TechSoup Blog

Adobe Premiere Elements 15 vs. Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Written by TechSoup Staff | Jan 5, 2017 5:56:00 PM

You're ready to tell your organization's story in video, but which software is best for you to put it all together? Do you need the simplicity of Premiere Elements or the full range of features in Premiere Pro?

What's in Common

Both Premiere Elements and Premiere Pro CC allow you to sequence clips, add audio (like narration and natural sound), include transitions, manipulate color, and add titles. Premiere Pro CC adds more features on top of these basics, including support for more video, audio, and image file formats and more tools and utilities.

Which One Do I Need?

If you need to perform basic video editing, organize your videos for quick access, and post them online, Premiere Elements will likely have everything you need.

If you need to work with very high-resolution video of any format, have granular control over how you edit it, post videos online, and distribute them on physical media, Premiere Pro CC is the best choice.

Comparison

Check out the table below for a one-to-one comparison of the features and support in each product.

  Premiere Elements 15 Premiere Pro CC (2017)
Cost through TechSoup $27 one-time admin fee $5 admin fee plus $239.88 for the first year, $359.88 every year after
Availability through TechSoup Part of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements bundle Part of Creative Cloud All Apps membership
License Expires November 30, 2021 Subscription
OS support Windows and Mac (both included in same product) Windows and Mac (choice of which to install in application manager)
Timelines per project One Multiple
Custom sequence support No Yes
Nested sequence support No Yes
DVD and Blu-ray authoring support Limited Yes
GPU acceleration No Yes
Keyframing No Yes
Autosave Yes Yes
Changeable aspect ratios Yes Yes
Displays Storyboard, Timeline Storyboard, Timeline
Green screen (Chroma key) No Yes
Subtitles No Yes
Video import format support 3G2, 3GP, AVI, DV, M1V, M2TS, M2T, M2V, M4V, MOD, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPE, MPG, MP2, MTS, SWF, TOD, VOB, WMV (Windows) 3G2, 3GP, ASF (Windows), AVI, DV, F4V, GIF, M1V, M2TS, M2T, M2V, M4V, MJPEG, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPE, MPG, MTS, MXF, VOB, WMV (Windows)
Select native camera formats
Video export format support 3GP, 3G2, AVI, GIF (Windows), M2T, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, VOB, WMV (Windows) 3GP, AAC, AC3, AVCI, AVI (Windows), GIF (Windows), IMX, M2V, M2T, M4V, MOV, MP4, MPA, MPG, WAV, WMV (Windows)
Video project import format support PREL AAF, AEP, AEPX, CSV, EDL, PBL, PLB (Windows), PREL (Windows), PRPROJ, PSQ (Windows), TAB, TXT, XML
Image import format support BMP, CR2, CRW, DIB, DNG, GIF, ICO, JPEG, JPG, NEF, ORF, PCT, PIC, PICT, PNG, PRTL, PSD, RLE, TIF, TIFF, WBM AI, BMP, DIB, DPX, EPS, GIF, ICB, ICO, JPEG, PICT, PNG, PRTL, PSD, PSQ, PTL, RLE, TGA, TIF, TIFF, VDA, VST
Image export format support JPEG, JPG, PRTL BMP (Windows), DPX, GIF (Windows), JPEG, JPG, PNG, TGA, TIF, TIFF
Audio import format support AAC, AC3, AIF, AIFF, AMR, M4A, MP3, MOV, WAV (Windows), WMA (Windows) AAC, AC3, AIF, AIFF, ASND, AVI, BWF, M4A, MP3, MPEG, MPG, MOV, MXF, WAV, WMA (Windows)
Audio export format support AAC, AC3, AIFF, MP3, MOV AAC, AIF, AIFF, MP3, WAV
Subtitle import format support N/A DFXP, MCC, SCC, STL, XML

More Information

Check out the product pages for Premiere Elements (part of the Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements bundle) and Premiere Pro CC (part of the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan).