Descript vs. FL Studio

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Descript
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Descript is a collaborative audio/video editor, from the company of the same name in San Francisco, that works like a doc. It includes transcription, a screen recorder, publishing, full multitrack editing, and AI tools.
$12
per month
FL Studio
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
Belgian studio Image-Line Software offers FL Studio, the company's digital audio workstation (DAW) and audio editing application.
$99
Per License
Pricing
DescriptFL Studio
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Annual billing - Hobbyist
$12
per month per user
Monthly Billing - Hobbyist
$19
per month per user
Annual billing - Creator
$24
per month per user
Monthly Billing - Creator
$35
per month per user
Annual billing - Business
$40
per month per user
Monthly Billing - Business
$50
per month per user
Enterprise
Custom
Fruity
$99.00
Per License
Producer
$199.00
Per License
Signature Bundle
$299.00
Per License
All Plugins
$899.00
Per License
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
DescriptFL Studio
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
DescriptFL Studio
Best Alternatives
DescriptFL Studio
Small Businesses
Ableton Live
Ableton Live
Score 8.5 out of 10
Descript
Descript
Score 8.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition
Score 8.9 out of 10
Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition
Score 8.9 out of 10
Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
DescriptFL Studio
Likelihood to Recommend
9.5
(14 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
DescriptFL Studio
Likelihood to Recommend
Descript
Descript is well-suited for fast editing of training videos, tutorials, podcasts, and screen recordings, where transcript-based editing and quick cleanup save time. It works best when you need a simple workflow to record, transcribe, remove filler words, tighten sections, and apply basic enhancement tools like noise cleanup.
It is less appropriate for high-stakes projects where losing edits would be very costly, or when you need strong guarantees around long-term project history, backups, and recovery. Based on our experience, if you are doing many hours of edits and expect to revisit projects months later, you may want an additional export/archive process outside the platform.
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Image-Line Software
I would recommend FL Studio for anyone who wants to get their hands on music making or even just recording audio for videos. I would suggest making the somewhat small investment and trying it out, you could end up with a career from it. For beginners I would definitely suggest watching online courses/tutorials as they helped me a lot and it will for you as well. Also, I would recommend using third party plugins which will help in fine tuning your projects and overall produce much better music/recordings. FL Studio is well suited for businesses and personal use to make music. I would confidently say that its one of the best DAW to start making music.
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Pros
Descript
  • Removing filler words is a click of button and get rid of 'ums' and 'a's"
  • Fine tune your edited script in a timeline to adjust timing
  • Import and export Final Cut Pro or Premier XML video speeding up the editing process
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Image-Line Software
  • Midi sequencing
  • Built in audio processing and VST instruments
  • Audio mixing
  • Music creation
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Cons
Descript
  • UX Performance. Because it's synced to the cloud, there can be some delay or lag in the UX when editing.
  • Editing Transcriptions. Machine-based transcriptions always need some post-editing. While Descript makes it pretty easy, I still think there is some room for improvement. For instance, I would like to be able to automatically update for all occurrences of a word after fixing it in the transcript.
  • Automatic importing of YouTube and hosted video files. I often have to download a video from YouTube to be able to import it into Descript. Would be nice to be able to just paste in the URL to the video and have Descript automatically import it.
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Image-Line Software
  • The recording process can somewhat be confusing and inefficient.
  • FL Studio has a confusing routing, for example to use return tracks for reverbs, you will have to click numerous buttons to get that done.
  • FL Studio has a somewhat steep learning curve, which can demotivate beginners.
  • FL Studio's auto-saving feature is a bit late, which can ruin your project if you rely on it.
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Usability
Descript
It's pretty user friendly, has a easy-moderate learning curve. However during updates they do change the features in different panes / sections that make them harder to find. The text editor is near perfect, some of the other tools such as colour, templates, audio etc. are arranged in a slighlty less intuitive manner
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Image-Line Software
I gave it the above rating because it is an incredible software for music creators and even though it might be hard to use at first, but once you get the hang of it, you will never be troubled again, and in all honesty, nothing comes easy life, especially if one yearns to become good at. Same applies with FL Studio. In conclusion, it is a great software.
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Support Rating
Descript
We had a very frustrating experience with Descript and their support.

We used Descript to record and edit several videos. The edits were done around May, mainly using the web app. When we opened those same projects in December, many of them looked like raw recordings again. Cuts were missing and effects were missing.

Support and engineering told us they checked their logs and only saw “creation → recording → transcription,” and they said they could not find proof the edits were ever made. That explanation does not match what we saw in the app. The affected videos show two project backup files. In Descript, backups only appear after you start editing (the app even says so). But when we checked other projects that we know are raw, those do not show any backup files. We asked a simple question: if backups appear only after editing, why do the “raw” affected videos have two backups while truly raw videos have none? They did not answer this clearly.

One rep also said they noticed a spike in network errors in May. That is exactly when the edits were done, which makes it very likely the edits did not save or sync correctly. Instead of admitting this could be the cause, support kept pointing to “no logs of edits” and that it was our fault.

They refunded one month, but called it a “courtesy.” That was disappointing. We also stopped using Descript while they were investigating because we did not feel it was safe to keep working in the platform. If that one-month refund was meant to cover the time we could not use the service during the investigation, that still does not address the real damage. We lost many hours of work, we paid our editor hourly, and we paid for the subscription for convenience and reliability. For the amount of inconvenience and loss we experienced, one month is clearly not enough.
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Image-Line Software
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Descript
Descript is by far superior to the other editing software you can get on Apple computers. It's able to do a lot more and really save us tons of time. Other Adobe apps are great, but take a while to learn. Descript is very user-friendly, making it easy to start from day one with very little training.
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Image-Line Software
In selecting this software, we investigated and considered others. We found that FL Studio had a good price point and the life time free version updates made it a one time purchase.
In terms of functionality, the most similar software solutions are Ableton Live, Logic Pro X and Propellerhead Reason.
Of these the most cost effective for us was Ableton Live and FL Studio with Propellerhead Reason being a slightly different product.
We found that FL studio had a wider feature set and was more suited to our use, where as Ableton Live would be better if live music performance was a requirement, in our case it was not.
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Return on Investment
Descript
  • I can get video completed much more quickly and cheaply
  • We can produce more video content because of the speed with which we can have a finished product
  • We can have shorter timelines for example I record on Monday and we publish on Tuesday which wouldn't be otherwise possible with other methods I've used
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Image-Line Software
  • Like I mentioned beforehand, it is slightly expensive but if you think of it, it is a lifetime investment.
  • FL Studio is also essential to have if one wishes to create music of their own or background songs because that way, you won't have to pay someone to create music for you.
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ScreenShots