Instagram Edits vs CapCut: Best Video Editing App for You

Because of the uncertainty of TikTok in the US with recent activities like banning, Instagram has launched ‘Instagram Edits, a new dedicated video editing app to manage and quickly create short-form videos for Instagram. The app competes with CapCut, a video-creating app from TikTok.

The best part of these apps is that they are not limited to creating content for TikTok or Instagram. Anyone who wants to edit a video can utilize these apps and create video edits, making it suitable for all types of users while looking for a simple and easy-to-use editing app from both platforms.

Further, suppose you are a creator and video editor looking for the best video editing app in this space. In that case, I will break down the key differences, use cases, and features of Instagram Edit and CapCut so you can choose which one helps you edit faster and create the best videos.

Instagram Edits vs CapCut Full Comparison

Before going to the detailed breakdown of these apps, here is a quick comparison to help you get started.

1. Support for Editing Tools

Both Instagram Edits and CapCut offer decent features for editing videos on mobile. However, CapCut is more like a complete video editor tool that works for any platform for creating content, apart from TikTok.

Instagram Edits is designed primarily to edit and create Reels content with similar features and design aesthetics like text effects, text, fonts, and more.

Both Instagram and CapCut offer decent features that allow you to edit your videos out of the box on mobile. Both video editing apps offer timeline edits where you trim, cut, and split videos to remove unwanted parts. Slow down your clips. You can add a smooth transition between videos, which also comes with preset filters, text style support, and the ability to add audio to the video timing with music beats.

However, compared to Instagram Edits, CapCut is feature-rich with plenty of options. It also has advanced features like reverse video playback, which is often the most common trend currently missing in Edits. It comes with the keyframe animation, which allows you to animate a specific position, scale, and opacity. It comes with multi-layer editing, which allows you to set multiple videos as a multi-layer edit and more.

It also comes with useful AI features such as noise isolation, enhanced voice, and removal of background out of frame. Motion blur, background noise reduction, and more.

However, these AI features in CapCut are limited to 5 uses per month, while on Edits, AI features are entirely free to use since launch.

Instagram is adding more features to the Edits app. Initially, there was no support for transition, but it has recently gained support. More AI features, including green screen support (currently available) and advanced features, are expected to be supported in the Edits app soon.

If you are a creator, the biggest USP of CapCut is support for templates. Since CapCut is owned by TikTok, the popular templates on TikTok are tightly integrated with CapCut.

However, templates are currently only available for limited regions, and we are also expecting template support for the Instagram Edits app soon. But as of now, if you are looking to edit basic videos, both apps offer decent features.

Suppose you edit for other platforms, including TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. In that case, CapCut is hands down the best option with useful features and design aesthetics that are not exclusive to Instagram alone. Plus, a useful feature such as a teleprompter, which I will discuss in the all other benefits section, allows you to create complete video editing tools.

CapCut is the winner in this segment in terms of video editing features, but it depends on how you use it. If you are looking to create primarily and want a basic video editing app, Instagram Edits is a great app to get started with.

However, if you create content for wide platforms and are looking for an advanced video editor that is simple to use, CapCut takes the crown.

2. User Interface and Experience

Instagram and CapCut video editing apps are designed with creators in mind and make video editing simple despite many feature additions.

Compared to the Instagram Edits app, CapCut is still simple and easy to use, which is suitable even for creators looking for advanced features and video editing features.

Instagram Edits is heavily inspired by the CapCut app. The user interface of the Edits app looks very similar to CapCut, which can help someone switch between apps.

However, if I had to pick one, I would choose both since both are designed for mobile users and creators. If you are a creator or just starting with video editing, you can start with Instagram Edits first and get familiar with CapCut for more advanced features. You don’t need to go through a new learning curve when switching between these apps.

The winners are both CapCut and Instagram Edits. Here is a detailed comparison of the user interfaces of both apps.

3. Audio and Music Library

Both Instagram Edits and TikTok CapCut video editing offer a licensed music library for videos. Both shows have trending sounds that can be easily added to the videos.

However, since this music is licensed and copyrighted, in Instagram Edits, the music is licensed only for use on the Meta platforms, including Instagram and Facebook.

Similarly, music from the CapCut video editing app is only licensed for TikTok. If you export a video from Instagram videos and post it outside of Instagram, for example, on YouTube, you might face a copyright claim, which is the same case with CapCut.

However, CapCut has some additional advantages, as it also includes royalty-free music for non-TikTok usage that is safe to use across your platforms.

