Let’s compare Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve and identify their benefits and drawbacks.
Based on our industry experience, Premiere and DaVinci have become the most popular NLEs over the last couple of years. Even though Premiere has a ton of followers, we see that some power users switch from Premiere to DaVinci. Financial reasons may be at the core of such decisions. Nonetheless, we’d like to look at these two video editing programs and compare them in detail.
We may be also biased toward DaVinci, as we’re using it more actively than Premiere. We’re not sure if we will switch to DaVinci completely any time soon. Why? See below about the cons and pros.
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Video editing software of your choice
There are many choices when it comes to video editing software. Some are better than others depending on what your needs are. For example, some programs allow you to edit audio files while others focus more on video editing.
In order to make sure you’re getting the most out of your video editing software, it’s essential that you research each tool thoroughly before making any final decisions. For example, DaVinci Resolve’s node-based coloring system provides many benefits, including easy access to color correction options. However, the lack of layers makes it difficult to edit audio clips without losing valuable time.
Adobe Premiere Pro is a great tool for video editors because it offers a variety of features. Still, it lacks some key ones that could make your life easier. For example, there aren’t enough built-in effects or transitions. You can get around this by using third party apps, but it’s still more work than it should be.
The two are still great tools. DaVinci and Premiere Pro are used by many different types of people. These two NLEs have what we need and want. With a few clicks, you can edit any kind of video file. You can also share your work online or send it directly to social networks. Whether you need to create simple home movies or high-end productions, there’s a great deal of power in both of them.
That means you deserve the best software without spending your hard earned cash. And that’s why we are here comparing these two programs.
DaVinci Resolve and Premiere are used by professionals because they offer many features and functions. However, there are also several inconveniences associated with DaVinci. On the other hand, Premiere Pro offers fewer but more useful features. Let’s take a look.
Features
DaVinci’s color grading tools are very extensive, allowing users to adjust everything from hue and saturation, lightness and contrast, and even individual colours. However, they’re quite complicated to use, requiring lots of training before users can get anywhere near the full potential of them.
DaVinci’s big selling point is its ease of use. All you really need to do is download it to your computer and start editing.
A feature unique to Davinci is its full multi-users collaboration. A whole team from color grader to VFX specialist can work on their elements of project together. A powerful database makes sure they don’t overwrite each others’ work.
System requirements
Premiere Pro requires less than Davinci. See the requirements for PCs.
- 64-bit multi-core processor (Intel 6th Gen or AMD FX)
- 64-bit Windows 10
- 2 GB VRAM
- 8 GB RAM
- 8 GB HDD space (additional free space required during installation)
- Compatible sound card
- Windows 10
- 16 GB RAM
- Integrated GPU or discrete GPU with at least 2GB of VRAM
- NVIDIA/AMD/Intel GPU Driver version
- Compatible sound card
While DaVinci Resolvers demands slightly higher amounts of processing, memory, and graphic card power than Premiere Pro, overall, DaVinci Resolve delivers excellent results.
Which is faster?
Even if your PC meets these demands, Premiere Pro can sometimes slow down and even crash. You may also experience sluggish performance when working with large files.
DaVinci’s Resolve lags sometimes, but since it relies mostly on the GPU , the CPU isn’t burdened by as many tasks. Because of this, the program runs faster than Premiere Pro. There are ways to improve performance, though. Lowering the resolution of the preview screen or editing using proxy files reduces rendering time and speeds up the programs.
Interface
DaVinci wins here because it came out first with its innovative user interface. However, Premiere Pro has more features and better controls.
DaVinci has been specifically developed for editing video content. Users tend to work with larger screens or multiple displays. Because of that, the interface was built accordingly. Most of the panels are configurable, but the basic layout remains similar to other popular editors.
DaVinci Resolve also provides multiple user interfaces to allow editors to make changes without having to navigate back and forth between panels. Each panel can be customized, allowing users to see what they need with ease.
In Premiere Pro, timelines offer a non-linear editing experience that allows you to place your clips in any order, without constraints. You aren’t forced to work to a particular workflow or default sequence for assembling your shots. This is similar in DaVinci, though.
Tools
Both DaVinci and Premiere offer access to an extensive array of effects like glow, stabilization, green screen keying, titles,and compositing. The tools offered by Premiere and Davinci are very similar.
We will be honest here. Premiere offers better tools because of a wider range of masking and key framing capabilities.
Audio
DaVinci provides some useful features related to audio, but Premiere Pro offers more advanced tools. Premiere Pro provides easier access to its sibling application, Adobe Audition, which is designed specifically for audio professionals.
