The Best Video Editing Software for Macs

One of the best video editing tools for professional video creators
A powerful Apple product for editing high-quality and professional videos
A simple-to-use tool with many editing capabilities
An option with all the basic editing tools you need to get a video up
A cloud-based option for video creators who want to collaborate on projects

The Rise of Video Content

the rise of video content

People film and create videos for various reasons, including wedding videos, promotional ads, social media reels, and stories.

Online videos have a global reach of 92%, making them an effective tool for building a brand, promoting a product, or marketing a service.

Here’s how you can use videos.

  • Create educational content.
  • Promote your ecommerce store.
  • Tell amazing stories.
  • Create entertaining films.
  • Capture memorable moments.

You’ll probably need good video editing software if you’re creating videos for online or offline use.

Considerations When Choosing Video Editing Software

Consider these factors when choosing the best video editing software for Macs.

Ease of Use

ease of use

Video editing software is an advanced tool for most people, but it doesn’t mean it has to be super complex.

Even the best professional video editing software is relatively easy to use.

Mac users should look for the most accessible video editor tool and find software with the following characteristics.

  • Keyboard shortcuts for fast editing
  • Easy import and export in various output formats
  • Easy access to video and audio editing features
  • Simple timelines
  • Clear, reliable video previews
  • Good file storage and organization

Price

price

Even a professional video editor will have to consider their budget for software.

Thankfully, there are many free Mac video editors, but paid tools will have some edge over free versions.

Consider how much money you can set aside for a video editing tool and look for software within your price range.

Advanced Editing Features

Advanced Editing Features

Many advanced tools have excellent editing capabilities if you want video editing software for Mac with powerful video editing features.

Advanced tools and video editing apps have the following features.

  • Motion tracking
  • Batch processing
  • Advanced color correction
  • Green screen
  • Picture-in-picture

Processing Power

Processing Power

Advanced video editing programs will need more processing power. Thus, you’ll need a Mac computer with significant processing power.

Macs are some of the most powerful computers with enough RAM and video processing ability to handle most video editors.

When you edit Hollywood films or create 4K videos for top-level brands, you might need to invest in more processing power by upgrading your Mac or getting the latest Macbook Pros or iMacs.

If you edit low-tier products, you can make further ado with lower-model computers.

All that to say, it’s good to consider what kind of processing power you’ll need to support your film editing workflow.

The Best Video Editing Software for Macs

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Omar's Take

Adobe Premiere Pro is another famous Apple video editing tool.

Many pros trust this professional video editing tool. Filmmakers, television broadcasters, videographers, video professionals, and editors use it for various video projects.

Best For:
Overall
Price:
$20.99 monthly
Annual Billing:
Promotion:
Seven-day free tria

Adobe Premiere is one of the best editing software for Mac users and one of the most popular video editing software.

adobe premier pro

Features

Adobe Premiere Pro lets users easily edit video tracks. It follows-a non-linear fashion, allowing you to arrange and re-arrange clips and files in your preferred timeline.

There are several trimming and cutting tools to speed up your video editing process. A more experienced video editor can save significant time using shortcuts to splice and cut clips.

The Mac video editing software also has various effects and transitions to give your video more style. Like Final Cut, it also has multi-cam editing to better switch between angles and sync audio.

You can also use integrations with other Adobe software to seamlessly move files around Photoshop and After Effects to add motion tracking, animation, and graphics to your videos.

Adobe Premiere Pro has a massive user base and supportive community that shares tips, best practices, and templates.

With Adobe Premiere Pro, you can import videos of various formats and just as easily export in many video formats too.

You can download or buy packages for post-processing from other Adobe Premiere community members to access settings for color correction, transitions, and so on.

Adobe Premiere Elements

You can try Adobe Premiere Elements, a simpler version of Adobe Premiere. It provides many of Adobe Premiere’s features in a more straightforward module.

Adobe Premiere Elements is available for a one-time purchase price.

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Omar's Take

Final Cut Pro from Apple is the best video editing app for Mac devices.

Best:
Apple Lovers
Price:
$299.99
Annual Billing:
Promotion:
90-day free trial

The editing software for Mac is a robust video editing product that professional video editors like to use regularly because of its powerful performance, beautiful output, many editing features, and so much more.

The Mac video editor also has a competent free version to give you time to decide if it’s the tool for you.

