CapCut vs Premiere vs Resolve for clipping: the listed prices

DaVinci Resolve Studio is listed at $295 on blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve as I write this on 2026-09-25, and the version underneath it costs nothing.

That one line settles most of the software arguments that come through the VALORAE Cast Discord. But people keep asking, so here is the whole thing with the prices attached. Dated.

I tried to do this properly. Three tools, three vendor pages, one date, every number read off the page instead of remembered.

Then CapCut's site refused to load.

Every URL I tried on capcut.com came back as an error 451, on two different connections, so there is no CapCut price in this post. I will explain why that gap matters when we get there.

The other two loaded fine.

So the honest version of this comparison is two listed prices and one hole, and I would rather publish the hole than a number I did not see.

Step 1: What a clipping job needs from an editor

A clipping job is narrow.

You take a long recording, find the moment, cut it to vertical, caption it, and export at a size the platform accepts.

You do not need colour science. You do not need a node graph.

You need a fast timeline, a caption tool that does not invent words, a crop that follows the speaker, and an export preset you set once and never touch again.

And you need it to open whatever the client sends. That is where the choice stops being about features and starts being about files.

I wrote up the caption side separately at Arc, in captions for short-form video, because the styling rules are the same in all three tools. This post is only about which tool, and what the vendor says it costs.

Step 2: Resolve: the free tier, from the vendor page

The Resolve page at blackmagicdesign.com, read on 2026-09-25, says the free version handles virtually all 8-bit formats at up to 60fps and up to Ultra HD 3840 x 2160. Every clipping deliverable I have ever exported sits inside that box.

Free beats the subscription.

That is a strange thing for someone who sells editing to say. But the free Resolve is not a trial and it does not expire. It is the same editor with the paid features fenced off, and a clipping job never walks up to the fence.

So the cost of the tool most people should be on is zero. I did not know if it would hold up on a laptop that was never built for it. It did, on most days, and the bad days were cache settings rather than anything the price would have fixed.

Step 3: Where the free Resolve stops

The same blackmagicdesign.com page, on 2026-09-25, lists DaVinci Resolve Studio at $295 and describes it as everything in the free version plus the Neural Engine, more Resolve FX and noise reduction.

For clipping, the things you might miss are the AI features, because the page files them under Studio. Speaker-following crops and automatic captions are the two to check before you assume the free build does them the way you want.

But read that as a list of nice things, not a list of blockers. The switch to Studio is one payment, and you make it the day a paid job needs a feature behind the fence.

Step 4: CapCut: what the free tier does

Most new clippers start on CapCut, and I understand why.

The captions are the fastest to produce of the three, the vertical templates assume you are making a Reel, and it runs on the phone the recording is already on.

CapCut has a free tier and a Pro tier. Some effects, some export options and the cloud features sit behind Pro. And I cannot tell you today which ones, or what Pro costs, because the pricing page would not load for me on 2026-09-25.

I would rather say that than quote a figure from memory. Prices on these pages move, and a number without a date beside it is a rumour.

Step 5: CapCut: where it stops

The stop is not a feature. It is ownership.

Your project lives in CapCut's format, on CapCut's servers if you let it. Nobody in the paying half of this business will ever hand you a CapCut project to finish.

When a client sends a project file, it is a Premiere file, and CapCut will not open it.

And the error 451 I hit today is the second half of the same point. A 451 is a legal block, and a tool that can be switched off at the network level should never be the only place your working files exist.

So use it.

Just do not let it be the whole business.

Step 6: Premiere: the listed price

The Premiere page at adobe.com/products/premiere.html, read on 2026-09-25, lists the single app at $22.99 a month on the annual plan billed monthly, with a seven-day trial.

The plans page on the same site served me a tax-inclusive variant with a different figure.

Check which version your own browser is shown before you budget.

Put that against what Cast pays, which is starting from $0.80 per 1,000 views on campaign clips. At that starting rate, the $22.99 a month that adobe.com listed for Premiere on 2026-09-25 is just under 29,000 views of campaign clips every month before the software has paid for itself.

That is not a reason to avoid it.

It is a reason to know why you are paying.

Step 7: Premiere: when it earns it

Here is how the files problem plays out.

You take a job, the client sends the raw footage and a Premiere project, and you are on Resolve.

The timeline, the caption styles and the client's template are all inside a file that will not open. So the first day of a paid job goes on rebuilding somebody else's edit from scratch.

Nobody warns you about this.

That is the whole reason this section exists.

Premiere earns its price the day a client hands you a Premiere project, or a motion graphics template from After Effects, or a brand kit built around Adobe fonts.

In each case the subscription is a cost of the job, so put it on the invoice as one. Use the seven-day trial adobe.com offers when the job is a one-off.

Step 8: The switch order I recommend to a new member

Start on CapCut.

It costs nothing to begin, captions are quick, and your first paid clips will be judged on the cut rather than the software.

Then move to the free Resolve after the second time someone pays you. That is the point where your projects need to live in a format you own, on a machine you own.

Add Premiere on the monthly plan only when a client's files force it, and bill it back.

Add Studio only when a job hits a feature behind the fence. Blackmagicdesign.com shows it as a single $295 price, and one payment is easier to justify than a rolling one.

I did not know if telling people to begin on the phone tool would cost them credibility with clients.

I do not have a number for how many members followed this order. So treat it as an opinion with two dated receipts rather than a rule.

The short version

• Read the price off the vendor page on the day you decide, and write the date down.
• Start on CapCut for captions and speed.
• Move to the free Resolve once someone has paid you twice.
• Pay for Studio only when a job needs a feature behind it, and pay once.
• Pay for Premiere only when a client's files force it, and put it on the invoice.
• Keep every project in a format you own, on a machine you own.

This is the kind of thing we settle in the VALORAE Cast Discord at valoraecast.com.