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 stand ready to serve you, 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, interface, output options, and speed. Our 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. We also explain what you need to consider before committing to a program for your Mac video editing needs.
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
- Clear, flexible interface
- Responsive performance and fast rendering
- Auto-transcribing and text-based editing
- Excellent stabilization tool
- Unlimited multicam angles
- Many organization and collaboration tools
- Some techniques require external applications
Premiere Pro is a powerhouse among pro video editing applications, and Adobe keeps adding more pro-level features, including generative AI tools that extend your clips. You get top-notch color grading, effects, motion graphic templates, multicam, speech-to-text, and VR editing capabilities. Another big reason to go with Premiere Pro is its tight integration with other Adobe products, such as After Effects. If that’s not enough, it supports a wide range of third-party plug-ins. Finally, thanks to Adobe’s acquisition of frame.io, Premiere Pro also offers unmatched collaboration features.
Yes, Premiere Pro is definitely for pros. But it’s also worth trying if you are an enthusiastic amateur or YouTuber who wants to get a foot in the door of professional video editing. It’s certainly a deep, demanding application in terms of learning curve, but Adobe continues to make Premiere Pro more accessible to nonprofessionals. You should look elsewhere if you aren’t willing to pay a recurring subscription fee, however.
Number of Video Tracks
Unlimited
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Adobe Premiere Pro Review
- Fast project rendering
- Clear, usable interface
- Loads of effects and AI tools
- Multicam and motion tracking support
- Screen recording
- Number of options can be overwhelming at times
CyberLink PowerDirector, which has long been an Editors’ Choice winner among video editing software for Windows, also excels on Macs. Standout features include Mask, PiP, and Title Designers, as well as a beefy selection of templates and stock content. The Audio Designer lets you play with sound, offering denoise options, pitch shifts, radio effects, and wind removal. LUT support means you can apply a studio-like color language to your movie, while seamless motion graphics, speech-to-text transcription, and transitions make for captivating YouTube posts. The latest version embraces generative AI with anime video creation, auto-captioning, and text-to-speech tools.
PowerDirector is for serious amateurs who want to create impressive videos but don’t want to take a postgraduate course in editing and production. Despite its depth of features, the software is fairly simple to use. One-time purchase and subscription options are both available, with the latter getting feature updates, frequent content, and stock media.
Number of Video Tracks
100
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CyberLink PowerDirector 365 Review
- Beautifully simple interface
- Great chroma-keying tool
- Unique support for iPhone video features
- Excellent movie templates
- Extremely easy to use
- Does not support media tagging
- Lacks multicam and motion tracking capabilities
- Limited to two video tracks
Apple iMovie comes free with every Mac and offers some nifty video editing capabilities in a clear, usable interface. Despite its simplicity (it shares Apple’s unique trackless timeline interface with Final Cut Pro), you still get advanced tools for chroma-keying, color-matching, and working with audio. The Storyboard and Trailers features are unmatched for giving amateurs guidance on how to create compelling productions.
Apple iMovie is clearly not intended for professional video editors. Home users and hobbyists who want to make appealing mini-movies of their vacations are the perfect audience for this app. It’s also a great choice for iPhone users, since it ties in with the video capabilities of that device.
Number of Video Tracks
2
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Apple iMovie Review
- Superb organization tools
- Fast performance
- Magnetic, trackless timeline
- Supports 360-degree footage and wide color spaces
- Excellent multicam editing
- Powerful masking and chroma keying
- Import and export experiences could be clearer
- Some techniques require extra software (Motion and Compressor)
- Runs only on Apple hardware
- Fewer collaboration and AI features than Premiere Pro
Final Cut Pro is one of the pioneering nonlinear video editing programs. Before a revamp several years ago, it was a daunting beast of a program, only suitable for dedicated professional editors. It has become far more intuitive since then, but it remains among the most powerful and feature-packed applications available. It leads in support for new standards like 8K RED RAW, ProRes 422, VR, and wide-gamut color spaces. It also offers slick tools for color grading, multicam editing, and intelligent motion tracking. Its unconventional but brilliant “trackless timeline” is unique, and workflow features for media management and collaboration are aces up its sleeve.
Though it’s a thoroughly professional-level application, Final Cut is nevertheless also suitable for amateurs who want to perform impressive feats with their video projects. It’s also great if you shoot video with an iPhone or iPad since it supports multicam with those devices. In addition, Final Cut won’t break the bank and doesn’t require an ongoing subscription like Adobe Premiere Pro.
