In-House Video Editor Cost vs Outsourcing Your Explainer

You need a video that explains what you do, and a friend says, "Just hire an editor." It sounds tidy. One person on payroll, every video you ever want, no more quotes.

Before you post that job ad, it helps to know the full in-house video editor cost, not just the salary line. Below, the cost is built from government pay data and real price tags, then set against a freelancer, an agency and a fixed-price package.

For most small businesses, outsourcing an explainer video is far cheaper than hiring. At the US median, a full-time editor costs about $102,000 in year one with benefits, gear and hiring, and an animator about $135,100. Unless you need an animated video every week or so, each in-house explainer costs thousands.

Key takeaways

• At a business with under 50 staff, a median US video editor costs about $93,900 a year in pay and benefits.
• Year one, with a computer, software and the cost of hiring, comes to about $102,000.
• A video editor and an animator are different jobs. An animator at the median costs about $135,100 in year one.
• Against the average agency quote, an in-house animator pays off at about 16 explainers a year.
• Hire when you need video every week. Outsource when you need a few good ones.

What is the real in-house video editor cost per year?

A full-time video editor at the US median costs a small employer about $93,900 a year in pay and benefits, and about $102,000 in the first year once you add a computer, software and hiring costs. According to the BLS, wages are only about 70 to 74 cents of every dollar an employer spends on a worker, depending on company size.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, the median annual wage for film and video editors was $75,420 in May 2025. Median means half earn more and half earn less.

Job sites land in the same area. Indeed's video editor salary page, updated October 18, 2026, shows an average base pay of $33.53 an hour. That works out to about $69,700 for a 40-hour week, all year.

Then add benefits. The BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release for June 2026 found wages were 70.0% of what private employers spend on a worker. At businesses with 1 to 49 workers, Table 6 of the same release puts wages at 74.1% and paid leave at 6.2%.

A yearly salary already includes paid vacation days, so only the other benefits sit on top. Health cover, retirement and payroll taxes make up the remaining 19.7% at small firms. Dividing $75,420 by 0.803 (wages plus paid leave) gives about $93,900 of total cost.

Finding the person costs money too. A 2022 SHRM article on recruiting costs reported an average cost per hire of nearly $4,700, from SHRM's benchmarking data. It is likely higher now.

Year two drops to about $94,800, because you only pay for the computer and the hiring once. Raises, a screen, stock music and training are not in this table, so treat it as a floor.

Bigger companies pay more in benefits. Using the all-company figures instead (wages 70.0%, paid leave 7.5%), the same editor costs closer to $97,300 a year. Pay also changes with your city.

Need an explainer video? Get a 30-second explainer for $297 → We write the script, record the voiceover and animate it, delivered in 7 days.

Can a video editor make an animated explainer?

Most video editors can't build an animated explainer on their own, because editing and animation are separate trades. A video editor is a person who cuts filmed footage, sound and music into a finished video. An animator is a person who draws and moves the characters, icons and scenes that make up an animated video.

Some people do both, and many motion designers can cut footage. But hand a typical editor a blank page for a cartoon explainer, and you may get a long wait or a slideshow.

Animators cost more. The BLS handbook for special effects artists and animators puts their median annual wage at $102,030 in May 2025. With the same small-firm benefits, that is about $127,100 a year, or about $135,100 in year one with gear and hiring.

Even a mid-level motion designer is not cheap. Designity's 2026 salary guide lists $70,000 to $90,000 a year for someone with three to five years of experience. Designity doesn't show where its figures come from, so treat them as a rough guide.

An explainer also needs two things neither job covers well. Someone has to write a tight script, and someone has to voice it. An animator who is also a sharp writer and a warm voice is a rare hire.

What gear and software would you buy on day one?

A new in-house editor needs a fast computer, editing software and, for explainers, animation software. On the Apple Store, Mac Studio configurations start at $2,499 with no screen, and Adobe's all-apps plan, which includes Premiere and After Effects, is $69.99 a month at its regular month-to-month price.

