You want to edit your latest YouTube video or recording, but you’re wondering which tool can help you make epic productions that will delight your audience.
The best video editing software allows newbie and pro users to add special effects, cut together complex scenes, or apply stunning filters.
With the slew of video editing tools on the market, it’s hard to pick the best one for your needs. That’s why we put together this comparison guide of two of the best software – DaVinci Resolve and Adobe Premiere Pro.
But which one is suitable for you? To help you figure that out, we’ll compare both tools based on their features, performance, support, pricing, similarities, and differences.
DaVinci Resolve vs Premiere Pro: What Are They?
DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve is a powerful solution that combines photo and video editing, visual effects, color correction, audio postproduction, and motion graphics in one platform.
The software comes with an elegant and modern interface that’s easy enough for new users to learn, yet powerful for pro users.
It’s like a one-stop-shop post-production studio. And the best part is that you’ll be using the same tools that Hollywood producers and editors use.
Unlike most other alternatives in its space, the software is quite powerful but has a kind of steep learning curve. Its latest upgrade also includes Fairlight, giving free users the ability to collaborate on projects simultaneously.
If you want to turn projects around quickly, DaVinci Resolve can help you do that.
Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is an industry-standard, professional video editing tool that offers smart features for better storytelling.
Whether it’s for the web, film, or for TV, the creative tool offers powerful features and integrates with other services and apps to help you craft footage into polished videos and films.
You also get the power of Adobe Sensei that helps you save time and stay in your creative flow to get your work polished and ready without leaving your timeline.
You can edit footage in any format from virtual reality to 8K, and on any platform. The software provides lightweight proxy workflows, native file support, and faster ProRes HDR so you can work however you want – even on mobile platforms.
Premiere Pro vs DaVinci Resolve: Features
DaVinci Resolve
Pages
DaVinci Resolve is split into pages that give you dedicated tools and a workspace for your tasks. You can edit on the cut and edit pages, add motion graphics and visual effects on the Fusion page, color correct, and use the Fairlight page to add audio.
The platform also has media and deliver pages on which you can organize and output your media work.
Editor
On the edit page, you’ll find a professional and advanced non-linear editor with a familiar dual monitor design, track layout, and traditional workflow. This way, it’s easier to learn the software if you’re a novice, and still powerful enough if you’re a pro editor.
The editor is good for larger projects like streaming, TV shows, feature films, documentaries, and commercials among others.
A drag and drop editing feature is included along with customizable keyboard shortcuts to help you work faster and trimming tools that are sensitive to your project context. You also get access to a library full of hundreds of transitions, titles, and video effects that you can add for animation purposes.
Other tools available for media and timeline management and organization include the automatic smart bins, live effects preview, smart trim tools, stacked and tabbed timelines, and fast proxy editing.
Cut
This feature is designed to help you turn around your projects quickly, especially those with tight deadlines. It has a streamlined interface that’s quick to learn and is designed with speed in mind.
Among the cut options, you get include dual timelines, source tape, smart editing tools, and fast review to help you work faster than before. A sync bin and source overwrite tools are included to help you quickly edit multicam programs and create perfectly synced cut-aways.
Color
The color corrector feature is advanced and has been used to color and finish high-end projects like TV shows and feature films. It has exciting features to help you get great results such as HDR color wheels, custom curves, power windows, node editor, and the Open FX tool.
If you’re familiar with image editing software, the new primary control sliders in DaVinci Resolve make it easy for you to adjust the temperature, contrast, saturation, mid-tone detail, and other elements.
You get a wide range of color grading features, including tracking, qualifiers, and more.
Fusion
Fusion is a page feature in DaVinci Resolve that lets you create and broadcast cinematic quality motion graphics and visual effects inside the platform.
It features a node-based workflow making it easier and faster to create sophisticated animations and effects compared to using a layer-based approach.
There are several 2D and 3D tools you can use for motion graphics and visual effects, plus advanced keyframe editors and animation curve editors so you can create realistic, organic animations.
With Fusion, you get everything from planar, to point and 3D camera tracking, keying, and rotoscoping tools to create stunning animated titles, photorealistic composites, and 3D particle systems.
It also comes with tools like deep pixel composting and virtual set extensions.
Editor Keyboards
The editor keyboards are another way of editing that’s faster than using your mouse because they let you use both hands simultaneously. The Speed Editor features dedicated left-side edit function keys and a search dial with transport and electronic clutch controls on the right side.
You can use the source tape buttons and search dial to find shots with your right hand, and still mark in and out points, live trim, and perform edits with your left hand.
The keyboard also has a QWERTY keyboard that comes with color-coded keycaps specifically for people who spend a lot of time editing each day.
Professional Audio Consoles
This feature is designed together with professional sound engineers to help you streamline your workflow. It’s intuitive, task-based, and adapts automatically so you can have everything you need at your fingertips.
It’s a complete mixing console that you can use on the go, in a small suite or home studio, or install it on your desktop. You can also buy a pre-configured multi-bay console if you have a dedicated scoring stage or audio suite.
