New York-based Animoto offers their video editing platform supporting individual video creators and businesses with different tiers of service up to their business plan for marketing teams wishing to create high quality to distribute across social media sites.
$0
per month
iMovie
Score 9.2 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.
iMovie comes standard on most Macs, though it is not nearly as intuitive/user-friendly for the first-time video editor as Animoto is. Also, iMovie doesn't have a library of usable stock images and music clips like Animoto, which is worth the price of subscription alone.
The software is only compatible with Apple desktops. The cost of Apple desktops is too high for small companies. The user interface of Animoto is better than that of iMovie which is quicker to learn than iMovie, besides the fact that it has more features than iMovie. For …
Animoto is great for small to mid-sized business looking for control over their own video marketing. Allows someone with initiative and "scrapbooking mentality" to create professional-looking videos with ease. If you have even the smallest of marketing budgets, Animoto is perhaps the most worthwhile investment--that is, if you're able to get decent photographs or video clips to build from.
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.
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.
Great visual tool that lets you intelligently communicate what you are seeking to explain to your audience. More features I might suggest would be anything that makes it more interactive with the viewer in real-time.
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.
I'd give it a higher rating but there seems to be some things that are so over-simplified that it's tough for an experienced user to work backwards when needed. That said, it certainly is easy enough for a 7 year old to pick up and use without much instruction or training.
We haven't actually needed much support so that in itself says a lot about the software. It was easy to use and had great tool tips that guide you through the tool so you don't even need to reach out to support. There are help files that are there when needed, and some of these are helpful to us as well because again, we didn't have to reach out and wait for support.
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!
We had invested in making our own videos using YouTube, and even Camtasia. But they were still us interpreting on behalf of our audience which took forever. Once we found Animoto, it was so much easier to upload the pics our audience would send us. From there we had a 100% positive response, that we had indeed captured what they were trying to say.
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.
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.