Here are the main options, priced from the makers' own pages in October 2026.

Adobe's plans page also shows lower annual and new-subscriber offers, so your software line could be closer to $420 a year. Either way, the software is the cheap part.

What's missing from that list matters more. A screen, a keyboard, a second screen, stock music, fonts and voiceover talent all cost extra, and none of them is in the year-one total above.

Cost per video: in-house, freelancer, agency or package

The in-house video editor cost per video depends almost entirely on how many videos you make. Spread an animator's $135,100 year-one cost over 12 videos and each one costs about $11,260. Spread it over 104 videos and each costs about $1,300.

The agency figures come from the Yans Media 2026 explainer cost study, which sent one brief to 152 companies and analyzed 110 quotes. The average quote for a 60-second explainer was $8,746. The same Yans Media guide puts freelancers at $2,500 to $12,000.

If your hire can't write or voice the script, add a freelance writer or voice actor on top of each in-house row. And remember the in-house rows split the salary across every video type, filmed clips included.

Our package is in the table because it's one of your real options, so here is what it is not. It is one animated explainer made from a script we write. It doesn't edit your own footage, make weekly social clips or replace an ongoing editor, and the agency and freelancer rows can buy you more custom work.

For a closer look at the freelancer row, read the guide to hiring an animator on Upwork or Fiverr.

How many videos a year before hiring pays off?

Against the average agency quote, an in-house animator pays off at about 16 animated explainers a year. Against a fixed-price 60-second package, the break-even point is about 272 videos a year, or five or more every week.

Here is the math. An animator's year-one cost of $135,100 divided by the $8,746 average agency quote is 15.4. So at 16 or more explainers a year, hiring an animator beats paying the average agency.

Against a 60-second package at $497, the same $135,100 buys about 272 videos. Few small businesses need that many explainers.

The rare editor who can also animate, write and voice changes the math. At about $102,000 in year one, that person beats the average agency quote at about 12 explainers a year.

Vendors give other numbers. Shootsta, which sells a video subscription, puts its in-house break-even estimate at roughly 75 to 100 videos a year. That figure assumes a multi-person video team, and the page gives a different range in its FAQ, so use it as a sanity check, not a rule.

The honest answer sits in your own content calendar. If you can't name 16 explainer videos you need in the next 12 months, you are paying a salary for an empty chair.

To see whether one video will even pay for itself, the explainer video break-even guide walks through that math.

When is hiring an in-house editor the better choice?

Hiring an in-house editor is the better choice when you need new video every week, most of it cut from your own footage, with changes turned around the same day. At that volume the salary spreads thin, and having someone in the building saves days of back-and-forth.

Plenty of companies have reached that point. In its 2026 State of Video webinar recap, Wistia reported that the share of companies with in-house video teams jumped from 36% to 54% in two years.

Hiring tends to make sense when most of these are true:

• You post three or more videos a week on social media.
• Most videos are filmed: jobs, patients, products, staff, events.
• You need edits within hours, not days.
• You have private material, such as patient footage or unreleased products, you'd rather keep in-house.
• You have someone who can manage the editor and sign off on work.

Outsourcing tends to make sense when most of these are true:

• You need one to a dozen explainers or ads a year.
• The videos are animated, so nobody needs to be on site.
• You want a fixed price and a set delivery date.
• Nobody on your team has time to manage a creative hire.

Many businesses mix the two. A gym chain might hire an editor for weekly social clips and still outsource its one big animated explainer, because animation is a different skill.

Want something bigger? Book a free 30-minute video call → We plan your custom video with you and send a fixed quote within 24 hours.

How do you work out your own number?

You can work out your own in-house cost in about 20 minutes with last year's video count, a local salary figure and a calculator. These six steps give you a cost per video you can set against any quote.

Step 1: Count last year's videos

Write down every video you made or wanted in the last 12 months. Be honest about the ones you wanted but never made, and mark which you would really have used.

