[Free + Paid] 10 Best Video Editing Software for Mac 2024

Mac is widely touted as being the best OS for video editing and audio production, and there’s a good reason for that. As well as having a rich history as a multimedia powerhouse, it also supports a bunch of awesome apps that will help you to get the job done.

The good news is that if you’re new to the game, you don’t need to study for years to learn how to edit videos on Mac. Most of the available tools are designed to make video editing as easy as possible, whether you’re a seasoned pro or an absolute beginner.

With that said, different programs have different functionality, so you’ll want to do a little research into which is the best for you. Let’s take a closer look at ten of the best.

The Best Mac Video Editing Software

1. Movavi Video Editor

Best for: Beginners

This Mac video editing software is designed to make it super easy for you to edit and enhance your videos by stabilizing and reversing video, tweaking the sound, and adding transitions, animated titles, filters, and more. It’s a one-stop shop that has everything you’re likely to need to make your video footage pop.

Movavi Video Editor isn’t unique in having these features, but it shines in the interface. The software’s developers have gone out of their way to make it as easy to use as possible. This, combined with its free trial and the sheer number of tutorials, makes it an approachable option for beginners.

Features:

1. Intuitive interface
2. Transitions, titles, video filters, special effects, music, and more
3. Video and audio tweaking tools
4. AI background removal, noise reduction, color correction, video stabilization, and some other tools

Pros:

• Free trial
• Easy to use
• Round-the-clock tech support

Cons:

• Limited functionality in the free version
• Not well-suited for professional editing

Pricing: Free trial, $54.95/year, $79.95 for the lifetime license

2. OpenShot

Best for: Those looking for free and powerful software

OpenShot is one of the better pieces of free video editing software for Mac because it’s open source, which means that anyone can modify the source code to add new functionality to it. It's also cross-platform, which means that you can get it on Windows as well as on a Mac computer for video editing. You can also get it on Linux and Chrome OS.

Like Movavi Video Editor, Openshot is specifically designed to be as easy to use as possible with a whole ton of advanced functionality to it. Sure, you can do the basics, such as trimming your videos down and splicing them together, but it can also be used to create animations. It allows you to import a photo and use that too, and it’s also available in more than 70 languages.

Features:

1. Video effects and color grading
2. Customizable templates
3. 3D editing

Pros:

• Free and modifiable
• Supports easy video editing and animation
• Unlimited tracks

Cons:

• Not as well-developed as the top paid tools due to not being for-profit

Pricing: Free, distributed on an open-source model

3. Clideo

Best for: Those who don’t want to install software

Clideo is interesting because in contrast to most of the other Mac video editing software that we’re going to look at today, it’s an online video editor rather than a piece of software that you’ll install on your machine. Of course, the fact that it’s web-based means that it doesn’t have the same amount of functionality and flexibility as some of the others, but it’s fantastic for making little edits on the fly.

It’s the kind of tool that’s great for the quick tweaks you might want to make if you’re editing video footage to post it on social media sites like Instagram and TikTok. There's a reason why the site has over four million monthly users and why it's powered by 160 million videos, and it’s surprising how much it feels like using traditional software. Just be warned that you’ll have to pay each month rather than stumping up a flat fee upfront.

Features:

1. Basic video editing like merging, compressing, resizing
2. Subtitle editing
3. Speed editing

Pros:

• Great for quick little fixes and editing video for social media

Cons:

• Less flexibility than traditional software
• Internet connection required

Pricing: $9/month for monthly subscription, $6/month or $72/year for annual subscription

4. Lightworks

Best for: Advanced users on a budget

Lightworks big selling point is that they promise “Hollywood-strength” editing at home. That’s a big claim, but with thirty years or so of history behind it, perhaps it’s not unreasonable. It’s certainly true that this open-source video editing software offers some interesting features, such as an automated tool to ensure that your videos are in line with international best practices when it comes to attributes like dimensions and frame rate. You can install Lightworks on any OS. The software also supports a wide range of different formats, making it easy for you to import, edit, and export, regardless of what files you’re dealing with. Its pricing is reasonable, too.

Features:

1. Automated quality control
2. Autosave
3. Shared projects
4. Metadata tools

Pros:

• Supports a wide range of formats
• Simple exporting
• Supports multiple operating systems

Cons:

• More complex user interface
• Monthly charge rather than a one-off fee

Pricing: $9.99/month for Create version, $23.99/month for Pro version

5. Magix Movie Studio

Best for: Hobbyist content creators

Magix creates a range of different video editing software for Mac, but we’re going to focus on their Movie Studio because that has the best combination of features and pricing. You’re looking at about $70 per month, but you’ll get a decent, basic set of features for your money, as well as the ability to apply nearly 1,000 different effects to your footage. One of the more interesting aspects of this software package is that it includes color correction, which is unusual for a package of this size. It’s particularly notable for having high-quality templates that you can tap into to make a professional-looking video with no need for a huge amount of expertise.

