Unless you’re wed to Creative Cloud, Final Cut Pro has a lot to offer.

There’s no shortage of advanced features, like the Magnetic Timeline, range-of-effect options, and intelligent Smart Conform cropping, which follows dominant motion on screen to ensure nothing essential gets cut. It’s built to take advantage of Metal for wicked-fast graphics, and is optimized for Mac Pro. While Premiere Pro works beautifully with Creative Cloud (and if that’s your primary workspace, then we recommend Adobe’s video editing software), Final Cut Pro fits perfectly into the larger Apple ecosystem. Fortunately, Final Cut Pro also comes with a free 90-day trial, so you’ll have time to play around before making any decisions. While in the long run it’s certainly cheaper than shelling out each month for a subscription, some users may be hesitant to commit to spending such a large sum. However, it does come with a bit of a hefty price tag. Unlike Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro isn’t subscription-based. However, there are some important differences. Both are industry leaders, and it’s hard to say that one is better than the other overall. No stabilization / motion tracking for 360ºįinal Cut Pro X (opens in new tab) and Adobe Premiere Pro are pretty much neck and neck when it comes to feature-rich, professional-level video editing. The interface may take a little getting used to compared to some programs, but it's still simple enough for a novice to master with a little help from the many tutorials and as a further bonus it works with almost every platform, including Windows, Mac and Linux. Or, for a one-off fee of $390, you can buy it outright and get all of the above plus Boris FX. Upgrade to the Pro version for $24/month or $240/year and you'll unlock 4K output plus a raft of other features including to the Boris Graffiti plugin, extra import features, advanced project sharing, timeline rendering and more.

Against that, output maxes out at 720p - which may work if you're just making a home movie to share with relatives, but not for anything more serious.

If you want proof of the regard in which Lightworks is held, consider that the Pro version has been used to create multiple award-winning movies including Pulp Fiction, The Wolf of Wall Street and Jerry Maguire.Įven the free version has a wide range of fairly advanced tools, including some impressive audio-editing options, VFX, color adjustments and more.

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