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Apple’s computer ecosystem has long been the go-to choice for video editing professionals and beginners alike. Knowing that each piece of hardware works with the rest flawlessly means creatives have more time to work on their projects and don’t need to worry about upgrades or conflicts. A Mac’s hardware side might be covered, but what about the software?

Apple’s own programs remain strong contenders and are favored by many users. However, rivals like Adobe and Blackmagic Design impress with the flexibility and power their NLEs bring onto the Mac Scene. You’re spoiled for choice if you’re a video editor today, which is why we’ve made this guide on the best video editing software for Mac currently available. Whether you just need to string a few clips together or are working on the next Hollywood blockbuster, the Mac has got you covered.

1. Final Cut Pro X

Final Cut Pro is Apple’s long-standing professional-level video editing software. It’s the go-to choice for anyone from YouTube content creators to Hollywood moviemakers due to its blend of sophistication and simplicity. It’s revolutionizing editing conventions with the magnetic timeline, runs faster than ever, and gives you everything needed to bring your imagination to life for a reasonable one-time payment.

Overview of Features

You start using Final Cut Pro by organizing your media. The program scans your hard drives and places the media you select into Libraries, repositories that link different media types into a single accessible project. A Library can be backed up automatically for extra security, and you can tag or rate the media within for even more nuanced organization.

Once you’re done with file selection, you’re taken to Final Cut Pro’s main editing interface. It retains the traditional three-part non-linear editing or NLE philosophy but turns things on their head with the magnetic timeline. Final Cut Pro doesn’t use tracts. Clips snap to each other instead, and they form links so that moving one of them in the timeline moves the rest. You can overlap clips and create a lane where the overlapping part is tweaked. Linking goes a step further with Compound Clips, a feature that lets you link video. audio, and effects that are then moved and treated as a single clip.

Final Cut Pro comes with more than a hundred transitions, effects, and audio effects each. Adding these is simple to do on the magnetic timeline, and the results are seamless. The transitions are particularly impressive, letting you dramatically change the scene or add jump cuts the audience won’t even notice. Color correction is on point as well thank s to a system of color wheels. They allow for nuanced control of shadows, mids, and highlights, not to mention overall hue and saturation.

Best Editing Software For Mac

Final Cut Pro X makes the most out of your hardware. Its newest version supports the new Mac Pro and is oriented towards 64-bit multithreaded processing along with better GPU support. Other Apple hardware is integrated seamlessly too. The software takes advantage of the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar, adapting its interface depending on what part of the editing process you’re on. You may even turn your iPad into a secondary display thanks to support for Sidecar.

What We Didn’t Like

The magnetic timeline is a point of contention and doesn’t sit well with many creators used to working with NLEs. Final Cut Pro is aimed at professionals but lacks the collaborative tools needed to coordinate projects smoothly. Premiere Pro CC is, therefore, a better option if you’re looking for a video editing platform for your entire studio.

2. Apple iMovie

Apple is the epitome of consumer-friendliness, and its simplified video editing program is a prime example. iMovie is hands down the best introductory tool for creatives new to video editing on the Mac. It’s intuitive, lets you put together presentable movies in minutes, and acts as a stepping stone towards the more advanced workflow of Final Cut Pro. Best of all, it’s totally free, so anyone can have a go at it and touch up their videos with ease.

Overview of Features

iMovie eases you into the editing process straight from the welcome screen. A giant plus awaits you there, signaling a new project. These fall into two categories – Trailer and Movie. Trailers are simple templates you follow along to when creating movies. They are further divided into the Outline, Storyboard, and Shot List. These change depending on the kind of movie you’re making as there are more than 20 templates to follow.

Outline lets you add titles to the movie while Storyboard and Shot list offer suggestions on what kinds of clips to use. You have to import the clips first, which is where iMovie’s media organization comes to the fore. Any connected disk or camera is immediately accessible, and you can browse them by media type. Clips and pictures can be favorited or discarded, but there’s no rating or tagging system. You can, however, organize footage into Libraries for more logically structured access.

iMovie is akin to a more traditional editing environment at first glance. The similarities end once you start using the timeline since it works on the same magnetic principle as that in Final Cut Pro. Beginners will be unburdened by the shift and will find transitioning to iMovie’s big brother natural once they’re ready. That needn’t be as soon as you might think since iMovie is capable of producing relatively complex results that test the knowledge and creativity of intermediate-level editors.

Adding effects to your movies is straightforward. There’s the Magic Wand tool that does a great job at enhancing a clip’s visuals or correcting the color balance. You can also match the colors from different clips to make the footage more uniform. There are dozens of filters and audio effects to choose from as well. These enhance a video’s atmosphere but are limited to one per clip.

