In our Wondershare Filmora review for Windows and Mac, we were pretty impressed both by its focus on newcomers, but also on the powerful features. It earned an outstanding 4.5 stars in our review, and in our experience, it’s easily one of our top choices for best video editing software for beginners. 

But that’s the desktop version. With Wondershare also vying for position as one of the best video editing apps, we wanted to know how the Filmora (formerly FilmoraGo) experience translated to the iOS and Android mobile apps.  

Wondershare Filmora: Pricing & plans

• Free but limited version with subscription or perpetual license alternatives that remove the app’s unwelcome restrictions

First of all, you don’t need to pay anything to download Filmora to your phone or tablet. You’re even allowed to use many of the features, and edit projects without giving Wondershare a cent. There are, however, some limitations. For instance, there will be a ‘Wondershare Filmora’ logo applied to the lower right of all your projects. That in itself is hardly surprising, nor is the fact that some tools will be out of your reach, like use of the app’s AI capabilities.

The free version does offer you 100 credits to play with, but they will get exhausted pretty fast if you like playing with those features. Perhaps the worst downside is the throttled resolution: although Filmora will work with clips of any resolution (we tried it with videos up to 4K with no issues), the output is limited to 720p. That’s quite a let down. Mobile editors we’ve explored in the past all allow 1080p exports. Some even let you choose higher resolutions, although most charge for that. Limiting the resolution to that extent is not a good point.

Of course, all of this goes away when you subscribe. For a monthly or annual subscription, you get unlimited AI credits, more stickers, tools, available songs, and 1GB of online storage. A perpetual license is also available, so the software is yours for a one-off fee. However, you’ll be locked to the current version, whereas the perk of subscribing is to always get the latest and greatest version. 

We especially like the cross-platform license. This gives you access to Filmora across iOS, Android, PC and Mac, for a quarterly or annual fee. Useful, we feel, if you're running any of the best video editing laptops or the best video editing PCs alongside your phone. 

If you’re not a fan of subscribing but like Filmora’s AI tools, you can purchase between 1000 and 10,000. The same applies for extra cloud storage storage, up to 100GB. 

• Pricing & plans: 4/5

Wondershare Filmora: Tracking

• Filmora wants to track you when you’re not using the app - why is that a thing? And why do the developers insist on you sharing your entire Photos Library with them, rather than giving you the option of selecting just the clips you want?

As you launch Filmora, you’ll be asked if you’d like it to track your activity across other apps and websites. We’ve encountered this before with InShot - an otherwise excellent video editing app marred by privacy concerns - and here we are again with a video editor wanting to know what else you’re doing on your phone or tablet. Yes, it’s easy to ‘Ask App Not to Track’, but why does this app need to ask that at all (we know, we know: it’s because of advertising, but that’s hardly a good enough excuse if you ask us). Frankly, it’s a trend we do not like.

Next, Filmora tries to entice you to purchase a subscription, or do a free 3-day trial. Just tap the button that looks like a line, top left, to get out of that request if you just want to get to the free stuff.

Again, just like we saw in our InShot review, you’re highly encouraged to allow the app full access to your entire Photo Library. You can ‘manage’ which clips to give it access to, but frustratingly, you can only do so once. There is no way to add to that selection afterwards, like so many other apps allow you to. We question this artificial restriction and wonder what Wondershare does with its access to all your personal media.

Of course, if you don’t have an issue with privacy, this will be of no concern to you, and you will enjoy what Filmora has to offer. If you like to control what an app can and cannot do, you may well hesitate at this point. It is possible to circumvent this by solely using stock footage that you can access from the app’s media section, or by syncing up to your WonderShare Cloud account - although that does need payment, while at the same time making the process more cumbersome.

• Tracking: 0/5

Wondershare Filmora: Video editing

• Excellent tools, easy to use, with simple features and extensive options for all skill-levels

Filmora works great whether you’re using a phone or tablet. However, phones only work in portrait, but tablets can be used in any orientation. All the tools you need can be found at the bottom of the screen. If you don’t see what you’re after, scroll left or right to reveal more options. A large preview of your project can be seen at the top, with the timeline in the middle. Having tried out the best video editing software, we can tell you this is a pretty standard and familiar interface, which makes it a lot easier to get started whatever your experience.

As you’d expect, everything is controlled via touch. Want to trim a clip? Tap on it in the timeline, then tap and drag its end point inwards. Want to add a transition? Tap the slanted icon in between two clips in the timeline, for the bottom row of tools to turn into a choice of transitions. Tap on the one you like, tap on the ‘tick’ button and you’re done. It’s that easy.

You can technically only work with one layer of video, although this can be circumvented somewhat with the picture-in-picture effect, which you can also use to key out a background. Filmora offers you various options to do this. The most effective is ‘Chroma Key’, which only offers two sliders for you to work with, yet it’s incredibly effective. 

Not everyone has access to green screen equipment, so you can instead use ‘Remove Background’. However, as you probably expect, the results will greatly depend on how cluttered your background is - and how sharp the edges of your subject are. There’s also a ‘Replace Sky’ option, which does exactly what it says on the tin, and we found it surprisingly accurate.

