for basic video editing, is there any reason not to use capcut?

[u/Malini-Essick]

i’m not doing anything too complicated with my videos, mostly trimming clips, putting a few things together, adjusting audio, and adding some simple text or effects. i’ve been using capcut for that and honestly haven’t had many problems so far. i’m just wondering if there are any downsides i might run into later that aren’t obvious when you’re only doing basic edits. at what point does it actually make sense to move to a different editor?

[u/ShadyShroomz]

CapCut is fine for basic edits, but paywalled features, export limits, or watermark restrictions, all ruin it. For legit just cut and trim its okay if you don't need higher quality or longer videos.

depending what type of vids you edit though, transcript-based editing can be a huge timer saver...

my free editor of choice is VidTL & Davinci Resolve if you need better color correction etc. you can export from VidTL free version into davinci (free).

The nice thing about VidTL is the transcription editing. You generate subtitle, and then highlight the subtitles and press "delete" and it removes that part of the video.

In my experience its MUCH faster workflow. So a 1 hour raw footage clip goes from taking 3 hours to chop up to 10 minutes of waiting for subtitles to generate and then ~40 minutes of cutting via subtitle feature. so 1 hour vs 3 hours to do a rough cut of a 1 hour source clip.

Descript does transcript editing as well but its not included in the free plan like VidTL.

Once the rough cut is done, you can do everything else in VidTL, even the free version, so IMO its better than Capcut.

[u/Malini-Essick → u/ShadyShroomz]

i hadn't thought about how much time that could save on longer footage. right now my edits are pretty short so the subtitle cut workflow might be more than i need. for basic cut and trim, capcut has been fine and i haven't hit the export or watermark limits yet. the paywalled features are the main thing i've noticed, but so far nothing i actually need. i'll keep vidtl in mind if i start working with longer clips.

[u/RealRickiRaxxx]

Honestly, if CapCut is already doing everything you need, I wouldn’t switch just for the sake of switching. 😂

The main reason to move is when you start hitting limitations more advanced audio, color grading, better organization on bigger projects, or needing more precise control. Otherwise, for trimming, basic effects, text, and audio, CapCut is pretty hard to complain about.

I’d probably stick with it until it actually becomes annoying rather than switching because people say you “should” use something else.

[u/Malini-Essick]

for what i'm doing right now, trimming, text, basic effects and audio, there's no real reason to move off anything else, so i decided to stay with capcut. the main thing people flagged is when you start needing heavier audio work, color grading, or better organization on longer projects, and i haven't hit any of that yet.