Top 10 Best Free Video Editing Software for Mac Users [2022 Update]

May 20, 2022• Proven solutions

Many people are looking for free Mac video editing software since they have tons of videos and are eager to edit the videos either for better presentation or preservation. Is there any free video editing software for Mac users that is good? Many people ask this in forums. Here we compare some great Mac video editors, followed by the detailed information of each editor for your reference. The list of best free video editing apps for Mac will keep updating, but if your favorite free video editor for Mac isn't listed yet, please contact us on Facebook/Twitter or via email.

Besides, we also compared these video editing apps for Mac in terms of video formats, pros, and cons of the ten best free video editors for Mac. Check it out!

Updates: Are you also looking for video editors for Windows, Linux, mobile phones, or online? Please check our latest post: 36 Best Video Editors for All the Platforms.

We've summarized the features, pros, and cons of these best video editing software for Mac users in the comparison table below. You can choose the best suitable one based on your editing skills and needs at the current stage.

AVCHD, AVI, DV, HDV, MP4, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MXF, MOV, WMV...

From the above comparison table, we can see so many pros and cons in different aspects. However, you may want to take a look at another software - Filmora - before you decide to use the one you like. It is an excellent Mac video editor that can meet your basic and advanced needs.

Wondershare Filmora for Mac offers some persuasive advantages over other video editing tools available for Apple macOS. It includes basic video editing tools and provides various advanced video effects for you to apply. Below are some features that can help you understand the best Mac video editor. Download it now to have a try!

Main Features

Upload videos from your Mac or transport them from cameras, smartphones, and elsewhere. Or you can directly drag-n-drop them to Filmora.

Conduct basic editing by clicking icons above the timeline. Add effects and filters with drag-n-drop feature. And edit with more advanced features.

Save your videos in different formats; make them fit for various devices; burn them to DVD or share them via Vimeo, YouTube directly.

To improve your video editing and create a more stunning video, you can use the package Filmora & Filmstock video templates", click the image below to see how to make your storytelling more engaging.

We have done some research and found out the following free video editing software for Mac users. Some of these programs are for video editing novice, while some are for professionals (but if you need to use the professional features, you may need to purchase the Pro version). I hope you can find the right video editor based on your needs from the following list.

iMovie comes with every new Mac (OS X), and you don't need to pay extra money for it. The latest iMovie 11 is a great and free video editor for Mac with many great features such as movie trailer, one step effect, audio editing, etc.

In just a few steps, you can share your movies to YouTube or export videos for your iPhone, iPad, etc. However, iMovie is only free if you buy a new Mac. And when getting started with iMovie, you will find it is hard to master this software. All in all, iMovie is one of the best free video editing software for Mac users and receives a good reputation. You can learn some iMovie video editing tips and tricks on how to use iMovie.

Main Features of iMovie:

Pros: Available on iPhone/iPad; Compatible well with Apple ecosystem.

Cons: Limited to 2 video tracks and 2 audio tracks.

Avidemux is another great free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering, and encoding tasks. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and BSD under the GNU GPL license and supports a variety of video, image, and audio formats, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4, MOV, ASF, JPG, AAC, AC3, etc.

High compatibility with many video formats is the highlight of this free video editing software for Mac. You can also cut ads from a TV recording or just save a small part of the video. It also offers some filters to use, such as color correction. You can apply these filters to your video to make it more beautiful.

Main Features of Avidemux :

Pros: Clean and easy-to-use interface; open-source software without built-in purchase.

Cons: Exporting process is slack, which means it will take longer.

OpenShot is a free, simple-to-use open-source video editor for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It is a good video editor for beginners to learn and train video editing skills. If you want to do some basic editing without having to spend too much time, OpenShot can be one of your best choices.

Apart from doing basic video editing, you can also render 3D animation. This free editor for Mac also supports more than 70 languages. No need to worry about the language barrier to stop you from editing videos.

Main features of OpenShot:

Pros: Provide free built-in effects and animations; Support 3D title.

Cons: Buggy at times; It freezes and crashes often.

ZS4 Video Editor is a free video editor for Mac, which provides media experts with a facility to combine a variety of media types into one (or more) output file(s). Besides Mac, it is also available for Windows and Linux. ZS4 Video Editor comes with over 150 built-in video effects, which can help you bring your videos to the next level instantly.

More importantly, you can use it to combine various media files into one, like videos, audios, and photos. With this all-in-one editor, no more needs to install too many annoying Apps.

Main features of ZS4 Video Editor:

Pros: More than 120 built-in video effects; Unlimited tracks.

Cons: The user interface is not friendly.

HyperEngine-AV is a free video editing software for Mac used to capture, edit, organize the process, and export videos, audios, and texts to create DVD quality movies and slide shows. It comes with twelve studio-quality effects from Arboretum's Hyperprism suite of audio processors.

