Built to judge video by the numbers.
CutScore exists because most of what makes a video feel amateur is measurable — and most creators are left guessing. We turn the craft into objective readings against published standards, then hand back a clear score and concrete fixes.
Built by Thomas Linck, founder.
A score is only useful if it's honest. So everything that can be measured is measured deterministically — re-run the same file and the numbers don't move. AI is used only for the genuinely subjective: overall aesthetics and the written synthesis. Your footage isn't fed to a model to manufacture a number.
CutScore is pre-publish quality control for every kind of video. It is not a growth tool: no tags, keywords or thumbnails for discovery. It judges whether the video is well made, not how to get it found — a different, complementary job to tools like vidIQ or TubeBuddy.
We don't invent the targets.
Where a published standard exists, CutScore grades against it — so the targets mean something outside our tool. The core references:
EBU R128 / ITU-R BS.1770
The broadcast loudness standard behind LUFS, loudness range and true peak — the basis for the −14 LUFS / −1 dBTP targets.
WCAG 2.x contrast
The accessibility guideline for text legibility — the source of the ≥ 4.5:1 contrast bar for captions and on-screen text.
BBC subtitle guidelines
Reference for caption timing, line length and reading speed — informing our dwell-time and readability checks.
Open-source measurement is done with ffmpeg, OpenCV and PySceneDetect. Standards are cited as references; CutScore is not affiliated with these bodies.
Built and written by one founder.
CutScore — the measurement engine, the scoring model and every guide and glossary entry on this site — is built and written by Thomas Linck. The articles document the same checks the engine runs: loudness per EBU R128, text contrast per WCAG, subtitle readability per the BBC guidelines, and the editing metrics mapped on What we analyze. When a number appears in a guide, it is the number the engine actually measures.
The engine is real. The product is coming.
CutScore already produces full coaching reports today. The hosted dashboard and API are in private development — join the waitlist for early access.