The best video editing apps in December 2023

The very best video editing apps allow you to edit on your phone or tablet, perfect for when you're on the go and don't have access to a computer. In almost all cases, they provide simpler editing capabilities than desktop software due to the smaller screen size and lower specs of mobile devices, but it can be surprising just how much you can do with some of these apps, and they can be a handy part of an editing workflow even for pros.

We've played with most of the major video editing app available, putting them to the test through hours of editing on our own projects. We've evaluated and compared their features, ease of use, speed, functionality and more to give an honest opinion of their pros and cons and who they're best for.

In our list you'll find video editing apps for iOS, video editing apps for Android, and apps that can be used on both platforms. Most are suitable for both smartphones and tablets (see our guide to best tablets for video editing if you need one) and some let you move your between mobile devices and computers (see our guide to best computer for video editing for the latter)

You might also want to check out our guides to the best video editing software overall. If you're thinking of investing in hardware, we also have guides to the best best monitor for video editing and the best MacBook for video editing.

The Quick List

We'll start with a quick summary of our six top picks as the best video editing software. Scroll down further or use the jump links to read more of our opinion on each one or to see our full selection.

The best video editing apps in full

The best video editing app overall

Let's keep things simple. Whether you're using iOS or Android, Adobe's Premiere Rush is the best video editing app available today, bar none. Why? Well, we've yet to see another app that offers such wide functionality from such a simple interface. The UI offers large icons and panels, making it very straightforward for standard video editing tasks, such as dragging-and-dropping footage onto the timeline, correcting colour, mixing in music or voiceovers, or adding titles and transitions.  

The focus is on letting you process clips quickly to upload them to social media. For example, it automatically converts your videos to the specific aspect ratios and quality levels required by each platform. That makes it the perfect choice for YouTubers, social media users and anyone wanting to experiment with video editing.

This cross-platform, video editing app is much easier to use than Adobe's more complex desktop software, such as Premiere Pro, After Effects and Audition. That said, Premiere Rush isn't just for amateurs. It's also the best video editing app for professional video editors, because it lets you move content back and forth into Premiere Pro, where you can make more sophisticated edits to it.

You can subscribe to Premiere Rush as a single app, as part of a limited free starter plan, as a bundle with Premiere Pro, or as part of the entire Adobe suite. Either way, you'll get access to updates. For instance, the most recent version (2.0), introduced unlimited exports on desktop, additional languages, and thousands of new royalty-free sound effects and loops. See our full Premiere Rush review for more info.

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The best video editing app for GoPro

If you use a GoPro, there are a number of third-party apps for editing your footage. However, the best app for video editing with a GoPro we've tried to date is the official GoPro app, Quik. It's focused on two specific things: allowing you to remotely control your GoPro device, and edit your GoPro footage. Quik automatically imports your footage, and makes it easy to do things like sync your clips to music, add photos, titles and timelapse sequences, and include graphs based on your stats.

The Horizon Levelling editor tweaks the angle of your scene to correct things if your camera wasn't mounted in line with the horizon. You can go through your footage frame-by-frame to find standout still images. And once your photos and videos are ready, you can directly upload them to Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and more, or share them via text or email. 

Quik is updated regularly, with recent updates tuning up the app’s navigation and workflow, as well as improving the 'smarter edits' function, adding new music and the connectedness to your camera. This app is free, but you can pay for extra themes and filters via in-app purchases.

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The best video editing app for pros

If Premiere Rush isn't quite advanced enough for you, then check out LumaFusion, which has the most comprehensive feature set of any video editing app. Produced by the creators of Pinnacle Studio, LumaFusion is kind of like a mobile version of Final Cut Pro, with a multitrack timeline along the bottom, media browser top left, and a preview monitor. 

Any effect can be keyframed, as can clip animation, allowing precise adjustments to your project. You get six video/audio tracks for photos, videos, titles and graphics, along with an extra six audio tracks for narration, music and sound effects. LumaFusion offers insert/overwrite capability, colour correction, a fully featured audio mixer, lossless export, support for vertical video, advanced title creation tools and slow motion/fast motion (forward and reverse). There are also an impressive number of effects you can apply. 

