Best for
Best for Apple users who want to cut home, school or social videos for free.
Video Editing Comparison
iMovie vs. Movavi Video Editor
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for home users and small businesses who want template-based videos for social media, family events or promos without learning a professional editor.
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | iMovie | Movavi Video Editor |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free Free on the Mac App Store and on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. No in-app purchases are listed. | Free with limits; from $69.95 / year Video Editor Plus, 1-year subscription, including VAT. A 1-month subscription is $21.95 a month, with the first month at $17.95 when this entry was written. A lifetime Video Editor Plus licence is $149.95 and Video Suite Plus is $99.95 a year. A 14-day money-back guarantee applies. |
| Free trial | Free app | Free version to download; depending on the build, exports may carry a watermark, video may be limited to 60 seconds or audio to half its length, and some advanced export features may be unavailable |
| Output | Edited video up to 4K, at up to 60 fps on supported iPhone and iPad models | Not stated |
| Languages | English and around 30 more, including German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Simplified and Traditional Chinese | Not stated |
| Hosting | App for Mac, iPhone and iPad | Desktop app for Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit) and for macOS |
| Inputs | Footage and photos from the Photos library, iPhone 6s or later, GoPro and other Ultra HD cameras, plus songs from the music library, recordings from GarageBand and your own narration. On iPhone and iPad it also imports ProRes, HDR, ProRAW stills and Cinematic mode video from supported devices | Your own footage, photos and music, screen recordings, and templates made of pre-edited Blocks that you fill with your media. A library of more than 10,000 effects and 1,500 music tracks comes with Movavi Effects |
| Timeline and editing | Yes, a timeline editor with transitions, titles, picture-in-picture, side-by-side and green screen, speed changes and stabilisation. Templates speed things up: 29 trailer templates on the Mac, and on iPhone and iPad Magic Movie, 20 Storyboards, 14 trailers and 8 themes | Yes, a timeline with a blade tool, cropping, rotation, speed and slow motion, colour correction, filters and LUTs, transitions, titles, overlays, stickers, chroma key, picture in picture, stabilisation and motion tracking. Effects, colour tweaks and audio settings copy from one clip to another |
| Platforms | Mac through the Mac App Store, and iPhone and iPad with iOS or iPadOS 17.6 or later. Projects move between iPhone and iPad by AirDrop or iCloud Drive and can be sent to a Mac | Desktop app for Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit) and for macOS 12 or later on Intel or Apple silicon (M1 and up). Editing on a phone is a separate product, Movavi App |
| Formats and codecs | 4K editing on compatible Macs, with HEVC and H.264 export. On iPhone and iPad, export to the Photos library at up to 4K and 60 fps on supported devices, plus HDR sharing | Imports MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, MXF, WebM, AVCHD, WMV and other containers with codecs such as H.264, MPEG-2, ProRes and VP9. Exports H.264 in MP4, MOV, MKV and other containers, VP8 in WebM, MPEG-2 and WMV, plus animated GIF. H.265 (HEVC) is not on the official codec list, and codec support runs through Windows Media Foundation or AVFoundation, so it varies by system |
| Colour grading | One-click Enhance, easy-to-use colour controls and video filters | Colour correction, colour correction presets, filters and LUTs, with colour tweaks copied from clip to clip. Cinematic LUTs come as an effects pack with Video Editor Plus. No scopes or colour wheels are documented |
| Effects and motion graphics | 48 video and audio effects on the Mac, animated titles, transitions, 3D globes and travel maps; 13 video filters and 11 animated title styles on iPhone and iPad | Filters, transitions, titles, intros, stickers and animated overlays such as fire and lightning, with chroma key, picture in picture, stabilisation and keyframe animation. Movavi Effects adds a library of more than 10,000 effects |
| Audio | Built-in soundtracks and sound effects, songs from the music library and recorded narration. On iPhone and iPad more than 130 soundtracks adjust automatically to the length of the movie | Yes. Audio recording, beat detection and synchronisation, noise removal and one-click silence removal. Automatic subtitles transcribe speech in 13 languages. No lip-sync feature is documented |
| Performance and output | Editing and export run on the device. The Mac app exports HEVC and H.264 faster by processing segments across the available media engines | No clips are generated from a prompt, so there is no generation queue. DirectX 12 hardware acceleration was added in version 24.1.0, and version 25.15.0 made exported files up to 67% smaller |
