Both are serious editors that run well on a Mac. They come from opposite ends: Final Cut from fast editing, Resolve from high-end colour grading. Which end you start from decides most of the choice.
How do they compare at a glance?
| Final Cut Pro | DaVinci Resolve | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | One payment on the Mac App Store, or Apple's Creator Studio subscription | Free version with no time limit; Studio is one payment |
| Platforms | macOS; an iPad version by subscription | macOS, Windows, Linux |
| Editing | Magnetic timeline, very fast for assembling a cut | Cut and Edit pages with a traditional track timeline |
| Colour | Colour wheels, curves and boards on each clip | A whole page of nodes, scopes, windows and tracking |
| LUTs | Custom LUT effect with a Mix slider; camera LUTs applied automatically | A LUT on any node; strength through Key Output Gain |
| Audio | Built in, organised by roles | Fairlight, a full mixing page |
| Effects | Built in; Motion is a separate app | Fusion, built in |
| Best for | Mac editors who want speed and a light machine load | Colour-led work, cross-platform teams, starting free |
Which one costs less?
Resolve, to start. The free version has no time limit, no watermark on an ordinary export and the full colour page. Studio, the paid edition, is a single payment that adds noise reduction, delivery above UHD or 60 frames a second, HDR formats and the AI tools. Resolve free vs Studio lists the differences row by row.
Final Cut is a one-time purchase on the Mac App Store, with updates included so far. Apple also sells it inside its Creator Studio subscription with Logic Pro and Pixelmator Pro, and that subscription is the only way to get the iPad version. Apple offers a free trial of the Mac version, so you can test it on your own footage first. Check Apple's store for current terms, since they change.
Which is faster for editing?
Final Cut, for most people. The magnetic timeline keeps clips together as you trim and rearrange, so you rarely knock something out of sync, and it is built tightly around Apple hardware. Skimming, background rendering and playback of camera files are smooth even on modest Apple Silicon laptops.
Resolve's Edit page is a conventional track timeline, which editors coming from Premiere find familiar, and its Cut page is a faster layout for quick turnarounds. It leans harder on the GPU and memory, especially with a colour-managed timeline, so an older or base model Mac feels it sooner. Proxies narrow the gap in both. The Resolve vs Premiere comparison covers how Resolve's editing stacks up against the other big editor.
Which is better for colour grading?
Resolve, clearly. Its colour page is the reason professional colourists use it: nodes keep each correction separate, power windows track a face across a shot, and groups let you grade a whole scene at once. Colour grading in DaVinci Resolve walks through the order that keeps it manageable.
Final Cut's colour tools sit on each clip as effects: colour wheels, curves, hue and saturation curves, and masks. They cover correction and a creative look well, and for most online video they are enough. Where Final Cut stands out is LUTs: the Custom LUT effect has a Mix slider, and log footage from many cameras is recognised and converted on import. Final Cut's colour workflow covers both, including the double conversion that catches people out.
How do LUTs work in each?
The .cube file is the same in both. In Final Cut you drag the Custom LUT effect onto a clip, choose the file, and set Mix. In Resolve you put the LUT on a node, and Key Output Gain sets how much of it reaches the image. Adding LUTs to Resolve covers the folder and the menus, and LUT intensity explained compares the strength controls across apps.
Both apply the LUT clip by clip unless you copy attributes or use an adjustment layer. Neither writes converted files to disk without a full render.
What about audio and effects?
Resolve puts everything in one program: Fairlight for audio, Fusion for compositing and titles, Deliver for exports. One project, no round trips.
Final Cut handles everyday audio well, with roles that make stems easy to export, and it has a large market of third-party plugins and titles. Heavier motion graphics go to Motion, a separate Apple app, and export presets can be extended with Compressor.
How do you choose?
| If you | Choose |
|---|---|
| Edit only on a Mac and want the quickest cut | Final Cut Pro |
| Want to learn colour grading properly | Resolve |
| Want to start without paying anything | Resolve |
| Might move to Windows or work with a Windows team | Resolve |
| Edit on a base model or older Apple Silicon laptop | Final Cut Pro |
| Are outgrowing iMovie | Final Cut Pro, which opens iMovie projects |
| Do heavy compositing inside the editor | Resolve, with Fusion |
If you are coming from iMovie, the jump to Final Cut is the shorter one, and the iMovie LUT workaround explains how iMovie hands a project across. If neither suits you, DaVinci Resolve alternatives and the wider comparison of colour software cover the other options.
What neither editor makes quick
Both assume the job is an edit. Converting a card of log footage before anyone cuts it, or giving a folder of stills and clips the same look for a client, still means a project, a timeline and a render in either one, with every clip at the same LUT amount unless you open them one by one.
BatchTone does that step without a timeline. Drop a folder of photos and clips in, pick one .cube, set a strength on any file that needs less, and export graded copies with the names you choose before the run. The audio is copied untouched, the originals are never modified, and the output is H.264 MP4 that either editor imports normally. It has no timeline, nodes or masks, so it sits beside whichever editor you choose. It runs on macOS 12 or later on Apple Silicon. Batch applying a LUT to video shows what it reads, and the seven-day trial has everything unlocked.
Common questions
Can you move a project from Final Cut Pro to Resolve?
Yes, through an FCPXML export. Resolve imports it with the cuts intact, which is a common route for editing in Final Cut and grading in Resolve. Effects, titles and Final Cut colour corrections usually need rebuilding.
Is Final Cut Pro or Resolve easier for beginners?
Final Cut, for editing. Its interface is smaller and the magnetic timeline prevents many beginner mistakes. Resolve takes longer because it is several programs in one, and the node-based colour page is a new way of thinking.
Do professionals use Final Cut Pro?
Yes, in broadcast, documentary and online production, though Premiere and Avid are more common in large post houses. Colourists overwhelmingly use Resolve, which is why projects often move from Final Cut to Resolve for the grade.
Is the free version of Resolve enough on a Mac?
For most people, yes. On a Mac it decodes and encodes H.264 and H.265 with hardware acceleration, so camera files open without trouble. Studio matters for noise reduction, very high resolutions and frame rates, and the AI tools.