Adobe Premiere Pro vs. DaVinci Resolve

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Premiere Pro
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Adobe offers their video editing platform Adobe Premiere Pro, supporting video and audio editing as well as VR presentations, available as part of the company's Creative Cloud suite or as a standalone application.
$22.99
per month
DaVinci Resolve
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Australian company Blackmagic Design offers their video editing application DaVinci Resolve for a wide range of high quality ultra HD effects, render queue, and video uploading options among other features.
$0
Free
Pricing
Adobe Premiere ProDaVinci Resolve
Editions & Modules
Premiere Pro Single App
$22.99
per month
Adobe Creative Cloud - All Apps
$59.99
per month
Adobe Creative Cloud - Students and Teachers
$59.99
per month
Adobe Creative Cloud - Business
$89.99
per month per seat
DaVinci Resolve 17
$0.00
Free
DaVinci Resolve Studio 17
$295.00
perpetual license
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe Premiere ProDaVinci Resolve
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDiscounts available for student and teacher plan.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe Premiere ProDaVinci Resolve
Best Alternatives
Adobe Premiere ProDaVinci Resolve
Small Businesses
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Medium-sized Companies
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Express
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Score 8.8 out of 10
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Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe Premiere ProDaVinci Resolve
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
3.2
(0 ratings)
1.4
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe Premiere ProDaVinci Resolve
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe Premiere Pro seems to be industry standard for video editing. For any type of video promotion or production Premiere is a great software for tidying up and correcting video color and audio as well as an easy editor to bring multiple clips together into a seamless production. Because it is the professional version, for casual video editing it may be too much program.
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DaVinci Resolve is perfect for any video editing needs. It provides a lot of tools to control images, logos, text, transitions, as well as any other imported media that has been dragged to the timeline. It lets you create deliverables of very good quality and control every single detail from setup to final video export. It might not be the best option for a quick, simple video edit if the user does not how to use it because it will take a while to get on board on how to use it, even for simple edits.
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Pros
  • The audio output of this program is better than those of other video editing software.
  • You can make cuts from other videos and make a unique video.
  • When you edit a video you can put audio, images, letters and other things.
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  • Resolve isn't extremely difficult to learn, at least from a UI perspective. I've found learning the node system isn't a steep learning curve. Users who can visualize how they want a grade or match to look can find their way around the software and use simple tools to get close to their result. People can do this without a lot of experience with the software.
  • Resolve provides extremely complex color grading opportunities, depending on how deeply you wish to use the software. One can fine tune an image, or use a plethora of masks, camera tracking, effects, and small tweaks to get images precisely where they want. It's a versatile software with so many options for every color grading scenario.
  • Resolve is free to use. I'm not too familiar with the NLE function of the program, but as a free software, one can accomplish a lot of work without needing to pay. Noise reduction can be a critical element of Resolve, so in that case, you'll need to purchase the full version to utilize the software to its fullest.
  • Resolve is popular enough that the internet provides many resources, forums, and tutorial videos to better learn the software. This is a big deal for helping to navigate Resolve's capabilities.
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Cons
  • GPU utilization- While Premiere utilizes the GPU occasionally and during exports, it's mostly a CPU intensive program. Unless you have a powerful CPU, your computer may struggle to playback high-resolution footage.
  • The Graphics panel is very useful and has come a long way but still needs some work. I need more templates available to me since I'm paying monthly for this service.
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  • Working with multiple audio plugins can get a bit clustered with new windows for each. A simpler and more integrated functionality might be better.
  • Some of the keyboard shortcuts for executing commonly used functions can be confusing and takes time to get used to.
  • Maybe they could look into creating a more basic version that does not require so much CPU capacity to operate.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe Premiere Pro saves time and cost and it does a great job. When you see the output you know that you have made the right investment in the right application. Adobe does not require a lot of support to work good. There are thousands of videos in case you are looking for a particular thing to do during your work on your videos therefore it is well supported.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
Premiere Pro is a very powerful tool, but it's not intuitive - it's virtually impossible to use without some kind of training or instruction. That being said, once you've learned how to use the product so that you can take advantage of its various video editing and creation options, it's an incredible program in terms of features and tools.
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Da Vinci Resolve is up there amongst the big, professional video editing packages like Apple's FinalCutPro and Adobe Premier Pro. To just be included in this league, the package needs to have a plethora of features that the common man does not need. In essence, this overwhelming amount of features makes the product tricky to learn, but once you have the hang of it, it is a dream.
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Support Rating
The customer support was extremely slow, being passed to multiple departments, having calls dropped and need to start all over. I basically had to hold THEIR hand through the process so they could fully understand the situation. The most effective part was when I finally spoke with someone who was able to access my computer and walk through the issues themself. However, they came to the same conclusion after an entire hour, and had no idea why or that it was an issue that could be escalated to the technical team. Ultimately this communicates that Adobe Premiere has no interest in refining their platform, which solidified my ZERO user confidence in this video editing platform.
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Not only do they have classes available in Los Angeles, but they'll also allow you to work from home with the manual and demo materials, and then let you test out to get a certification. They get back to you quickly when you email, and they've got a "family" approach to customer service, they make you feel like you're important to them.
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In-Person Training
Utilizing one of the many books available on Adobe Premiere Pro, each video editor can learn at their own pace.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
We actually took time in 2020 to test out Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve to see if they would be better suited for our department but ended up sticking with Premiere. Each has [its] strong suits, but the non-linear editing style of Resolve was too complicated to grasp when already working in linear programs for so long. Their features aren't as robust and Premiere (outside of color). Final Cut is always a great tool, but if we were to switch to using PC it would become a problem down the road. And not being able to seamlessly use After Effects within Final Cut was the final nail in the coffin.
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I learned so much from this instructional exercise, and I appreciated how the educator is an expert all-day colorist. The section on sound reduction was particularly instructive. I noticed a few inconsistencies between certain methodologies in this instructional exercise and approaches suggested in the Advanced Color Grading in Resolve 15 instructional exercise (e.g., where to place sound reduction in the hub tree), but this is to be expected given that there is no one right way to do any of this. I also learned a lot about Resolve's "Restoration" modules for working with authentic film. This instructional exercise will come up again and again in my work.
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Return on Investment
  • It allows my company to produce products. Full stop. There is no more valuable tool than Premiere for our entire company.
  • Premiere's slow export time consumes the entirety of my computer. This means I often need to go to another machine to continue working. It's frustrating.
  • Premiere also slows down when handling videos larger than 1080p. This slows down my workflow. Every second of my workday needs to make things go faster. Anything that slows it down is a serious problem.
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  • Davinci Resolve allows us to make quick edits and improve the sound on our company webinars and demo videos. This adds a lot of polish, and since we can do it in-house, it's cheaper and allows us to post and share those videos quickly.
  • We've used the software for some flashier marketing videos, and that does drive some positive attention and business our way. Most of that higher-level work is handled by outside agencies, but the fact that we can do some of it in-house saved us money.
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ScreenShots