How Much Does it Cost to Start a YouTube Channel in 2024?

This comprehensive guide will show “How much does it cost to start a YouTube channel.”

The overview table of YouTube Channel Cost:

Equipment	Low-Cost Channel ($)	Medium-Cost Channel ($)	High-Cost Channel ($)
Open YouTube Account	Free	Free	Free
TubeBuddy	Free	$3	$19
Camera	–	–	$100
Microphone	–	–	$150
Tripod	–	–	$150
Screen Recorder	$249	–	–
Animation Software	–	$240	–
Editing Software	–	$40	$100
Canva	Free	Free	$12.99
Total	$249	$283	$533

Basically, YouTube is the largest money-making platform for video content creators and vloggers. Once the videos get views and reach, you can see a decent profit from them.

In the meantime, many people have an idea of starting a channel and then postpone or drop the plan due to the fear of investment.

To overcome this, I created this post to explain, “Really, how much does it cost to start a YouTube channel?”

How Much Does it Cost to Start a YouTube Channel?

Firstly, let me clarify that creating a YouTube channel is entirely free. All you need is an email account, and you don’t need to pay anything. From anywhere, you can open a YouTube channel account with zero cost.

Then, where does it cost to have a YouTube channel?

In a nutshell, it is to make videos and optimize the channel to rank.

Generally, it would be best to have a few pieces of equipment to film YouTube videos, such as a camera, mic, editing software, recording software, and many more. That’s where our investments go.

Entirely, a YouTube channel is free to start, but making videos and managing the channel costs around $200 – $500.

However, due to a lack of awareness, many beginner-level YouTube creators buy useless products to make videos. So, instead of spending too much money on unnecessary gadgets, I split this post into three chapters.

Each chapters requires only a few pieces of equipment to start a channel and make videos. So, choose any one chapter that suits your channel niche, invest in it, and create videos.

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There chapters are,

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But the baseline is that you can create videos and make money from your channel in whatever chapter you choose. There is no doubt about that.

Ok, let me get into the topic.

Low-cost Channel ($249)

If you have a plan to start “tutorial,” “How-to,” or “presentation” kinds of videos, then choose this section (low-cost) as your investment zone.

For example, the channel niche is about teaching, like “How to learn JAVA programming language,” or “How to motivate yourself,” or any presentation video means this zone is your perfect investment.

Also, when you don’t have enough budget to invest, but would like to share your skills through recording your screen, this low-cost channel investment is your best choice.

For a bit more detail, watch Lauren McManus’s video,

She makes presentation slides, like tutorials, for their audiences. Here, there is no need to invest in cameras, tripods, lighting, and other kinds of stuff. However, the video is more informative.

The question is, how much does it cost to make this kind of video?

The answer is $249 for you need to have this best Screen Recording Software: Camtasia.

That’s said. It is one of the top-quality screen recording software with built-in audio and video editing features.

Camtasia

Firstly, Camtasia is a high-quality screen recording software, including audio recording and video editing, inside this tool itself.

The bonus point is that there is no need to have any other editing software.

Above all, Camtasia costs $249; the jackpot is a one-time fee. Yes, we don’t need to renew monthly/yearly subscriptions like other software. Still, if you hesitate to use this software, try the 30-day free trial version.

• Camtasia Screen Recorder Review: Features, Price, and Trial

Generally, this is your idle approach if you want to pay less to run and maintain your YouTube channel.

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Bonus Tip: When you reach Camtasia customer support before purchasing, you can get an offer of around 10% to 40% discount from the current price.

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Canva

Secondly, Canva is a professional graphic design software that allows you to easily create skilled designs, templates, and presentations with a few clicks.

To explain more, Canva is the leading design software among creators daily. With this software, you can make the following items with completely zero cost money:

• Presentation videos
• Thumbnail for YouTube videos
• Video stock footages
• Image stocks
• Channel art
• End Screen templates
• Subscribe button Animation videos or templates

Also, The list is not the end, to know more, read this: Is Canva worth using: The complete review by experts here

Apart from other equipment, you can use this software completely free to design thumbnails, channel logos, art, etc. with no copyright issues.

Medium Cost Channel ($280)

Do you want to start a faceless YouTube channel? – without showing your face?

Are you shy or concerned about privacy, not making videos in front of the camera? Then, I recommend this chapter to you.

Making virtual representation videos (generally called animation videos) is helpful here if you think the same.

• Yes, I’m talking about making whiteboard animation videos.

For example, look at the video below; this is what animation videos look like.

That’s the output of the animation videos without showing faces and delivering the video content without losing the quality.

Well, the real question raises here:

“How can I make this kind of video?”.

Firstly, you don’t require technical animation skills to make (whiteboard) animation videos.

A software called Doodly is enough to do the animation for you. Basically, you just need to drag & drop.

Doodly

Doodly is the explainer video creation software. Generally called whiteboard animation software. Kindly look at the video on how to easily create videos from this handy software.

Besides it’s features, one can create any kind of YouTube channel niche videos from Doodly.

Therefore, investing in other high-cost equipment, like a camera, microphone, lights, etc, is unnecessary. It saves a lot of money with the single software.

Few Doodly Features

• Able to create a glass board, whiteboard, blackboard, and green-board animation videos.
• Easy to use. Even a 7-year-old child can create a whole video from Doodly.
• Drag and drop interfaces—no need to use any complex animation drawings.
• Saves a lot of video creation time.
• Money-saving software for content creators.
• No other high-cost equipment is required.

Doodly Review: Is it worth making animation videos?

