CapCut
ByteDance's editor is the cheapest full-featured option and runs everywhere, and the data and licensing questions that follow TikTok follow CapCut too.
Who makes it
CapCut (ByteDance, Beijing; contracting entity Bytedance Pte. Ltd, Singapore; the US business sits inside the TikTok USDS joint venture since 22 January 2026, everywhere else it remains ByteDance-run) is a real editor rather than a template toy: multi-track timeline, keyframes, curves and LUT colour tools on desktop, auto-captions with speaker ID, transcript-based trimming, filler-word removal, AI dubbing and translation, eye-contact correction, avatars and text-to-video, up to 4K/8K export, on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and web.
What it costs
The business questions are what hold it back. There is no pricing page (capcut.com/pricing does not exist) and prices are set in-app by region: the UK App Store lists Pro at £21.99 a month or £99.99 a year (a 164% monthly premium; the US web price is $19.99 or $179.99), Standard at £10.99, and Teams at roughly $15–30 a seat. AI features draw on credits whose Pro allowance is not published. The June 2025 terms-of-service row was over a perpetual, irrevocable, sublicensable licence to uploaded content including likeness and voice; CapCut says the clause was unchanged and it has never claimed ownership, but the served terms still carry it, the privacy policy says uploads train its "machine learning models", and data is stored in the US and Singapore under a Chinese parent with no EU adequacy. There is no admin SSO, no public API and no MCP server. Trustpilot is 1.2 on 1,263 reviews, unclaimed and unanswered: continued charges after cancelling, duplicate subscriptions across platforms, lock-outs, and features paywalled mid-project.
Not yet tested by Saaskly: assessed on published app-store pricing, CapCut's own help pages and third-party reviews. Saaskly may earn a commission if you buy through the link on this page; it does not affect the score, which we think the ranking makes clear.
Pros
- +The cheapest capable editor on annual billing (£8.33/mo UK app store), on every platform including mobile
- +Wide AI toolkit: captions, dubbing, eye contact, avatars, text-to-video
- +Free tier is genuinely usable
Cons
- −No pricing page and a 164% app-store monthly premium
- −ByteDance ownership, US/Singapore storage and a perpetual content licence in the terms
- −Trustpilot 1.2 (unclaimed) on billing and lock-outs; no SSO, API or MCP
Pricing
Minimum commitment: £21.99 (£21.99/mo × 1 seat × 1 month (no commitment)). The least you can spend before walking away; excludes numbers, minutes and add-ons.
Pro
£21.99/mo · month-to-month
£8.33/mo on an annual commitment
Month-to-month costs 164% more
- ✓Apple App Store UK, inc. VAT: £99.99/yr or £21.99/mo (no published pricing page; web checkout typically 20–30% cheaper; US web $179.99 / $19.99). Full AI suite, commercial-use assets, cloud storage
Standard (mobile)
£10.99/mo · no commitment
Same price on any term
- ✓Removes watermark, includes templates; no full AI
Free
£0/mo · no commitment
Same price on any term
- ✓Full basic editor, Pro assets watermarked, limited AI credits, no cloud storage. Teams ~$15–30/seat/mo annual (unconfirmed, web purchase only)
Specifications
| Rating | 3.3 |
| Pricing and plans | |
|---|---|
| Month-to-month (entry plan) | £21.99/mo |
| Annual commit, per month | £8.33/mo |
| Monthly premium | 164% |
| Minimum commitment* | £21.99 |
| Licensing | Free + subscription |
| Free tier | Limited (watermark/caps) |
| Commitment for annual rate (months) | 0 |
| Features | |
| AI metering | Credits |
| Text-based editing | ✓ |
| Remote recording | No |
| Colour grading | Professional |
| AI voice / dubbing | ✓ |
| Collaboration | ✓ |
| Primary use | Video editing |
| Platforms | iOS, Android, macOS +2 |
| AI transcription | ✓ |
| Screen recording | ✓ |
| Generative video | ✓ |
| Eye-contact correction | ✓ |
| Integrations and developers | |
| Max export (entry plan) | 4K |
| API | No |
| MCP server | No |
| SSO (self-serve) | No |
| Ownership and trust | |
| Trustpilot (reviews) | 1.2 (1,263) |
| Support | |
| Linux | No |
*How we calculate minimum commitment. Headline per-user prices hide the real cost of trying a platform. Total cost of ownership is licence × seats × term, plus usage, add-ons, setup fees and any early-exit charges. Our "minimum commitment" figure is the floor of that: the entry plan's committed rate × the minimum seats the vendor will sell × the months you must commit to (one month at the month-to-month rate where there is no commitment; the licence price where it is sold per year). It deliberately excludes usage, add-ons and prerequisite licences, so your real first bill will be higher, but never lower than this. One-off licences show the licence price; Camtasia is sold per year only. Prices are as shown to a UK buyer: Apple, Adobe (individual) and app-store prices include VAT, most SaaS vendors exclude it; see each profile.
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Researched and drafted with AI assistance; reviewed and approved by Tim Meredith. How we use AI
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