Other entry-level options are Lightworks and Movavi.Įnthusiast Level: 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. iMovie ties in well with the iOS version of the app, letting you pick up on the Mac where you left off with the iPhone. It comes with Macs for free and it’s impressively capable. There are three tiers of video editing software for macOS: entry-level, enthusiast, and professional.Įntry Level: The best-known entry-level video editing application for macOS is Apple’s iMovie. What Kind of Mac Video Editing Software Is Available? Laptop options range from the $999 MacBook Air to the 16-inch MacBook Pro, which tops out at $6,499 with the highest-level components. We recommend the BenQ PD3220U DesignVue Designer Monitor for anyone editing video on a Mac. With both the mini and the Studio, you need to spring for a monitor, and you should look for one that's designed for photo and video editing. Your choices range from the entry-level Mac Mini for $599 to the Mac Studio video-editing powerhouse, which will set you back from $1,999 to $3,999, depending on whether you want a Max or an Ultra model and on how many cores and how much RAM and storage you kit it up with-the top options result in a machine costing $7,999. As a result, make sure you're willing to pay extra for more memory and storage when buying a Mac for video editing. Nor can you upgrade the hard drive (meaning the SSD), though that’s been the case for MacBooks since 2016. Some iMacs in recent years have started letting you upgrade their RAM, but with Apple's move to the Apple Silicon architecture, that won't be possible anymore.

Some Mac laptops include a partial touch screen known as the Touch Bar, which can be useful for some video editing procedures, and you can use an iPad as a touch-screen peripheral via the Sidecar feature. That said, Apple still has indisputable inducements, most notably terrific displays with accurate, wide-gamut colors, not to mention exclusive access to the previously mentioned Final Cut Pro software.

That preference persists, despite Windows systems having long afforded more choices in editing software and more upgradeability in hardware, including for CPUs, GPUs, storage, peripherals, and touch screens.

The preference for Macs for video editing seems largely based on the fact that nonlinear video editing on personal computers started with Macs-with the Apple Macintosh II, to be precise.

What Kind of Mac Is Best for Video Editing?

Video editing program mac