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iMovie

iMovie

Overview

What is iMovie?

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.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

iMovie, a popular video editing software, is widely used across various industries and professions for its user-friendly interface and …
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Easy to Use!

9 out of 10
June 14, 2021
Incentivized
I use iMovie to edit video footage. As someone with no formal editing training, I started using iMovie because it was a free app that came …
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Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Free Tier

$0.00

Cloud

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

iMovie 10 Demo and Tutorial - How to Make Movies on Your Mac

YouTube

Basic German Pronunciation Practice - using iMovie to edit a teaching demo

YouTube

iMovie for Apple iPhone 4 review and demo

YouTube

Apple iMovie for iPad 2 video demo

YouTube

Show iMovie Projects Easily on Apple TV - iMovie Theater Demo

YouTube

iMovie 11 Trailer Demo i movie

YouTube
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Product Details

What is iMovie?

iMovie Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.1.

The most common users of iMovie are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(97)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

iMovie, a popular video editing software, is widely used across various industries and professions for its user-friendly interface and cost-effectiveness. Users appreciate iMovie's simplicity, making it accessible to those with no prior experience in video editing. It serves as a valuable tool for marketers who need to create videos quickly and easily, allowing them to produce content for social media, product reviews, and online communities. Small businesses also find iMovie beneficial as it enables them to compete in the marketplace by efficiently creating personalized video content.

Teachers and students often turn to iMovie for its ease of use when creating demos, presentations, and showcasing their work. Additionally, religious organizations rely on iMovie for tasks such as editing weekly sermon videos and assembling mini-movies. The software’s robustness and simplicity make it suitable for both beginner and hobbyist video editors.

iMovie is not limited to specific industries and professions; it offers advanced features like green screen, picture-in-picture, audio separation, titling, and transitions. Therefore, it finds favor with businesses that heavily utilize video as a key component of their marketing collateral. Moreover, the software is chosen by creators of YouTube videos with millions of views due to its low cost and user-friendly interface. It is also commonly used for creating step-by-step tutorials and marketing videos for SaaS platforms.

One of the significant advantages of using iMovie is its ability to quickly piece together movie projects when other editing software is not available or accessible. Its interface shares similarities with more advanced professional video editing programs, providing a stepping stone for users looking to transition to more complex software in the future.

Design departments frequently employ iMovie for various purposes such as advertising an app game, creating demo videos for the App Store, or splicing together game footage. It has also been extensively used by videographers to edit videos intended for platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.

iMovie's applications extend beyond professional use cases. It caters to personal video editing needs as well, allowing users to incorporate photos, video footage, and music into quick and simple videos. It effectively assists individuals in creating content for personal blogs, social media platforms, and sharing memories with friends and family.

In summary, iMovie's versatility, cost-effectiveness, simplicity, and robustness make it a go-to tool for a wide range of users. From marketers and small businesses to educators and hobbyist editors, iMovie provides an accessible and efficient solution for all video editing needs.

Intuitive and User-Friendly Interface: Users have found the user interface of iMovie to be intuitive and easy to navigate. They appreciate the drag and drop functionality, which simplifies the process of adding and arranging clips, audio, and titles.

Highly Praised Automatic Save Feature: The automatic save feature in iMovie has received high praise from users. They have mentioned that it prevents them from losing their progress and allows them to work on multiple projects simultaneously.

Efficient File Management System: Users appreciate the efficient file management system in iMovie. It automatically carries all the files used in an edit along with the project file, preventing any loss of files or requiring manual organization.

Dedicated YouTube compatible output format: Many users have expressed the need for a dedicated YouTube compatible output format in iMovie. Some reviewers have mentioned that the current export options do not optimize videos specifically for uploading to YouTube, which can result in reduced video quality or compatibility issues.

Unintuitive music addition: Several users find it unintuitive to add music to their videos in iMovie. They have mentioned that the process of adding background music is not straightforward and requires additional steps, causing confusion and frustration.

Resource hog: Users feel that iMovie is a resource hog, with several reviewers expressing concerns about its performance on their devices. They report experiencing slow processing times and lag while editing projects, indicating that iMovie may be demanding on system resources.

