Agent28 vs. DaVinci Resolve: the free powerhouse has a different job
Resolve gives you Hollywood-grade color, Fairlight audio, and Fusion compositing for free. It's astonishing software — aimed at a completely different problem than shipping three videos a week.
The Agent28 Team
May 26, 2026
Comparisons
DaVinci vs Agent28
DaVinci Resolve is the best deal in professional post-production. The free version is absurdly capable, the $295 Studio license is one-time, and the color grading tools are literally what Hollywood finishes films on. Add Fairlight for audio and Fusion for node-based compositing and you have an entire post house in one download.
So why doesn't every creator use it? Because Resolve is four professional applications wearing one interface, and each of them assumes you want to become a specialist. The color page thinks you're a colorist. Fusion thinks you're a compositor. That's the right assumption for its audience, and the wrong one for someone with a video due tomorrow.
Depth vs. distance-to-done
Resolve measures itself on ceiling: how good can the result get in expert hands? Agent28 measures itself on distance-to-done: how fast does raw footage become something you'd publish? Those are both legitimate metrics, they're just different products.
In Resolve, a talking-head video means: edit page for the cut, maybe the color page for a grade, Fairlight to clean audio, Fusion or the edit page for titles. Each is manual. In Agent28, the same video is a prompt and a review pass, with the cut, captions, and graphics landing as editable layers if you want to go deeper.
Head to head
| DaVinci Resolve | Agent28 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (at time of writing) | Free; Studio $295 one-time | Free with your own AI keys; paid from $29/month |
| Color grading | Industry-leading, the gold standard | Looks and adjustment layers; not a grading suite |
| Audio post | Fairlight, a full DAW inside the app | Audio cleanup, separation, and level tools |
| Compositing | Fusion node graph, deep, steep | Prompt-generated motion graphics as timeline layers |
| AI features | Neural engine assists (Magic Mask, transcription, Studio-only) | End-to-end agents: cut, caption, b-roll, graphics, search |
| Hardware demands | Heavy, wants a serious GPU, more in 4K | GPU-accelerated with graceful CPU fallback |
| Learning curve | Four apps' worth | A prompt, then as much timeline as you want |
| Best for | Filmmakers, colorists, finishing work | Creators optimizing for throughput |
In post
Grade vs chat
Agent running
Where Resolve wins
- •Anything where image quality is the product: films, commercials, music videos
- •The most software per dollar in the industry, by a mile
- •True professional finishing: HDR delivery, scopes, collaborative bins
Where Agent28 wins
- •Time from import to publishable: prompts beat pages
- •Captions and motion graphics that don't require learning Fusion
- •Semantic search across your library instead of manual media management
- •An edit you can delegate first and polish second
The honest verdict
If your videos are graded, mixed, and finished, if craft is the product, Resolve is a gift and you should use it. Plenty of creators will even use both: Agent28 to get the story cut in minutes, Resolve when a project deserves a real grade. But if you've been opening Resolve just to cut talking heads and add captions, you've been commuting in a Formula 1 car.
Edit with agents, not timelines
Agent28 is available in beta. Download it and start editing today.