Lightworks Review: Pricing, Pros, Cons & Alternatives

Overview

Lightworks is a professional non-linear editor available on a free plan, as monthly or annual subscriptions, or as a perpetual licence^[12]. The free version offers professional timeline editing, Full HD 1080p export, effects and transitions, colour correction and grading, multitrack audio editing and upload to YouTube and Vimeo^[12].

The Create plan adds 4K export, Blackmagic RAW and ProRes decode, NewBlue Titler Pro, audio effects and noise reduction, and cloud-storage integration. The Pro plan adds video up to 8K, 10-bit support, HDR editing with full scopes, Apple ProRes encoding and AU, VST3 and LADSPA audio plug-in support^[12].

The free plan’s limits are specific: export is capped at 1080p, proxies are low-quality H.264 up to 720p, only one cloud integration can be active and file export is limited to MP4^[12]. Lightworks has a smaller user community and fewer tutorials than Resolve or Premiere, and its paid prices were not visible in the page text at review.

Lightworks features

Free plan with 1080p export
4K export and ProRes/BRAW decode (Create)
8K, 10-bit and HDR (Pro)
NewBlue Titler Pro
Audio plug-in support (Pro)
Perpetual licence option

Lightworks pricing

Free plan available. Create and Pro sold monthly, yearly or as a perpetual licence; prices are offered in USD, GBP and EUR but were not visible in the page text at review.