Automation modes in Premiere will take away the tedious tasks of having to make numerous keyframes to manipulate the samples, have certain parts of your audio match each other, and sound consistent.
In addition to the ability to sync up different audio tracks, Premiere also offers some other tools that make editing much easier. For example, the Trim tool lets you remove or add frames to your clip without having to re-record everything. You can also use the copy function to duplicate sections of your file. These functions allow you to easily edit videos without having to record new versions of each section.
These features save lots of time and are considered less known but very powerful tools within Premiere Pro.
Text and graphics
The in-program video-editing program for both Premiere and Da Vinci is top of the line. The only other possible contender is Avid Media Composer that can compete with these two industry standard editing platforms. Premiere Pro stands out because of its font selections, motion tracking, a large number of plugins, and effects options.
DaVinci is a very powerful tool for creating professional quality subtitles or closed caption files. You can use it to make simple titles or even complex ones with fancy font styles. In DaVinci, you can use Fusion to create high quality titles. You can even create 3D titles. These titles are different from normal titles because the specialty of the text shows off.
Premiere does not provide many options for customization in this case. You will need After Effects for some of these tasks that DaVinci offers. You can change fonts, sizes, colors, and other parameters in Premiere Pro, but there are few opportunities for animation.
Multicam
While multicam editing is similar across programs, Premiere Pro offers the most stability. DaVinci’s multicam workflow can be unstable if you’re working with more than about ten or twelve cameras.
Export rendering options
Both programs offer similar export features. However, Adobe Media Encoder offers more options than DaVinci Resolve.
Color correction
Well, DaVinci rules here, because DaVinci Resolve was made for color correction and color grading. Few other programs on the market offer such a wide range of professional color correction tools. DaVinci Resolve remains the preferred platform for many professional color correctors. It is able to seamlessly integrate with color correction control hardware and refine color down to the pixel.
Ease of use
Both Premiere Pro and DaVinci offer similar features and tools. But DaVinci is built around a much larger ecosystem of third party plug-ins and add-ons. That means there’s a lot more to learn about how Resolve works, and even though it may take some time to figure out what each tool does. Once you do, it’s easy to use because everything is intuitively laid out.
Basic & advanced effects
Neither of the two is specifically geared toward handling advanced visual effects. Premiere Pro may still have the edge over DaVinci. Tools like Warp Stabilizer are fairly advanced for non-linear editing platforms. With some patience (and a couple of hours of tutorials on Youtube), you can easily create quite advanced effects using only the built-in tools.
Pricing and plans
DaVinci offers various pricing options. You can choose either free or paid versions of the software. DaVinci Resolve is free (take a look at what’s in the new version) and open source, meaning users do not need to purchase anything to use it. However, there are paid options for professional grade features. These include the ability to edit 4K footage, add effects, and render movies in up to 60 frames per second. The current prices are: FREE and $295 for DaVinci Studio.
In 2022 Premiere Pro is now only available by subscription. Today Premiere costs $20.99 monthly with an annual commitment or $31.49 month-to-month. If you pay $239.88 for a full year upfront it works out to $19.99 per month.
Since DaVinci is free to start with, this low entry makes the software even more popular. Free comes with limitations, though.
While the free version of Davinci Resolve offers many features for video editing, the professional edition is better suited for creating high quality movies. With the free version, users can create short clips or edit videos. However, if you’re looking to make full length feature films, then the pro version is ideal.
Customer support
Support for Premiere Pro is available via a variety of channels including forum posts, community groups, and social media. There are numerous support resources available for users of DaVinci as well.
Adobe has an army of customer service representatives. You can reach them by phone or online chat. However, the service is often poor. Many users report having to wait on hold for hours before getting connected with someone who knows what he or she is doing. And there is also a community forum, but most posts are unanswered questions.
With DaVinci, you can quickly access the help you need online. You can also reach out to the company directly by phone or email. There’s even a community forum for users to discuss issues and share tips.
Community support
Premiere Pro has a big community of users who share their work online. The amount of tutorials on YouTube is bigger than for DaVinci.
Nonetheless, both Premiere and Davinci have a huge community support. You’ll be able to find a lot of free resources to help you create professional looking videos quickly in both apps.
Final verdict
Like we mentioned at the beginning of our article, we prefer DaVinci because we tend to work more on projects involving color correction. DaVinci is a powerful tool, but it’s not perfect. The Premiere Pro universe of elements, tutorials, and training is still difficult to beat. This is why we still keep both apps and use them in video editing projects.
If we were to face the decision which of the two to keep, we’d stick with DaVinci.
Need to learn more about DaVinci? Here are some useful tutorials and articles to start with.