Features:

1. Around 900 effects, titles, and templates
2. Advanced video editing features
3. Video optimization tools
4. Multicam and 360-degree editing

Pros:

• Rapid editing
• Enhanced features
• Easy animations
• Quick export

Cons:

• Software updates each year and may need re-purchasing
• Not the most attractive user interface

Pricing: $7.99/month for Magix Studio 365, $9.99/month for Platinum version

6. Solveig Multimedia

Best for: For home users and developers

Solveig Multimedia has a whole suite of tools available to it, offering everything from screen captures to video splitting. The downside is that it seems they’ve created this offering by slowly making acquisitions, which means that they don’t necessarily have an integrated solution. With that said, this Mac video splitter does have an awesome SDK which means if you know your way around a stack of code, you can customize it to your heart’s content.

It has a rich history, with 14 years and over 5.5 million installations in 120+ countries behind it. Plus, if you’re looking for a tool that’s trusted by some of the biggest brands in the world, you’ve come to the right place. That’s because Solveig’s tool is used by companies like Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Samsung, Disney, Netflix, and HBO. And there are plenty of great reasons why they use it!

Features:

1. Video splitting and trimming
2. Screen recording

Pros:

• Ability to customize the software through the SDK's unique set of features

Cons:

• No single, integrated platform
• Tricky to use for beginners

Pricing: Varies, free trials available

7. Nova A.I.

Best for: TikTok creators

Nova A.I. is a web-based editor particularly suited to international content creators who need to localize their videos for different marketplaces. That’s made easier than ever before because, as well as automatically creating subtitles, Nova can also translate those subtitles into dozens of different languages.

That’s above and beyond the basic functionality that you might hope for from a piece of video editing software for Mac, such as the ability to trim, cut, and combine videos to create something new. It also comes with reasonably good audio editing tools, stickers, and even the option of using AI to add a computer-generated voice to your video.

Features:

1. Automatic subtitles
2. Automatic translation
3. Merging and resizing

Pros:

• Decent range of free features
• Excellent localization for multiple marketplaces

Cons:

• Pricing increased exponentially as more and more features are required

Pricing: Free demo, plus paid plans starting at $10/month

8. iMovie

Best for: New professionals

If you’ve been using Apple devices for a while, then there’s a good chance that you’ve already had a play with iMovie. It’s been a standard in the video editing community for as long as we can remember, and there’s a reason why they promote it as allowing you to create “cinema-quality” videos. It also has iPhone and iPad applications, and while they’re pretty good at what they do, they’re nowhere near as good as the main software.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this simple Mac editing software is that it comes with some unique features like Magic Movie, which does the job for you by automatically styling and editing your videos with music, transitions, and titles. It’s also pretty good at storyboarding, which is good news for when you’re in a professional setting and need to plan your shots before you film them.

Features:

1. Easy movie editing
2. Magic Movie
3. Storyboards

Pros:

• Industry-standard
• Has iPad and iPhone applications
• Comes free with Apple’s iOS

Cons:

• Doesn’t have as many features as some of its competitors

Pricing: Free

9. Final Cut Pro

Best for: Professional video editors

The clue here is in the name – Final Cut Pro is designed with pros in mind, and it’s a no-brainer if you’re looking for the best of the best. The downside is that it’s relatively expensive and it’s also resource-hungry, so if you want to edit your footage without it skipping during playback, you’re also going to need a decent machine.

Still, you can’t create a list like this without mentioning this Mac video editor because it has everything you need from a video package: object tracking, motion graphics tools, text and color correction, fast rendering, multi-cam support, and more. All of this can mean it takes a while to wrap your head around it, but that time investment is more than worthwhile.

Features:

1. Motion graphics
2. Color grading
3. Multi-cam support, motion, and compressor

Pros:

• Industry-standard
• Wide range of tools and effects

Cons:

• No auto transcription/translation tools
• Uses a lot of resources

Pricing: Free trial, £299.99 for the full version

10. Shotcut

Best for: Freebie hunters

Shotcut is another cross-platform tool, and so as well as being one of the best pieces of video editing software for Mac, it’s also not bad if you run Windows. The thing to bear in mind here is that because it’s open-source, it doesn’t have a huge development budget behind it, and so it’s not got as many features as you’ll see elsewhere. Still, Shotcut is pretty good at what it does, and it shouldn’t be written off just because it’s open source and doesn’t have as large a community as some other open-source tools. It does a pretty good job at basic video editing and is impressive for a free tool, but it’s not going to get the job done if you need something more advanced.

Features:

1. User-friendly interface
2. 4k and wide format support
3. Advanced video editing capabilities

Pros:

• Free to use
• Cross-platform
• Supports hundreds of file formats

Cons:

• Limited functionality
• Less development than other platforms

Pricing: Free/open-source

Conclusion

Now you know our picks for the best video editing software for Mac, we want to hear from you. Are you an Apple user? If so, which Mac video editor do you prefer to use?

As always, be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments so that we can keep the discussion going. You can also follow us on your favorite social networking sites for more. We’ll see you soon for another article!