Free alternative

Free alternative to CapCut Pro

CapCut Pro costs €24 a month. OpenCut does the same job for free, in open source: you install it on your machine or a small server, and you stop paying.

Public entry price, taken from CapCut Pro’s website (capcut.com). Over a year, that is €288 that stays in your pocket.

What replaces CapCut Pro

The main alternative

OpenCut

🟢 Beginner⏱️ ~5 min to installSave €24/mo

OpenCut is the most followed open source project among CapCut alternatives: close to 90,000 stars on GitHub, MIT licence, and a simple promise, an editor that stays simple, without the basic features moved behind a subscription. It runs in your browser, on opencut.app, without an account: multitrack timeline, text, stickers, masks, keyframes with a curve editor, speed and volume, captions generated automatically or imported, free canvas background and size, MP4 export. Your files stay on your machine. Two things to know before you start: it is a beta (version 0.3, April 2026), with gaps compared to CapCut, no effects library or templates, no mobile app; and the team is rewriting the whole engine (Rust core, desktop and mobile planned, plugins, MCP server), the old code is archived and the new version is not out yet. Meanwhile, the online editor gets the job done for a simple edit, and it is the most requested card in the library: CapCut Pro tops your requests, and OpenCut tops your suggestions.

Loucash’s verdict on OpenCut

6/10

It is the card you asked for the most, and I get why: CapCut moved its basic features behind a subscription, and OpenCut brings them back for free, in the browser, without an account and without uploading your videos anywhere. For a Reel, a Short or a simple video it does the job, and version 0.3 added what was missing most: masks, keyframe curves, speed, captions. What keeps me from rating it higher: it is a beta, and the project sits between two versions. The team is rewriting the whole engine in Rust to ship a real desktop and mobile app; meanwhile the old code is archived, the main repository barely moves, and the online editor has no effects library, no templates, no AI. If you live off CapCut for its templates and effects, you will miss them. If you want to cut, caption and export without paying €24 a month, go for it, and watch for the new release.

Who it is for: You edit short or simple videos, you pay CapCut Pro mostly to lift the limits, and you want your footage to stay home. If your edits rely on CapCut's templates and effects, wait for the new version.

See the full page →See the tool ↗

OpenCut versus CapCut Pro: the match

  • Price

    OpenCut

    €0, in your browser

    CapCut Pro

    €24/month on a monthly subscription

  • Where your videos live

    OpenCut

    On your machine, never uploaded

    CapCut Pro

    On CapCut's servers for online features

  • Automatic captions

    OpenCut

    Yes, generated in the browser, or imported

    CapCut Pro

    Yes

CapCut Pro ↗

The prompt that installs OpenCut

Paste this prompt into Claude: it checks the repository, asks you its questions and installs the tool step by step.

Je veux monter ma première vidéo avec OpenCut (l'éditeur vidéo open source dans le navigateur, dépôt GitHub OpenCut-app/OpenCut, site opencut.app) à la place de CapCut Pro. Explique-moi pas à pas, en me posant des questions au fur et à mesure : ouvrir opencut.app dans Chrome ou Edge (les navigateurs sans rendu GPU affichent un avertissement), créer un projet au format vertical 9:16 pour un Reel ou un Short, importer mes vidéos et ma musique, couper et ordonner les clips sur la timeline, ajouter un texte et des sous-titres automatiques, régler la vitesse et le volume, puis exporter en MP4. Rappelle-moi que mes fichiers restent dans mon navigateur et que je dois exporter avant de vider les données du site. Si je préfère héberger l'éditeur moi-même, explique-moi que le code de la version actuelle est archivé (dépôt OpenCut-app/opencut-classic, Docker Compose) et que la réécriture du dépôt principal n'est pas encore publiée.

Review the GitHub repository and check whether it is safe to install given my machine and my infrastructure. Ask me as many questions as possible, using widgets, to clarify my request and be as precise as you can.

Frequently asked questions

Is OpenCut really free?
Yes. OpenCut is open source: the code is public and installing it costs nothing. At most you pay for hosting if you put it on a server, often a few euros a month. CapCut Pro, on the other hand, costs €24 a month.
Do I need to code to install OpenCut?
No. The level is beginner and the install takes about 5 minutes with the prompt from the page: Claude does the work, you answer its questions.
How is it different from CapCut Pro?
OpenCut does most of what CapCut Pro does, without a subscription, and your data stays with you. The point by point comparison is on the page.
Do I own my data?
Yes. With an open source tool installed on your side, your files stay on your machine or your server. Nobody can close your account or change the price.

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