Given how much you can accomplish with this Mac video editor, you’ll quickly find it’s one of the best tools for editing videos on a Mac!

final cut pro

Features

This top video editing software lets you perform non-linear editing.

You can import and arrange video, audio, and other media in a timeline, allowing for easy manipulation and rearrangement of clips.

Final Cut Pro has a beautiful and easy-to-use interface to help you edit videos in an organized manner. You can easily import and export video clips and splice them quickly.

Here are some things you can do with Final Cut Pro.

  • Trimming to cut clips to the desired length
  • Motion tracking
  • Splitting to cut video into two separate clips at a specific point
  • Advanced features that let users insert a clip into another clip or overlay one clip on top of another
  • Transitions between clips to add style, including dissolves, wipes, and fades
  • Audio tools to edit an audio files’ volume, balance, EQ, reverb, and delay
  • Adding titles and graphics to create and animate titles, captions, and graphics in the text, shapes, and image format
  • Color correction and grading with color wheels, curves, and color lookup tables to help give you the desired color palettes for your video
  • Multi-cam editing to sync footage from multiple cameras and angles
  • Compound clips to nest multiple clips into a single compound clip

As an editing software for Mac, Final Cut Pro has Mac-optimized performance, making editing smooth and stress-free.

This Mac video editing software also has various plug-ins to enhance your editing capabilities.

The editing software for Mac has a compressor tool that allows you to shrink video sizes without losing too much of its quality.

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Omar's Take

Wondershare Filmora is another video editing tool that allows Mac users to create, edit, and enhance videos.

 

Best For:
Beginners
Price:
$19.99 monthly
Annual Billing:
$49.99
Promotion:
Seven-day free trial

The video editing software for Mac is the perfect tool for beginners when editing video files.

Despite its simplicity, it’s still a good video editor for professional purposes and offers many features to create high-quality videos.

With Filmora, a video editor can access essential tools, such as trimming and merging clips, adding text and titles, applying special effects and transitions, and more.

Wondershare Filmora

Features

Wondershare Filmora hosts an array of impressive features, including an intuitive interface that eliminates steep learning curves. This feature makes it easy to navigate and use the editing software for Mac and Windows users.

Despite its ease of use, Filmora still has these outstanding editing features that make it perfect for professional video editing.

  • Trim, cut, and split videos with ease.
  • Edit audio.
  • Add text and titles.
  • Add special effects, including filters, overlays, and transitions.

Wondershare Filmora has many great tools to improve challenging video content, including a video stabilization capability to help video editors make shots smoother.

This Mac video editing tool also has green screen capabilities to easily remove backgrounds on clips.

Filmora has some of the most reliable background removal capacities. This software also has a screen recorder for creating tutorials or instructional videos.

This Mac video editing tool allows users to reverse a video’s direction to make exciting effects in their shots.

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Omar's Take

Apple iMovie is one of the best Mac video editor options if you’re just starting. It’s also one of the best free editor options included on every Mac or iOS device.

However, the free video editor lacks many advanced features that come with other options like Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro.

Best For:
Simple editing
Price:
Free
Annual Billing:
N/A
Promotion:
N/A

imovie

Features

This Mac video editing tool has many great features, including letting you easily splice and cut audio clips.

There’s a reliable noise reduction feature on iMovie’s audio editing tool and some pre-set mixes to make balancing and equalizing your audio easier.

However, this editing software for Mac doesn’t have the custom equalizer that other audio software provides.

There are also several video effects on iMovie to use on your film clips and various title effects you can add to your video.

You can also use Magic Movie, a feature that lets you edit videos with titles, transitions, and music with a few taps. There are over 20 styles you can try.

The free video editing software for Mac also has a simple yet effective green screen feature to remove backgrounds and split screen capabilities.

Apple iMovie has some limitations as a free video editing software, but that doesn’t mean that iMovie isn’t one of the best video editing software.

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out of 10

Omar's Take

Best For:
Collaboration
Price:
$18 monthly
Annual Billing:
$144
Promotion:
Free up until 10 minutes of exported output with watermarks

Last on this list of iOS and macOS video editor options is Veed.io, a cloud-based video editor for Mac and many other systems.

It’s one of the best video editing software options if you want a cloud option or a program you can use on your web browser.

This option is helpful if you want to collaborate with someone remotely when working on video projects.

With Veed.io, you can easily upload video footage to your cloud-based account and start editing away. And if you want to pick it up on another device or computer, you don’t have to download an app as you can do it from any browser.

