Premiere Pro vs Montage:
a detailed comparison
The short answer
Here's the thing: Premiere Pro is a pro editor, and a very good one. If editing is your job, and you want your hands on every frame, keep it. But if what you want is the video, not the editing, Montage is the Premiere Pro alternative built for that. You say what you want, you watch, you comment on the picture, and Montage makes the changes.
How you edit
In Premiere Pro, the edit is yours to make. You cut on the timeline, you set every title, you grade every shot. Adobe has added AI inside it: Text-Based Editing to trim clips like a doc, Object Mask, Generative Extend, a search panel that finds clips you describe. They make you faster. But the hands are still yours.
In Montage, there's no timeline. Let me explain. You drop your takes, you say what the video is for, and Montage makes the whole edit. Then you watch it, and when something's off, you pause and point at the picture: « cut this pause », « make this word bigger ». Hit Fix all, and it's done.
Premiere Pro makes you a faster editor. Montage does the editing.
What you have to learn
Premiere Pro is industry-standard, and it has the depth that comes with it: panels, tracks, three-point editing, color wheels, scopes. Adobe even has a training portal and courses for it. Montage asks you to learn nothing. You talk to it like an editor sitting next to you.
Your footage and your style
Premiere Pro is a desktop app, so your footage stays on your computer. Montage runs in your browser, and your originals stay on your computer too: the export is made from them, at full size. Say your style once, your fonts and your colors, and Montage keeps it for every video after.
Working with a client
Premiere Pro comes with Frame.io, Adobe's review and approval tool. Montage has its own way: you send a link. Your client watches, comments right on the picture, with no account, and presses Approve. Their notes land next to yours, and Montage takes care of them too.
And if you still want Premiere Pro
You don't have to choose forever. Montage exports the video, the sound alone, or the cut for Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve, with every clip in its place. So Montage can make the first edit, and you finish it in Premiere Pro if you want to.
Price
Premiere Pro, now called Adobe Premiere, has a free app on mobile; on desktop there's a 7-day free trial, then Premiere at €26.21 a month, or Creative Cloud Pro, with 20+ apps, at €78.65 a month, as adobe.com shows it from France on the annual plan billed monthly. Montage is free to start, then Plus at $25, Pro at $50, Max at $100 and Ultra at $200 a month, less on a yearly plan. Different ways to pay, so compare what you'd actually make with each.
Who should stay on Premiere Pro
Let's be clear: if you're a professional editor, stay. If you want control of every frame, every color wheel, every track of the mix, stay. Montage isn't trying to be a better timeline. It's trying to remove it.
Who should switch
You film yourself, you post often, and the editing eats the time you'd rather spend on the idea. Or you opened Premiere Pro once, saw the panels, and closed it. Or you make videos for clients, and you're done with timecodes in emails. Then try Montage on one video. Just one. You'll see.