The battle in the video editing world has historically been between Apple's Final Cut Pro X and Adobe's Premiere. The two companies have leapfrogged each other for years when it comes to the war for video editors' hearts. But in 2024, there are a lot more wallet-friendly (read: free) options out there, and two of those duking it out right now are CapCut and DaVinci Resolve. But which one is worth giving a shot?
While his usual stock-in-trade is 360 video commentary and reviews, YouTuber Ben Claremont has shared a comparison video he made comparing the features of the free version of CapCut with the also-free version of DaVinci Resolve. It's just nuts that in 2024 you can get video editing software with a full feature set that's more expansive than the Avid video editing setup I had as a professional working at a newspaper, and it costs nothing.
To be clear, there are some limits here. For instance, the free version of CapCut limits you to exports under 15 minutes, and the free version of DaVinci Resolve tops out at 4K resolution and doesn't offer GPU acceleration. But, in the grand scheme of things, these are small limitations for most people. You can remove these limitations from CapCut for $8 a month or a one-time charge of $295 for DaVinci Resolve (which also adds a laundry list of other professional features).
But, once the wow-factor of the (lack of) cost is gone, which one actually helps you produce better work? While the results are exactly what you'd expect, given that DaVinci Resolve was born from professional color-correction workflows and CapCut came of age in the era of social media, there are still some surprises to be had here. DaVinci Resolve has a more professional bent to it while CapCut emphasizes ease of use and speed. None of that is a secret, and I can attest that it took me a bit of time to learn how to navigate DaVinci's interface even with years of Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X under my belt.
While Final Cut Pro X has and will always have my heart, the truth is, there are a lot of alternatives out there. Claremont goes into a detailed and deep dive into the features and pros and cons of each part of these two giants in the video-editing space, so be sure to take a look at the video above if you're considering making the switch from Adobe or Apple.
Do you have thoughts on CapCut or DaVinci Resolve? Leave a comment below.
Checkout Capcut's use of your content:
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Except as expressly provided otherwise in these Terms, you or the owner of your User Content still own the copyright and any other intellectual property rights in User Content submitted to us, but by submitting User Content via the Services, you hereby grant us and our affiliates, agents, services providers, partners and other connected third parties an unconditional, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully transferable (including sub-licensable), perpetual, worldwide license to use, modify, adapt, reproduce, make derivative works of, display, publish, transmit, distribute and/or store your User Content for providing the Services for you.
You further grant us and our affiliates, agents, services providers, partners and other connected third parties a royalty-free fully transferable (including sub-licensable), worldwide license to use your username, image and likeness to identify you as the source of any of your User Content, including for use in sponsored content.
For the avoidance of doubt, the rights granted in the preceding paragraphs of this Section include, but are not limited to, the right to reproduce sound recordings (and make mechanical reproductions of the musical works embodied in such sound recordings), and publicly perform and communicate to the public sound recordings (and the musical works embodied therein), all on a royalty-free basis. This means that you are granting us the right to use your User Content without the obligation to pay royalties to you or any third party, including, but not limited to, a sound recording copyright owner (e.g. a record label), a musical work copyright owner (e.g. a music publisher), a performing rights organization (e.g. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc.) (a "PRO"), a sound recording PRO (e.g. SoundExchange), collective management organisations ("CMOs"), any unions or guilds, and engineers, producers or other royalty participants that may be involved (either knowingly or otherwise) in the creation of User Content.
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Ts n Cs link at the foot of their website
That is just woeful. In order to use their software you have to basically surrender all rights to your content and your account identity to them and any third parties for them to use in any way they like to make money from you. This app also collects a lot of personal details about you too. How it can even remotely be compared to the excellent Resolve I don't know. The only people I can see using this software are those who haven't read the Ts & Cs.
That's just crazy, thanks for sharing. But honestly, I never heard of this software and with Davinci being free, I see no need to even try it out ;-)
BE CAREFUL OF SCAM NEWS SITES WITH NEGATIVE IQ ARTICLES LIKE THIS.