For me, the most specific question would be: which editor suits me best for what I need? I’ve tried a ton of video editing programs, and I can tell you right off the bat that you can do the job you need with any of them; the thing is that some will make it easier for you to do than others.
Back in the day, editors didn’t come with anything built-in—meaning they didn’t have stickers, GIFs, music, or effects—so they were more focused on what truly matters in editing software: editing video. However, over time and as content creation and social media have evolved, some have fallen behind, or simply alternatives have appeared to edit more specific things.
If you’re looking for a video editing program for social media, you’ll probably find that any of the many free alternatives out there will do the job. Some of these also have extras inside the app itself; these are paid features, but they might come in handy for what you want to do.
In the video, I’ve tested two very well-known ones: VN Editor and CapCut. Both work for editing, but each has its own quirks that might make you prefer one over the other.
I’ll tell you straight up: until recently, the clear winner for me was CapCut, but lately they keep moving things around and moving more and more features behind a paywall. Naturally, they have every right to do so—it’s their software—but I already pay for DaVinci Resolve, and I only used CapCut to simplify my vertical content workflow, so I’m not going to pay for two.
In both cases, I am referring to the desktop applications, which is where I edit. VN has some shortcomings in my workflow; for example, synchronizing audio tracks is not precise at all—to the point of “good luck!”. Also, I don’t find the scrollbar on the timeline comfortable to use, but this isn’t a flaw, just a matter of personal taste; I prefer to be able to move it freely.
When importing videos into the project, the app converts them automatically—I imagine it creates some kind of proxy file to work more smoothly—but the truth is I don’t like this, because if I load a longer clip, it takes its time to process it.
To keep from sounding completely negative, the desktop version of VN feels light, not heavy, and it’s not overly complicated to understand. Plus, it includes some content you can use in your project, which is much appreciated. You don’t get this in the big names like DaVinci, Final Cut, or Premiere, but CapCut does have it, and I’d say it has even more of it.
At this point, if you’ve been looking around, I imagine you’ve already heard something about CapCut. Let me tell you something quickly that will probably tip the scales further in its favor: if they had kept everything free like it was at the beginning, today it would be the king of the market. It’s a shame they chose to turn it into a paid app. To be clear, this doesn’t make it a worse app, but better alternatives still exist even while being free—such as DaVinci Resolve. If you don’t know what to choose and want to do frequent work, don’t hesitate and use DaVinci; it has a fully functional and very, very professional free version. That said, it is heavier and has a slightly steeper learning curve due to the sheer number of features it includes.
CapCut has major advantages: it allows you to insert MKV files directly into the timeline without affecting performance, you can work up to 4K 60fps, it lets you create proxies if needed, it’s lightweight and semi-free. I really like navigating the timeline, and lately, they are adding a lot of artificial intelligence features to it.
Buuuut, it lacks a sound equalizer and noise removal without paying. Plus, whereas you used to be able to separate the audio track from a video easily, that feature is now quite limited in its uses—a real shame.
But hey! Both are great applications, and if you’re unsure, I recommend trying them out because they might just suit your workflow better than mine.