| Licence and pricing model | Free app from Apple, with no subscription and no in-app purchases listed | Proprietary desktop software, sold as a monthly or yearly subscription or as a lifetime licence. The free version restricts exports, and business use needs a separate business licence |
| AI features | No AI features are named in Apple's App Store listings. Automatic help is limited to Magic Movie on iPhone and iPad, which builds a video from a selected album or group of clips, Ken Burns zooms onto faces on the Mac, and editable focus points and depth of field in Cinematic mode video | One-click AI tools: automatic subtitles from speech, silence removal, AI noise removal, AI motion tracking and auto-tracked cropping that keeps the subject centred when reframing to vertical. Nothing is generated from a prompt |
| API | No developer API, scripting or Shortcuts actions are described in Apple's App Store listings or iMovie support pages | No developer API is documented for the editor |
| Deployment | On-premise | On-premise |
| Support | Not stated | Email helpdesk, Phone |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials |
| Integrations | Final Cut Pro, Photos, GarageBand, iCloud Drive, YouTube, Facebook | Not stated |
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The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price iMovie Free Movavi Video Editor Free with limits; from $69.95 / year
- Free trial iMovie Free app Movavi Video Editor Free version to download; depending on the build, exports may carry a watermark, video may be limited to 60 seconds or audio to half its length, and some advanced export features may be unavailable
- Hosting iMovie App for Mac, iPhone and iPad Movavi Video Editor Desktop app for Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit) and for macOS
- Inputs iMovie Footage and photos from the Photos library, iPhone 6s or later, GoPro and other Ultra HD cameras, plus songs from the music library, recordings from GarageBand and your own narration. On iPhone and iPad it also imports ProRes, HDR, ProRAW stills and Cinematic mode video from supported devices Movavi Video Editor Your own footage, photos and music, screen recordings, and templates made of pre-edited Blocks that you fill with your media. A library of more than 10,000 effects and 1,500 music tracks comes with Movavi Effects
- Timeline and editing iMovie Yes, a timeline editor with transitions, titles, picture-in-picture, side-by-side and green screen, speed changes and stabilisation. Templates speed things up: 29 trailer templates on the Mac, and on iPhone and iPad Magic Movie, 20 Storyboards, 14 trailers and 8 themes Movavi Video Editor Yes, a timeline with a blade tool, cropping, rotation, speed and slow motion, colour correction, filters and LUTs, transitions, titles, overlays, stickers, chroma key, picture in picture, stabilisation and motion tracking. Effects, colour tweaks and audio settings copy from one clip to another
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
iMovie
Strengths
- Free, with no subscription or in-app purchases
- Trailer and Storyboard templates for quick results
- Projects can move on to Final Cut Pro
Limitations
- Only for Mac, iPhone and iPad
- 4K at 60 fps export only on supported iPhone and iPad models
Movavi Video Editor
Strengths
- Templates and Blocks assemble a finished video from your own clips
- Automatic subtitles in 13 languages with more than 30 caption styles
- Silence removal with adjustable pause length and volume threshold
- Auto-tracked cropping reframes horizontal clips to vertical
- A lifetime licence is sold alongside the subscriptions
Limitations
- The free version may add a watermark and cap video at 60 seconds, depending on the build
- Full Movavi Effects access renews at $49.95 a month after a 7-day free trial
- Business use is sold as a separate business licence
Plans
Pricing
iMovie
- iMovie $0 Free on the Mac App Store and on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.
Movavi Video Editor
- Free Free Download version; exports may carry a watermark and video may be capped at 60 seconds, depending on the build.
- Video Editor $21.95 / month 1-month subscription, including VAT; the first month was $17.95 when this entry was written. Basic editing, one-click AI tools, basic effects, media conversion and screen recording.
- Video Editor Plus $69.95 / year 1-year subscription, including VAT, marked bestseller. Adds three effects packs: gradients, cinematic LUTs and vintage VHS. A lifetime licence is $149.95.
- Video Suite Plus $99.95 / year 1-year subscription to Movavi Video Suite, including VAT, with the same three effects packs.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
iMovie
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Movavi Video Editor
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
iMovie https://support.apple.com/imovie · checked against the official source on 2026-10-16
Movavi Video Editor https://www.movavi.com/video-editor-plus/ · checked against the official source on 2026-10-04
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.