Pre-editor vs cloud video editor: timeline export or in-browser rendering

By Eran Strassburg · Updated 2026-10-10

The short answer

A cloud video editor does the whole job in the browser and gives you a rendered video file. A pre-editor does only the first part, choosing and ordering the material, and gives you a timeline file that opens in your own editor with the original media. Choose a cloud editor if you have no desktop editor or need a short social clip quickly. Choose a pre-editor such as FirstCut if you finish in Premiere Pro, Resolve or Final Cut Pro.

The one question that separates them: what comes out

Both kinds of tool run in a browser tab and both may use a transcript. The difference is the output. A cloud editor gives you a finished video. A pre-editor gives you an edit decision: a small file that tells a desktop editor which parts of your footage to use, in which order.

Side by side

	Pre-editor (FirstCut)	Cloud video editor
Goal	Story and rough cut	Finished video
Typical input	Long recordings led by speech	Short clips and social footage
How you edit	Beats, clips and transcript words	A visual timeline and canvas
Output	FCPXML, FCP7-XML, EDL or OTIO timeline	A rendered video file
Where the media lives	The video stays on your disk; the audio is uploaded	The video is uploaded
Where you finish	In your own NLE	In the browser

The right-hand column describes the category in general. Individual products differ, so check what a specific tool uploads and what it exports.

Choose a cloud editor if

You do not have, or do not want, a desktop editor.
You need a short clip with captions and want it finished in one place.
Your source is already short and trimmed.

Choose a pre-editor if

You finish in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro or Media Composer.
Your footage is long and led by speech: interviews, podcasts, talks, courses.
You want the edit to start from your camera originals, not from a re-encoded copy.
Your files are large, or you would rather not upload the picture at all.

What FirstCut does not do

It does not render a video file.
It does not add captions, titles, music or effects.
It does not look at the picture, pick B-roll or switch camera angles.
It does not generate images, video or audio.

It reads the transcript, proposes a story as beats and clips, lets you reshape it, and exports a timeline. What happens to your files on the way is described in how FirstCut edits your video without uploading it.

Questions

Do I have to upload my 4K media?

No. With FirstCut only the audio is uploaded, for transcription. The video stays on your disk.

How does a transcript edit become a sequence?

Each clip is a source file plus in and out timecodes. Those are written into the timeline file, and your editor rebuilds the sequence from them.

Can I use both kinds of tool?

Yes. They solve different stages. A pre-editor settles the story, and whatever you finish in produces the final file.

Related guides

Try it on your own footage

FirstCut is free to try with no install and no credit card. Start a rough cut → · Or open the live demo, which needs no account.