What’s Bad About It?

iMovie has limitations that will start to bother you sooner or later. The most notable one is support for only two video tracks, but other staples like working with multiple cameras or motion tracking are absent. iMovie’s interface is intuitive but rigid; parts of it can’t be resized or moved around to make the workspace your own.

3. Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Choosing between Final Cut Pro X and Premiere Pro CC has become a matter of personal preference since both programs offer all the tools a professional needs. You’ll want to use Adobe’s product if you’re used to traditional NLEs, work with multiple artists on large projects, and insist on the highest quality of color grading and file organization.

Overview of Features

Premiere Pro CC is a subscription-based video editing program aimed at professionals. However, Adobe has recently introduced a series of interactive tutorials that quickly bring less advanced users up to speed on its use. The default interface consists of four parts, the only non-traditional one being a source preview opposite the project preview. Premiere Pro is peerless when it comes to interface customization. Each element can be moved, resized, or relegated to a separate screen. You can even create and freely place icons for every keyboard shortcut.

Premiere Pro organizes media into bins. These are made up of nested elements containing various media files that are automatically color-coded for easier handling. You can rearrange, tag, and add custom color coding to simplify working with large numbers of files.

Editing with Premiere Pro is straightforward, and there are at least two ways of going about each action. For example, you can trim a clip before or after adding it to a timeline using either onscreen tools or keyboard shortcuts. It’s possible to trim a clip during playback.

Premiere Pro has fewer transitions than the competition, but all 38 of them are of high quality. Conversely, there are now more effects than ever since many of them have been copied over from after Effects. Lumetri color tools let you grade footage with nuanced precision. You may do so for the entire scene or alter parts of it through sophisticated masking. Audio options are abundant as well.

Collaboration is an integral part of Premiere Pro’s design. The software comes into its own when multiple professionals are using it with access to other parts of Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite. Team members may communicate about a project without leaving the program or coordinate their efforts in real-time. Premiere Pro finally supports color matching with After Effects and recognizes files from Photoshop, Audition, and other CC programs without the need for conversion.

Are There Drawbacks?

Premiere Pro is subscription-based. That means there’s a smaller upfront cost, but you also have to keep paying not to lose access to your project files. It costs $20.99/month for regular users. That tier doesn’t provide access to other Creative Cloud programs and limits Premiere Pro’s usability. You can remedy this by opting for the complete suite, but that increases the cost significantly.

4. DaVinci Resolve 16

Are you looking for a free video editor but are hesitant to try iMovie’s magnetic timeline? DaVinci Resolve is the perfect choice in that case. Its basic version is a free yet comprehensive video editor with no strings attached. Springing for the Studio version adds substantial perks and is worth the price once you’ve got the taste of what the software can do. Featuring the finest color grading available, a new Cut tab, and great collab features, Resolve can absolutely hold its own against the industry giants.

Overview of Features

DaVinci Resolve offers a full array of media management, editing, color grading, and effect tools. However, its newest version also has a Cut tab in which these are condensed. The Cut tab is essential for news editors, YouTubers, and other creatives who need a streamlined working environment that lets them produce content at a rapid pace.

The Cut tab provides you with two timelines for easier scrubbing without having to zoom in as much. There’s also an area called Source Tape that arranges all the clips in your bin into a single source. Cut also gives you access to trim tools, lets you add audio and visual effects, and apply color grading. Rendering and exporting is simplified, and you can upload finished content to several social media platforms.

Advanced color grading has been Resolve’s stand out feature for some time, so much so that professionals working with other software would switch to resolve just to grade their footage. The newest additions to Color Management tools include better GPU support, keyframe editing, as well as improvements to chroma-keying and automatic white balance.

Purchasing DaVinci Resolve Studio unlocks the Neural Engine. It’s an advanced AI with features like slow-motion frame correction, facial detection, and the ability to remove subjects from videos. The Studio version comes with collaboration features like addition for markers for individual artists along with a read-only toggle for project previews. Finally, Studio comes with additional transitions, effects, audio plug-ins, and color tools like film grading or HDR.

What We Didn’t Like

Resolve isn’t as popular as Apple’s and Adobe’s programs. That means there’s a smaller community dedicated to it, and tutorials on subjects other than color grading are harder to find. Some editors might not take kindly to Resolve’s interface since it isn’t as customizable as alternatives like Lightworks.

5. Lightworks

Lightworks has been around since the 90s and is currently at version 14.5. It’s a flexible NLE that combines an innovative approach to visual effects with elements like a customizable UI. You can keep using it for free indefinitely with considerable limitations or pay a reasonable monthly subscription to use it fully. There’s even a unique control panel for a more hands-on approach to video editing.

