CapCut Review

CapCut is a large part of the reason short form video looks the way it does. ByteDance shipped it in China as JianYing in 2019, rebranded it worldwide in 2020, and by 2024 it led global downloads among generative video apps with hundreds of millions of monthly users. The editing holds up: a multi layer timeline, keyframes, automatic captions accurate enough to publish without correction, a template library that applies somebody else's edit to your own footage, and background removal that runs on a mid range phone.

Then came the restructure. Early in 2026 the old Pro tier was renamed Standard at about ten dollars a month, a new Pro appeared above it at about twenty with the full generative toolkit and a terabyte of storage, and existing annual subscribers were reported to move onto the new rate from late February. Export above 1080p went behind the paywall at the same time. On annual billing it is more than a doubling, delivered through an in app notice rather than an announcement.

The tool is still worth using and the free tier still does more than most paid editors managed five years ago. The price grade is about what happened to the people who had already paid.