Every free tier looks generous until you hit export. That is the whole story.
- Free is fine for testing: CapCut, InShot, VN let you do real work. Catches: watermarks, resolution caps, monthly AI limits. - If you ship three clips a month, the free tier might be all you ever need. Do not pay for volume you do not have. - Paid makes sense around a clip a day: watermarks get embarrassing, caption limits bottleneck, your time costs more than the subscription. - Before paying, compare what the tier actually gives you, not what the marketing implies. Some charge mostly to remove the watermark.
The middle path: a free app for editing, an AI clipper for the first pass, a free thumbnail tool for cover frames. Three free tools, zero dollars, until volume justifies paying. If subscriptions annoy you more than editing does, ReelCut handles the whole pipeline for $4.99 a video.