Adobe Express vs. iMovie

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Express
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark) is a task-based, web and mobile product used to create and share rich multimedia content – from social media posts and stories to invitations to marketing materials like logos, flyers and banners.
$0
iMovie
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Apple offers iMovie as a video editing platform supporting video creators with high quality effects, support for 4k resolution, audio editing, and other features supporting the creation of videos and movies.
$0
Pricing
Adobe ExpressiMovie
Editions & Modules
Free
$0.00
Premium
$9.99 / $99.99
per month
Teams
$9.99
per month per user
Free Tier
$0.00
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe ExpressiMovie
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsContact Adobe directly for Enterprise pricing plan details.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe ExpressiMovie
Considered Both Products
Adobe Express
Chose Adobe Express
Adobe Creative Cloud Express is easier to use than iMovie or Adobe Premiere Pro. I was struggling with both and one of my colleagues at another university recommended Adobe Creative Cloud Express. I was glad I tried it, and really happy with the results. The ease of use, time …
iMovie

No answer on this topic

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User Ratings
Adobe ExpressiMovie
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(231 ratings)
10.0
(32 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(15 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(27 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Support Rating
4.6
(12 ratings)
8.1
(6 ratings)
Implementation Rating
4.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
9.5
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe ExpressiMovie
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
Every team I work with gets the Express welcome and walkthrough and becomes a permanent Adobe Express user. I have my own workflow when creating content for social, and it is great when others I am working with can hop on and follow the same workflow. We can collaborate on projects, schedule posts, and manage brand assets easily from our own devices. As long as we have access to the same files, we can build campaigns faster and more easily, onboard new designers, and scale our impact on social media.
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Apple
iMovie is a great editing tool for beginners and users with little to no experience. If you are looking for a simple, straight forward way to edit your videos without having any training, this is the tool for you. If you are looking for a robust and very advanced editing platform, you may wish to look elsewhere.
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Pros
Adobe
  • I have used Adobe Express to help maintain my creative catalogs and files, brand management by saving my color scheme palettes, to have full access to its free assets and huge template library.
  • The main business issue is brand consistency and accessibility, and Adobe Express helps greatly with both of those by providing an option to create brand libraries for various projects, and it has a huge Adobe font catalog to accommodate basically every brand and project scope.
  • I like how I am able to create a project folder for storing various iterations of a graphic or logo, and being able to view thumbnails of each iteration below the current graphic that I am working on. Plus, it also allows for easy thumbnail rearrangement for exporting selected images in the order of my choice. And it has many editing tools such as a generative AI tool using prompts to help create original art, and both the Effects and Animation tools have many options for colorations and animations. Plus other awesome and easy to use tools such as the Quick Action tool that easily removes backgrounds, and other tools like the Resizing, Quick Replace, Translate, Bulk Create.
  • Another feature of Adobe Express that I like is its ability for video creation and editing which is available via a mobile device or desktop computer. The footage editing process is very easy and allows for only one track for both video and audio.
  • Adobe Express allows for the project assets to be either imported via ones on file systems or straight from the Adobe Royalty-Free assets which includes; videos, audio/music, graphics, photos and even a voice overs capability using a "Text-to-Voice" option. And after the video has been created Adobe offers its very easy "Download" option, where you can select what file type that you want the project to export as.
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Apple
  • iMovie allows users to upload their own clips and edit them together. You're able to add in more clips as you're working on your project which is great as some film editing software don't allow add ons of video clips once you've begun the editing process.
  • iMovie continually saves as you're working on your project and syncs with your devices so you can work on your project from other like computers.
  • iMovie is quick to update changes which allows time to be saved during the editing process. It's very helpful when you need to adjust 1-2 things and don't want to spend hours waiting for the changes to go through.
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Cons
Adobe
  • It could have a search bar which searches through other Adobe products (esp for Stock images, videos, audio) from within Adobe Express.
  • It could make it so switching between Adobe products from within Adobe Express almost like a tab function is smooth.
