A March 2024 YouTube review comparing CapCut and Descript as "all-in-one" multimedia editors. The speaker contrasts their origins, target users, platform support, pricing tiers, core features (transcription, captioning, recording, templates, transitions, AI tools), and recommends Descript for podcast/spoken-word editing and CapCut for short-form, mobile-first social video; also suggests using both in a cross-workflow.
Capcut and descript are very different tools. Today you're going to learn some different use cases for each one. I'm going to compare them on key features, talk about how much each one costs, and give you a framework for what to think through when you're deciding which one to learn and ultimately use for your projects. You can get started with both capcut and descript for free, so if you have the time, it doesn't hurt to try them both and see which one you prefer. Both capcut and descript brand themselves as all in one tools. Looking at capcut's website, they say free all in one video editor for everyone to create anything anywhere, and descript says one tool for your full workflow. So both of these tools claim to be all in one solutions. However, I think they have certain project types that they do better for than for others. For CapCut. CapCut is a product from a Chinese company called ByteDance. ByteDance is the creator of another app you might have heard of called called TikTok. And TikTok, if you don't know, is primarily a cell phone app for short videos and since they're on the cell phone, it's optimized for that portrait mode aspect ratio, the aspect ratio that most cell phones are. So Cap Cut is meant for fast paced, high retention type of editing and therefore I give it an edge over descript for that type of video. Now one important side note at the time I record this In March of 2024, the United States House of Representatives just passed a bill to ban TikTok if ByteDance doesn't sell the app to an American company. So take that into consideration when you're considering using this tool. It's been somewhat controversial and it may be affected by future bans if you're an American using this app. I'm not here to discuss politics, I just wanted to be transparent about that. Descript, on the other hand, is a product of Silicon Valley in the United States and is invested in by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. And it's built around the idea of editing from the transcript. So whether you are editing a video or audio only, it's meant for spoken word content that is primarily podcasts. So while these two tools have many similar features and claim to be all in one tools, and they come at it from different angles with different end users in mind of the two, capcut has more options in terms of how to use it. As I mentioned, Capcut is a mobile first platform because it's intended to work primarily for editing TikTok videos. As such, it has a mobile app that you can download to your iPhone or even your Android device and edit it there. But capcut also has a browser based version as well as desktop versions for macOS and Windows. You can so a huge amount of choices in terms of where to edit pretty much any device when it comes to capcut. Descript on the other hand, is intended for desktop only editing, but you do get two choices. You can download the macOS or Windows app, or you can edit it in your browser without downloading anything whatsoever. So if you plan to do editing from your phone, you have to use capcut. That's your only choice. Descript is not an option for you if you'll be editing from the desktop, it's a toss up between capcut and descript. Next, the question on everyone's mind, what do these services cost? Well, Capcut is free and can be used almost without restrictions without paying anything. If you want to upgrade to the Pro version, it's $119 USD per year and that buys you 100 gigabytes of cloud storage, more templates than you get with the free version and unrestricted export and publishing options. Descript also has a free tier, but it's quite a bit more limited. You can only transcribe one hour worth of content per month, you're limited to 720p exports and only one watermark free export per month. So if you're going to be serious about using descript, you'll pretty much have to be on the Creator plan which costs $144 US year, or the Pro plan which is $288 per year. So if you have no money to spend on editing software, capcut is the winner here. But if you got the budget for it, descript is an incredible value. On the Pro plan, for example, you get 30 hours of transcription per month, one terabyte of cloud storage, remote recording. For podcasts, you got quick recording options, and a ton more. I've gone into all this different type of stuff on this channel before, so you can check out my other videos. In terms of features, both do automatic transcribing and captioning, both have background noise correction, both have transitions, both have collaboration tools, both have stock media built in, and both have AI tools built in. So these tools, descript and capcut, are 80% similar in terms of the core editing functionality. On the desktop apps, both have built in recording functionality, but CapCut only does audio recording, whereas Descript does audio, webcam and screen recording. So therefore, if you do a lot of tutorials or walkthroughs. Descript is a clear winner here. But also As I mentioned, descript has the SquadCast integration, so if you plan to do remote interviews, descript is a better option for that. In terms of transitions and filters, capcut has a lot more built in options than Description, but descript allows you to create templates of your own. So for all my purposes, being able to build my own templates has made my editing super fast and easy. And in terms of user interface, I find capcut's desktop app to be a little more polished. It's more customizable and you can pop windows out and resize things and the layout is just a little bit cleaner and more intuitive in my opinion. But both are very simple. These are both easy to learn and have pretty straightforward controls, especially compared to the more professional full featured tools like Premiere or Final Cut. And because of that, both are limited in their ability to do advanced things like color grading. But again, cinematic stuff isn't where either of these softwares shine. In conclusion, which one do I pick? The answer is it depends, but I'll start by saying I'm biased. I have literally built my business off of teaching descript, and if I have 50 hours of experience with capcut, I probably have 1500 hours with descript. So descript is the hands down better option for podcast editing and spoken word editing, period. I don't think there's anything better on the market. The whole thing being built around the transcript and having tools like filler word removal and Ask AI and eye contact, just make it the best tool on the market for that type of thing. For me and for my clients, that type of content is what I specialize in and therefore it's what I recommend. Now if I were a TikTok or shorts creator, I'd want to be on capcut. It's better for that. There are more interesting and dynamic transitions in capcut, there are more filters, more viral music that you can add, and it's much better for that fast paced, high retention style of editing. But here's another idea for you, use both of them. Back when I was editing for clients, I would do the long form podcast edits in descript and then if the client wanted Alex Hormozy style captions or that super fast paced style of editing, I would export short clips from the longer video in Description and then do the short clip edits in Cap Cut. So in other words, I do the rough cut, I clean up the audio, I do all that type of stuff in Descript and then bring it into cap cut. So I know this was quick and high level, but if you have questions unanswered here, comments.
