DaVinci Resolve
The best value in professional video: a genuinely complete free edition with no watermark, and a one-off Studio licence ($295 direct, £225 on the UK site) that has never charged for an upgrade, with edit, colour, Fairlight audio and Fusion VFX in one app on Mac, Windows and Linux.
How we testDaVinci Resolve (Blackmagic Design, Port Melbourne, Australia; privately held, founder-run since 2001) is the only product here that a business can adopt without a subscription. The free edition is the full editor (Cut and Edit pages, node-based colour, the Fairlight audio page, Fusion compositing) with no watermark or export cap, up to UHD 60fps 8-bit. Resolve Studio is a one-off (US$295 direct from Blackmagic, £225 on its UK site, with reseller prices varying by offer) for two concurrent activations across any mix of Mac, Windows and Linux, and adds 10-bit and beyond-UHD output, hardware encode/decode, multi-GPU and the DaVinci Neural Engine: text-based editing, local transcription and subtitles, Magic Mask, IntelliTrack, voice isolation, IntelliCut silence removal, AI Set Extender and, in the mid-2026 version 21, a Photo page, IntelliSearch and an AI speech generator. Every major release from 18 through 21 has been a free upgrade, though CEO Grant Petty has said at NAB 2025 and 2026 that a paid upgrade "could" come at some point. AI runs on your own GPU, which is a privacy plus for B2B buyers.
Collaboration is via Blackmagic Cloud project libraries (US$5 per library per month, collaborators free) and review "Presentations". What it lacks is the SaaS layer: no admin console or SSO, no remote guest recording, no eye-contact or dubbing tools, and a real learning curve on a GPU-hungry app (16 GB RAM and 4 GB VRAM are the Windows minimums; 8 GB VRAM is the practical floor for 4K grading). The iPad Studio licence is a separate £99.99. Trustpilot's 2.6 (98 reviews) is Blackmagic's unclaimed corporate profile, mostly about cameras. There is no Resolve-specific profile.
First-party: we edit in DaVinci Resolve. It is far superior to Adobe Premiere for us technically, and commercially there is no contest between a one-off licence and £263 a year. Blackmagic runs no affiliate programme; there is no commercial relationship behind this verdict.
Pros
- +No subscription: one licence buys the full suite for two machines, and the free edition is genuinely usable for business video
- +Edit, professional colour, DAW-grade audio and node compositing in one app
- +Mac, Windows and Linux; AI runs locally
Cons
- −No admin/SSO, no remote guest recording, no dubbing or eye-contact tools
- −Steep learning curve and serious GPU needs
- −A paid upgrade has been hinted at but never charged
Pricing
Minimum commitment: £225 (one-time purchase). The least you can spend before walking away; excludes numbers, minutes and add-ons.
DaVinci Resolve Studio
£225one-time
- ✓One-off perpetual key (US$295 direct; UK site £225, VAT status to confirm at checkout; reseller prices vary). 2 concurrent activations, all AI/Neural Engine tools, 10-bit, 32K, 120fps, multi-GPU; upgrades free so far
DaVinci Resolve (free)
£0one-time
- ✓Full editor, UHD 60fps 8-bit, no watermark, collaboration included
DaVinci Resolve for iPad Studio
£99.99one-time
- ✓App Store, inc. VAT, separate from the desktop key. Blackmagic Cloud project library US$5/library/month
Specifications
| Rating | 4.4 |
| Month-to-month (entry plan) | n/a (one-off) |
| Annual commit, per month | £225 one-off |
| Minimum commitment* | £225 |
| Licensing | Free + one-off |
| Free tier | Full (no watermark) |
| AI metering | Unlimited |
| Max export (entry plan) | 8K |
| Text-based editing | ✓ |
| Remote recording | No |
| Colour grading | Professional |
| AI voice / dubbing | No |
| Collaboration | ✓ |
| API | ✓ |
| MCP server | No |
| Linux | ✓ |
| Trustpilot (reviews) | 2.6 (98) |
| Primary use | Video editing |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, Windows on ARM +2 |
| AI transcription | ✓ |
| Screen recording | No |
| Generative video | No |
| Eye-contact correction | No |
| SSO (self-serve) | No |
| Commitment for annual rate (months) | 0 |
*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.
Researched and drafted with AI assistance; reviewed and approved by Tim Meredith. How we use AI
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