Besides, it offers text features to display credits, section titles, or karaoke lyrics with fully editable font, size, type, color, style, alignment, and scroll direction. Definitely, HyperEngine-AV is really a good free video editor for Mac users.

Main features of HyperEngine-AV:

Pros: Includes twelve studio-quality effects; Create slide shows.

Cons: It is discontinued to release a new version.

Although the development team has moved full-stream-ahead on Linux, you can still use this excellent free video editor on Mac with packages available via MacPorts. Kdenlive supports almost all popular media formats, and you can easily add the files to the software's multi-track timeline.

You can create 2D titles to light up a project like aligning texts and rotating. For editing a huge size of the video file, it allows you to create a proxy file to make the editing experience smoother.

Main features of Kdenlive:

Pros: It is open-source software.

Cons: Not friendly for green hands; Update slowly.

Like Avidemux, Blender is available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD. It's a free 3D graphics application and has been considered as one of the best free video editors for Mac. It can be used for modeling, rigging, texturing, UV unwrapping, skinning, animating, rendering, water and smoke simulations, particle, and other simulations.

As non-linear editing software, you can use Blender to composite and create interactive 3D applications, animated film, video games, or other visual effects. Blender has lots of advanced features like powerful character animation tools, modifier-based modeling tools, a node-based material and compositing system, Python for embedded scripting, and so on.

Main features of Blender:

Pros: Fast poly modeling tools; Customizable input.

Cons: Unintuitive layers system; Animation management is not smooth.

In our impression, professional-thing costs a lot. But it isn't true when coming to video editing software like Wondershare FilmoraPro, Lightworks, and HitFilm. There are two versions for those professional video editing software, and the lite version or the free version usually costs no money with limited features, which makes them a good choice for people who are looking for a professional video editing solution to some degree.

Wondershare FilmoraPro is a powerful and intuitive editing software with plenty of advanced features such as compositing, motion graphics, special effects, color correction tools, and more. It's designed to give you more control over your videos. If you are an experienced video maker and want to apply a color correction/grading to your footage, FilmoraPro can be your good choice.

FilmoraPro is compatible with both Windows and Mac. You can output your projects to almost any popular video format. 

Main features of FilmoraPro:

Pros: It offers numerous preset options, effects, overlays, and transitions; 4K video and GIF output options are available.

Cons: Plug-in extension is not supported.

Lightworks is a professional video editing software for Windows and Mac, which includes video effects, multi-cam editing, titling, as well as the multi-layered timeline approach. All these features made it perfect for advanced video editing needs. However, the free version offers you limited export options.

Main features of Lightworks:

Pros: The package is lightweight; only needs 3GB RAM to use.

Cons: Effects library is limited.

HitFilm Express is more like a compositing video editor, compared with Adobe After Effects, it's more easy-to-use and friendly to professionals. People who are not familiar with the video editing process may find using HitFilm Express difficult.

Main features of HitFilm Express:

Pros: High-level video effects compositor.

Cons: It lacks a motion graphics feature.

Above are my ten favorite free video editing apps for Mac. If you want to know my choices for Windows PC, check 12 free video editing software for Windows.

Yes. iMovie is a free video editing program from Apple. It comes pre-installed on most Macs and can be installed on iPhones and iPads for free. iMovie has a straightforward interface with editing features such as color correction, stabilization, transitions, green screen, split screen, etc. Final Cut Pro is another video editor from Apple. Unlike iMovie, it is a comprehensive professional editor with a price tag of $299.99. 

Suppose your Mac satisfies the minimum system requirements, yes. The minimum requirements are macOS v10.13 or later, Intel® 6thGen or newer CPU, a minimum of 8 GB RAM, 2 GB VRAM & 8 GB of hard-disk space. For an optimal editing experience, additional RAM & VRAM are suggested. However, for VR systems & Hardware acceleration, other system requirements are applicable. 

Final Cut Pro can be downloaded on a free trial basis for 90 days. After the free trial, you can buy the full version for $299.99 from the App Store. Keep in mind that Final Cut Pro only works on macOS. It requires a Mac with macOS 10.14.6 or later, 4GB of RAM (8GB recommended for 4K editing, 3D titles, and 360° video editing), a Metal-capable graphics card, 1GB of VRAM recommended for 4K editing, 3D titles, and 360° video editing & 3.8GB of available disk space.

For beginners, I personally highly recommend you to try iMovie, since it has been pre-installed on your Mac computer for free. After editing some videos with iMovie and finding its limitations, you can move to Filmora, which has a similar interface to iMovie but many more effects and tools.

Below is a simple video tutorial about how to enhance ambiance with NEW Video FX in Filmora. You'll see creating videos with Filmora is easy. You can download the free trial version and try it yourself.