Comparison
Six apps for making Reels, compared on how much of the edit each one actually does
A reel is decided in its first second, usually on mute, by someone deciding whether to keep scrolling. The app matters less than the hook, the captions and the pace. But apps differ enormously in how much of that work they do for you, so that is the axis this page ranks on: from apps that hold the footage while you edit, to the one that hands the edit back finished.
- Where a reel is won or lost, usually on mute
- 1st second
- Apps compared, priced as of August 2026
- 6
- One finished 30 second reel in Cutroom, upload to file
- 110 CR
- Lite: 1,250 credits, about 11 of those reels a month
- $19.99
What a reel needs before any app matters
Four things decide a reel, and none of them is a filter. A first second that states or shows something worth staying for. Captions, because the feed plays on mute. Pace, meaning something changes on screen every few seconds. And a native look, because the feed punishes anything that reads as an ad before it earns the right to be one.
Worth saying before any subscription: Instagram's own editor, and Instagram's separate Edits app, cost nothing. For a talking clip with plain captions, they are the honest floor, and plenty of accounts grow on them alone.
The paid apps below earn their money on one axis: how much of the remaining work they take off you. That is how they are ranked.
The do-it-yourself editors: CapCut and InShot
1. CapCut. The default answer to this search for years, and still the most capable phone editor: keyframes, trend templates, auto captions, speed ramps. The basics cost nothing; Pro is $19.99 a month as of August 2026, after the restructure that renamed the old Pro tier to Standard, and closer to $22 through the app stores. Verdict: everything is possible and nothing is done for you; every reel costs the time it costs.
2. InShot. $3.99 a month, $17.99 a year, or $39.99 once, as of August 2026. Trim, music, speed, stickers, export. Verdict: the fastest cheap trimmer on the page, right for montage reels, and it does none of the thinking.
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
The polish layer: Captions and Submagic
These two start where the previous two stop: you bring a clip that is already shot, and they make it look finished.
3. Captions. Pro is $9.99 a month, Max is $24.99 with 500 monthly credits, as of August 2026. It records you, captions word by word in trend styles, and its higher tiers add dubbing. Verdict: the best phone-native caption pass there is, and the cut underneath is still yours to make.
4. Submagic. Starter is $19 a month for 15 videos, Pro is $39 for 40, as of August 2026, with a giveaway plan of three watermarked videos capped at a minute and a half. Captions, b-roll suggestions, hook text, sound effects, applied to a clip you already cut. Verdict: fast, genuinely stylish polish, on top of an edit it did not make.
The template route, and the finish-it-for-you route: Canva and Cutroom
5. Canva. Pro is $18 a month as of August 2026. Pick a reel template, swap in your clips and brand colours, export something clean and on-brand. Verdict: strongest when the reel is graphics, product shots and text, weakest when the reel is a person talking, which is most of what works on Reels.
6. Cutroom. A different contract with you: it does not help you edit, it edits. Upload one talking take, up to three minutes. It transcribes every word, writes the hook line, places b-roll on the exact words that need showing, from its stock library or clips you upload, times and styles the captions from six packs, tightens dead air, drops the ums, and adds punch-in zooms and transitions. You review it as a transcript: highlight words to move a shot, delete a line and the cut rebuilds. A minute or two later there is a finished 9:16 MP4.
The price per finished reel is the point. Lite is $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits; a 30 second reel is 110 credits, so about 11 finished reels a month, under $2 each, with nothing on the picture and cancellation one click away.
Verdict on ourselves: for a talking reel it removes the entire evening, and it only makes talking reels. A photo montage, a trend-audio lip sync, a product flatlay set to music: refused at upload, because Cutroom requires a talking video with sound. For those, CapCut, InShot or Canva. It also will not clip an hour-long video into reels; Opus Clip is the tool for that.
Six apps, ranked by how much of the edit they do
Prices as of August 2026, cheapest tier that removes the watermark or unlocks the core job. The two columns are the real choice: control, or time.
| You do | It does | |
|---|---|---|
| Cutroom, $19.99/mo | Talk for up to 3 minutes, review the transcript | The whole edit: hook, b-roll, captions, cuts, zooms |
| Submagic, $19/mo | Shoot and cut the clip | Captions, b-roll suggestions, hooks, polish |
| Captions, $9.99/mo | Shoot and cut the clip | Word-by-word captions, styles, dubbing on higher tiers |
| Canva, $18/mo | Pick a template, swap in clips | Layout, brand consistency, clean export |
| CapCut, Pro $19.99/mo | Everything, with strong tools | Whatever you drive it to do |
| InShot, $3.99/mo | Everything, with simple tools | Trims, music, speed |
Which one to actually get
If your reels are montages, templates or trend audio: CapCut if you want power, InShot if you want speed, Canva if brand consistency is the job.
If your reels are you talking and you enjoy editing: Captions or Submagic will make your cut look sharper for under $40 a month.
If your reels are you talking and the editing is why you keep not posting: that is the specific problem Cutroom exists for, and the trade is explicit. You give up timeline control, montages and anything without speech. You get back the evening.
CapCut, InShot, Captions, Submagic, Canva and Opus Clip are trademarks of their respective owners. We are not affiliated with any of them, and the verdicts here are our own.
Questions people ask
- How long should a reel be?
- Long enough to pay off its hook and no longer. For talking content that is usually 20 to 45 seconds; going longer only works when every extra second still earns its place. Watch time percentage matters more than raw length, and a tight 25 seconds beats a padded 60 nearly every time.
- Can I make good reels without talking on camera?
- Yes: montages, text-on-screen, product demos and trend formats all work without a face. For those, CapCut, InShot or Canva is the right tool, and Cutroom is the wrong one, since it only accepts a talking video with sound. Talking content tends to build a following that is loyal to you rather than to the format, which is why it is worth the discomfort if you can manage it.
- What does a finished reel cost in Cutroom?
- A 30 second reel is 110 credits: a 100 credit batch covering transcription, the edit and the b-roll search, plus a 10 credit export for the half minute. Lite is $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 of those reels. The export price sits on the button before you press it, and re-exporting an unchanged cut is not charged again.
- Does Cutroom export in the right format for Reels?
- Yes, and only that format: 9:16 vertical MP4 at 1080 by 1920, captions burned in, which is exactly what Reels, TikTok and Shorts take. There is no landscape export and no SRT sidecar file. If you need a landscape master or separate caption files, Descript or CapCut is the better tool for that job.
- Are the app-store prices different from the web prices?
- Often, and always in the same direction. CapCut Pro runs about $22 through the phone app against $19.99 on the web as of August 2026, because the app stores take a commission. When a tool has a website, subscribing there is usually the cheaper route for the identical product.
Every app on this page can make a reel. Only one of them makes it while you do something else. If your reels are you talking, upload one take and see what comes back: Lite is $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 finished reels, nothing on the picture, cancel in one click.