Overview of Features

Lightworks starts you off with a plain screen where you start new projects or open existing ones. Making a new video prompts you to select the format and framerate right away. That’s a useful feature for forgetful editors who’d have to start from scratch if they select the wrong framerate. Speaking of which, you can import clips shot at varying framerates and in different codecs to the same timeline without issue.

Four main panels guide you through the editing process. The Log screen is used for file sorting. It contains a preview window on the right and a file browser beside it. Here you can organize files into bins, view their metadata, tag them, and so on.

The Edit tab adds a prominent timeline to the bottom along with a preview window for the entire current sequence. Clips are added to the timeline sequentially, and a color is assigned to each for easier recognition. From here, you can rearrange the clips, set in and out points for each, and trim.

VFX is the effects tab. It has your standard fare of color correction, chroma-keying, and visual effect features. However, Lightworks applies these in a unique way. Rather than copy-pasting settings to individual clips, you create a VFX track in the timeline and enable it for the clips that need enhancing. You can add multiple effects to the same tab or manage several tabs for precise results. Audio works similarly, letting you equalize levels, eliminate noise, or add effects to a selection of clips.

Lightworks gets around the UI customization conundrum by giving you the best of both worlds. As its name suggests, Fixed view locks the UI in place and is intuitive enough for most users. Flexible view lifts these restrictions and allows for movement of each part of the interface within Lightworks and onto external monitors.

Rendering times with Lightworks are quick because it does most of the encoding and rendering while you’re working. You can output a video in numerous formats, upload it directly to YouTube or Vimeo, and export the audio separately.

Are There Drawbacks?

The free version of Lightworks falls short when it comes to export options. It limits your YouTube videos to a mere 720p, forcing you to get the Pro version if you enjoy the workflow. Audio editing in Lightworks isn’t as advanced as in other software and losing sync with video when applying edits or effects is more common than we’d like.

6. Wondershare Filmora Pro

You may have heard of Filmora and not taken it seriously because of its free status and mediocre reviews. Wondershare has taken note of that, though, and designed Filmora Pro to be a respectable alternative to more aggressively-priced rivals. It does many things like basic editing, UI customization, and exporting right while struggling with others. Even so, Filmora Pro is a fine prosumer tool that’s bound to improve even more in the future.

Overview of Features

Opening Filmora Pro for the first time reveals a surprisingly clean welcome screen with prompts for new and existing projects as well as links to well-made YouTube tutorials. From there, you’re taken to the Edit tab where you get to import footage and position it on the timeline. The interface will be familiar to NLE users but can be customized to suit your unique needs. There’s an array of video trimming tools along with ones for syncing audio to clips and getting rid of reverb or noise

Color grading makes use of look-up tables or LUTs to impart industry-standard looks to your videos. You can also choose between multiple film styles or make use of histograms and YUV wheels for a more personal touch. There are effects and transitions aplenty, and applying them is straightforward. Text is treated similarly. While it’s confusing that text options are separated into two panels, adding existing templates and tailoring them to your liking feels natural.

Filmora Pro works with a wide variety of input media and offers extensive output options. These include DVD and Blu-ray authorship as well as direct uploads to the likes of YouTube and Facebook. Filmora Pro isn’t the fastest NLE out there as it fails to utilize your hardware completely. That being said, it will do the job on time.

What’s Bad About It?

Filmora Pro still has a ways to go in terms of professional video features. There’s no motion tracking, and video stabilization is a feature that’s planned but not implemented yet. There are some UI design quirks, like not being able to reset color wheel positions to their defaults without opening a menu. These will likely be addressed soon, but professional editors who value a speedy workflow might take issue.

Contents

If video isn’t already an important part of your content marketing strategy, odds are it’s about to be. Web content is taking a turn toward video whether SEOs and content marketers like it or not. Nearly 50% of marketers are adding YouTube and Facebook channels for video distribution in the next year; one third of online activity is spent watching video; and video itself is projected to account for more than 80% of all internet traffic by 2019. 80%!

For those looking to continue to grow their organic traffic, that means one thing:

Not an expert? Don’t know how to edit videos, have a video studio, or have a bona fide video specialist to shoot and cut your features? That’s alright! The goal of today’s blog is to show you that with the right video editing software, you too can churn out sleek, professional video content—regardless of experience—and keep your content strategy ahead of the curve.

Let’s dive in! Here are our recs for the top 10 best pieces of video editing software or video editing apps for beginners—from cheapest (i.e. free!) to most expensive.