  • It could partner with other companies to allow for company specific events in exchange for valuable products or programs.
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Apple
  • Audio for video editing is a bit limiting. A pro user would feel limited, but the average person can pretty well do what they need in iMovie and that's what matters for this platform.
  • The design of the UI could use some updating so it doesn't feel so bubbly. This may purely be an aesthetic concern, and maybe the old style makes it more approachable, but i'd prefer to see a more slick design so you don't feel like you are using a kids program.
  • If you ever want to share the project or manually manage files, it can be a bit difficult to figure out. Fortunately Apple allows you to import a project from iMovie into FCPX if you ever want to be upwardly mobile.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
I foresee Adobe Express becoming the "go-to" platform for everyone except professional, high-level designers. It is a relatively easy-to-use tool that allows users to create a wide variety of visuals quickly. Because it is a template-driven tool, the in-house design team has the ability to make brand kit available to keep visuals on point
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Apple
No answers on this topic
Usability
Adobe
The user interface is pretty straightforward to use. It has easy to navigate navigations, and the canvas UX is also pretty good. One thing i would like to add it to use shortcuts to add elements on canvas. Like if I am on canvas and I press 'T' on my keyboard the text box should be added automatically
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Apple
Once again, iMovie is a fast application. It's easy to use and navigate through. It has never frozen or glitched. There is an auto-save feature which helps you to easily close and re-open the software and continue from where you left off. Being an Apple product I do believe there is a level of superiority that surpasses Windows as well.
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Support Rating
Adobe
Overall, the Adobe Creative Cloud Express is worth a try and may be a good fit for many organizations and businesses. At a monthly rate, the cost is not prohibitive, but the tools are somewhat limited and not necessarily worthwhile when compared to standard applications and software that are often available free or through a package of services commonly found on workplace computers.
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Apple
Apple does a great job supporting its products. I have never encountered trouble that could not be solved through chat or email. The knowledgebase section of the website, video tutorials online and various user forums also help with most issues. If after using all of these avenues you still have an issue, it may be time for you to outsource your project to a professional!
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Alternatives Considered
Adobe
I think Adobe Express is a bit behind Canva, but as an Adobe Community Expert, I try to provide as much feedback as I can to help improve Adobe Express. ADobe Express does a better job than InShot and a few other apps, but isn't quite there against Canva, I'm sorry to say!
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Apple
Not as easy to use as iMovie, and a similar cost structure. iMovie is easier for Apple users / and MS users, to both get proficient at. Movie Maker isn't bad, it just isn't as slick as iMovie. We actually used MovieMaker for a couple of years before migrating most users over to iMovie. We have not regretted the move.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Adobe
Adobe Creative Cloud Express is included with an Adobe Creative Cloud account. Our company has a corporate team membership so it is nice to have a professional and powerful tool that anyone on our team can use for free. The pricing structure of giving the tool away for free will be fundamental to users utilizing the tool. Similar tools, such as Canva, cost significantly more but do not offer the same features
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Apple
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Adobe
The professional services for Adobe Creative Cloud Express is top notch and should be highly commended. I am thoroughly impressed with how far Adobe has come. In the past, I had several issues with how something were handled, but in the past few years things have been better than ever and they get no complaints from me
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Apple
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Positive: Time and working for a nonprofit with minimal staff this is essential.
  • Negative: There are certain features that I need to find in other Adobe products like layer masking.
  • Positive: It makes content creation less intimidating for our newer staff.
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Apple
  • iMovie is a very inexpensive alternative to other video editing software.
  • It's very easy to train new users on iMovie, so time is saved there.
  • We started a project where we were tasked to create a new 5 minute video every week. We started with little to no knowledge of video editing, but iMovie was so easy to pick up and use that we were able to start filming and putting together videos right away. If we had to learn a more complex program, like Premiere Pro, it would have pushed our timeline back considerably.
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ScreenShots

Adobe Express Screenshots

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