In fact, all the tools we tried worked great, and the app is well-designed for touch controls, helping you create your project with ease. You’re able to change your project’s format (from widescreen, to square, to tall, and more), add animated stickers, insert titles and customize them to your heart’s content, apply masks, and so on. It’s a very complete set of tools.

Most of Filmora is however not designed with the advanced user in mind - the inability to properly work with multiple layers makes that obvious. Also, many tools don’t offer you any options. Take ‘Noise Reduce’ for instance: you can switch it on or off, and it does a pretty good job, but there are no parameters for you to tweak. It’s an all or nothing kind of deal. On the other hand, you have extensive control over color grading. You win some, you lose some.

All in all, Filmora for mobile devices is a very good, simple app that's well designed and will help you create projects with ease. Just a shame about the potential privacy intrusion.

• Video editing: 4.5/5

Filmora: Scorecard

Should I buy?

Buy it if...

You’re looking for a simple to use video editor with many options available for free, and don’t mind the app potentially intruding on your privacy.

Don't buy it if...

 You don’t like to subscribe to apps, don’t like the potential privacy intrusion, and need to export at a higher resolution than 720p without having to pay.

Filmora: Alternatives

For some of the best alternatives to Filmora, we recommend checking out Apple iMovie for iOS, LumaFusion, DaVinci Resolve for iPad, and CapCut.  

‘Release your Unlimited Creativity’ is the tagline for InShot. It’s a noble goal, but in the fight between the best video editing apps, how does this iOS and Android video editor hold up against the creative competition?  

InShot: Pricing & plans

• A generous free app with the top tools and effects reserved for those who subscribe or pay the one-off fee

Let’s start with the good news: InShot is free to use. You can create a project, apply some effects and nice-looking transitions, then export the whole video without paying a cent. Sure you’ll see a few ads on top of the screen, and your output will be watermarked, that’s the trade-off for plenty of free apps. 

If you want access to additional tools and effects, and no longer wish to see ads nor have to deal with watermarks, you need to hand over some cash. There are three options available to you. There’s a monthly subscription, at $4 a month, a yearly one for $15 which is a real deal compared with the monthly one, and a lifetime one-off fee of $40. The yearly subscription also offers you a short 3-day free trial - cancel your subscription before that time and you won’t have to pay anything. 

For UK readers, prices are the same in pound sterling (as if the exchange rate simply didn’t exist). 

• Pricing & plans: 4/5

InShot: Getting started

• Spent ages declining each and every cookie or just sell your soul and accept them all. Worst design ever - if we could give a negative mark, we would

Before we go any further, we’d like to discuss the cookies InShot somehow needs to insert into your video editing experience. Usually, you can allow or deny such requests in bulk - pretty simple and straightforward. Ins chose the most user-unfriendly approach. This isn’t the only app or website to do this, mind, but that doesn’t stop it from being diabolical. 

First you have to forbid the app from tracking you across other apps and websites. Why would a video editor need to do that anyway? Then you can either ‘Consent’ to all those lovely tracking and monitoring cookies, or ‘Manage options’, and this is where the fun begins - if your idea of fun is repeatedly hitting yourself in the face with a hammer.

As you might’ve guessed, there is no ‘deny all’ option. Instead, you need to untick the ‘legitimate interest’ from each and every single ‘vendor’, and that list feels endless. What's a legitimate interest? We don’t know, but rest assured it’s not your legitimate interest, it’s the vendors’. And there are over a hundred of them. 

Who has time for this nightmare and why would you need to do this to access a video editing app? As a user, this would have put us off instantly, and we would’ve deleted the app without ever looking back (just picture us walking away with purpose in slow motion from an app exploding in the background - that’s the vibe we’re after). But we have a job to do, so just to be able to actually test out the app, we gave up tapping after a few minutes and accepted whatever cookies were left through gritted teeth. The things we do for you…

• Getting started: 0/5

InShot: Importing media

• Grant InShot access to all your photo library, or restrict it to just a few - except you can only do that trick once

In order to make use of a video editor, you need to give it some media. As with all apps, you can either choose to give InShot access to your entire photos library, or manage which ones it can have. So far, so good.

Only problem is, if you opt for the latter option, you can only do so once. Never mind the fact nearly all other apps have an ‘add more’ button or similar, allowing you to increase the number of media you wish to grant an app access to. Here, if you want to add more, you must give InShot access to all your photos.

Couple that with the questionable way the app deals with cookies and your ‘consent’, and we’re beginning to wonder whether this really is an app worth downloading at all. Especially if you’re at all concerned about your privacy. 

• Importing media: 1/5

InShot: Video editing

• A fantastically well-designed and easy to use mobile video editor, with a great deal of tools and export options all available for free

Despite all of the above, InShot is a well-designed, simple, and elegant mobile video editor. You start by choosing the type of project you’d like to get involved in: a video, a photo, or a collage.

The latter two obviously deal with still images, while the former can be just video or a combination of still and moving images.

