FOR CREATORS
From raw take to posted reel before lunch.
Captions, hooks and a colour grade in one app. Reframe to 9:16, bake in viral captions, and export Shorts-ready video without round-tripping through another editor.
THE PAIN
- Editing eats the time you should spend creating
- Subscription editors that hold your work hostage
- Re-cropping the same video for every platform
THE WORKFLOW
Record screen plus a camera bubble
Auto-Polish, then word-pop captions and a look
Reframe to 9:16 and export
FROM YOUR PHONE
Shoot the take on your phone where you actually film, then cut, caption and grade it there too. Make Vertical reframes to 9:16 around your face, and background removal drops you on a clean backdrop with no green screen.
Zella for iPhone →WHEN THIS OUTGROWS THE FREE TIER
The day you post the same cut to three platforms. The multi-aspect queue renders 9:16, 1:1 and 16:9 in one action instead of three exports, and saved templates mean your caption style and grade are one tap next time.
Everything else here is free forever: the complete editor, all the AI, unlimited recording, and watermark-free export up to 2 minutes at 1080p. Pro is $89 once and covers Mac and iPhone on a single purchase. See pricing →
Most creator advice assumes the hard part is having ideas. If you have been posting for any length of time you know it is not. The hard part is the ninety minutes between finishing a recording and having something you are willing to publish, and that gap is where a posting habit quietly dies.
Zella is built to close that gap rather than make it more pleasant. You record the take, tap once, and the app removes the silences and filler words, writes and styles the captions, cleans the audio and lays in music that ducks under your voice. What lands in front of you is a cut you could post, not a project file waiting for an evening of work.
Everything runs on the machine in front of you. No upload, no render queue, no account, and no subscription renewing whether you posted this month or not.
WHAT YOU ACTUALLY SHIP
A vertical short from a long recording
Record once at your desk, cut the strongest moment on the timeline, and reframe it into a captioned 9:16 cut - face-aware auto-reframe keeps you centred.
A talking-head video with a clean background
Background removal runs on-device with no green screen, so a messy room stops being the reason you did not film today.
The same edit in three shapes
One cut, reframed to 9:16 for TikTok and Reels, 1:1 for the feed, and 16:9 for YouTube, with face-aware tracking keeping you in frame.
A screen walkthrough that holds attention
Auto-Zoom punches in on your clicks so viewers can actually see what you are doing on a phone screen.
THE HONEST ANSWERS
I already pay for an editor. Why switch?
You probably should not switch mid-project. The honest case for Zella is the next project: your current editor almost certainly bills monthly and does the cutting, captioning and reframing as three separate jobs you drive by hand. Zella is one purchase and does those three as one tap. Try it on a video that does not matter first.
Is the free version crippled?
No, and this is the part people do not believe. Free is the complete editor and every AI feature, with unlimited recording and no watermark on any export. The only ceilings are on the exported file: 2 minutes long, at up to 1080p. For a short, that is the whole job.
AI editing usually looks like AI editing.
That is a fair worry and the reason every step Auto-Polish takes is undoable individually. If the cut cadence feels mechanical or a zoom lands wrong, you open the timeline and change that one thing rather than starting over. Auto-Polish is a first pass, not a black box.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Does Zella put a watermark on free exports?
No. Free exports are clean on every tier and every platform. The only free limits are a 2-minute export length and 1080p resolution, and 1080p is free forever.
Can I edit on my phone and finish on my Mac?
Yes. Export the project as a .zella file on iPhone and open it on the Mac, and your timeline, cuts, captions and effects travel with it. It works in both directions.
Do I need an internet connection to edit?
No. Recording, captions, background removal, voice cleanup and export all run on your device. The one exception is Auto B-Roll on Mac, which searches a stock library and sends only a keyword, never your video.
Is Zella a subscription?
No. Zella Pro is $89 once and Founder is $299 once, and both are Apple Universal Purchases covering Mac and iPhone on a single payment.
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