The Best Video Editing Software for Macs in 2024

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Apple's emphasis on design and style makes its devices and software appealing to creative types, including video editors. The company has long been at the forefront of the category with Final Cut Pro for professionals and iMovie for amateurs, but plenty of capable third-party Mac video editors are available, too. We've been testing and reviewing video editing software for nearly 20 years. To determine which apps are best on macOS, we consider their standard and advanced video editing tools, breadth of effects, output options, interface, and speed. Our current Editors' Choice winners are Adobe Premiere Pro for professionals, CyberLink PowerDirector for enthusiasts, and iMovie for beginners, but one of our other top picks below might work best for you.

What Kind of Mac Is Best for Video Editing?

The best MacBooks for video editing range from the MacBook Air to the 16-inch MacBook Pro. A preference for Macs among video editors is likely due to the fact that nonlinear video editing on personal computers started with Macs—with the Apple Macintosh II, to be precise. That preference persists despite Windows systems having long offered more choice in editing software, better upgrade options (including for CPUs, GPUs, and storage), a broader range of peripherals, and touch-screen support. If you’re wondering which operating system is best for you, check out our head-to-head comparison between macOS and Windows.

That said, MacBooks still have standout features, most notably terrific displays with accurate, wide-gamut colors. You can also use an iPad as a touch-screen peripheral via the Sidecar feature, too.

Some iMacs in recent years had started letting you upgrade RAM, but that's no longer possible in light of Apple's move to its silicon architecture. You're stuck with the specs you chose at the time of purchase. You also can't upgrade the SSD, though that’s been the case for MacBooks since 2016. As such, make sure you're willing to pay extra for more memory and storage before you buy a Mac for video editing. Even Apple admitted that 8GB of RAM isn't sufficient.

Your desktop choices range from the entry-level Mac mini for $599 to the Mac Pro video-editing powerhouse, which will set you back anywhere from $5,999 to $12,299, depending on the configuration. With both the mini and the Pro, you need to spring for a monitor, ideally one that's designed for photo and video editing. If you have $5,000 to $6,000 to spend on a monitor, we recommend the Apple Pro Display XDR or the more affordable Dell UltraSharp 40 Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U4025QW).

What Kind of Mac Video Editing Software Is Available?

There are three tiers of video editing software for macOS: entry-level, enthusiast, and professional.

Beginner

The best-known entry-level video editing application for macOS is Apple’s iMovie. It comes with Macs for free and it’s impressively capable. iMovie ties in well with the iOS version of the app, letting you pick up on the Mac where you left off on the iPhone. Other entry-level options are Lightworks and Movavi.

Enthusiast

The old standby in this category is Adobe Premiere Elements, which offers a clear, simple interface and great tutorial content for getting that special effect you’re looking for. Another choice in this space is our longtime Editors’ Choice-winning video editing application for Windows PCs, CyberLink PowerDirector. The program has great support for new formats and technology, and it was the fastest at rendering our test project aside from Final Cut Pro. The only caveat is that you get more of the new flashy AI features in the Windows version.

Professional

At the professional level, choices for video editing software on the Mac shine, particularly because it's the only platform on which you can run Apple’s excellent Final Cut Pro. Adobe Premiere Pro has taken over much of Final Cut’s market share usage by professionals after Apple completely revamped the traditional Final Cut interface. The current version is a boon to enthusiasts and those moving up from iMovie, however, because of its trackless timeline and simplified interface. Don’t think that means Final Cut Pro isn’t usable for pros, however. It can match and even sometimes beat Premiere Pro on deep editing tools, format support, and performance.

Other pro-level editing software available for macOS includes the far more expensive and complex Avid Media Composer ($479.88 per year) and the excellent and powerful DaVinci Resolve ($295 one-time, with a free version available).

iPhone

Since many Mac users also have an iPhone, you should know that you have plenty of options for editing video on your phone. Some are mobile versions of desktop apps, though you'll also find capable mobile-only apps like CapCut and InShot.

What Is the Best Free Video Editing Software for Macs?

Beginners and dabblers in Mac video editing who just want to join clips, add transitions between clips, overlay text, and apply basic effects on Macs need look no further than iMovie. It comes with your Mac and is very good for beginners.

For those who want to go deeper into the intricacies of the craft, I recommend the free version of DaVinci Resolve, which encompasses the full range of professional video editing. A couple of other free options include the open-source ShotCut and Kdenlive, both of which are powerful but lack some usability features.

What to Look for in Mac Video Editing Software

The basics of video editing—joining, trimming, and splitting video clips and then outputting the result as a single file—are possible in all the software here. But there’s so much more that you can do with your video. Adding transitions, text titles and captions, and fun effects all come in limitless variations. You might also want picture-in-picture, motion tracking, chroma keying, and speed-changing like slo-mo or fast forward.

Entry-level and enthusiast-level programs include templates that help you arrange your content for a compelling, coherent presentation. iMovie’s Storyboard and Premiere Elements' Smart Trim tools and templates are standouts among these capabilities.

And then there’s audio. Most video editing apps for Mac let you add background music, voice-over narration, and effects and adjustments to your clips’ audio. Want to make it sound like your video was recorded in a concert hall or stadium? The software can do that.

The final stage of editing is not to be ignored: output. Does the program make it easy to format your project for your platform of choice? For most hobbyist video editors these days, that means online social video—Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube—but you may also want to share an HD or 4K file privately or upload it to the pro-minded Vimeo. You may even want to embed it on your website, in a presentation, or in a Zoom session. It's sometimes possible to create a DVD or USB key with your video to share as a physical gift or promotion, which is popular for videos of special occasions.

The video editing software you choose must be able to output to your specifications, whether that’s a smartphone screen or a wall-size 4K TV. Maybe you even want to output for VR headsets. Whatever the output, you don’t want to be waiting around for long periods while the program processes your project, and that’s what our next section discusses.

How Fast Is Video Software on macOS?

Rendering a project with all your media, edits, and effects is one of the more computationally intensive processes today’s computers perform. If you want to create complex videos that are more than a few minutes long, you need a powerful computer with high-end components. Better video software enlists your GPU to aid in rendering.

To test rendering, I created a five-minute project in each app consisting of a mix of 8K, 4K, and HD clips with cross-fade transitions between each. I render it to 1080p60 using H.264 High Profile and targeting a 20Mbps bit rate. Audio is output at 48KHz AAC at 192Kbps. I test on a 2021 MacBook Air with an M1 processor and 8GB RAM running macOS Ventura. That's on the low end of power for video editing, but it highlights performance differences more than a high-end Mac desktop would.

Surprisingly, Apple's software no longer takes the lead in video rendering performance. The crown goes to Wondershare Filmora, which took 94 seconds to render the test project, followed by CyberLink PowerDirector with a time of 105 seconds. Adobe Premiere Pro held the middle of the pack with 170 seconds, and Apple Final Cut Pro and iMovie followed with 205 and 215 seconds, respectively. Though Adobe Premiere Pro has greatly improved in render speed on Windows PCs, its performance on macOS still trails the pack by a hefty margin, taking 238 seconds. Your mileage will vary, of course, depending on your hardware, the format of your source media, and the output settings.