We've picked the best video editing apps to give you options for editing video on the go. With more and more video being both shot and watched predominantly on phones, it makes sense for creators to be able to edit on a phone too. These are the apps for doing just that.
As such, we're including editing programs that offer the ability to edit on a phone or tablet – and excluding those that don't. We've also assessed how well these apps function – whether they have been optimised to work with a touchscreen interface. Our top choice right now is Adobe Premiere Rush, as it's the mobile-optimised version of industry-standard software. But we've also compiled several compelling alternatives.
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.
Visit site A scaled-down version of Premiere Pro, Premiere Rush is the best video editing app overall. It's great for beginners, but also useful for pros because you can move footage back and forth into Premiere Pro. There's a free version too! Read more below
Visit site CapCut is made by Bytedance, the company behind TikTok, and as such it integrates brilliantly with the popular short-form video app, though it can also upload directly to YouTube. Its free tier is one of the best around for quick edits. Read more below
Visit site If you're a Mac user, you might already have the best video editing app for your needs – iMovie comes pre-downloaded on Apple devices, and offers a basic but capable editing interface. It's popular among YouTubers for this reason. Read more below
Visit site Also aimed at pros, KineMaster is available for Android and iOS and allows you to shoot, edit and export via a mult-layer interface. There are features like blending modes, chroma-keying, and audio mixing. We find it to be smooth and precise. Read more below
Visit site If you're looking for the most advanced features for your pro video editing projects, LumaFusion offers an unmatched range of colour, effects, audio, and keyframing options for iOS, Android and Chrome. Read more below
Visit site For free video editing software, DaVinci Resolve is impressively complete. It's almost identical to the desktop program (the free version that is) with power colour grading. You'll probably want a Speed Editor and an Apple Pencil for navigation. Read more below
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.
A free, easy-to-use editing app from the creators of TikTok
Specifications
Platform: iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, browser
Multi-track editor: Yes
Export directly to YouTube: Yes
4K support: Yes
Reasons to buy
+
Integrates well with TikTok
+
4K resolution option
+
Very user-friendly layout
Reasons to avoid
-
Some features are subscription-locked
-
Subscription tiers are a bit complicated
Not everyone can afford to pay the high upfront cost or hefty ongoing subscription costs for some of the best video editing apps – if that's the case for you, it's worth looking at free tools, as there are some really good ones out there (as well as some pretty poor ones). A free video editing app favoured by the Creative Bloq team is CapCut, available for mobile and desktop, and if you're looking to edit video at zero cost it's definitely worth downloading it and giving it a try.
CapCut is available for Android, iOS and desktop, and there's also an online version that works in browser. It's made by Bytedance, the same company behind TikTok, and as such, avid TikTokers will probably find its user-friendly interface to be quite familiar. Don't worry though, the app isn't designed to lock you into TikTok – it allows for direct uploading to YouTube, and its desktop version also allows for cropping and resizing video to a range of different aspect ratios (it used to be vertical-only).
Our staff writer Beth Nicholls is a veteran CapCut editor, using it to cut together slick clips for her TikTok account, and she rates it in particular for its ease of use. Different editing tools are assigned distinct icons and laid out plainly to make it easy for you to find what you need. You'll find that a few are locked behind the dreaded subscription-only symbol, but the free version gives you more than enough to make what you need. If you're uploading to TikTok, CapCut offers a few clever quality-of-life features like the ability to add a cover image.
The app of course offers generative AI tools, though these are paywalled after a couple of uses. However, the kinds of bread-and-butter features you're likely to be using, like Split for cutting clips into chunks or Speed for slowing down and speeding up footage, are useable on the basic tier.
If you do want to jump from the free version to take advantage of generative AI features and the like, it is worth mentioning that CapCut's subscription tiers have become a little overcomplicated. Whereas it used to be just CapCut Free and CapCut Pro, now you've got a choice between CapCut Free, CapCut Standard at $9.99/ £10.99 per month or $89.99 per year, or the top CapCut Pro tier at $19.99/£21.99 per month or $179.99/ £199.99 per year.
Our advice is not to worry about this too much – the free tier has more than enough to get to grips with, allowing you to easily cut together dynamic and eye-catching clips for TikTok, YouTube or your platform of choice. If you make a free account, you can save your clips and access them across multiple devices – perfect for editing on the go. See our beginner's guide to CapCut for more.
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. Updated features have included Storyboards and Magic Movie for even better storytelling tools.
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
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.
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 in 2023 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.
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.
A stripped down version of the pro software that still sports some advanced features
Our expert review:
Specifications
Platform: iOS
Multi-track editor: Yes
Multi-camera editing: Yes
Reasons to buy
+
Fits into Final Cut Pro workflow
+
Live drawing feature
+
Multi-camera editing
+
HDR Workflow
Reasons to avoid
-
Lacks all the professional features
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 free apps like iMovie 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.
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.
What is the best video editing app overall?
For both casual users and professional video editors, we think the best video editing app today is Premiere Rush. Its clear and uncluttered interface means it's easy for beginners to pick up and make simple edits without fuss. Meanwhile, its interoperability with Premiere Pro means that pros can move their footage from one tool to the other, and make edits on both mobile and desktop devices.
What is the best free video editor?
Again, Premiere Rush, Adobe's impressive video editing app has a very capable free plan. You can download the Premiere Rush app for free on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, and there are no restrictions on the amount of video you can export. You are, however, limited to 2GB of storage and some advanced features such as project syncing across mobile and desktop are not available. If you want all the features and boost storage plan to 100GB, there is a reasonably priced paid subscription. However, for basic video editing, the free version of Premiere Rush will do fine for most people.
For a more fully feature free video editing app, Davinci Resolve for iPad is almost identical in design to the desktop version. Though not the full Studio version, that means you get a massive package of professional tools including industry-leading colour grading. See our full guide to the best free video editing software for more options.
What's the best free video editing app for tablets and phones?
KineMaster is available for Android and iOS tablets and phones, and if you're likely to be hopping from one device to another and want to be able to seamlessly work on your editing projects, it's our top choice (Premiere Rush is unfortunately not currently supported on Android tablets). The multi-layer interface offers high-end features like blending modes and chroma-keying – just be aware that the free version comes with a watermark.
Which video editing app is used by most YouTubers?
Many YouTubers report using iMovie to cut their videos together, as it is a free app that if you use a Mac or other Apple device, you already have and don't even need to download. More serious YouTubers (i.e. those who create videos professionally, or at least semi-professionally) will use a more sophisticated app – DaVinci Resolve is a very popular choice on YouTube, as it's powerful, capable and completely free.
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.
Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.