1. Apple iMovie

Ok—so to those of you working with PCs, this one won’t really apply; but we’d remiss to leave it off the list. If you’re looking for simplicity and elegance, it doesn’t get much better than Apple iMovie. iMovie’s ten high-fidelity filters are some of the classiest in the video editing game; and if you’re shooting on your iPhone, or have been editing a project on your iPad, you can use AirDrop to wirelessly and seamlessly transfer your project over to your Mac.

One of iMovie’s most coveted features is its green-screen, or “chroma-key” tool, which allows you to place your characters in exotic locations—Hawaii, say—at a moment’s notice. Want to overlay the scene with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”? iMovie ties directly in with iTunes and GarageBand, so you can easily implement custom tracks and sounds. When your movie’s finally ready to ship, release it into the wild using iMessage, Facebook, YouTube, or any other of iMovie’s succinctly connected platforms.

Standout Features: Seamless Apple product integration; green-screen; audio and social platform integration

Pricing: Free with the purchase of a Mac

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2. Lumen5: How to Edit Videos Without Much Technical Ability

We’ll put this more in the category of a video editing “tool” than video editing software, but for social media marketers who want to create fun, flashy social promos in the blink of an eye, Lumen5 is a no brainer. Here’s a short little feature we made for a recent blog post, 14 Fun & Festive Holiday Marketing Ideas for 2017:

Lumen5 markets itself as a tool that turns blog posts into social promos. While the process isn’t perfect, and you’ll likely have to do some tinkering to get your blog content looking just the way you want it, the rest of the video creation process is a cinch. Merely refine some copy that teases your blog post; drag and drop some gifs, screengrabs, or video clips; add some music; and your engaging social video will be ripe for Facebook and Twitter.

Standout Features: Blog-to-social-promo creation; drag-and-drop interface

Pricing: Create as many 480p videos as you want with the free version; or, for $50 per month, upgrade to 1080p HD.

3. Nero Video

One of the cheaper options around ($49.99), Nero Video holds its own on this list—it comes well-stocked with a lot of the tricks and effects you’ll find among other products vying for video editing supremacy, and as far as software for beginners, you can certainly do worse. If you’re going to spend money learning how to edit videos, however, you might want to steer clear. Nero just doesn’t have the speed and functionality of some of the other products listed here, and if it’s value proposition is its price, $50 is still not all that cheap.

Standout Features: Low pricing

Pricing: One-time payment of $49.99

4. Corel VideoStudio

Corel VideoStudio has all the characteristics of the other top-of-the-line products on this list, including 360-degree VR and 4k support, but it also has the distinction of being the first piece of consumer video editing software to offer motion tracking—which, if you’re not already familiar, is a feature that allows you to track specific objects throughout your cut (if you wanted, say, to point an arrow at one of your characters, blur out his face, or bestow him with a funny hat). Most of the products on this list come equipped with motion tracking, but VideoStudio still boasts one of the best motion tracking systems around.

One of the knocks on VideoStudio is its speed, which lags notably behind some of the faster systems on this list, like CyberLink PowerDirector and Pinnacle Studio. Still: for a one-time payment of $51.99? You can do much worse.

Standout Features: Motion tracking

Pricing: One-time payment of $51.99

5. Filmora from Wondershare

When it comes to video editing software, Filmora is about as multi-faceted as they come. Filmora is Wondershare’s standard, simple, high-quality video editing offering; but Wondershare also offers FilmoraGo (for mobile editing) and Filmora Scrn (for screen recording and editing). The design is intuitive and easy to use, and comes replete with filters, overlays, motion elements, transitions, and a small selection of royalty-free music. Here are a few more of the “basics” Filmora offers:

4k and gif support are boilerplate features for most video editing products today, but one thing Filmora does particularly well is titles. Title tools are trending in video software, and while Filmora’s doesn’t have the functionality of say, an Apple Final Cut Pro X, which can superimpose 3D titles over your videos and rotate them on three axes, it nonetheless has some snazzy titling features for the money you’re spending.

Another Filmora feature beginners to video editing will find attractive is “Easy Mode,” which allows you to create fun, polished edits by merely dragging and dropping clips, choosing a theme, and selecting music.

Standout features: Title tool; mobile and screen editing; “Easy Mode”

Pricing: Starts at $59.99 for a lifetime license; or, $39.99 for a year.

6. CyberLink PowerDirector

So—we stretched the meaning of “software” a bit earlier; now, we’re going to stretch the meaning of “beginner.” We included CyberLink PowerDirector on this list because its interface is, at the end of the day, pretty straightforward. Head to the product page, run through the tutorials, and you’ll be alright. There is within the interface, however, an embarrassment of options and effects. If you’re not willing to invest the time in learning all of them, it can get a bit overwhelming.