For casual users, this is mostly overkill, and for beginners it would be a frightening learning curve. Professional video editors, though, will appreciate the range of powerful features it has to offer. These include a MultiCam Sync feature, which lets you sync and edit clips from multiple camera and audio sources. Plus, if you have the latest iPad Pro, you can take full advantage of your Thunderbolt 4 port for faster download and upload speeds. And there's a nice integration with Dropbox to make it easier to collaborate on footage with others. 

Once you're done editing, there are endless sharing options and exporting options. For instance, you can export at different resolutions, qualities and frame-rates, as well as exporting audio and video separately. The app even supports for XML export to Final Cut Pro. 

Lumafusion used to be iOS only, but this February they also launched LumaFusion for Android and Chrome OS. At such an affordable price, Lumafusion is a real bargain, making it one of the best video editing apps for pros. For more info, read our full LumaFusion review.

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The best free video editing app for iPad

One of the most pro apps for the iPad, released to date, is DaVinci Resolve. In the Non-Linear Editor (NLE) market it even beat Final Cut Pro in the race to the App store. Ultimate respect to the DaVinci team for getting in there first. I’ve had the privilege of testing this iPad release using their Speed Editor hardware. 

What DaVinci has achieved with DaVinci Resolve for iPad is truly outstanding. I was expecting a seriously stripped-back version of DaVinci Resolve on the iPad but have thoroughly enjoyed an almost replica version. I would say using a Speed Editor and an Apple Pencil is necessary for streamlined editing and colour grading. I found it hard work when my test project became complex, with multiple tracks, and even though this won’t replace my desktop version, I can see it being handy for getting an edit started and editing on the go.

For more info, read our DaVinci Resolve for iPad.

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The best video editing app for Android

If you're a professional video editor, KineMaster is well worth checking out. Available for both iOS and Android, this app allows you to shoot, edit and export your footage on your phone or tablet via a mult-layer interface. High-end features include blending modes, chroma-keying, and audio mixing. 

Smooth and precise, KineMaster is one of the best video editing apps for trimming clips and layers with frame-by-frame granularity. Audio clip timing can be adjusted, too, with sub-frame accuracy.  You can upload multiple layers of video (on supported devices), images and text, as well as multi-track audio. Other features include instant edit previews, precise volume envelope control, colour LUT filters, speed controls, chroma key compositing and 3D transitions. 

In short, while this isn't quite Premiere Pro on a mobile device, in our experience it isn't far off. Its interface will be quite off-putting for a beginner or casual user, but video editing professionals will appreciate its comprehensive range of tools. You'll need an up-to-date phone or tablet to use it without lag, though.

KineMaster is free to download, but adds watermarks to videos, which you have to take out a subscription to remove. This also allows you to export at 1080p or 4K, and get access to over 1,000 premium assets. Find out more in our KineMaster review.

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The best video editing app for beginners

Want to edit videos without a steep learning curve? Then FilmoraGo, which is available for iPad and Android, is a solid choice. You get all the basic tools you'd expect from a basic video editing app, such as being able to trim and split videos, adjust video speed, control volume and resequence clips. And while FilmoraGo lacks the advanced features of Lumafusion or Kinemaster, such as multi-track editing or 4K support, that does make it pretty easy to use. Plus, thanks to its themed filters and effects, it can help even newbies make their videos look impressively professional. 

FilmoraGo is technically a free app, although you'll have watermarks on your videos unless you upgrade to the paid version. If you tried it before and didn't like it, it might be worth revisting. That's because a big update in June 2021 gave it a new user interface, as well as an AR camera and light and dark modes. Plus you can now choose to splice videos in the same picture, and you can use masks not only on the main track but also on the PIP track.

Other recent updates include adding a Chroma Key feature that makes it easy to remove a specific colour from an image or video. If you like the app and fancy checking out its desktop sibling, see our Filmora X review.

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The best video editing app for Final Cut users

Video editors had been waiting a long time for Final Cut Pro to come to iPad and now it's here. With multi-camera editing, a live drawing feature and HDR workflow, this video editing app contains a lot of features that will be ideal for video creators.