Veed.io is currently one of the most popular video editors in the browser-based category. Because it’s cloud-based, you don’t have to worry about files eating up your disk space. You can upload and create videos anywhere and everywhere.

veed.io

Features

Veed.io has a collection of editing tutorial videos.

Another of Veed.io’s more popular selling points is its auto subtitle generator, which automatically lets you add and style video captions in a matter of minutes.

With a Veed.io free version, you can add up to 30 minutes of audio subtitles to your videos. Just take note that the free version will always have watermarks.

Video editors can also use Veed.io to create lyric videos, memes, short videos, and much more.

It’s one of the best video editing software for making short-form videos for Facebook, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

When searching for the best video editing software for Mac, you might run into some of these frequently asked questions.

What Is the Purpose of Video Editing Software?

What Is the Purpose of Video Editing Software?

There’s debate on whether a raw or edited video has more appeal in today’s world, where authenticity has become increasingly alluring.

Raw videos do have a purpose, but there are times when edited videos have more value.

Edited videos are more concise, helping you share an idea quickly.

Nowadays, people want videos to be short and sweet.

Bite-sized video formats on Instagram, Tiktok, and YouTube are becoming the norm. With the right video editing programs, you can create these shorter videos.

What Kind of Videos Can I Create?

What Kind of Videos Can I Create?

There are many kinds of videos, each with a different purpose.

Here’s a collection of various video types you can edit.

Entertainment Videos

  • Films
  • Music videos
  • Documentaries
  • Event coverage videos (i.e., concerts, corporate events, weddings, parties, and so on)

Commercial Videos

  • TV commercials
  • Social media video ads
  • YouTube ads
  • Film trailers
  • Corporate event coverages
  • Product launch videos
  • Product reviews and testimonials

Social Media Videos

  • Reels for Instagram and Facebook
  • Tiktok videos
  • Travel videos
  • Lifestyle videos

Educational Videos

  • Online courses
  • Instructional YouTube videos
  • Video tutorials

Who Needs Video Editing Software?

Who Needs Video Editing Software?

Video editing software is excellent for anyone passionate about video production and storytelling. In this age, anyone can learn to use editing software and turn it into a productive endeavor.

If you’re planning to turn video production and editing into a profession, you’re on a good path. On average, video editors in the US get paid $22.05 per hour.

You can become a professional video editor without formal education, like a college degree or even a high school diploma. Many companies and businesses hire editors according to their skills.

Here are some career paths you can try if you want to dive into professional video editing.

  • YouTuber or content creator
  • Filmmaker
  • Corporate videographer
  • Wedding videographer
  • Producer
  • Music video creator
  • Cinematographer
  • Professional colorist (someone who color corrects films)
  • Animator
  • Director

All these paths involve learning how to use one or more video editing software to create top-quality videos. Once you learn how to edit stunning videos, you have several professional possibilities.

You can also create videos for fun. Professional video creators aren’t the only ones allowed to make video content.

Will Free Video Editing Software Suffice?

Will Free Video Editing Software Suffice?

Free software should suffice if you just need light and basic editing.

Free video editing software like iMovie will be more than sufficient if you need essential editing tools. But if you need advanced video editing tools, you might need a paid studio version to get things done.

Paying for software is a good investment if you want better-quality videos with minimal effort. These tools are there to make your job easier.

The key is determining your needs and seeing if you need to start paying for software to get better results.

Which Mac Device Should I Get To Use Video Editing Software?

Which Mac Device Should I Get To Use Video Editing Software?

Mac products are relatively powerful devices, so most of them should be able to handle your video editing needs.

Most Macbook laptops and desktops should be able to handle basic editing on software like iMovie or Veed.io. But for more advanced programs, you’ll need to get higher models.

The best video editor for Macbook Pro would be a program like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro if you’re using basic video editing features.

For more advanced features, you might need to make some additional upgrades.

You’ll also need to consider how much physical storage you’ll need. Video tracks take up significant space, so you’ll need ample storage space.

However, you can also use external storage devices like hard drives and cloud-based drives to support your storage needs.

The Bottom Line

I hope my list of the best video editing software for Mac made it much easier for you to choose the one that suits your needs, goals, and budget.

If you’re unsure about spending money on expensive software, don’t be afraid to use free ones. You can always upgrade later.

Do you run a video podcast? You’ll need podcast audio editing software in addition to video editing software.

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