Davinci Resolve vs. Premiere Pro: What's the Difference [2024]🤔

Dawn Tang updated on Aug 16, 2024 to AI Article

Choosing a video editing software between Davinci and Premiere Pro to start your editing career is daunting. In this post, we will see the key differences between Davinci Resolve vs Premiere Pro as to what they offer to see what is better based on your requirements.

Davinci Resolve and Adobe Premiere Pro were fundamentally different programs long back. The Davinci Resolve was known for its color correction, and Premiere Pro was the first advanced video editing platform. Fast forward to now, Davinci Resolve and Premiere Pro are two of the most popular non-linear editing (NLE) platforms for creators across various fields. But what is better in both, and who wins the Davinci Resolve vs. Premiere Pro battle?

In this post, we will pit these two top editing software for beginners to know who will reign supreme and what makes it better than the other and finally let you choose a tool of your choice.

Davinci Resolve vs. Premiere Pro: What Are They

Like us, many beginner video editors are confused about what editing software to choose between the Davinci Resolve and Premiere Pro. Do share this post on social media to help our budding editors.

1. What Is Davinci Resolve

Originally Davinci Resolve Studio was an advanced color-grading software for color-correcting videos. Later, the software was developed to incorporate all the NLE features after it was acquired by Blackmagic Design in 2009. With time, the company turned this into a complete NLE tool. Here's a list of pros and cons of Davinci Resolve:

               Pros                Cons
  • Professional colour grading, way ahead of its competitors.
  • You can trim, do visual effects, edit, process, and add subtitles in Davinci Resolve for all kinds of videos.
  • Works as an app in the app with tools like Fusion and Fairlight for motion graphics and audio tracks, respectively.
  • Offers all of the features with a one-time purchase ($295), valid for up to two devices.
  • Fairlight is for audio editing, where you can remove background noise in Davinci Resolve, mix and edit audio tracks and seamlessly.
  • You can get an extensive library of stock images and templates for audio and video to enhance your audio quality.
  • Davinci is a highly resource-intensive app. It can eat up all your resources while working, especially for motion graphics and rendering files.
  • Though the Fusion app is powerful for editing motion graphics, you have to master it even to start out as a beginner in motion graphics.
  • No customizations for the UI.
  • You do not find much third-party integration compared to Adobe. Also, the integration is not as feasible as the other one.

2. What Is Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere was launched in 1991 and is the first NLE platform for video editing. The Premiere Pro is its successor with more professional features and became a top video editing tool in no time due to its excellent features. Initially, it was exclusive to Mac users but later developed for Windows systems.

               Pros                Cons
  • Possesses a simple and characteristic interface for non-linear editing. 
  • Offers Creative Cloud access to increase its capabilities like assets, storage, collaborative tools, etc.
  • Premiere Industry standard tool, Adobe is considered the most complete and feature-rich video editing suite among all others.
  • Seamless performance and consumes relatively fewer resources.
  • Offers UI customizations.
  • A costly option ($35.99 monthly for Pro and hoc).
  • The payment options are monthly and offer no single payment or lifetime options.
  • You must go through a learning curve to be well-versed in the UI and features.
  • Offers very few stock images and templates, significantly to enhance audio on video.
  • Requires users to purchase additional licenses to collaborate with other Adobe products.

Davinci Resolve vs. Premiere Pro: Key Differences

While both the NLE offer complete tools to edit your videos with finesse, there are certain areas where one overpowers the other. Indeed, these areas impact the user to select their choice. Here's a detailed comparison of Pro vs. Davinci Resolve tools at a glance to understand what stands out in particular departments.

  Davinci Resolve Premiere Pro Winner🏆
Price The pro costs around $295 (one-time fee). Offers a free version too. The monthly plan costs $35.99 per month and $20.99 per month if billed annually. Davinci Resolve
Compatibility Linux, Windows, and macOS. Windows and macOS. Davinci Resolve
System Requirements Windows 10 or later and macOS 11 Big Sur or later. Windows 10 (64-bit) or later and macOS v10.15 (Catalina). Premiere Pro
User Interface Less beginner-oriented and non-customizable NLE but works smoothly. It possesses a simple and characteristic NLE with a customizable layout. Premiere Pro (Anyhow, both the software require a learning curve)
Color Correction Davinci was solely made for this and offered nothing but the best in this department. Offers fewer tools compared to Davinci, but nonetheless is good for color correction. Davinci Resolve
Multicam Yes. Yes, and offers more smoother control with multiple camera setups. Premiere Pro
Motion Graphics Comes with an inbuilt motion graphics tool called Fusion.  Does not have a lot of effects to offer, but allows you to install plugins. Davinci Resolve
Automatic Features While it stands out for color grading, the control over the rest of the features is good. You can easily edit every element of your video with absolute control. Premiere Pro
Effects Offers a good amount of tools and features to produce basic and visual effects. Best for both basic and visual effects. Arguably, the best in the business. Premiere Pro
Audio Editing Includes an outstanding inbuilt tool called Fairlight solely for audio editing. Good audio features, but need to rely on Audition to remove background noise from video Premiere Pro. Davinci Resolve
Third-Party Plugins A good amount of support for the plugins and many are being developed. A wide range of third-party plugins are available. Premiere Pro
Output Options Offers good output options. Good output options, but the only exception with Blackmagic RAW. Davinci Resolve
Integration Does not offer much support for external software, while there are many supporting apps being developed currently. Built to work with everything from After Effects to Audition. Premiere Pro
Performance Though it consumes resources, it dominates with smooth playback and fast export times. A lot of how a video output comes out depends on your system specs.  Davinci Resolve
Support and Update Community-based support with constant updates. Top-notch support with video tutorials for many features and third-party plugins. Premiere Pro
Rating 4.6/5 by G2. 4.5/5 by G2. Davinci Resolve
Suit for Beginners and professional color correction. Professional editors, creators, and filmmakers. Choose based on your preference.
When to use If you are just getting started or need professional color grading. Great for long projects and professional editing with features, part of a creative cloud bundle.  

