if you want a BIGVU alternative because you only need the teleprompter part, open prompter is a free, open-source teleprompter for iPhone and iPad with no watermark, no account and no subscription. if you need captions, an editor and one-tap posting, BIGVU does more, and this page says where.
i built open prompter, so weigh my view with that in mind. every BIGVU price and limit below comes from BIGVU's own pricing page and its App Store listing. prices checked September 2026. plans change, so check them again before you pay.
the short version#
| BIGVU | open prompter | |
|---|---|---|
| price | free plan; Starter $149/year billed annually (shown as $12/month); AI Pro $229/year; Max $589/year | free, no in-app purchases |
| free exports | 720p, watermarked | no watermark, up to 4K |
| length per video | 9 minutes on Free and Starter; 59 minutes from AI Pro | no plan limits, because there are no plans |
| captions and editing | yes: automatic captions, themes, green screen, AI eye contact fix | no. it records the take and stops there |
| posting | one tap to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter | no. you post from Photos or your editor |
| runs on | iPhone, iPad, Apple-silicon Mac, Android, web | iPhone and iPad, iOS 17 and up |
| scripts | typed or pasted into BIGVU | the markdown file you already wrote, read from a folder you pick |
| source code | closed | MIT licence, on GitHub |
sources: BIGVU pricing, BIGVU on the App Store, BIGVU mobile teleprompter for iPhone and Android.
one price detail is easy to miss. the $12 a month on BIGVU's pricing page is the yearly plan divided by twelve. inside the iPhone app, the in-app purchase list shows "BIGVU Starter Monthly" at $24.99.
where BIGVU wins#
this is the part a comparison written by one of the apps usually leaves out.
- captions. BIGVU writes automatic captions and styles them with your logo and colours. open prompter has no captions. if every video you post needs burned-in subtitles, BIGVU saves you a second app.
- the whole pipeline in one place. BIGVU records, edits, adds branding, swaps a green background and posts. open prompter records a clean file and hands it to you. what happens next is up to your editor.
- AI eye contact fix. BIGVU lists it on its AI Pro plan. open prompter's answer is placement: keep the text next to the lens, or read through a beam-splitter rig.
- Android, Mac and the web. BIGVU runs on all of them. open prompter is iPhone and iPad only. if your team is split across phones, BIGVU works for everyone.
- track record. the BIGVU app has about 36,000 ratings on the App Store, averaging 4.7. open prompter is younger and smaller.
where open prompter wins#
- the free file is the finished file. BIGVU's free plan exports at 720p with a watermark, and a watermark-free 1080p export starts at the paid Starter plan. open prompter records up to 4K at 60 frames per second, 50 Mbps HEVC, with nothing added to the frame, for free.
- open gate on newer iPhones. on iPhone 17 and up, open prompter records the whole square front sensor, so one read becomes a vertical, a square and a wide. why open gate matters.
- no account and no length cap from a plan. open the app and read. there is no sign-in and no plan that decides how long a take can be.
- your script stays a file. open prompter reads the markdown file you already wrote, from iCloud Drive, an Obsidian vault, Dropbox or any folder the Files app can reach. edit it on your Mac and the phone has the new version. nothing to paste, nothing locked inside an app. how the folder workflow works.
- it follows your voice, on the phone. voice tracking runs with on-device speech recognition, so the script scrolls at your pace and no audio leaves the device. how voice tracking works.
- MARK a flubbed line. tap MARK mid-take and a chapter marker lands in the file, where Premiere Pro reads it. you jump straight to the fix in the edit. what shipped in 3.2.
- you can read the code. it is MIT-licensed. nobody can move a feature behind a paywall later, because there is no paywall to move it behind.
which one to pick#
pick BIGVU if you want one app from script to published post, you need captions on every video, or you record on Android.
pick open prompter if you already edit in Premiere, Resolve, Final Cut or CapCut, and you want the teleprompter to do one job well: show the words, follow your voice, and hand you a clean, full-resolution file for free.
you can also use both. read and record in open prompter, then bring the clean file into any captioning tool you like.
try it before you decide#
open prompter costs nothing to try, and there is no trial to run out. time your script first with the speech length calculator, put the file in a folder, and read it.
if you are comparing more than two apps, the best free teleprompter app for iPhone puts BIGVU, PromptSmart and Teleprompter Pro side by side on watermarks and paywalls.