2 days Ago By John Nieves
CapCut, the video editing app made by the same people who created TikTok, is an incredibly useful piece of video editing software. While most people think of it as a tool that’s mostly just used to create short-form videos for TikTok, it’s become so powerful that our video team has been leaning on it heavily to create long-form content as well. But like any successful app developer, ByteDance has embraced the longstanding tradition of making great, successful things sucky by either making features worse, or locking very basic things that people use under a paywall.
Why yes, that is a basic rendering feature locked behind a paywall Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think all of CapCut’s features should be free. The team has paid for CapCut Pro for a better part of a year, and we think that what they’re asking for is reasonable, especially if you’re someone who creates content for a living. The thing that I take issue with is the fact that CapCut is putting very basic features like publishing a video in full HD behind a paid subscription.
That’s right – if you don’t want your video to look like it was edited by a potato in 2014, you’ll have to pay Php 360 a month to export your video in full HD.Just look at how many features you won’t be able to access without a pro accountThat’s the crux of this rant – while CapCut is still technically free, many of the tools that are required to make a basic, good-looking video aren’t. Features once free, like audio normalization, fonts, transitions, and smooth slow motion, are now pay2use.
If you’re trying to jump in on a trend, newer filters and effects are very likely to be locked behind a paywall. It sucks because I know a lot of people who have given up on CapCut because of the blatant money grab, especially for the basic features. I would understand if some AI-powered features are locked behind a paywall, because maintaining servers is expensive, but 1080p output? Come on.
I’ll be the first to admit that CapCut is a great editing platform, and while I know how to use apps like Black Magic’s DaVinci Resolve, which is 100% free and arguably more powerful, I prefer using CapCut because anyone can just pick it up and run with it.I personally wasn’t aware at how bad the paywall issue has been until I forgot to switch to our subscription account on a new machine. Just imagine the shock that long-time users must feel with the shift of many of the features they’ve used for free to the Pro plan.
The good news is that there are alternatives to CapCut. Here’s some of the ones we’ve found:InShotYouCutEditsVITA.
