I think most of us would be biased and say "no, no, stick with Hitfilm, it's better," but the REAL answer to all your questions is "Just download the free version of Resolve, try it, and see if you like it. Now, this IS a Hitfilm forum, AND the official site of Hitfilm's creators. Because of this "manual connection of everything" setup you can (eventually) do things with nodes you can't with layers, but prepare to study for a bit. In Resolve/Fusion you have to drag in a keyer node, manually connect the video layer to the node, drag in the matte cleaner node, connect the key to the cleaner, drag in a curves node, manually connect the matte cleaner to the curve, then, finally, connect tje curve node back to the video track to output. As an example, if you want to add a color key and a curve to a Hitfilm layer, you drag in those two effects and they apply. Nodes are ultimately more flexible, but have a much larger learning curve and take longer to set up.
Layers are easier to learn because you have a fixed order of operations and the individual effects filters tend to be more complex/full featured. Hitfilm is layer-based, Fusion is node based. Resolve has the best color correction and grading filters in the industry, period. Both have tons of filters, but the focus is different. It's a bit tough to compare the effects lists of Hitfilm Express to Resolve Light. If you happen to be on a Mac and download the Apple App Store version even MORE features are disabled - in both Lite and Studio.
No GPU acceleration (Hitfilm is GPU accelerated), no 3D (Hitfilm always has 3D space), and a whole bunch of other effects and features are disabled as well. The free version is missing a lot of stuff. There are two versions of Resolve, the free "Lite" version and the paid "Studio" version. This does make Resolve a little schizophrenic to work in as the base interface changes around, depending on what you're doing.
#HITFILM EXPRESS VS DAVINCI RESOLVE 15 SOFTWARE#
Fusion and Fairlight were existing, mature compositing and audio editing software that Blackmagic bought and bolted into Resolve. Incredibly powerful for a free program. Other software packages were later bolted in. Price Range: Free 'I always tell people and swear by HitFilm Express. Resolve started as dedicated color grading software that later had NLE features added to it. Hitfilm is designed from the ground up as a single, unified piece of software. Hitfilm Express vs Resolve Lite? It's a bit tricky as both packages have advantages and disadvantages. Blender can do video editing/compositing, but it's really geared to 3D model/animation work.
#HITFILM EXPRESS VS DAVINCI RESOLVE 15 FOR FREE#
Hitfilm Express and DaVinci Resolve are pretty much your only viable options for free NLE/Compositing software.