Whether you'll love it or hate it will depend largely on your experience of video editing. If you've been using apps like iMovie or Inshot then Final Cut Pro for iPad will be a huge leap forward with some incredible pro features that will take your work to a whole new level. But if you're a seasoned video editor who has used Final Cut Pro for a while then you'll find it lacking many of the features that you've come to love. There's no way it's replacing the desktop version but it may be useful when integrated into a hybrid mobile/desktop workflow. See our Final Cut Pro review for our thoughts on the full version of the software.

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Free for iPhone

It's great to find a useful app that's genuinely free. But what's even better is one you don't even have to download. And iMovie is a great example: it's already there on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, so you may as well give it a try. 

iMovie is aimed at ordinary users who don't necessarily have any experience of video editing, so it's much less sophisticated than the likes of LumaFusion or Kinemaster. However, if you're a video editing beginner, or just want an easy way to add titles, music, voiceovers and photos to your home clips, it's a great choice.

In our review, we found the interface easy to use. The app also supports 4K on modern devices, and it integrates beautifully with the Apple ecosystem as a whole. So for example, you can save your clips to the iCloud drive or stream them to an Apple TV via AirPlay. iMovie plays nicely with Apple Photos, Mail and Messages too. To learn more about the app, see our full iMovie review.

The last big update since we did our full review came in April 2022, and introduced Storyboards and Magic Movie for even better storytelling tools.

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Best green screen support

Filmmaker Pro is another one of the best video editing apps for non-professionals (yes, despite the name it's not really a 'pro' app, although it does come with some pro features including video grading, superb green screen support, nearly 200 different fonts for your text overlays, and chroma keying).

You also get 30 filters, 17 transitions and Audiometer assisted voiceovers. Plus a big update in October added a new subject tracking crop tool, which follows the movement of a subject and keeps it within the crop frame. The latest version (10.7.4) includes iOS 17: More power AI Cutout tool which now segments any foreground subject, not just people.

There's a free version of Filmmaker Pro, but you won't get all the features and your videos will be overlaid with watermarks. So it's best to see this option as more like a free trial.

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The best video editing app for social

Need to craft a quick video for social media? Then most of the apps on this list will be overkill. Instead, you might want to consider Inshot, a consumer-friendly video editing app that offers pre-built canvas sizes for exporting clips everywhere from IGTV to TikTok. We found Inshot's interface to be very simple, making it easy to import, trim and edit your clips together and then add filters, stickers, captions, emojis, and other fun things on top, plus free music and sound effects. 

There's an extensive library that lets you add exclusive stock footage to your videos, and the ability to preview videos in full screen. The app is free, but comes with ads, and watermarks on your videos. Both can be removed with a small monthly subscription. There are also one-off purchases for more advanced features.

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How to choose the best video editing app for you

The best video editing app for you will depend on what kind of video editing you're doing, what devices you're using and whether you're a professional, an enthusiast or a beginner. In our selection above, we've attempted to recommend who we think each app is best suited for. 

In some cases, your options are limited by the hardware you're using, for example Davinici Resolve is a fantastic video editing app, but so far it's only available on iPad. The same applies to Final Cut. And it's hard to see how such fully featured programs could be adapted to mobiles. For more people, however, we recommend Premiere Pro, which is available across mobile platforms, and is compatible with Adobe's more complete program, Premiere Pro, which we find handy for working across devices.

How we tested the best video editing apps

To choose the video editing apps for this guide, two of our writers who both have deep experience in video editing spent an extended length of time with each app to be able to compare their capabilities, features, ease of use and value for money. They used each program to edit a number of videos from short social videos to longer pieces following a realistic workflow and using most of the features provided by each program. 

We considered who each piece of software is targeted at, how good it is at what it aims to do and how it compares to other products on the market in order to recommend the best product for different needs. We also considered compatibility in order to choose video editing apps for iPhone, iPad and Android. For many of the products that we have chosen above, you can click the links provided to see our full hands-on reviews to learn more about our experiences with them.

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