Automation
You can record any parameter change over time using the automation follows edit feature. So when you move, trim, or edit any clip, the automation you recorded follows it. This way, you can make last-minute changes and still maintain your mix.
Live video previews
The viewer tracks movements in the timeline and scrolls as you slide markers and clips or drawing ranges so you can use the video as a reference. You can also drag clips and draw ranges and markers out of the viewable range as the timeline scrolls with you.
Color Panels
DaVinci Resolve’s color panels allow you to tweak and adjust different parameters simultaneously to create unique looks that your keyboard and mouse combo can’t do. If you’re a new colorist just starting out or you just need a portable panel, you’ll love this panel.
It features knobs for primary adjustment controls, high-quality trackballs, and buttons for navigation and playback.
Additional screens and controls are included to help you access virtually all tools and palettes. For the ultimate in control, the feature gives you access to every tool and command behind every button.
Customizable templates
You can build your own effects and apply them to clips on the cut and edit pages.
Custom vector shapes
You can also use vector shape tools to create motion graphics. These include Boolean operators to combine shapes, rectangles, stars, and polygons. Offset and transform, grit, and jitter are included so you can customize animations or use shapes as particle sources.
Fairlight
Fairlight is a professional tool designed for audio post-production. The page features hundreds of tools that are akin to having a pro-digital audio workstation in your color and editing system.
You’ll find familiar editing tools to help you work quickly and work with up to 2000 tracks with dynamics processing, EQ, and real-time effects. You also get sample-accurate editing tools, Fairlight FX like hum remover, reverb, and de-esser, advanced ADR, and Foley.
Media and Delivery
The media and delivery pages provide wide format support, finish, and mastering. They have everything you need to import, manage, and deliver your final project drafts.
You can organize footage in bins on the cut and edit page, and the media page will give you a workspace to help you focus on preparing footage, syncing, and organizing them into bins.
Plus, you can add metadata prior to editing, clone camera media cards for backup, output and upload files to Twitter, YouTube, and Vimeo, or anywhere in the software.
Multi-User Collaboration
You can grow and build your own multi-user post-production studio. DaVinci Resolve is designed for collaboration so you can get more work or bigger projects, add more users, and work together on the same jobs at the same time.
Everything in the platform is managed by a universal timeline and powerful multi-user database so colorists, editors, sound engineers, and VFX artists or animators can collaborate.
You don’t have to import or export files, lose work, translate projects, or conform and manage changes.
DaVinci Neural Engine
The Neural Engine uses machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and state-of-the-art deep neural networks to power object detection, facial recognition, auto color, and color matching among other features.
It is cross-platform and uses the latest GPU innovations for deep learning and AI to offer unparalleled quality and performance. You also get simple tools to solve repetitive, complex, and tedious problems.
For instance, it enables face recognition so you can sort and organize your clips in bins based on the person in the shot, reframe the shot, and do a lot more.
FlexBus Architecture
FlexBus uses up to 26 channel-wide multipurpose buses so you can send tracks to buses and vice versa, or buses to buses in multiple cascade layers as you need to create large sessions without limitations.
Transient analysis tool
This tool detects sound effects, beats, and individual words automatically. It displays transient markers as vertical lines so you can use arrow keys to navigate between them and identify specific parts of a sound to edit.
Premiere Pro
Automatic transcriptions
With Premiere Pro, you can turn spoken words into captions using the Adobe Sensei-powered automatic transcriptions. This way, you can add and edit subtitles for higher accessibility and engagement – in multiple languages.
Auto Reframe
With intelligent reframing, accelerate your workflow and optimize videos for social media channels. This feature keeps important content in frame, regardless of the shape or size, and in 4K resolution.
Lumetri Color tool
This feature takes the guesswork out of curve adjustments, with each curve having two axes and paired values. It helps make selective color grading accurate and easy.
Adobe Stock Audio
You can save time when making videos using this feature. It allows you to search, preview, license, and download music tracks inside Premiere Pro from the Essential Sound panel.
Film editor
You can edit raw footage in any format using the industry-standard film editor and easily apply editing techniques from establishing shot to end credits and achieve your vision.
Drag and drop
You can drag and drop video clips to your project or import footage from any file format regardless of where you shot it and make everything from YouTube videos to features.
Trim tool
This feature helps you make intuitive edits in your timeline to shorten or extend clips. You can also create and edit multicam sequences with the editing process.
Animation and Video Effects
You can create animated motion graphics for title sequences and transitions using keyframes and Motion effect controls. Use templates or build your own using the Essential Graphics panel Type and Shape tools.
After Effects and Adobe Stock
You can add Hollywood-ready visual effects and leverage Premiere Pro’s integration with Windows and Mac devices to finesse your clips. You can also access the Adobe Stock library to find the right stock images and video clips for a great final cut shine.
Lumetri Color Panel
With this feature, you can make color adjustments to your professional videos. It helps you master color correction, white balance, color grading, and more.
M1 support
For macOS users, Premiere Pro offers native support for Apple M1 chip laptops from launch to export with buttery smooth editing.
