Growing an audience
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Both cover video editing. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Renderforest | Shotcut | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $8 | Free |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | macOS, Windows, Linux |
| Covers | Motion Graphics & Animation, Video Editing | Video Editing |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Video templates and a logo maker
Renderforest is a template factory: intros, explainers, logo animations and slideshows, each filled in with your own footage and text. Nothing made in it will look custom, and for a channel that needs a title sequence by Thursday that is the point. Credits meter what you can generate, so the plan you need depends on output rather than on features.
Our note
Against Animaker the split is credits against downloads. Renderforest meters what you generate and Animaker caps what you export, so which one comes out cheaper depends on whether you iterate a lot or publish a lot.
Only on this side
A free desktop video editor, open source
Shotcut is a free desktop video editor that has been maintained for well over a decade and runs on Linux, macOS and Windows alike. It reads a wide range of formats because FFmpeg is doing the work underneath, and it asks for no account at any point. The interface takes a session to settle into. Nothing is upsold later.
Our note
This is the answer when the budget is nothing and the work is real, and the interface is the price you pay instead. DaVinci Resolve's free build is more capable if your machine can run it.
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.