Number of Video Tracks
Unlimited
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Apple Final Cut Pro Review
- Plenty of editing tools for precise control
- Clear, well-designed interface
- Includes motion graphics and audio editing
- Fast render performance
- Requires a lot of system resources
- Complex software takes time to learn
DaVinci Resolve is at the forefront of professional digital video post-production. It’s more of a suite, rather than a single application, as it combines video editing with motion graphics, color coding, and audio production. Spiffy AI tools have been appearing in the software recently. DaVinci Resolve has been used on many movies and TV shows, including Dune, Jurassic World Dominion, and Top Gun: Maverick. Clearly, any effect or edit that can be done in the medium, you can do with Resolve.
DaVinci Resolve is a standard in professional video editing, but for the consumer audience, it offers something extremely compelling: a very capable free version. That said, its learning curve is significant, so be prepared to study and figure out its interface and processes. The paid version adds temporal and spatial noise reduction, stereoscopic 3D, optical blur, mist effects, and the Neural Engine machine learning technology that powers more advanced effects.
Number of Video Tracks
Unlimited
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DaVinci Resolve Review
- Interface resembles that of Premiere Pro
- Ample video effects and control
- Cross-platform support
- Good rendering speed
- Latest update removes many features
- Three-year limit on product license
- No multicam support
Premiere Elements lets hobbyists easily produce effects that would take significant time and effort in a professional-level application. It offers the standard timeline and keyframe editing tools, but Guided Edits and other usability features make them manageable and effective. Another benefit is the upgrade path to Adobe Premiere Pro; the interfaces are different, but a recent update brings them much closer.
If you want to produce lovely, charming home movies with compelling effects, Premiere Elements is the way to go. A recent pricing change means a license lets you use the software for just three years (there was no limit in the past), but that’s still a better deal than for most competing products. If you need to render long, complex projects quickly, however, alternatives perform better.
Number of Video Tracks
Unlimited
Learn More
Adobe Premiere Elements Review
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The Best Video Editing Software for Macs in 2025
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Buying Guide: The Best Video Editing Software for Macs in 2025
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. These MacBooks 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.
Some iMacs in recent years let you upgrade your 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. Nor can you upgrade your 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.
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 $6,999 to over $12,000, depending on the configuration. A sweet spot in between is the Apple Mac Studio (2025, M4 Max). With any of these, you need to spring for a monitor designed for photo and video editing.
What Kind of Mac Video Editing Software Is Available?
There are roughly three tiers of video editing software for macOS: beginner, enthusiast, and professional. Here’s a quick rundown of each level.
Beginner
The best-known entry-level video editing application for macOS is Apple’s iMovie. It comes with Macs and is 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 NCH Videopad.
iMovie (Credit: Apple/PCMag)
Enthusiast
The old standby in this category is Adobe Premiere Elements, which offers a clear interface and great tutorials for special effects. 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 among the fastest at rendering our test project. The only caveat is that you get more of the new flashy AI features with 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, however. The current version of Final Cut Pro 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 ($259.99 per year) and the excellent and powerful DaVinci Resolve ($295 one-time, with a free version available).
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 need look no further than iMovie. It comes with every Mac and is very good for beginners.
If you 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 Should You Look for in Mac Video Editing Software?
The basics of video editing—joining, trimming, and splitting 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. Fun effects, text titles and captions, and transitions all come in limitless variations. You might also want chroma keying, picture-in-picture, motion tracking, and speed-changing, such as 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 and effects, make adjustments, and record voice-over narration. Want to make it sound like you recorded your video in a concert hall or stadium? This software can do that.
Recommended by Our Editors
DaVinci Resolve (Credit: Black Magic Design/PCMag)
Don’t ignore the final stage of editing: output. Does the program make it easy to format your project for your target platform? 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. Some programs let you create a DVD or USB key with your video to share as a physical gift or promotion.
The video editing software you choose must be able to output to your specifications, whether that’s a phone screen or a wall-sized 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 that 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 target a 20Mbps bit rate. I set the audio quality to 48KHz AAC at 192Kbps. I test on a 2021 MacBook Air with an M1 processor and 8GB RAM. That’s on the low end of power for video editing, but it highlights performance differences more than a high-end Mac would.
Surprisingly, Apple’s software doesn’t take the lead in video rendering performance. The crown goes to CyberLink PowerDirector, with DaVinci Resolve close behind. Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple Final Cut Pro hold the middle of the pack. Although Adobe Premiere Elements is faster than ever on Windows PCs, its performance on macOS still isn’t competitive. Your mileage will vary, of course, depending on your hardware, the format of your source media, and the output settings.
Can You Edit Video From Your 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 can also find capable mobile-only apps like CapCut and InShot.
