Guide

RawCut and Roll: your words or a template

This page is written by the people who make RawCut, so read it with that in mind. Roll and RawCut make the same promise from the outside: open the app, and a finished vertical video comes out of the clips already on your iPhone. They get there in opposite ways, and which way suits you is decided before either app has done anything. Everything here about Roll comes from its public App Store listing as of October 2026; if it changes, tell us and we will fix it.

The short answer

Roll starts from a format that worked for someone else. RawCut starts from what you want to say. Roll's listing describes picking a proven reel template, after which it searches your camera roll for clips that fit the template's scenes and builds the draft. RawCut has no templates: you write a line or two, and it finds the moments in your own footage that answer those lines, including the sentence you said on camera halfway through a two-minute clip.

Where the work happens

With Roll, the creative decision is choosing the format. The listing says there are over twenty thousand templates, and the new version adds carousels, including the option to import a carousel from Instagram and have your own b-roll matched to it. The app then does the finding and the assembling, and you review, swap scenes, and add branded captions before export.

With RawCut, the creative decision is writing the lines. The app has already read your library once, what it shows and what is said in it, so each line becomes a search across every clip you added, down to the seconds inside them. You get a cut, swap anything you disagree with, and export. The next video from the same clips costs another minute, because the reading is already done.

Put differently: Roll is good at making your footage look like a format that already performs. RawCut is good at making your footage say what you mean.

Choose Roll if

You want a proven format filled in, and you don't want to decide the structure yourself
You post trend formats and carousels, and keeping up with them is the point
You want branded captions and text overlays built into the flow
You are happy to pay for a service: Roll Pro is listed at $49 a month, or $229 a year

Choose RawCut if

You talk to camera and want the app to find the sentence, not just the clip
You want several posts out of one shoot, each one different, not the same clips in a new frame
You make faceless content from your own b-roll and don't want to filter clips by hand
You would rather write a sentence than scroll a template library
You want to try it properly before paying: RawCut's free tier gives you a free video every week, exported, not a preview

The thing only one of them does

RawCut listens to your clips as well as looking at them. If you filmed yourself explaining your pricing and want that part in the video, you write "the part where I explain the price" and it finds the sentence, keeps it whole, and never cuts mid-word. For anyone whose content is them talking, a founder, a coach, an agent walking a house, this is the difference between a tool that finds your footage and one that finds your point.

Roll's listing describes matching clips and scenes to a template and does not mention speech. We can't see inside the app, so treat that as something to test rather than a verdict: add a clip in which you say something specific and see whether either app can be asked for it.

The thing only Roll does

Templates solve a real problem, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. On a day when you don't know what to post, a library of formats that already work is a faster start than a blank line. RawCut offers ideas to start from, but it does not have a template library, no effects, and no trending audio. If your bottleneck is deciding what to make rather than finding the footage, Roll's starting point is the better one, and you can still finish a RawCut video in any editor that has templates.

What they cost

Roll Pro is listed at $49 a month or $229 a year, with a limited free allowance before that. RawCut is free to download, gives you a free video every week on the free tier, and has an optional Pro subscription with a much larger monthly allowance and no watermark; the current price is on the App Store listing and on our pricing page. The honest way to read the gap: Roll is priced like a service, RawCut like a utility. Which is right depends on how many videos you actually post a month, so count before you choose.

How to test both on your own clips

Feature lists won't settle this; twenty minutes with your own camera roll will. Three tests that show the difference quickly:

Same shoot, two videos. Make one video, then ask for a second one from the same clips with a different angle. Look at whether the second video is really different, or the same clips in a different wrapper.
A clip in which you talk. Add one where you say something specific, and try to get exactly that sentence into the video. This is where the two approaches part ways.
Count the allowance. Note how many finished, exported videos each app gives you before it asks for money, and what one video costs you on the paid plan at the rate you actually post.

Where your footage goes

With RawCut, your video files stay on your phone. Each clip is read once, and only a few small snapshots and the words are analysed; the privacy page spells out exactly what leaves the device. Roll's App Store privacy label lists identifiers used for tracking and data linked to you for third-party advertising and analytics. We can't tell from the listing where it processes your footage, so if that matters to you, ask them before adding your library.

Availability

Both are iPhone apps. Roll requires iOS 16 or later and is listed in English. RawCut runs on iOS 15 or later. Neither has an Android version at the time of writing.

Who each one is really for

Roll is for people who post formats. If the goal is to keep up with what performs and have your footage poured into it, that is what it is built for.

RawCut is for people who have something to say. If the footage is already on your phone and the video exists in your head as a few sentences, RawCut turns those sentences into the cut, from your clips and your words, with nothing added that you didn't film.

Questions

What is the difference between Roll and RawCut?

Roll starts from a template: you pick a reel format that has worked before and it fills the format with clips from your camera roll. RawCut starts from what you want to say: you write a line or two and it finds the moments in your own footage that match, including the sentence you said on camera. Both export vertical video for Reels, TikTok and Shorts.

Is RawCut a cheaper alternative to Roll?

Roll Pro is listed at $49 a month or $229 a year. RawCut has a free tier with a free video every week and a Pro subscription priced like a utility rather than a service; the current price is on the App Store listing. Cheaper only matters if the output fits what you post, so test both on your own clips first.

Does RawCut have templates like Roll?

No. RawCut has no template library, no effects and no trending audio. It offers ideas to start from and then works from the lines you write. If you want a proven format filled in for you, Roll is built for that. If you want the video to say what you mean, in your own words and your own footage, that is RawCut.

Can Roll or RawCut find something I said in a clip?

RawCut listens to your clips as well as looking at them, so a line like "the part where I explain the price" finds that sentence inside a longer clip and keeps it whole. Roll's listing describes matching clips to a template's scenes and does not mention speech. Test it with a clip in which you talk.

Free to try. iPhone, iOS 15 or later. Roll is a trademark of its respective owner; this page isn't affiliated with or endorsed by them. Prices and features of Roll are taken from its public App Store listing in October 2026 and may change.