Top 5 Best iMovie Alternatives for Mac (2020 Update)

Although iMovie is pretty good at what it does, sometimes you may also want to get your hands on some decent iMovie alternatives for satisfying all your video editing needs. Here we list top 5 best iMovie alternatives for Mac (Mavericks and Mac OS X El Capitan included), including some free video editors and some paid video editors. So no matter the tech, you'll still be able to create works of art.

• iMovie alternative 1: Filmora9 for Mac
• iMovie alternative 2: ShotCut
• iMovie alternative 3: Adobe Premier Elements
• iMovie alternative 4: Avidemux
• iMovie alternative 5: ZS4 Video Editor

Related: Best iMovie Alternatives for Windows

Learn more: Why Should You Use Filmora9?

iMovie alternative 1: Filmora9 for Mac (Free to Use Video Editor)

Get an easy-to-use home video editor for Mac to edit and create your own video.

• Effortlessly edit videos, audio and photos to look amazing.
• Trim, crop and rotate videos to achieve the best overall result.
• Add background music or record voiceover to retouch your video.
• Add advanced special features as you like: Mosaic, Tilt Shift, Face off and more.
• Directly upload to YouTube, Facebook or Vimeo, burn to DVD or save to various kinds of devices.
• Provide various effects to make your video footage extremely fabulous.

Why choose Filmora9 for Mac as Alternative to iMovie

1. Wide formats support

Supports all popular media formats. So you don't need to convert the original file for editing, just drag-n-drop to the item tray and edit freely.

2. Powerful editing functions

Trim, crop, combine and rotate videos, and add voiceovers and background music – all these can be done within Video Editor.

3. Stunning visual effects

With features such as filters, picture in picture, customized intro/credits and transitions, you can always find the perfect touch for your movie project.

4. Share your movies anywhere

Video Editor allows you to share video on iOS or Android devices, as well as upload them to Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and burn a DVD for sharing on TV!

If you are using Mac OS X El Capitan, do not worry, Filmora Mac also works for you. Watch the video below to check how to use Filmora to edit your videon in Mac OS X El Capitan.

Learn more about Filmora9 for Mac

iMovie Alternative 2: ShotCut (Free Open Source Video Editor)

Shotcut is an open-source video editing software, which is available in Mac, Windows and Linux platforms. Like Filmora, it also allows you to drag-n-drop to open files with a wide file formats supported. It features a clear, smart, and well-designed interface.

You can drag your media to the timeline at the bottom of the interface to edit your clips, which is similar to Filmora too. The highlighted feature of Shotcut is that it has some fully customizable filters, but you can not preview a filter before using it. You can upload the completed video to some social media platform, such as YouTube and Facebook, but there are no ready-made export profiles for different devices. It is hard for you to export to your iPhone or other smartphone for later watching. Check the brief Shotcut tutorial below to figure out if it is OK for you.

Learn more about Shotcut Video Editor

iMovie alternative 3: Adobe Premiere Elements (Quality video editing tool)

Adobe Premiere Elements provides Mac users with the best video editing experience they have always wanted. It's easy-to-use and provides various video editing features to give your full control over your videos. It allows you to drag and drop to quickly create a video. Like using Filmora Easy Mode, you can also use Premiere Elements to create a dynamic collage with photos and videos by simply selecting a theme. After finishing editing, you can share your video to YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo with your friends and families, or you can also burn it to DVD or export to HDTV. The price for Adobe Premiere Elements is US99.99.

Learn more about Adobe Premiere Elements

iMovie alternative 4: Avidemux (Basic Video Editing Tool to iMovie Alternative)

Avidemux is another open source video editing tool, which is designed for simple video editing, filtering and encoding tasks. It is available not only for Mac OS, but also for Windows, Linux and BSD under the GNU GPL license. It has a wide video format supporting, such as AVI, DVD, compatible MPEG files. The interface is intuitive, but if you are new to video editing, you may find it is confusing when editing, and there is no timeline which with multiple tracks. The highlighted feature of Avidemux is that it has various export option, which allows you to control over how the video and audio are encoded.

Learn more about Avidemux

iMovie alternative 5: ZS4 Video Editor (Efficient Mac Video Editor)

Like Avidemux, ZS4 video editor is another open-source free iMovie alternative that runs on Mac, which allows you to edit and composite videos easily. Besides Mac, it is also available for Windows and Linux. It is the new incarnation of famous Zwei-Stein Video Editor and comes with simple video editing tools and 150 video effects, including color correction and green screen effects, which will help you bring your video to a higher level. It supports almost all popular video formats, so you can merge photos, video and audio files into one or more output files. What’s more, it also supports grouping video and audio tracks into sub-groups.

Learn more about ZS4 Video Editor >>

There are many iMovie alternatives that you can use on different platforms, if you're working on Windows10 computer and want to special iMovie alternative, you can check my recommendations about Best iMovie for Windows 10. In case that you don't want to download and install any software, you can use some iMovie online alternatives.