- Best Free Movie Editing Program
- Good Free Movie Editing Software For Mac
- Best Video Editing Software Mac
- Free Movie Editing Program For Mac
- Free Movies Editing Software Mac
Chances are, there are hundreds of videos languishing on your smartphone, DSLR or compact camera. Instead of letting it collect dust, why not polish it up to share with family and friends? That's where a good video editing program comes in.
Among the paid software, only one — Adobe Premiere Elements 2019— is truly cross-platform, and it emerged as our top pick. Despite its lack of emerging popular technologies, like 360-degree video handling and multicam editing features, it's the easiest video editor to learn and use, and offers plenty of advanced functions, such as guided edits and a revised home screen.
CyberLink PowerDirector 16 is the best video editing software for Windows, featuring a dazzling array of tricks and treats; plus, it's great for editing 360-degree videos, too.
Ed. note: PowerDirector 17 is now available; stay tuned for our review.
Ed. note: PowerDirector 17 is now available; stay tuned for our review.
Best Free Movie Editing Program
Apple’s iMovie, which competes only with cross-platform free apps and Adobe Elements, is the obvious choice for the best Mac video editing software, thanks to its outstanding output, themes and trailers, macOS integration, and features that encourage good moviemaking skills.
For the best free software, HitFilm Express gets the nod for its abundant cinematic capabilities and stylish interface. If you often share your videos on YouTube and other social media platforms, the free, cross-platform VideoPad is your best option.
This software is touted as one of the best free video editing programs because it lends itself well to video, animation and even video game creation. Blender is one of the more robust free applications and allows for much more than just film editing. A free video editing software allows you to edit your videos in the most convenient way. Also, There are some free video editors which allow you to share videos directly on video sharing platforms. Plus, Most of them are easy to use even for the beginners. Apple computers have long been aimed at the creative professional, with emphasis on photo and video editing. The only problem is that industry-leading packages like Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Apple’s own Final Cut Pro X series aren’t cheap. Since iMovie is no longer free, decent Mac video editors are hard to come. Apple iMovie ’05 is an excellent (and free) video editor for the Mac platform, with advanced video editing features and a lot of addon and plug-in support. You can find more information about iMovie at Apple’s iLife ’05 site. We’ve tested a HEAP of options, from free to pro-level software, and in this video we’ll run through my recommendations for the BEST Video Editing Software for Mac across every price bracket.
Best OverallAdobe Premiere Elements 2019
Adobe Premiere Elements continues its long reign as the overall best consumer video-editing app, with new automated features and simplified workflows for quick video editing.
Best for WindowsCyberLink PowerDirector 16
PowerDirector 16 makes it easy to edit 360-degree videos, but there are a lot of other great features in this program, too.
Best for MacApple iMovie 10.1.8
iMovie gives Mac users an easy way to get started creating high-quality movies from videos shot on all kinds of devices.
Our Top Picks
Best Overall
Reasons to Buy
Supports new HEVC and HEIF file formats for images and videos
New home screen provides continuous access to all functions and apps
Auto-generated slideshows and photo/video collages make social media sharing quick and easy
Intriguing new guided edits
Reasons to Avoid
Some aspects of automated video trimming seem counterintuitive
No support for HEVC and HEIF file formats on Windows
No support for 360-degree video
No support for multicam editing
When it comes to user-friendliness, sophisticated features and ways to output your video, nothing beats the cross-platform Adobe Premiere Elements. For 2019, Adobe streamlined the Quick Edits interface, making it all the more easy for novices to jump in. The company's AI now creates collages and slideshows automatically, and can also trim the fat off your videos.
Read our full Adobe Premiere Elements review.
Best for Windows
CyberLink PowerDirector 16
Reasons to Buy
Advanced editing control over 360-degree footage
Professional color matching, toning and effects
Reasons to Avoid
Needed to reinstall the app following a Windows 10 update
Certain color lookup tables are not compatible with the program
Motion-tracking techniques felt a bit awkward at the outset
CyberLink PowerDirector offers a dazzling array of fun, advanced video editing features wrapped in a stunning, easy-to-use package. For this version, Cyberlink has beefed up its 360-degree capabilities, making it far easier to edit 360 videos.
Ed. Note: CyberLink PowerDirector 17 is now available, and features such improvements as better green-screen editing, nested video editing, and multi-cam editing. PowerDirector 17 Ultra is $99, while PowerDirector Ultimate, which includes 360-degree video editing, is $129.
Best for Mac
Apple iMovie 10.1.8
Reasons to Buy
Professional-looking themes and trailers
Theater feature shares movies to all Apple devices
Reasons to Avoid
Lacks multicam, motion tracking and 360-degree features
Apple iMovie is the ultimate Mac video app for novice filmmakers, combining professional trailers and themes,abundant special effects and an easy-to-learn interface. Version 10.1 added 4K editing and sharing, as well as extended handling to video shot at 1080p and 60 fps. Recent updates tweaked the interface and added Touch Bar support for the latest MacBooks.
Update (June 2019): iMovie is now on version 10.1.12. Recent updates have disabled sharing videos to iMovie Theater and Facebook; you have to save your movies to iCloud Photos to watch them on other devices including Apple TV.
Update (June 2019): iMovie is now on version 10.1.12. Recent updates have disabled sharing videos to iMovie Theater and Facebook; you have to save your movies to iCloud Photos to watch them on other devices including Apple TV.
Read our full Apple iMove review.