As of now, Instagram doesn’t support a royalty-free music library. However, both platforms allow you to import local music from your videos, where you can edit the music track further based on your video editing.

4. AI Features

AI features have become integral to apps, making many tasks simpler and easier. AI features are even more helpful, especially in editing apps like video editing. Instagram Edits and CapCut have useful features such as auto-captioning, voice effects, AI beat syncing, auto background removal, and more.

Since Instagram Edits is in its early stages, there are not many AI features that are available inside the app, but thankfully, it already comes with auto-captioning, which allows you to convert any speech into text, and different voice effects, and also the ability to beat sync and auto-clip music to the video.

However, CapCut again takes the lead by offering more features than Instagram Edits.

For example, auto-captioning, currently only available in English in Edits, is available for multiple languages in CapCut and supports more than 30 languages. It automatically detects the language in the video and generates auto-captioning.

Also, there is support for different voice effects, the ability to enhance the voice, and completely remove background noise from the video. It also comes with advanced beat matching and text-to-audio syncing, and lets you remove background and noise reduction from the videos. All these features take the CapCut video editor a step ahead of Instagram Edits.

However, the biggest downside of CapCut is that these AI features are limited to 5 uses per month in the free version. In contrast, Instagram AI features are currently available for free, but Instagram might charge for these AI features in the future. But for now, these are free to use inside the Instagram Edits app.

5. Support for Different Platforms

As I said before, both of these video editing apps are designed as a part of a strategy to keep the users in their ecosystem and publish and create more content for their platforms. So if you are someone who is creating Reels, Instagram Edits is deeply integrated with Instagram. You need an Instagram account to sign up and log in with the Instagram Edits app.

Once you have done editing, you can publish it to Reels, Stories, or even schedule posts directly from the Edits app. There is also detailed analytics that lets you view your Reel insights.

On the other hand, CapCut, which is tightly linked with TikTok, allows you to export to other platforms and directly to TikTok. Still, it doesn’t offer analytics like the Instagram Edits app, which is a big advantage, making it the best app for multi-platform editing, not just for Instagram. You can also post the CapCut videos to Instagram.

And for sure, both of these videos edited in these apps can also be exported locally onto your device and shared across multiple platforms.

Currently, the Instagram Edits app is only available for Android and iOS, with limited support. However, CapCut is available for all major platforms, including dedicated apps for Apple MacBook and Windows.

6. Export Options

Both Edits and CapCut allow you to export quality videos of up to 4K. In addition to that, you can also adjust the frame rate from 24 FPS to 60 FPS on both of these apps.

Compared to the Instagram Edits, CapCut offers flexible video exporting options, including support for multiple resolutions, from 480p to 2K and 4K. Similarly, you can adjust the frame rate from 24, 25, 30, 50 to 60 FPS, and there is also support for optical flow, which makes videos smoother to view.

There is also support for bitrate, which you can set high for better video quality. The best part is that CapCut also displays the maximum file size when your video is exported, which is especially useful if you publish content for YouTube or other social media sites, where knowing the file size is extremely important to plan for video publishing.

Another major highlight of these apps is that they don’t include watermarks on videos, even in the free version. This is often the major concern in most video editing apps, especially the free version.

Below are the benchmarks while I tried to edit and export the 4K video on three devices. I ran this test on the OnePlus 13, which runs on the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor, the OnePlus 13r, which runs on last year’s flagship processor, and the OnePlus Nord CE 4, which runs on the lower mid-range Snapdragon 695. The same video took 3 and 10 seconds to export on the iPhone. I couldn’t install CapCut on my iPhone, so I could not test the export speeds since CapCut is banned in my location.

7. Other Useful Features

Apart from being a complete video editing tool, CapCut also offers other useful tools. Suppose you are a creator or someone who wants to create and produce frequently; these extra tools can be very handy.

First, the background remover tool lets you remove the background from any image. It is handy if you want to use those images in your videos. And there is a simple photo editor that lets you quickly annotate, adjust the size, and make useful photo edits. An auto-cut feature automatically creates a video for you and a Product Photos tool automatically converts existing photos into product marketing images.

All these tools are free to use and can be very helpful if you are someone who frequently edits videos. There is also a useful teleprompter, which is helpful for vloggers and video explainers, that shows the text on screen that you can read while recording. This is very helpful for me. Since Instagram edits are in their introduction stage, no such features are currently found on the app.