Step 2: Split footage edits from animated videos

Put filmed clips in one column and animated explainers in another. A video editor covers the first column well. The second column usually needs an animator.

Step 3: Look up a local salary

Use the BLS medians as a starting point: $75,420 for an editor and $102,030 for an animator. Then check two or three local job ads for the skill you need.

Step 4: Add benefits and gear

Divide the salary by about 0.80 to add health, retirement and payroll taxes at a firm under 50 staff, per the BLS employer cost survey. Larger firms pay a bit more. Then add about $3,300 for a computer and a year of software, plus about $4,700 or more for hiring.

Step 5: Divide by your count

Divide the total by the number of videos you'd really make. That is your in-house cost per video.

Step 6: Compare it with two real quotes

Get one quote from a studio and one fixed-price package price for the same length. The guide to hiring an explainer video agency shows how to write the brief so the quotes are fair to compare.

Three what-if businesses: who should hire?

The right call depends on volume and the kind of video. Here are three made-up businesses to show how the math plays out.

Say you run a two-chair dental office. You want one explainer about your implant process and maybe a holiday video each year. That is two or three animated videos, so an in-house animator would cost over $45,000 per video in year one. Outsource.

Picture a roofer with three crews who wants weekly before-and-after clips for Facebook, plus one animated explainer about storm damage claims. That is about 52 filmed clips a year. A part-time local editor could make sense for the clips, while the animated explainer goes to an outside team.

Now say you run a small software company that ships a new feature every two weeks. Each release needs a 60-second animated walkthrough, plus help videos. That is 26 or more animated videos a year, above the 16-video line, so hiring an animator could pay off if you can keep them busy. You would still need someone to write the scripts and record a voiceover.

Distance matters less than you might think. If you'd rather work with someone nearby, the guide to local vs remote explainer video studios covers when that is worth paying for.

Frequently asked questions

Is a freelancer cheaper than hiring a video editor?

A freelancer is cheaper than hiring for most small businesses that need fewer than a dozen videos a year. Yans Media's 2026 guide puts freelancers at $2,500 to $12,000 for a 60-second explainer. You pay only when you order, with no benefits, gear or idle weeks.

Can I hire a part-time video editor instead?

Yes, a part-time video editor is a good middle path for steady but light work, such as two or three social clips a week. You still need to supply or pay for software and a computer. Part-time editors are usually stronger at cutting footage than at building animated explainers.

Do I own the videos an employee makes?

In the US, a video an employee makes within the scope of their employment is a work made for hire, and the employer owns it, per the U.S. Copyright Office's Circular 30. With freelancers and studios, ownership depends on the written contract. Get the file rights in writing before you pay.

What does a video editor do all day if I only need a few videos?

A full-time editor with only a few videos to make will often sit idle, or drift into other jobs like social posting or photo edits. That can still be useful, but it means you are paying an editor's salary for general marketing help. Count those hours honestly before you hire.

Should I train someone already on my staff to edit?

Training a staff member works for simple social clips, using a free tool such as DaVinci Resolve. It works less well for an animated explainer, which takes animation, scriptwriting and voice skills. Weigh the hours they lose from their main job against the cost of buying the video.

The short version

At the US median, the full in-house video editor cost is about $102,000 in year one at a small firm, once benefits, a computer, software and hiring are added. An animator, who can actually build an explainer, comes to about $135,100.

That money buys a lot of video if you need it every week. It buys very expensive video if you need four a year.

So count first. If you need fewer than about 16 animated explainers a year, buy them from outside and keep the payroll for jobs only staff can do. If you need weekly filmed clips, an editor on staff may pay off, and you can still outsource the animated pieces.

If one or two explainers is all you need, our 30-second explainer is $297, with the script, a human voiceover and animation done for you in 7 days.

Ready to get your own video made? Order a 30-second explainer for $297 and have it in 7 days, or book a free call if you want a custom video from $1,299.

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