Users recommend trying iMovie before investing in more expensive software. They suggest using iMovie for basic video editing and creating advertisements and marketing videos. Exploring iMovie's features and clicking on everything is advised to get familiar with the tool. Users also recommend providing training on iMovie's shortcuts and key features. Utilizing iMovie's built-in features, such as intros and credits, is recommended. Users find iMovie to be a great tool for beginners in video editing and production. It is suggested to save iMovie videos on a separate drive due to storage space. Starting with iMovie is recommended for those who have never edited video before or want a simple and straightforward tool. Overall, users think iMovie is worth considering for creating and editing videos, even in its free version.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-8 of 8)
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Jonathan Teixeira | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use iMovie to edit simple videos. When Adobe Premiere Pro is overkill, we turn to iMovie. It's quick, simple, and surprisingly powerful. It gets the job done well, and it's easy to use. We don't use it for everything, but it certainly has its place in our toolkit. And it's free with a Mac.
  • Free with a Mac
  • Easy interface
  • Good editing tools
  • Fine-grain editing
  • Easier effects
  • Powerful effects
If you're looking to edit a video and you have a Mac, use, or at least try, iMovie. You already have it, or you can install it for free. It's so much better than any other free video software out there, and it's easy to use. Hardly a learning curve, and you can do a surprisingly large amount of work with it.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
A robust and simple tool that helps us to create video content with ease. As a small marketing team, iMovie allows us to edit our videos and podcasts with little effort. The tool is highly intuitive to use with a simple layout and enough features to produce engaging videos without the overwhelming functionality of some more professional level tools.
  • Easy to use.
  • Included with standard Mac OS.
  • Integrates easily with YouTube and Facebook.
  • Lacks the flexibility of more professional level editing tools.
  • Is resource heavy on the machine.
  • Titles/overlays are difficult to edit.
iMovie is well suited for creating videos that require a quick turnaround and limited editing or post-production. It is less suited for complex editing or graphics needs. It is really a basic video editing tool that comes with some cool extra functionality like titles, overlays, transitions, green screen capabilities and audio editing.
Rene Agredano | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We create product reviews and social media to highlight stories for our Tripawds community. Two people in our organization use it, one is more experienced with it than the other. We love that it can be used on the desktop or our phones, and both versions are just as intuitive and easy to use.
  • Works similarly with both desktop and mobile version
  • Intuitive functions make it easy to use for novices
  • Easily shares to social media platforms
  • Love the auto-save feature
  • When used on a smaller desktop screen, the menus are difficult to view.
  • I would love to have more integration with YouTube music choices when creating movies.
  • I would like it to more easily integrate with iCloud library (I have to move photos from there to my desktop, as far as I know).
When our main graphic designer's workload became overloaded, a novice user on our team (me) was able to learn iMovie on the fly (first on the phone and then on the desktop) to create short promotional videos for our community. We loved how it took very little training to do so. Now our graphic designer is free to do more complex projects.

We can't think of a time when it is less appropriate; it's a pretty awesome tool.
Nicole Glover | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use it in the Technology Department to easily edit our school's Senior Speech presentations. It is also the best choice for all of our different green screen projects. I haven't found anything else that is as user-friendly or has the functionality to do what is needed for our green screen needs.
  • Green screen editing
  • Easily split movies
  • Easily trim start and end of videos
  • The "Share to YouTube" feature always seems to freeze
  • Not easy to figure out/remember how to split a clip, but can it easy to do once you figure out the shortcut
  • A little confusing on how to add music
Anytime you are doing a green screen project, I would highly recommend. Also, perfect for simple editing of videos. It is a bit much to figure out for younger students, so it is better suited to at least middle grades as far as an independent project. And I would recommend "Share" as a file.
November 16, 2018