Doodly comes at two different prices.

• $39/month and $240/year.

I recommend a yearly plan, saving 49% of your money. Nearly half of your money.

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The downside of this software is there is no trial version. But they have a 30-day money-back guarantee option if you don’t like this product.

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Movavi

In this chapter, you require another tool to edit the videos. That is Movavi.

Movavi is a software for editing and making quality videos. From Movavi, you can fine-tune your video and make it perfect for removing the noisy voice, adding filters, and speeding up and down properties.

It costs $39.95, which is a lifetime license. Also, it offers a 7-day free trial version. Click the below link to download.

Download Movavi (Free)

For instance, if you want to explore the premium editing software more, try the best alternative for Movavi, mentioned below.

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Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro is a professional video editing software that lets you create and edit videos the way you want.

You should try this software on hand when you are more interested in learning about editing skills on your channel.

It costs around $23/month for individual users, but once you tried this software, I bet you will not try any other from the moment.

That’s all about this zone. It costs $280 in total.

• Doodly – $240/year (or) $39/month.
• Movavi – $39.95/lifetime (or)
• Premiere Pro – $23/month.

If the above two-zone strategies are not fit for you, then let’s get into the high-cost investment to start a YouTube channel.

High-cost channel ($500)

I believe you’re willing to invest a little more money to make a quality video.

Also, if your channel niche requires you to shoot in front of the camera, then this investment zone is your better choice.

For example, consider you’re doing a food review, product review, traveling vlog, etc.; these channels require a camera, mic, and other hardware gadgets.

So, to do this, in this zone, investing and starting a YouTube channel costs $500/year.

S.No	Equipment	Price	Buy
1	Camera	$100	Click here
2	Microphone	$150	Click here
3	Tripods	$170	Click here

In addition to the above table, you need video editing software for around $100 to make one whole video.

However, it costs a lot, but other than editing software, the remaining hardware investments are one-time acquisitions. Read the articles below to learn more about the best cameras, microphones, and tripods.

• Best Camera to buy for YouTubers under $200
• Top 15 best Microphones for YouTubing
• Best Tripods for YouTubers: Top 5

Although, If you have a great team or enough confidence to make videos on YouTube consistently, I suggest you take this chapter as your investment.

Otherwise, if you’re hesitating to invest or the situation is not on your side, make easy videos with the help of the above two (Low and medium cost) investment zones.

Finally, with these things in mind, let’s see some of the most needed software that we need to have below:

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TubeBuddy

TubeBuddy is a free browser extension, channel management, and YouTube-certified video SEO tool.

Useful TubeBuddy Features,

• Keyword Finder, analyze and find the high-search volume keywords.
• Able to find competitor’s keywords in a single click.
• Quick comment response. You can create templates for a reply to the smart comment.
• Direct publish to Facebook.
• Bulk operations.
• AI Shorts Suggestions.
• Video Title Generator.
• Video A/B testing.
• Increase video productivity through thumbnail and card template creation.
• Many more things…

To know more about this, kindly read the TubeBuddy review here.

As mentioned earlier, TubeBuddy is free to use; however, if you want to explore this software pro level, they provide a 50% discount for beginner YouTubers.

Audio Enhancer

Once we make the video, there is a possibility that the audio may contain some background noises.

To avoid that, we need to buy a high-cost demand microphone. But don’t worry. Hereafter, we have an alternative for that.

Yes, the free software Adobe Podcast Enhance Speech lets you enhance the audio quality by removing the background noises.

For example, below is my recorded audio with the noisy background and optimized by AI:

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So, as you’re a beginner-level YouTuber, use this software helps to cut the starting expenses of your channel.

Mixkit

YouTube is friendly to everyone. In the meantime, we should not copy someone else’s content on our video to cheat the community guidelines.

Moreover, copying other content on YouTube leads to major copyright issues, and there is a high possibility that the channel will be terminated.

• How to check copyright claims on YouTube

So, to avoid that, we need a particular stock powerhouse to get royalty-free music, video footage, and images. That is none other than Mixkit.

Mixkit contains 4000+ stock video clips, 1000+ stock music, sound effects, etc. And yes, it’s all free to use, and you don’t need to spend even a single dollar from your pocket.

Grammarly

Grammarly is a free writing assistant tool that helps to detect punctuation, grammar errors, spell checks, plagiarism checks, etc.

Beginner-level content creators need to write the video script fluently with no English grammar errors, and also, while writing the long description, we need to write the content correctly.

In such cases, the Grammarly writing assistance tool is handy.

Trello

Trello is a task management tool to handle all the video SEO, shooting, scheduling, and uploading video tasks for your channel.

It is not an automation tool, but you can use this free task management tool to track the channel work.

Some of the best alternatives for this tool:

• Notion
• Todoist
• Microsoft To-do

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FAQ’s

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Cost to Start a YouTube Channel: Final Thoughts

As a result, you can create a YouTube channel from $240 to a maximum of $500. As I said before, you can start investing in making videos based on your money status. But what you’re doing matters instead of doing nothing.

So, Kindly focus on your channel niche and make videos related to that. Content is king everywhere. I hope you like this post. Kindly share it on Facebook. Also, comment here if you have any doubts or which software to pick related to the channel niche. I read and replied to all the comments.

The next step is, you need to read and follow the below articles,

• How to Start a YouTube Channel: From Scratch
• What To Do After Starting a YouTube Channel
• How to Apply YouTube Monetization Requirements
• Best YouTube Tools to make YouTube videos

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