Same crew, same local talent, same accountability for the delivery. Plus the system where it all stays: rushes, versions, approvals and real cost per piece.
The platform is included at no cost with every PLAY production service.
Updated: September 2026
A traditional production company sets up the shoot, runs it and delivers the piece. Play does exactly that through PLAY /Services, so this comparison is not software against shooting. It is about what happens between one project and the next: under the traditional model every commission starts from zero, the rushes stay with the production company, and the cost arrives as a fixed quote with no comparable breakdown. With Play, the project lives in your workspace and what accumulates there is yours.
You need one ambitious, one-off piece, with a specific director you already know, and the relationship with that team is part of the value. For a single distinctive shoot a year, building a system does not pay off.
You produce regularly, across several formats or markets, and you need to compare what each piece costs and reuse what you have already shot.
There is no generalising about the quality of a shoot, and we are not trying to. This comparison is about traceability, and about what stays in your house.
| What you get | Play | Traditional production company |
|---|---|---|
| Professional crew | YesLocal talent in more than 20 countries | YesTheir home ground |
| Full post-production | YesEdit, colour, sound, motion and VFX | Yes |
| Directing a distinctive piece with a known, fixed crew | PartialThe crew is assembled per project and market | YesThe relationship with the director is part of the value |
| A working platform that stays with you | YesIncluded at no cost with the services | No |
| Rushes in your own library when it wraps | YesTagged and ready to reuse | PartialHanded over if agreed, and not always complete |
| Approvals you can consult months later | YesVideofeedback by version | NoThey live in email and expired links |
| A cost breakdown comparable across projects | YesRate card, expenses and purchase orders | PartialA fixed quote, in a different format every time |
| Producing across several markets with one point of contact | YesA single Account Manager | NoOne local company per market |
| Being able to produce yourself, commissioning nothing | YesThe LITE plan is free | No |
| Carrying on with the production company you trust | YesThey join as an external collaborator, no licence | Yes |
| Seeing where a piece stands without asking by email | YesShared calendar and delivery queues | No |
It is the company that runs the shoot: it assembles the crew, sorts out locations, permits and logistics, directs the set and delivers the edited piece. Its value is in the craft and in the ability to solve whatever goes wrong during a shoot. It is hired per project, on a fixed quote, and its unit of work is the commission.
Play is a Production-Tech company, and it has both halves. PLAY /Services is the creative, production and post-production team, with more than 1,200 vetted professionals across more than 20 countries and offices in Barcelona, Madrid and Toronto. Play Platform is the software where that work is planned, approved and stored, with a free plan. They can be hired separately or together.
Many brands carry on working with the production company they trust and use Play as the system: the company joins the workspace as an external collaborator, at no licence cost, and uploads the versions there. The brand gains visibility and an archive, and the production company saves half its email. What Play replaces is not the craft of shooting: it is the vacuum left between one project and the next.
They all show up on the second project, not the first.
Every production company presents its own, in its own format with its own line items. Two similar pieces can cost very differently with no clean way to see why. Play works from a transparent rate card based on real costs, and the spend is charged inside the project.
Average cost per piece and per campaign, comparable across projects and across markets.
Once the commission ends, the raw footage usually stays on the production company's drives. Eight months later, reusing a take means asking for it, waiting, and sometimes paying for it. In Play the rushes are in your library, tagged, from the day of delivery.
You stop shooting the same thing twice, which is the most expensive invisible cost there is.
Every country with its own local company, its own standards and its own way of invoicing. Keeping the same tone and the same quality across ten cities consumes more of the internal team than the creative work does. Play activates local talent in more than 20 countries under one system and one Account Manager.
One point of contact and one quality standard, even when you shoot in five countries.
Under the traditional model, trying it means booking a shoot. Play's LITE plan is free and is enough to organise what you are already producing, with your current production company inside the workspace. If you later want us to shoot, it is in the same environment.
You test the system on a real project before moving the production budget.
They are not mutually exclusive. Plenty of brands do both, depending on the project.
Production is quoted per project in both cases. What changes is that Play's rate card is transparent, and that you are also left with the platform.
0 €
149 €/month /workspace
Custom
Annual billing works out at 10 months. Extra storage at 29 €/TB per month.
Access to Play Platform is included at no cost with every PLAY video production service. You can come in through the platform door and pay only for the software, or come in through the production door and take the software with it.
To be straight about it: for one distinctive piece a year, a good production company you trust is hard to improve on, and the system around it matters little. Play stops being comparable once there is volume, because then the expensive part is not each shoot: it is not being able to compare, not being able to reuse, and starting from zero every time. See PLAY's production services.
The first step touches nobody: open the system and put what is already under way inside it.
The LITE plan is free, allows 3 internal users, unlimited external collaborators and 250 GB. Enough to run a real project, not a demo.
They join without taking a licence and upload the versions there. For them it is half the email; for you, seeing the status without asking for it.
This is the step that starts building your archive. Upload them to the library and they come back tagged and searchable.
From here each piece carries its cost inside the project, and the average cost per video comes out on its own at the quarter's close.
With two projects inside you can already compare. Some brands stay with their production company, others hand the production to us, and many split it by market.
Play has one inside it: PLAY /Services does consultancy, creative, global production with local talent, and full post-production. What sets it apart from a traditional production company is that the work happens inside a platform that stays with you.
Only if you want it to. Many brands carry on with theirs and invite them into the workspace as an external collaborator, at no licence cost. Others hand the whole production to us. And others split it by project or by market.
The material is stored in your workspace library, rushes included, tagged and ready to reuse. It is one of the biggest practical differences from the project-by-project model, where the raw footage usually stays on the production company's drives.
Production is quoted per project on a transparent rate card based on real costs, so you know the figure before starting. The platform is separate: LITE free, PRO 149 € per workspace per month with 5 users included, Enterprise custom. If you produce with PLAY, the platform is included at no cost.
Yes. PLAY /Services activates local crews in more than 20 countries from a network of more than 1,200 vetted professionals, keeping editorial control and brand consistency with a single Account Manager.
An Account Manager, who is your single point of contact throughout. They coordinate crews, review the quality of each piece and work inside the same platform where you see the status and the cost.
Yes. The LITE plan is free and gives you briefs, tasks, calendar, media library, videofeedback and unlimited external collaborators, with your own team and your usual suppliers.
Open a free LITE workspace, invite your production company and your team, upload the footage from projects in flight, and switch on cost control. You do not have to change supplier to begin.
Creative, global production and post-production, with downloadable case studies
The network of more than 1,200 vetted professionals behind every project
The same question, applied to whoever creates rather than whoever shoots
LITE, PRO and Enterprise, with the full module comparison
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Get started
Start free by organising what you already produce, with your production company inside the workspace. And when you want us to shoot, it is the same system and one point of contact.
No card required. 250 GB and unlimited collaborators on the free plan. More than 350 brands and agencies already produce with Play.