Don’t be scared of CyberLink’s extra features; just be wary of your commitment level!

In terms of rendering, PowerDirector is regarded as one of the fastest video editing systems around. It also operates consistently in the sphere of the innovative and cutting edge. PowerDirector led the charge in the switch to 4k, and today, it’s one of the first systems to support 360-degree virtual reality footage.

Price: you get what you pay for! $79.99 gets you unlimited access to one of the most capable pieces of video editing software around.

Standout Features: Lightning-fast rendering; comprehensive suite of effects

Pricing: One-time payment of $79.99

7. Adobe Premiere Elements

We include Premiere Elements on the list mostly because it’s been an industry leader in the video editing game for some time. And $79.99 is not egregious, but we’re here to say that at that price, you’re mostly paying for the name. In the time since Premiere Elements’ inception, too many other products have surpassed it in speed and capability for us to place it among the cream of the crop. That’s to take nothing away from Premiere Elements’ usability, though—specifically for beginners.

The Guided Edits feature makes Adobe Premiere a particularly attractive option for beginners, as it allows them to take on both quick edits and advanced projects with substantial assistance from the software.

If you’re not entirely sure what you’re doing, don’t sleep on Guided Edits!

So while Premiere Elements lags behind the competition in terms of speed, 3D editing, multi-cam, and some other advanced features, it’s still a great choice for the beginner looking for a comprehensive suite of effects, and some guidance on how to implement them.

Standout Features: Guided Edits; simple interface

Pricing: One-time payment of $79.99

8. Pinnacle Studio

At the higher end of the Corel product line is Pinnacle Studio—which, at $129.95 (the amount you’ll need to pay to edit 360-degree and 4k content with the “Ultimate” version), costs more than twice as much as VideoStudio. What do you get for the extra money? Well, not only does Pinnacle come readily equipped with all the features you’d expect from an upper-echelon product—motion tracking, 360-degree VR support, 4k support, multi-cam, etc.—but you’d be hard-pressed to find a faster product on the market in terms of rendering.

For all of its features, Pinnacle’s interface is still as user-friendly and intuitive as anything on this list. Thus, is you have the need for speed, and you don’t mind shelling out a few extra bucks for it, Pinnacle might be the product for you.

Standout Features: Top-of-the-line rendering speeds; full range of features and support

Pricing: One-time payment of $129.95

Best Cheap Editing Software For Mac Os

9. Adobe Premiere Pro

With a virtually unmatched suite of features, 360 VR and 4k support, and a newly implemented ability to store, organize, and share assets online with a team, Adobe Premiere Pro is perhaps the most complete piece of video editing software around. Here’s a recent video promo for our free AdWords account structure guide we cut using Premiere Pro.

One of the more dazzling of Premiere Pro’s tools is the Lumetri Color tool, which offers color adjustment and manipulation on par with that of a Photoshop. The multi-cam feature is also a winner—whereas most systems allow you to work with a limited number of camera angles, Premiere Pro’s latest iteration allows for an unlimited amount.

Best Cheap Editing Software For Mac Computer

Throw in a wealth of titling options, readily connected ancillary apps (like Photoshop and After Effects), and a flexible, easy-to-use interface, and Premiere Pro is a no brainer.

Standout Features: Multi-cam and coloring options; title tool; easy integration with Adobe Products; straightforward interface

Pricing: $19.99/month

10. Apple Final Cut Pro X

For the most advanced, least fiscally prudent of beginners, there’s Apple Final Cut Pro X. $299.99 might be a little steep for a product you may well have a difficult time understanding; but for those among you who enjoy a challenge, and who aspire to some level of professionalism in video editing, why not go for it? Apple has made the transition from iMovie to Final Cut Pro more painless than ever—so if you’re the kind of guy or gal who enjoys him/herself an Apple product, and has worked with iMovie to the point of mastery, it might be time to splurge on Final Cut Pro. The power is still daunting; the interface, significantly less so.

Standout Features: Magnetic Timeline; Touch Bar support

Pricing: One-time payment of $299.99

Some Final Thoughts

Are you a content or social media marketer looking to get in the video editing game for the sake of keeping up with the growing video trend? Don’t stress! Any of the above software apps would make a fine choice for a beginner.

Think about your budget, your current level of expertise, and how much time you’re willing to devote to learning a new skill. Whether you're looking for the best video editing software for YouTube, or the responsibility has simply fallen on you to get your team’s video marketing strategy up to snuff—don’t wait around deliberating! Get invested in one of these video editing products, and make it yours.