CapCut Is Banned in India and Is Temporarily Banned in the US

Since CapCut is owned by TikTok, it is banned in two prominent locations, including India and the US. CapCut has been permanently banned in India since June 2020, and there is uncertainty over its future in the US. It was temporarily banned on January 19, 2025, alongside TikTok and other ByteDance apps. However, President Trump signed an executive order delaying the ban for 75 days and forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok to any US company to avoid the ban. Since its temporary ban, CapCut has been unavailable in app stores in the US, and existing apps work offline but fail to connect to the internet to load assets.

However, users in India and the US can still use CapCut using a VPN, and it works without any templates. You can also use the VPN and connect to Brazil or any template-supported countries, including the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, and Brazil. You can also get access to remote support through the app.

The Winner?

There is no clear winner between the two, to be honest. If you want a simple video editor to create Instagram Reels, Instagram Edits is an easy-to-use app for beginners.

However, if you want a full video editing app to publish videos on multiple platforms and also with advanced features, CapCut is the best app. It offers more features than Instagram Edits and provides helpful tools for daily video creation.

Suppose you are in a specific location like the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, or Brazil. In that case, CapCut also supports templates, making creating videos and following trends even easier.

Both apps offer a free version so that you can try both. Since Instagram Edits is a clone of CapCut, it is beginner-friendly, and there’s no issue if you begin with it. Both have very similar interfaces, so you dont need to worry about the learning curve.

Also, in my test, CapCut exports videos in better quality and renders videos faster. You can see that in my real-world test above. Overall, I would pick CapCut over Instagram Edits for my use case. However, I still use Instagram Edits for specific edits, such as adding simple text and basic editing. It is faster and easier to use than CapCut.

Instagram Edits is still in the early stages, and we expect more features to be added in the future, including useful AI features and support for templates. Both these apps are already live on the Play Store.

CapCut Review

Download: Android | iOS | Desktop | Download app directly from the Website

Instagram Edits Review

Download: Android | iOS

New Age Video Editing apps

Short-form video content has significantly changed how we consume content today. Plenty of users find short-form content more entertaining than videos in long format, and plenty of statistics show that this short-form content is growing and is expected to grow. Grabbing this opportunity, Google and Facebook Meta have launched their version of short-form content in the form of Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.

While YouTube has already become a creator-first app with plenty of creators creating daily videos, both TikTok and Instagram have plans to keep users and encourage them to create short-form content for their apps.

One such strategic move is to offer free video editing apps so that users can create more videos within the ecosystem and reduce the reliance on third-party video editing tools by offering a smoother workflow and a better pipeline to create short-form content. Both these video apps will continue to evolve with useful features. I hope you find this comparison helpful.

FAQs on Edits vs CapCut

1. Which app consumes more storage and battery while editing and exporting videos?

CapCut consumes more storage than the Instagram Edits app. On my OnePlus 13, Edits consumes 79MB of storage, while CapCut consumes about 733MB of storage with no app data on either of these apps. On the other hand, battery life depends entirely on the video you are editing. However, neither app is resource-intensive unless you try editing video in high-quality settings. My devices became warm when exporting the video in 4K from both apps.

2. Can you collaborate with others (e.g., editors, clients) inside CapCut or Instagram Edits?

No, currently, neither app offers any collaborative features. However, CapCut offers auto-save and cloud sync features to access your projects on multiple devices with your account.

3. Are both apps equally supporting vertical and horizontal videos, or is one better optimized for horizontal formats?

CapCut supports all major aspect ratios, including: 9:16 (Vertical) for TikTok/Reels, 16:9 (Horizontal) for YouTube, 1:1 (Square) for Instagram feed, and more. You can access this setting from the bottom toolbar. At the same time, the Instagram Edits app currently only allows you to edit videos in a 9:16 aspect ratio (shorts and reels) with no support for landscape or square videos.

4. Does either app support editing videos longer than 2 minutes for platforms like YouTube?

Both apps support editing videos longer than 2 minutes, making them suitable even for platforms like YouTube. However, edits only support a 9:16 aspect ratio for creating short-form content like reels and YouTube shorts.

5. Is any watermark added to the exported videos in CapCut or Instagram Edits?

CapCut adds a watermark to the exported videos by default, but you can remove it anytime, even in the free version, when exporting the videos. In contrast, Instagram Edits doesn’t add any watermark to the edited videos.

6. Are there offline editing capabilities, or do both apps require internet access?

Both apps can work offline; however, for extra features, CapCut needs to be connected to the internet to download and use more video assets like texts and transitions. A few tools in CapCut require an internet connection.

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