Best Free Video Editor
HitFilm Express 9
Reasons to Buy
Reusable templates
Reasons to Avoid
Publishing features are not intuitive
For version 12, the free HitFilm Express has a redesigned, more intuitive interface and plenty of powerful features. While meant for prosumers—there is a bit of a learning curve—beginners shouldn't have too much trouble creating YouTube projects.
Read our full Hitfilm Express review.
Best for Beginners
Corel VideoStudio Ultimate 2018
Reasons to Buy
Split-screen video facilitates elaborate video collages
Broad 3D-text support
Reasons to Avoid
Certain advanced features got really dense
Corel VideoStudio, an outstanding editing package for beginners on the Windows platform, is a powerful but easy-to-learn app for anyone who wants to make simple videos quickly without fussing around with complex controls. Its spare but inviting interface offers 360-degree video editing, enhanced lens-correction tools, and 3D text editing.
Read our full Corel VideoStudio review.
Best for YouTube
VideoPad
Reasons to Buy
Supports 360-degree camera editing and output
Reasons to Avoid
Lacks some advanced features like multi-cam editing and motion tracking
Certain features time out of the free non-commercial program
Difficult to tell whether you have downloaded the free or trial version, especially in Windows.
VideoPad Home Edition
VideoPad Masters Edition
VideoPad is a comprehensive cross-platform software package for the YouTube social media crowd. While this app lacks the flashy, whiz-bang appeal of some commercial apps, it’s still a rock-solid choice for simple video editing. From the main menu, you can choose which social network you want to upload to. The app offers a number of YouTube choices ranging from 480p to 4K, as well as Facebook, Flickr, Dropbox and Google Drive, and is free for non-commercial use.
Read our full VideoPad review.
Best for advanced enthusiasts
DaVinci Resolve 15
Reasons to Buy
Free with no limits or watermarks
Exquisitely deep app for color grading, compositing and audio production
Reasons to Avoid
A powerful computer is needed for high-end graphics functions
No direct export to social media
DaVinci Resolve 15
A powerful pro-level app, cross platform you’ll want to use a system with discrete graphics to get the most out of this editor. The latest version of DaVinci incorporates Fusion, previously a stand-alone application, which brings with it four high-end video-production modules for editing, color correction, audio production, and video effects and motion graphics. This video editor is quite powerful, but has a bit of a learning curve. If its 256-page manual doesn't intimidate you, high-level enthusiasts will find a lot of tools at their disposal.
Good Free Movie Editing Software For Mac
Read our full DaVinci Resolve review.
How We Tested
We tested more than a dozen programs — paid and free — on consumer Mac and Windows laptops for more than 100 hours, to see which are the best for editing, as well as sharing your videos with friends and family.
We evaluated all of the software based on functionality, ease of use, performance, sharing options and new features in the latest versions. We also judged the packages based on real-life uses for a number of categories, including best overall, best free app, best for beginners, best for YouTube maestros, best for Mac users and best for Windows platforms.
Free or Fee?
There’s no reason for the occasional video jockey to fork over any cash, as there are plenty of free apps available for both Windows and Mac. But while the deciding factors for free and paid software may appear to be based on cold hard cash, that’s not the whole story.
People who are looking for a more powerful editor with a variety of built-in resources, responsive technical support and more would be better off dropping some cash on a video editing program.
However, there’s a third option: You can download software such as VideoPad or HitFilm (which offer all of the basics) for free, and then purchase additional features à la carte as your experience and needs grow.
Best Video Editing Software Mac
Speed
Performance results are important, but they’re not critical components of software evaluations, because depending on your hardware setup, your mileage will vary. By comparison, ease of use, interface and features carry more weight than export clock speed. Nonetheless, as a single measure among many, speed testing provides valuable comparative information.
As several of the programs on this page have been updated with newer versions since their initial review, we are currently in the process of re-testing them. At the same time, we are upgrading our testing platforms, from laptops with integrated graphics to those with discrete GPUs. This will better reflect the improvement in performance from apps that can take advantage of discrete graphics cards. Stay tuned for the results.
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- Award-Winning Open-Source Video Editing SoftwareCREATE STUNNING VIDEOS!
Hand-crafted with and 100% FREE and open-source! Free & open-source forever (GPL version 3.0)
We designed OpenShot Video Editor to be an easy to use, quick to learn, and surprisingly powerful video editor. Take a quick look at some of our most popular features and capabilities.
Cross-Platform
OpenShot is a cross-platform video editor, with support for Linux, Mac, and Windows. Get started and download our installer today.
Trim & Slice
Quickly trim down your videos, and find those perfect moments. OpenShot has many easy ways to cut your video.
Animation & Keyframes
Using our powerful animation framework, you can fade, slide, bounce, and animate anything in your video project.
Unlimited Tracks
Add as many layers as you need for watermarks, background videos, audio tracks, and more.
Video Effects
Using our video effects engine, remove the background from your video, invert the colors, adjust brightness, and more.
Audio Waveforms
Visualize your audio files as waveforms, and even output the waveforms as part of your video.
Title Editor
Adding titles to your video has never been easier. Use one of our templates, or make your own.
Free Movie Editing Program For Mac
3D Animations
Render beautiful 3D animated titles and effects, such as snow, lens flares, or flying text.
Slow Motion & Time Effects
Control the power of time, reversing, slowing down, and speeding up video. Use a preset or animate the playback speed and direction.
Edit Video
Drag and drop video, audio, or images from your file manager into OpenShot. It's that easy to get started video editing.
70+ Languages
Free Movies Editing Software Mac
OpenShot is available in many different languages, and can be translated online with LaunchPad.
Simple User Interface
We have designed OpenShot to be the easiest and friendliest video editing software ever! Give it a try and see for yourself.