9 iPhone Video Editing Apps You Must Try

Recording videos on iPhones has become a daily habit for many people. But if you want all those videos to make an impact and not bore your friends or followers, you’ll need iPhone video editing apps.

Video editing apps won’t just help you cut boring bits out of your footage, they can add smooth transitions between clips, fancy filters, background music, impressive graphics, and more.

The explosion of AI tools in iPhone video editing apps also means it’s easier than ever to make professional-looking montages of clips and photos, or to pull off special effects like removing the background from a video. Some apps even offer this editing power for free.

Here, I’ll cover nine different iPhone video editing apps that offer a wide range of features, so you can choose the one(s) that will do the job you’re looking for. Whether you’re just looking to make your social media posts shine or you’re shooting videos for your brand, we’ve got apps to give your videos a professional sheen.

Can you edit videos on iPhone?

It’s possible to make some basic video edits using the tools found in the Photos app on iPhone. Check out our guide to editing videos on iPhone.

However, if you want to do anything even remotely sophisticated, you’ll need a dedicated video editing app.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean shelling out for an expensive app or committing to a monthly subscription. Many of the apps listed below are free or offer a decent range of features without paying for a premium version. However, some will watermark your videos if you don’t pay for the premium version.

Good video editing apps for iPhone

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of different iPhone video editing apps in the App Store.

To save you the trouble of trying to find the best one for your particular needs, I’ve selected nine different iPhone video editing apps that cover a range of features and price points, so you should be able to find something for you.

If you’ve never edited a video on an iPhone before and you’re worried that it’s beyond your technical capabilities, don’t be. Many of these apps have AI-powered editing tools that will do a great job of automatically stitching together your videos and photos. You just select the clips and images you want to use and let the app do the rest.

For those who want finer-grained control, many of these apps are beginner-friendly, and it won’t take long to master their various tools.

There are also apps for those who are used to editing video on PCs or Macs and want to try their hand at advanced phone editors.

Apple iMovie

Before we look at potential paid iPhone video editing apps, it’s worth exploring what you can get for free from Apple iMovie.

If all you want to do is trim footage, add text over video, slow down or speed up clips, iMovie has all the essential tools. There’s also a reasonable range of filters, if you want to turn your video into artistic black and white or give it a vintage film look.

While it’s light on AI tools compared to several of the other apps covered here, Magic Movie lets you select a collection of photos and videos from your phone’s library and automatically stitch them together, with smooth transitions and background music.

Since it’s both light on storage and free, iMovie is worth downloading for basic editing tasks, even if you have to rely on other apps for more advanced editing.

YouTube

If you intend to upload your videos to YouTube, it’s worth exploring the editing tools available in this free app before filling up your phone’s storage with more video editors.

If you’ve already recorded a clip on your iPhone, you can upload it to YouTube and trim the clip from there if you have unwanted parts at the beginning and/or end of the clip.

Once you cut it down to size, you can add text, apply a limited range of filters or record a voice, which is great for vloggers.

One of YouTube’s biggest strengths is its access to a huge library of licensed music. So if you wanted to put a Taylor Swift, Coldplay or Dua Lipa track behind your video, you can, safe in the knowledge that the copyright cops won’t take down your clip seconds after it’s uploaded.

CapCut

CapCut’s big strength is providing a gazillion templates to create the kind of videos that will go down well with the TikTok audience.

Whether it’s cute shots of your dog or viral marketing videos you’re creating for a brand, there’s a huge collection of templates to choose from. And it’s stupidly easy to use.

CapCut is also increasingly relying on AI tools. At a basic level, it has AI templates that will, for example, take a photo of you and show you how you would look in the 1980s—all beautifully presented as a video with transitions and a powerful 80s soundtrack.

At the more sophisticated end of the scale, you can write your own video script and have AI stitch together a stock of video clips into a cohesive narrated video. Some of the more advanced stuff requires a monthly subscription (starting at $5.99/month), but there’s a lot you don’t have to pay for.

LumaFusion

The idea of ​​paying a one-time fee for apps seems almost laughably old-fashioned these days, let alone $30 for one. But LumaFusion offers much more power than you’ll find in any free offering.

