Lightworks vs Runway Comparison 2026
Both cover video editing. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
A film editor with a free tier and no time limit
Generative video with an editor around it
At a glance
- Lightworks starts cheaper, at $13.99.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Lightworks | Runway | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $13.99 | From $15 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | None |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on (they differ) |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Lightworks
A film editor with a free tier and no time limit
Lightworks has been cutting feature films since long before the web, and the free tier is the whole editor at a capped export resolution with no trial clock on it. Paying raises the export ceiling and opens the formats a delivery spec actually asks for. Three ways to pay sit on the same page, including a single payment for anybody who does not want another monthly line. The interface comes from broadcast rather than from the web, so the first afternoon is spent learning it.
Our note
Take the free tier seriously here, because it is the whole editor rather than a crippled demo and the export ceiling is the only real limit. If the interface does not click within a week it never will, and DaVinci Resolve gives away more for the same money.
Runway
Generative video with an editor around it
Runway is where the frontier video models arrive with a timeline attached, so a generated shot can be trimmed, upscaled and cut against footage you filmed. Credits are the unit of everything, and they go faster than the plan names suggest. Read the credit cost per second before picking a tier, because the gap between plans is nothing like the gap between prices.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.