While both the software is excellent and excels in some parts than others, it offers complete NLE features to carry out the editing for your videos. What suits whom and when to use are two cases where our personal preferences come into the picture. 

Davinci Resolve vs. Premiere Pro: Which Is Better

Both Premiere Pro and Davinci Resolve are excellent video design tools and have their own share of advantages and disadvantages. What's better between them comes down to these factors: your personal editing style preference, requirement, and price.

While the ease of use for both software is quite similar, one needs to go through a learning curve to understand the interface. Suppose you want a complete tool and can work with additional software and plugins; Adobe offers Creative Cloud and Premiere Pro to merge tools for animation, graphics, removing audio from MP4, and visual effects.

This allows you to work with various Adobe programs for a monthly price of $35.99. While this sounds like a downside, the ability to use complementary programs best in respective fields may account for that price for some people.

If you want to save some money or start out as a beginner, Davinci Resolve's free version is nothing to be compared with. This software stands out with exclusive features like color grading, Fusion for motion graphics, and Fairlight to work and remove distortion from audio. And the one-time subscription price with all the premium features is something that seems appealing to a lot of users.

Both of these software boast a wide range of features and capabilities, but each program has its unique workspace and layout and standout features. You should check out what works better with your workflow to maximize output.

Get the free trial of Adobe Premiere Pro and the free version of Davinci Resolve to figure out which software fits best based on your needs and go for it.

You can see the differences in the video as well📺:

Best Video Editing Alternative EaseUS VideoKit

While there are a lot of recommendations for beginners, both the Davinci Resolve and Premiere Pro require a learning curve even to get started. But what if your content is more focused on tutorials, gaming, and social media, which require good editing to reach your audience? You can use a simple tool like EaseUS VideoKit, a complete audio and video editor with great templates to make professional videos. 

It offers a complete package to edit your videos with finesse. You can trim, crop, add backgrounds, edit audio, generate subtitles with AI, add video effects and filters, and include your watermarks to make a perfect video for YouTube and social media. Along with video editing, additional features include conversion, AI subtitles generation, extraction, noise features to remove noise, separate vocals from background noise, and many more to churn out the best videos.

Key Features of EaseUS VideoKit

  • An all-in-one video and audio editing tool.
  • Offers a wide range of additional tools to enhance audio and video quality.
  • The AI subtitle generator can add subtitles to video in VLC.
  • You will have significant control to trim, cut, edit, and add effects to your videos.
  • A lot of features are AI-powered to improve accuracy.

Final Words

While it's great to have cutting-edge software like Davinci Resolve and Premiere Pro for NLE, choosing one is also confusing. In this post, we will try to decode the details of all departments in the Davinci Resolve vs. Premiere Pro banter. Also, find what's better for you based on your requirements.

If you are more into making straightforward videos that do not require intensive editing, there's no point in choosing them. You can always prefer a tool like EaseUS VideoKit. This is more user-oriented, with a simple interface and robust features to cater to all your editing needs in one place. Do give it a try to work wonders with it.

FAQs About Davinci Resolve vs. Premiere Pro

Here are some of the most frequent FAQs asked on Davinci Resolve vs. Premiere Pro. I hope you find these queries helpful. 

1. Why use DaVinci Resolve over Premiere Pro?

The main difference lies in their design mentality. If you want a  professional color-grading tool, Davinci is your solution. On the other hand, Premiere Pro is lauded as the best video editing software. That being said, both devices are excellent for NLE, and the choice really depends on what you want.

2. Which is lighter Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve?

Davinci Resolve is lighter them Premiere Pro. The software is much smoother than the Premiere Pro, considering Davinci works on an app-in-app model to integrate certain tools. On the other hand, you have to integrate many tools with Adobe to work on a project.

3. Should I learn Premiere or DaVinci?

Adobe Premiere Pro is much easier to learn, primarily for editing, and additional capabilities can be achieved through the Adobe creative cloud. Since Davinci includes all features in one app, you must learn each tool separately (some of which require a high learning curve) to work on a project.