It’s a complete multitrack editor that professionals using packages like Adobe Premiere Pro would know. You can have up to six video/graphics tracks and an additional six audio tracks, with a wide range of advanced tools for color correction, video stabilization, audio isolation and more.

Once you’re done editing, you can check the results on the big screen, either using Apple’s AirPlay or an HDMI connection. And with support for frames per second up to 240 frames per second, it can take full advantage of the beautiful cameras of high-end iPhones.

An app like LumaFusion is overkill if you’re just uploading family vacation clips to Facebook. But for those who take their video seriously, this former App Store App of the Year winner is the real deal.

Adobe Premiere Rush

We mentioned that Adobe was one of the leaders in the professional video editing market, but Adobe Premiere Rush is aimed more at consumers.

Its tools are actually pretty lightweight considering Adobe’s pedigree. It has basic cropping tools, filters, text effects and transitions, but there’s nothing here that sets Adobe apart from the crowd.

It also lacks any of the AI ​​hits now common in iPhone video editing apps. There isn’t even an option to automatically merge a set of selected clips and photos.

It’s worth noting that Adobe is currently revamping Adobe Express—which processes videos and photos for social sharing—with a selection of AI tools, so it might be worth checking that out instead if you want more than the basics and you’re already a content producer in Adobe apps .

Cyberlink PowerDirector Mobile

Cyberlink has been in the video editing software business longer than Apple has been in the phone business, so it’s no surprise to see PowerDirector do a good job of combining powerful tools with a friendly interface.

Special effects are the highlight of PowerDirector, with the ability to add striking graphics such as blue electricity buzzing around people in your videos or pixelating faces for privacy. However, keep in mind that many of the more awesome effects are premium features that cost $5.99 per month to unlock. Don’t pay and it will also watermark the videos.

There’s a huge selection of creative tools here, and adding anything from glowing neon text to animated cat stickers is easy.

Some of the tools might raise a few eyebrows. “Body reshaping,” for example, is arguably encouraging the unhealthy trend of looking thinner. But there’s a lot to play with here.

Kinemaster

Kinemaster has two parts. The first is a standard video editor that lets you merge clips and photos, add shimmering transitions between them, overlay text, and most of the other features you’d expect.

Another is a social network similar to TikTok, where you can see templates that other people have created for their videos and re-mix them with your photos and videos.

The editing interface is very slick, with a quirky wheel-like interface that makes it easy to find many different features and effects. However, all editing is done in landscape mode, which can be annoying when you’re dealing with phone footage that’s often taken in portrait mode.

You’ll also have to put up with Kinemaster logos on your videos unless you want to pay a hefty $9.99 monthly subscription fee.

Video jump

Videoleap is another app that focuses on providing thousands of impressive templates that you can use for social media posts, rather than editing raw video.

It is top with CapCut in the range and quality of templates it offers. It also has tons of AI tools that let you perform tricks like background replacement on videos or automatically co-editing clips—the latter with varying degrees of success.

However, Videoleap keeps nagging. It will beg you to subscribe from the start, with the unlimited version costing a ridiculous $9.99 per week (yes, weekly, not monthly). Be sure to cancel if you take advantage of the seven-day free trial.

VN Video Editor

VN Video Editor seems more suited to brands creating social media content than many of the more consumer-focused apps discussed here.

Again, it’s based on templates, but these are listed according to the social media site you’re targeting with your videos, whether it’s Instagram, YouTube or TikTok, ensuring everything is broken down into exactly the right dimensions.

There are plenty of impressive, professional-looking templates to choose from, though be aware that they’ll contain (often subtle) VN watermarks unless you pay for the $9.99/month Pro version.

However, there is a generous allowance of 100 projects on the free plan, so you have plenty of room to experiment before deciding whether that monthly fee is worth it.

The point

Even five years ago, some of the video editing effects you can achieve with today’s iPhone apps would be better than workstation PCs costing thousands of dollars. It really is possible to create professional, polished videos from your iPhone using relatively inexpensive apps. To attempt!