Why this exists

The formats that dominate TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Reels — quiz videos, chat stories, versus battles, chart races, audiograms — aren’t really “edited”. They’re templates filled with data. Yet every tool that makes them either locks video export behind a subscription or stamps a paid-removal watermark across your work.

The reason is simple: rendering video on a server costs the tool money for every export. Shortsmith flips that. Videos are encoded on your device using the WebCodecs renderer from Remotion, so each export costs nothing to serve — and can therefore be genuinely free, supported by ads instead of subscriptions.

Every render is deterministic: the same validated input presses the same output. AI is optional and can draft your content, but it never changes the render after you approve the form. As with any generated text, review AI-filled facts and attributions before publishing.

Shortsmith is built and run by one person. If a machine jams or you want a new format on the floor, email hello@shortsmith.me.