDK?
Yes. Shotstack offers a comprehensive white-label video editor SDK and photo editor SDK that can be integrated into your app or website.
What are the video editing capabilities via Shotstack’s API?
Shotstack supports a wide range of video editing capabilities, from simple slideshow videos to advanced compositions with custom animations and transparent overlays. We aim to provide a fully-featured video editing suite of tools capable of creating the most beautiful videos.
Can the API create dynamically selected videos based on external data inputs from an external database such as MySQL?
Yes. You can use our REST API to integrate the video rendering process in any programming language, allowing you to access your data where it lives.
Are there existing integrations or tools within Shotstack’s ecosystem for data-driven video creation?
Shotstack offers a range of integrations with storage solutions such as AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Google Drive. It also integrates with a wide range of generative AI models to create media via simple prompts.
Can I preview Shotstack’s services?
You can sign up for an account and get started with 10 credits.
Does Shotstack support creating custom videos at scale with variable data for lead generation?
Yes. You can create thousands of personalized videos for lead generation and make these available via storage solutions such as Google Drive or distribute them directly on platforms such as Vimeo and TikTok.
What are the limits on video and API calls in Shotstack’s pricing plans?
Shotstack provides pay-as-you-go pricing and subscriptions. All plans provide you with renders in 1080p resolution, a developer sandbox, access to our white-label video editing SDK, 3-hour render length, industry-leading rendering speeds, and email support.
Is Shotstack GDPR compliant and can you sign a data processing agreement?
Yes, Shotstack is GDPR compliant and can sign a data processing agreement.
Do I need coding skills to use Shotstack or is there a graphical interface available?
Using Shotstack’s API generally requires some development experience, though we provide a no-code workflow builder, integrations with Make and Zapier, and access to a fully-featured video editing tool.
Does Shotstack offer a sandbox version of its API for testing purposes?
Yes, Shotstack provides a sandbox environment for testing.