Contents
3 Main Features of iMovie Video Editor
Overall Reviews: Pros and Cons of iMovie
Top 3 Alternatives to iMovie Video Editor
FAQs of iMovie Video Editor

Review of iMovie Video Editor: Feature, Pros, Cons, and Alternatives

Jordan ScottJordan ScottUpdated on Mar 18, 2022Video Editor

What is iMovie? If you are a Mac user, you must be familiar with this software. iMovie is a video editor invented by Apple company, so it is designed for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iTouch. iMovie is famous for its intuitive interface, and thus there are only some basic features on it. It's suitable for doing private tasks or creating videos for uploading on social media. But for professional usage, like making commercial ads and movies, it's not enough to do these.

Is iMovie really easy to use as said? What is iMovie usually used for? This article will mainly introduce the iMovie video editor on Mac. Keep reading, and you will know whether iMovie is suitable for you or not.

iMovie Review
Part 1: 3 Main Features of iMovie Video Editor Part 2: Overall Reviews: Pros and Cons of iMovie Part 3: Top 3 Alternatives to iMovie Video Editor Part 4: FAQs of iMovie Video Editor

Part 1: 3 Main Features of iMovie Video Editor

1. Clean and beautiful interface.

Apple's iMovie video editor always focuses on the interface, and the designers are trying their best to create an intuitive and elegant interface as much as possible. Through the clean interface, you can completely learn all the operations by yourself, including importing files, trimming videos, adding titles, transitions and effects. And you can master some relatively complex features by practicing.

The only thing you may be curious about is adding images to the timeline. After you import the pictures in iMovie, they will be automatically in Ken Burns mode. You can cancel the theme in the picture settings.

Clean and beautiful interface

2. Preset themes, templates, transitions, and effects.

Since there are multiple preset effects, transitions, and themes on iMovie video editor, you can easily add effects and filters with one click. But there's no color correction and RGB adjustment, which means you can't adjust the color exactly according to your will.

To make your videos more natural, you can also add preset transitions between the segments. Moreover, iMovie provides audio transitions including fade in, fade out, etc.

Preset themes templates transitions and effects

3. Extra features of iMovie

Although iMovie is said to be a basic video editor, it also has some advanced features, such as green screen, chroma-key, etc.

Green screen: If the imported videos are taken with a green screen, iMovie can recognize it. And you can directly import the background videos or pictures, then iMovie will automatically replace the background.

Green screen

Title customization: iMovie also supports adding titles on the videos with multiple effects. You can choose the still effects in every position and the animations with special visual effects.

Title customization

Part 2: Overall Review: Pros and Cons of iMovie

Pros
Easy of use with clean and intuitive UI.
Totally free to use.
Support 4K resolution.
Able to fix shaky videos.
Robust interaction with other Apple products.
Directly share on YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
Cons
Only available on Apple's devices.
Eat up too much storage space (605MB).
Few exporting formats.
Limited effects, filters, and themes.
Only a few advanced features.
Always freezes or crashes.
8.3 Overall

Ease of use8.8

Exporting quality8.4

Features8

Professional8

Summary: iMovie is a good video editor for Apple users to make basic editing. It can be downloaded through iTunes for free and it's enough to meet your simple editing requirements. But it doesn't have too many advanced features like 360° videos, color correction, sound mixing, graphic editing, etc. If you want to create more professional videos, there are 3 alternatives introduced in the following.

Part 3: Top 3 Alternatives to iMovie Video Editor

1. VSDC Free Video Editor

VSDC Free Video Editor is a professional non-linear video editor, which makes you cut, modify, change the order of every part freely. As a free but versatile tool, it does not only can it edit videos for uploading on social media, but also it can create slideshows, and capture screens and videos.

2. OpenShot Video Editor

If you are looking for an easy-to-use video editor, you must have heard of OpenShot. It is an open-source video editor that can trim videos, adjust the tracks, and add effects and transitions. Moreover, it supports multi-platform including Windows, Mac, and Linux.

3. Shotcut

Shotcut is a free open-source video editor with basic editing features, and preset filters and effects. It is supported by Windows, Mac, and Linux. Moreover, it is totally free without paid version, which means you can use all the features for free. However, it also results in not having advanced effects for professional editing.

Part 4: FAQs of iMovie Video Editor

1. Does iMovie automatically save the project?

Yes. There's no save option on iMovie video editor, so the unfinished project files will definitely be saved automatically in real time. You don't need to worry the file loss due to the program crash.

2. Is iMovie free? If not, how much is iMovie on Mac?

Yes, it's free, and you don't need to buy it. You can directly download it from iTunes for free. And now it has been installed in the new Macbook and becomes a default software.

3. Is iMovie project file generic on Mac and iPhone?

Yes. You can easily open the iMovie project files created by iPhone on Mac. And vice versa. That's because the project files are all uploaded to the Movie Clips Library. And the changes that happened on other devices will not affect the original files.

Conclusion

iMovie, a free video editor on Apple devices, is very easy to use for beginners and professionals. Its intuitive interface and preset effects bring a lot of convenience for quick editing. But in the meanwhile, it leads to the lack of advanced functions and customized effects. You can practice editing skills through iMovie, and then change to other professional ones.

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