Scene Edit detection
This feature is available thanks to new optimizations and is up to two times faster on macOS and Windows, but thrice the speed on M1 devices.
Audio device switching
If you use a Windows PC, Premiere Pro can automatically detect changes and switches when you swap out interfaces, headphones, or microphones and other audio devices.
DaVinci Resolve vs Premiere Pro: Integrations
DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolves works with third-party plugins and storage so you can have everything you need in a compatible post-production solution that can handle anything.
You can use it with any storage type including NAS and SAN systems, and extend it with audio plugins, Open FX plugins, or third-party motion graphics and title templates.
It also works with all major file formats, post-production software, and you can move files through to Media Composer, Final Cut Pro X, and Premiere Pro.
Premiere Pro
Premiere Pro also plays well with other apps and services including Audition, Photoshop, After Effects, and Adobe Stock. It also integrates with hundreds of third-party extensions like Alibi, Benq, Chesa, DataClay, Elements, and more.
Premiere Pro vs DaVinci Resolve: Support
DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve provides support via a help center, forum, Splice community, web form, social media, and email.
Premiere Pro
Premiere Pro provides support via chat, phone, and community forum.
DaVinci Resolve vs Premiere Pro: Pricing
DaVinci Resolve
You can download DaVinci Resolve for free and learn how to use the pro tools that Hollywood artists use. Once you learn how to use the software, you can start using it for more work by purchasing the Studio package, which offers more effects, 3D, and other features.
- DaVinci Resolve – free version, offers visual effects, color correction, motion graphics, audio postproduction, and more for Mac, Windows, and Linux users.
- DaVinci Resolve Studio – paid version, includes everything in the free plan, along with audio plugins, stereoscopic 3D tools, Neural Engine, and more.
Check the DaVinci Resolve pricing page for more information.
Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro provides three different plans each with a free trial.
- Premiere Pro Single app costs $24,14 per month – it includes Premiere Rush, Adobe fonts, and 100GB of cloud storage
- Creative Cloud All apps costs $60, 94 per month – it offers over 20 creative apps including Premiere Pro among other features
- Business, costs $39, 09 and offers industry-leading creative apps plus simple management of your licenses.
Visit Adobe Premiere Pro’s pricing page for more information.
Premiere Pro vs DaVinci Resolve: Similarities & Differences
| DaVinci Resolve | Premiere Pro | |
| Software | Video editing | Video editing |
| Unique features | FlexBus Architecture DaVinci Neural Engine | Audio device switching Audition professional audio mixing tool |
| Apple M1 support | ✅ | ✅ |
| Lumetri color tool | ✅ | ✅ |
| Drag and drop | ✅ | ✅ |
| Integration | Works with third-party plugins and storage including NAS and SAN systems, audio plugins, Open FX plugins, or third-party motion graphics and title templates. Works with all major file formats, post-production software, Media Composer, Final Cut Pro X, and Premiere Pro. | Plays well with other apps and services including Audition, Photoshop, After Effects, and Adobe Stock. Integrates with hundreds of third-party extensions like Alibi, Benq, Chesa, DataClay, Elements, and more. |
| Platforms | Windows, Mac, and Linux | Windows and Mac |
| Pricing | Free Studio plan | Premiere Pro Single app costs $24,14 per month Creative Cloud All apps costs $60, 94 per month Business, costs $39, 09 |
DaVinci Resolve vs Premiere Pro: Pros & Cons
DaVinci Resolve
Pros
- Integration with many apps
- Has a free plan
- Growing in popularity
- Easy to learn
- Many helpful training videos and guides
- Can manage audio and video post-production
- Offers AI-powered tools to fix complex issues
- Lots of equipment choices for pro editors
- Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux
- Clear, well-designed interface
- No watermarks
- Keyboard mapping
- Supports different formats
Cons
- Simple tasks are harder if the hardware is weak
- Tough to add VFX
- No dynamic linking
- You have to buy the paid plan from a reseller
- Lacks pre-made and preset template support
- Hogs system resources
Premiere Pro
Pros
- Responsive speed
- Rich video production app ecosystem
- Clear, flexible interface
- Wide variety of organizational tools
- Unlimited multicam angles
- Excellent stabilization tool
- Fine-tuning
- Easy to use
- Audio options
Cons
- Renders slow on simple computers
- No sound effect samples
- Interface is intimidating
- Some techniques need more apps to work
- Steep learning curve
Premiere Pro vs DaVinci Resolve: Which One Is Better?
Editing videos is a resource and device-intensive task especially since performance depends on the hardware you use and you have to be confident in your editing chops.
Both DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro are resource-heavy so you’ll need lots of memory and storage for them to run smoothly.
However, they also have tricks you can use to speed up performance, reduce rendering time, and speed up the software.
They’re also pretty impressive editing tools, but for this comparison guide, we recommend using Premiere Pro.
It allows fine control over edits, offers audio options, industry-standard effects and color, plus other features that novice and pro users can benefit from.