I do it with iMovie

Catheline Shin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is primarily used by Advancement to create videos for marketing, event recordings, and development work. Classroom teachers, and particularly students are also avid users because they find it easy to create demos, recordings of presentations, and show off their current work.
  • Easy to use. It doesn’t get any easier than iMovie IMHO. The drop and drag interface is fairly intuitive. No need for a giant manual to get started.
  • Just enough tools. For the layman you need to know where to drop in audio, title screens, transitions, etc. no more, no less. It’s not the most sophisticated but it can get the job done quickly.
  • You can use it on multiple interfaces. For example, I use iMovie on my iPhone, iPad, AND my Mac and it’s all rather seamless. You can start a project in one place and pick it up somewhere else. Now that’s flexible.
  • Exporting. You’d think this would be more intuitive but the language Apple uses is a little bizarre...you can choose to save it as a theater project or as a file but it’s not super clear.
  • Fine tuning. Sometimes you need an exact moment where to stop audio and start a person talking and it can be difficult to get that level of detail to match up.
  • Tutorials. It would be nice for iMovie to have some quick and dirty tutorials for you to take within the software as many others do but as far as I can tell there is no such thing.
Making a cinematic film? Use Adobe. Making a quick film with titles or splicing several clips together? Use iMovie.
Kenneth Hess | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use iMovie to edit my videos for all purposes: corporate, personal, and for social media. The biggest business problems that it addresses are the cost and learning curve. iMovie comes free with all Mac operating systems. It is also easy to use, therefore a short learning curve. It is fairly intuitive--more so than most editing suites and it has some very advanced features such as green screen, picture-in-picture, audio separation, titling, transitions, and much more. iMovie has an interface that is very similar to Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, and other costly video editing programs. If you need to transition to one of those at some point, you should have a much shorter learning curve. iMovie can import most video formats but exports files as .MOV, which is a high-quality format, but the files can become very large. I use iMovie because of its cost, its versatility, its advanced features, and the many tutorials available at apple.com and on YouTube. If I need a particular solution, chances are good that someone has posted an article, a video, or both on the topic. I've never been disappointed with iMovie yet.
  • iMovie provides a simple interface that allows me to have full control over all aspects of an edit line including transitions, titles, audio, and video. I can adjust all the above with simple mouse movements.
  • iMovie produces high-quality video in multiple resolutions.
  • It can ingest multiple video, audio, and graphics types.
  • I would like to see more and better titling pages. The current titles, while nice for a lot of applications, leave me a little cold when producing more professional videos.
  • I wish iMovie had better credits pages. It seems to only have one and its not great. It works in some cases but I'd prefer multiple choices for credits.
  • iMovie needs an audio and video sync capability. I know this is a very advanced feature but it is a really needed one.
I recommend iMovie for those who are getting started in video editing and even for seasoned videographers. It can handle a lot. For very advanced things, you'll probably have to move to a more sophisticated package but iMovie can do a lot of different things--some of which are advanced. It is well-suited for corporate videos, home movies, art films, and just about any scenario. It is probably not appropriate for feature-length films or where you need a lot of fancy special effects.
Cliff Fontenot | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use iMovie to edit videos that we put on Youtube that get millions of views every day. We use it not only because it is low cost but because it is the simplest, cleanest interface that doesn't need a Ph.D. in video editing to use. It obviously isn't as advanced as Adobe video editing software but it is good enough for what we need. Maybe eventually we will upgrade to something more advanced once we have a need but if it ain't broke don't fix it at this point.
  • It makes it clear where one cut happens and how it works in the whole video.
  • Makes adding music and volume simple.
  • Zooming in and out of the whole video is easy.
  • Adding sound effects is very intuitive.
  • It doesn't do split screen very well.
  • Combining multiple videos into one doesn't work at all.
  • Green screen videos as well are clunky and tough to do well.
iMovie is well suited for simple video editing. I.e. making cuts in videos, adding sound effects, simple effects like transitions, changing view angles, cropping and other simple operations. Where it falls down is doing advanced tasks and filters (They are very limited in the filter department). I love it though because it does the simple things well.
Rich Ferris | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use iMovie to create step-by-step SaaS platform tutorials and also marketing videos.
  • The trimming tools cut very precisely down to fractions of a second.
  • I like the speed up/slow down feature as it doesn't distort the video at all.
  • It exports to several different delivery platforms.
  • I wish I could manipulate the placement of text over video.
  • It could use more/better title slides.
  • The available backgrounds are not really usable for professional content.
I think it's a great tool for someone who doesn't have the budget for an expensive professional video editor. But it suits my needs for tutorials and marketing content.
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