Eklipse without a free plan: what changed and what streamers should do
Eklipse's free plan is now a preview: you can see the highlights, but you cannot download or export them. Getting a clip out takes Premium, from US$ 24.99 a month. Here is what changed, where Eklipse is still the best pick, and where streamers have a better option.
Eklipse without a free plan: what changed and what streamers should do
Eklipse still lets you sign up for free, but the free plan is now a preview: per its help center, updated on August 13, 2026, free users cannot export or download clips. Getting a clip out takes Premium, from US$ 24.99 a month on the web. It is still worth it for gameplay-first streamers, especially on console. For facecam and talk streams, there are cheaper options that deliver clips while you are still live.
The usual disclosure: I am the CTO of Cut.Pro, which shows up as an alternative at the end. Every Eklipse fact below links to Eklipse's own pages.
What changed on the free plan
The official free vs Premium comparison lists:
- Export and download: Premium only, up to 1080p at 60 fps, no watermark.
- AI clipping: free runs a limited preview scan; Premium is unlimited across your streams.
- Editing tools: captions, AI jump cuts, memes and effects are Premium, along with 1,000+ templates.
- Kick: connecting Kick is a Premium-only feature.
- Speed: priority processing and support on Premium.
In practice, the free tier shows you whether the AI finds your moments. To use what it found, you pay.
How much it costs
From the pricing help article (updated April 12, 2026):
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Premium monthly (web) | US$ 24.99 |
| Premium monthly (iOS/Android app) | US$ 27.99 |
| Premium, six months | US$ 112.99 (about US$ 18.80/month) |
| Premium, annual | US$ 179.99 (about US$ 15/month) |
A detail worth money: subscribing in the app costs US$ 3 more a month than on the website. If you go monthly, subscribe in the browser.
Where Eklipse is still the best pick
- Gameplay. Its homepage says it recognizes 3,000+ games. When the payoff is on the game screen rather than the player's face, that matters.
- Console. It has a workflow built for PlayStation and Xbox streamers without a camera, something generic tools rarely handle.
- Live processing. The help center says you can switch on live processing, with clips available shortly after the broadcast ends. Few tools do that.
- Facebook Gaming. It connects Facebook accounts as well as Twitch, YouTube and Kick.
If you stream FPS, battle royale or any competitive game where the play is the content, it is still among the first two or three tools I would try.
Where it falls short
- Kick only on Premium. If you stream on Kick, there is no real trial without paying.
- Clips arrive after the stream. Processing during the stream is good, but access comes after it ends. If your goal is posting the moment while the stream is still live, to pull people back into it, that gap matters. More in clipping live streams in real time.
- Talk content. Its strength is gameplay. Just Chatting, react and podcast-style streams depend more on transcription and face framing than on recognizing the game.
The alternatives, side by side
| Eklipse | StreamLadder | Cut.Pro | OpusClip | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan downloads? | No (preview) | Yes, 720p | Yes, 15 credits/month, watermarked | Yes, 60 credits/month, watermarked |
| Paid entry | US$ 24.99/month | Starter (no AI clipping); ClipGPT on Creator | R$19.90/month (Basic) | US$ 15/month (Starter) |
| AI live clipping | During the stream, access after it ends | ClipGPT on VODs | During the stream, 10-min batches, all plans | Takes a live link; page does not say it clips during |
| Live platforms | Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Kick (Premium) | Twitch, Kick (AI); YouTube in the editor | Twitch, Kick, YouTube | Twitch, YouTube |
Checked on September 26, 2026: Eklipse, StreamLadder, Cut.Pro, OpusClip. StreamLadder showed us prices in Brazilian reais (Starter R$ 78, Creator R$ 141, Pro R$ 203), so check the page from your own country.
Where each one wins, in one line:
- StreamLadder: the manual facecam editor, plus ClipGPT pulling up to 30 clips per stream on Creator. Strong if you want to control the layout by hand.
- Cut.Pro: clips arriving during the stream, YouTube included, billed per batch, and direct publishing to TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and more. It does not publish to YouTube.
- OpusClip: the widest list of import sources and export to Premiere and DaVinci. We broke down its plans in OpusClip pricing and free plan.
How to make the free preview work for you
The preview downloads nothing, but it still answers one question: does Eklipse's AI find your moments? A half-hour test settles it:
- Connect your channel and run the scan on the last long stream you did.
- Before opening the results, write down from memory the three moments you remember as the night's best.
- Compare. If the preview found at least two of the three, detection works for your style and Premium has a shot at paying for itself.
- If it only found plays and missed your reactions and stories, the problem is not price: your content depends more on face and voice than on the screen.
Run the same test, on the same stream, in a tool that clips from transcripts and face framing. Whichever finds more of your three moments gets the subscription.
Three questions to decide
- Is the content the screen or the face? Game screen, no camera: Eklipse. Face and talk: any of the others, weighted by caption quality in your language.
- Does the clip need to go out while the stream is live? If yes, pick a tool that delivers during the broadcast.
- Do you need Kick on day one? Eklipse gates it behind Premium; test the others on a Kick stream first.
If you do not have a method for picking moments yet, cutting gameplay into vertical clips and the best clipping tools for Twitch and Kick help before you subscribe to anything. Our Eklipse alternative page sums up the difference on one screen.
Sources: Eklipse, free vs Premium (Aug 13, 2026) · Eklipse, Premium pricing (Apr 12, 2026) · Eklipse, VODs and live · Eklipse homepage · StreamLadder plans · OpusClip pricing
