AI video editing software: An honest review of Kapwing and Descript

Do you want to add video to your marketing strategy but are restricted by time? Perhaps AI tools can help you quickly create professional videos.

Video is an amazing asset to add to your marketing, but it’s a difficult skill to learn, especially if you’re not familiar with video editing programmes such as Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro. However, with the rise of AI, it’s become easier than ever to create videos.

Lately, at Podymos, we’ve been exploring AI tools to find those that can truly elevate your marketing.

This article compares two popular AI video tools, Kapwing and Descript, so you can decide which one is right for you.

What is Kapwing?

Kapwing is a free online platform used by millions to create and edit videos, GIFs, images, and audio clips. It integrates intelligent AI features to make the technical aspects easier than ever.

It’s designed to be easy to use, even for beginners, and doesn’t require any prior video editing experience or knowledge.

Primarily, it’s a tool best suited to educators and marketers, as it can be used to create educational materials, presentations, and marketing videos.

Kapwing video editor

Kapwing primarily uses AI to help you create professional-looking videos in a short amount of time. Its non-linear editor allows users to rearrange and alter content on a single timeline. This means that you can easily change the order of your clips, add or remove footage, and make other changes without having to start from scratch.

With Kapwing’s video editor, you can also adjust your video’s position and layout, and add special effects such as blur, animations, and chroma key, all to create eye-catching and shareable videos.

Audio cleaning

Clean, clear audio is key to creating engaging videos, but it can be hard to master with traditional software. Kapwing’s video editor can remove background noise from your videos with the swipe of a toggle.

This sharpens the sound, so you get a studio-quality audio track without requiring studio-quality hardware—a pretty cool feature for budding content creators.

Voiceover generation

If you need to add a voiceover to your video but don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself, or don’t want to pay for a voiceover artist, Kapwing’s video editor can generate a voiceover from scratch.

It uses AI to create a track that sounds like a human reading the script, with realistic inflections and emphasis. We were blown away by this feature, although in today’s world of AI, we shouldn’t have been surprised.

Text-based video editing

Kapwing’s video editor has a neat trick that allows you to edit your videos by editing the text transcript. As you edit the transcript, the corresponding part of your video will be automatically trimmed or added. This allows you to edit your videos quickly without meticulously zooming in and out of your video timeline to cut in the correct place.

Automatic transcription

Kapwing’s video editor can automatically transcribe your videos, so you can easily create subtitles or search for specific words or phrases. This is a great asset when transcribing interviews to then recycle into articles.

At Podymos, we’re always thinking about how we can reuse content to maximise outputs, so this is a great feature. To learn more about how to get the most out of your content, check out our guide on what is the best way to repurpose your marketing content.

Pricing

For a full breakdown of Kapwing’s pricing plans, please head over to their website.

Problems with Kapwing

While Kapwing has a lot to offer as a video editing tool, there are some issues that have frustrated users. Here is a breakdown of the more problematic aspects of the software.

Watermarks

Kapwing’s video editor adds a watermark to all videos created with the free plan. This can be removed by upgrading to a paid plan, but it might not be ideal for those on a budget.

Limited features

The free plan offers limited capabilities across its features, such as the ability to add text, images, and music to videos. If you need more advanced features, you will need to upgrade to a paid plan.

Performance issues

Kapwing’s video editor struggles when working with large files or using a lot of features at once. This can be frustrating if you’re trying to edit a video quickly while working to a deadline.

What is Descript?

Similarly, Descript is an all-in-one video and podcast editing software. It offers a large host of editing tools, including special effects and transcription.

Just like Kapwing’s video editor, it has an intuitive interface that doesn’t require any prior video editing experience and is also well-suited to marketers and professionals looking to create materials such as podcasts, social media videos, and educational guides.

Descript video editor

Video editing is the main function of Descript. With this tool, you can edit, create, and build your videos to suit your company’s brand and marketing. You can add value to your videos with tools such as motion tracking, colour grading, text overlays, blur, and zoom.

Automatic transcription

Much like Kapwing, Descript can automatically transcribe your audio and video recordings to create subtitles for your videos. You can then search the audio for words or phrases to navigate through sections efficiently.

Overdub

Descript’s unique overdub feature allows you to replace words or phrases in your audio recordings with a different voice, even your own. So, if you’ve recorded a podcast and said something wrong, it’s easy to replace it.

Green screen

This green screen feature allows you to remove your background from your videos and replace it with a different background, which can be helpful if you’re working with a distracting background or you want consistency throughout your videos.

Audio cleaning

Background noise is a thing of the past, as both Kapwing and Descript provide great noise-cancelling software to remove unwanted sounds from your audio recordings.

AI eye contact

Having a problem looking at the camera or reading from a teleprompter? With Descript’s AI eye contact feature, you can edit where your video subject is looking to ensure that your video looks confident and professional.

Descript usability

Although still mostly intuitive to use, Descript is slightly less accessible than its competitor as it requires users to download the app to use it. Furthermore, our team found that it required more of a learning curve to start using the app effectively because it wasn’t as clearly labelled as Kapwing.

Price

Descript has a large range of pricing plans; for the full breakdown, head to their website.

Problems with Descript

Descript is useful for adding value to your company’s marketing videos, but users have experienced some problems. Here is a list of the top issues others have encountered with the tool.

AI problems

Some users have found that the text-based editing feature can be difficult to use, especially for complex videos. Additionally, the AI transcription feature is not always accurate, and it can be challenging to correct errors. This isn’t ideal if you’re editing a long, speech-heavy video, as you can end up spending a significant amount of time updating the script.

Performance issues

Much like Kapwing, the software can be slow when working with large files.

Usability

As mentioned, the user interface requires a learning curve, as it’s less intuitive than its competitor.

Which one is right for you?

Hopefully, this article has given you a clearer view of what both platforms have to offer, but at the end of the day, you’ll want to know which is right for you. Every marketer has different needs, so the solution might be to try both out and see which one is the better fit.

However, in our experience, each tool is better suited to different types of marketers.