Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro Review: The Professional Mac Editor That Makes the Subscription Argument Irrelevant

Final Cut Pro sits in a compelling position in the professional video editing market: it is genuinely professional-grade software sold at a one-time price with free updates, optimised for the hardware platform that a majority of professional creative users rely on, and comes with a 90-day trial that allows real project evaluation before any purchase commitment.

Apple Silicon Performance

The most concrete advantage Final Cut Pro holds over Premiere Pro in 2024 is Apple Silicon performance. Apple designed the M-series chip architecture specifically to accelerate ProRes encoding and decoding in hardware — the ProRes codec is handled by a dedicated media engine on M1 Pro/Max and later chips. Final Cut Pro is built to use this hardware acceleration natively.

The practical result: editing multicam 4K ProRes footage on an M2 MacBook Pro in Final Cut Pro is real-time, proxy-free, and fan-quiet. The same footage in Adobe Premiere Pro historically required proxy workflows or experienced dropped frames on equivalent hardware, though recent Premiere Apple Silicon optimisation has narrowed this gap significantly. For editors whose primary frustration with video editing software is waiting for renders, Final Cut's performance on Apple Silicon is a genuine quality-of-work improvement.

Magnetic Timeline

Final Cut's magnetic timeline is its most controversial and most appreciated interface innovation. Unlike traditional NLE timelines where clips occupy fixed track positions and gaps exist as empty space, Final Cut's timeline uses a trackless magnetic model where clips snap together and downstream clips move automatically when upstream edits change the sequence duration.

For assembly editing and rapid rough cut work, this magnetic behaviour is significantly faster than track-based editing. Editors report shorter times from footage to first assembly cut. The trade-off is that complex multi-layer edits with precise synchronisation requirements require more intentional workflow management than the familiar track model provides. Editors transitioning from Premiere Pro typically experience a 2–4 week adjustment period before matching their previous editing speed.

One-Time Pricing

At $299.99 one-time from the Mac App Store, Final Cut Pro costs the equivalent of 13 months of Adobe Premiere Pro at $22.99/month. After 14 months, every additional month using Final Cut costs nothing while Premiere continues billing. Over a 5-year career, the differential is $299.99 versus $1,380 — a $1,080 saving.

Apple updates Final Cut Pro regularly with new features at no additional cost. The last major paid upgrade was from Final Cut Pro X to the current version — subsequent updates including proxy transcoding, Object Tracker, Cinematic mode support, and collaboration features have all been free updates.

Limitations

Final Cut's Mac-only nature is absolute. There is no Windows version, no cross-platform project format, and no path to Final Cut on non-Apple hardware. For editors who work across Mac and Windows, or who collaborate with Windows-based editors at external facilities, this constraint requires format conversion at every handoff.

Apple's Motion application handles title card creation, lower thirds, and template-based motion graphics. Motion is capable, but it lacks After Effects' breadth of third-party plugins, expressions-based animation, and the Premiere-After Effects Dynamic Link workflow.

Verdict

Final Cut Pro is the best professional video editor for Mac users who value performance, one-time pricing, and a streamlined editing workflow. The Mac-only constraint and limited motion graphics ecosystem are the genuine trade-offs versus Premiere Pro.

Score: 8.9/10 — Best Apple Silicon performance and one-time pricing at professional quality; Mac exclusivity limits cross-platform workflows.