Featured image by Tony Schnagl

If you are a social media marketer, tools like CapCut and Canva are likely your best friend… or potentially worst nemesis. Hopefully, you skew more towards the former, but if you’re using the free version, you might often find yourself frustrated. I’ll try to milk the free version of a software until I hit that tipping point (when the time I’m spending trying to make something work just isn’t worth it anymore). That’s usually when I finally upgrade. 

That moment has come for me with both CapCut and Canva. Here’s why I decided to pay for the pro versions. Hopefully, this can help you determine if upgrading to the pro is right for you. 

 

CapCut 

With lots of experience using Adobe Premiere Pro, CapCut seemed like a much more user-friendly interface. It’s great for editing videos for social media. As previously stated, I’ll stretch the free version as far as it can go, but eventually, the convenience factor wins. 

Here’s what you get with CapCut’s Standard Plan: 

• Lowest upgrade cost of $9.99/month or $89.99/year. 
• Mobile use only (This wasn’t clear to me at first, and I was very confused when I tried to open one of my videos on my computer). 
• It removes the watermark. 
• You will have access to premium transitions, filters, and effects. 

And things to know about the Pro Plan: 

• $19.99/month or $179.99/year. 
• You still have access to all the premium features, but can now edit across different devices, including desktop. 
• You can use cloud storage to access projects across devices.
• You have full access to the retouch kit. 
• Auto background removal and many AI tools. 
• It has faster export speeds for high-resolution videos. 

I upgraded to the Standard Plan first because I was tired of settling for so-so transitions when I knew exactly which one would make my video pop. But I eventually moved to Pro because Standard only includes two auto-generated captions per month — and I was typing all of mine by hand. The cloud storage and faster export times sealed the deal. 

 

Canva 

A powerful tool for any designer, Canva is a platform with seemingly endless possibilities. While it’s also a video editing platform, for this blog, I’ll be going over the differences between the free and Pro versions in relation to creating graphics.

Remember that “worst nemesis” from the beginning of the blog? That title belongs to the moment when you search for an element (say, a flip-flop graphic), find the perfect one, click on it, and discover it’s locked behind the Pro paywall. Then you spend 10 minutes trying to recreate it. Again: how much is your time worth? 

Here is what Canva Pro includes: 

• It costs $120/year for one person. 
• You are able to build brand kits. This allows you to save logos, colors, and templates, again saving time. 
• You have full access to all graphics (you can use that flip flop!), photos, templates… everything you could see before is now yours to use! 
• Easily auto-remove backgrounds for both photos and videos. 
• You can plan and schedule social content. 

 

What’s Worth It? 

To recap: yes, it’s totally possible to create high-quality, engaging content using the free versions of both CapCut and Canva. But the upgraded plans are really about saving time—and eliminating the need to jump between multiple apps or software tools (like using Photoshop just to remove a background). 

CapCut’s Standard Plan is great if you’re working strictly on mobile and producing occasional content. Pro makes more sense if you’re scaling up and want the flexibility to edit across devices. 

Canva is still extremely useful for free, despite the mild roasting I’ve given it here. But if you’re constantly working around Pro-only elements, recreating graphics, or juggling branding manually—it might be time to consider the upgrade. 

Whether you’re a seasoned social media strategist or just getting started, knowing when to invest in the tools of the trade can make a big difference in your workflow. It’s part of building a strategic, efficient approach to content creation. If you’re looking to deepen your knowledge and gain confidence in using platforms like CapCut, Canva, and beyond, consider exploring NISM’s Social Media Strategist (SMS) certification. It’s designed to help professionals like you make smarter, more informed decisions that support long-term success.

 

Author Bio: 

Cassandra Hultgren was an intern at the National Institute for Social Media, where she gained experience in social media strategy and began pursuing her Social Media Strategist certification. She graduated from Luther College in 2024 with a degree in Communications and French, which means she can explain a branding campaign and order croissants correctly. Now based in sunny Arizona, when she’s not crafting content or juggling hashtags, she runs a coloring book business and explores her love for all things visual communication—markers and metrics included.