Adobe Express vs PowerDirector: Which Software is Better

Comparing Adobe Express vs PowerDirector, I’ve understood that both programs are beginner-friendly. However, these tools are quite different: PowerDirector has a huge selection of video enhancement tools, whereas Adobe Express is a universal option for creating social media content, logos, and more.

Adobe Express is a highly functional editor with a massive collection of stock images, illustrations, and fonts. With it, you can easily create designs from scratch and improve a video right in a browser. The basic editing toolkit includes resize, crop, trim, merge, reverse, and other options. It is designed to create short, simple clips, which are great for posting on social media platforms.

PowerDirector has an extensive editing toolkit for producing eye-grabbing digital movies embellished with original transitions, effects, and titles. Its user-friendly interface and fast operation make this program a win-win option for any user. Moreover, the software offers top-notch effects for enhancing text, audio, and graphics.

To start working in Adobe Express you need to add a title or story to your project. Next choose a suitable template from the collection. Each template features a timeline with boards that explain what each clip should display and in which order.

After that you can proceed with enhancing a video. When comparing Adobe Express vs VideoScribe, I’ve noticed that the basic functionality of these programs is quite similar. It is easy to cut a clip with trim handles, adjust the volume, zoom in, and use the ‘Continue Clip’ option for splitting a clip at the last trim and continuing it from the place where you stopped on a new frame.

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Straightforward UI. One of the greatest advantages of this program is its intuitive UI. All the options are conveniently organized. For example, a timeline is at the bottom of the screen, whereas style controls that allow switching from a full screen and split-screen mode and adding a theme are to the right.

Moreover, the preview window not only lets you evaluate the resulting clip but also customize it. Click the + button to include videos, text, images, or icons. At the bottom of the viewer, you will find a mic button for recording narration and adding it to the highlighted video.

Easy to create clips for social media. Before adding a clip to a social network, you can easily trim, crop, resize, and convert it. Thanks to the speed change function, it is easy to accelerate or slow down your video before sharing. Quick actions are also very convenient, especially if you edit a clip using a smartphone. With CC Express, resizing videos for Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok is quite a speedy procedure.

A variety of ready-made design assets. With a collection of pre-built design assets, Adobe Express lets you add a pro feel to your clips. Comparing Canva vs Adobe Express, I’ve noticed that their icons are very similar: simple graphics like shapes, symbols, and even people. But unlike its competitor, CC Express doesn’t allow users to tweak the icon color and change its location.

Excellent selection of royalty-free music. Although the collection of royalty-free music is not huge, every track conveys a special mood. However, if you feel that this selection is too limited, you are free to import your own audio.

Templates, perfect for beginners. By choosing the Adobe software in the Adobe Express vs PhotoDiva battle, non-designers get a great starting point for creating interesting projects. But even experienced users can take advantage of them by getting inspiration from other professionals or simply accelerating their workflow. The program offers templates for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and many other platforms.

Limited free version. The developers use a Adobe Express paywall to limit access to a portion of stock pictures for users who have not purchased a subscription yet.

Like Adobe Express, PowerDirector is a beginner-friendly option. After launching the program for the first time, you will see a startup wizard that explains the functionality of various interface elements and basic features. Moreover, newcomers will definitely appreciate a Quick Start tutorial that takes you through the main stages of the video-creating process like importing, trimming, adding transitions, effects, titles, and exporting.

Also, unlike its opponent in Adobe Express vs PowerDirector competition, this program comes with a more complicated interface, but that’s because it has more clip editing features. Beyond the cut and trim options, here you will find Fix/Enhance functions for removing noise from audio and video, adjusting sharpness, and making colors pop. With this video editing software for Windows, lighting and color correction is a breeze. The possibility to customize brightness, saturation, sharpness, and other parameters separately is an obvious advantage.

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Impressive AI Sky Replacement. This is a handy feature for detecting and replacing the sky with one of 70 dramatic looks. It eliminates the need to perform multiple steps as the whole process is absolutely automated. Besides, it is possible to upload skies from your personal library to use in AI Sky Replacement.

Easy to apply visual effects to objects in motion. Take advantage of automatic tools to add stunning visual effects to moving objects. This video editing software also offers sophisticated Out of Body and Shadow video effects, which are in trend on all popular social media platforms currently.

Possibility to work with 360-degree footage. The program allows users to make the surface in video spherical so that it looks like a ball. It is great that you can apply stabilization and motion tracking features to 360-degree content. Besides, it is possible to trim, split, and tweak videos that you are going to export in such a format with a combination of editing features.

Smart audio fitting. With the Smart Fit Audio Duration tool, you can change the duration of an audio track without complex editing while preserving the music's style and cadence. Also, the toolkit includes effective Wind Removal and AI Speech Enhancement feature for deleting background noise in a jiffy.

Massive selection of stock content. Subscribers get access to a collection of pro-level videos, photos, and music from popular platforms like Shutterstock. If the variety of content seems insufficient, check PowerDirector’s second source of stock pictures and videos.

Multiple options make the interface cluttered.

adobe creative cloud express vs powerdirector price

Adobe Express offers several versions: free and paid ($9.99). Paying for the subscription, you can use premium templates and digital assets. Besides, by purchasing a package you get access to a huge library of 20, 000 Adobe Fonts, grids, and font pairs. 100 GB of storage is another pleasant bonus for subscribers. Additionally, the developers provide users with a 30-day trial.

As for PowerDirector, you can choose from a $51.99-per-year or $19.99-per-month subscription. Besides, the program is also available as part of a bundle with CyberLink's ColorDirector, AudioDirector, and PhotoDirector. In this case, you need to pay $29.99 per month or $96.99 for a year. Both packages let users receive timely updates with fresh effects, plug-ins, audio samples, stock images, etc.

Adobe Express or PowerDirector – which is better? I decided that the first variant is preferable because of its versatility. Users with little experience will appreciate the incredible intuitive functionality of Adobe Express. The program has a range of basic features for enhancing videos. If you need to create a slideshow presentation or impressive content for social media, CC Express fits the bill.

PowerDirector is suitable for both experienced and budding users. The set of features offered by this program is truly extensive. Here you will find options for creating slideshows, recording screens, animating objects, editing 3D objects, etc. Lastly, PowerDirector stands out with an incredibly high rendering speed.