Whichever one you choose, your tools can be found at the bottom of the interface while the top is devoted to your media. Video projects also have a timeline in between, where you can add clips, reorder them, alter them, and so on.

If you’re used to using any of the best video editing software, you’ll feel right at home with InShot. The interface is incredibly well done, to the point you feel you have frame accurate control. In our experience, that’s a great achievement for a touch-based interface.

You’ll also find numerous tools, from the basics like adding titles and transitions, to more advanced effects such as chroma keying (i.e. green screen), and complex speed alterations. Whichever ones you use, they are well-designed and easy to handle.

Free users do have a few transitions and effects available to them, from the basics to some interestingly more visually appealing options. Although you can preview the best ones, those cannot be used until you pay for the privilege.

The buttons aren’t too small, the labels are easy to read. Honestly, kudos on the design front. Performance is a snap too, and aside from watermarking your project with a subtle ‘InShot’ logo, lower-right of your project, there doesn’t appear to be any limitations. You’re even allowed to export your project in 4K, something most competitors restrict behind a paywall. 

InShot won’t stop you or ask you to pay for the privilege. Truly, great attention has been paid to this app’s performance and usability. Such a shame they didn’t put as much time and effort on the privacy side of the equation.

• Video editing: 5/5

InShot: Scorecard

Should I try?

Try it if...

You’re looking for an easy to use mobile video editor for your phone or tablet and have no qualms about potential privacy concerns.

Don't try it if...

You don’t like the idea of a developer insisting on tracking and monitoring you, while forcing you to hand over access to your entire media library - no matter how great its app actually is. 

InShot: Alternatives

Looking for the best alternative to InShot? We recommend checking out LumaFusion, Apple iMovie for iOS, DaVinci Resolve for iPad, and CapCut.  

When Apple released its iMovie for iPhone in 2010, it quickly became one of the best video editing apps around. Back then, it was an absolute game changer. Here was a simple to use app with which you could create a project, edit shots taken with your iPhone, and effortlessly upload it to the web. The following year, an iPad-compatible version was offered, and since then nothing much happened until last year, when major new features were released.

How does Apple's video editor app perform now? Let’s take a look.

Apple iMovie for iOS: Pricing & plans

• A free app with no intrusive ads - what’s not to like? 

Whichever device you use, one of the best advantages of Apple iMovie is the cost: it’s free. Even better, you won’t be bombarded with intrusive ads, nor will the software ask to track you across other apps. 

All you'll need is an Apple device, as it’s highly likely the software will never appear on an Android device. As with a slew of other consumer-orientated Apple-created apps, just head on over to the App Store and download the latest version. 

• Pricing & plans: 5/5

Apple iMovie for iOS: Interface

• A restricted interface on an iPhone, with more flexibility when using an iPad, or when removing the training wheels

Aside from selecting an existing project, you’re given three options to create a new one. ‘Movie’ is the original - and if you’ve used any of the best video editing software, you’ll find yourself in familiar territory. You get a blank canvas, which you’ll populate with the media stored in your device’s Photos Library, and you’re responsible for all the editing, effects, transitions, titles, and so on. ‘Storyboard’ relies on pre-made templates, and is like an extension of the traditional ‘Trailers’ feature you’ve had on the Mac version for years. In fact, ‘Trailers’ are integrated into ‘Storyboard’. And finally, there’s the simplified ‘Magic Movie’ which effectively turns the app into one of the best video editing software for beginners by letting iMovie do most of the editing work for you.

The interface is quite different whichever option you select. Depending on the editing path you choose, iMovie for iOS works either in any orientation (‘Movie’), or restricts you to portrait mode except when working on an iPad (‘Storyboard’ and ‘Magic Movie’), reflecting how basic or advanced Apple believe your chosen project to be.

• Interface: 4/5

Apple iMovie for iOS: Movie

• Features aren’t extensive but they do let you work on anything from simple edits to green screen work

Even though this is the option that is the most hands-off, you’ll still find it incredibly easy to use. You start by selecting the clips you’d like to use in your project, and they’ll be added in the order you selected them. iMovie automatically inserts a simple cross dissolve between each clip, but it’s a simple matter to alter: just tap on it and choose another from a list of 5. 

Yes, Apple is being a bit stingy on that front. Some transitions have options - the ‘fade’ can either transition to black or white for instance, and you can specify in which direction the ‘slide’ and ‘wipe’ go (up, down, left or right), but that’s not a lot to play with. The duration can be set from half a second up to 2 seconds in length. These are pretty minimalistic options compared with the competition.

Trimming is a simple matter of selecting a clip and dragging its edit point inwards, cropping involves clicking on the magnifying glass and repositioning the clip within the frame. You’ll find speed controls, animated titles, the ability to detach the audio track from the video, a bunch of colour effects, and surprisingly easy to use green screen effect, among others.

For the most part, you will be working with a single layer of video. This can be expanded when working with green screen clips or you’re looking for a picture-in-picture effect, but that’s pretty much the extent of your multi-layered video work.

To be fair, although it’s sleek and works effortlessly, with iMovie enabling you to create a fun little project, applying sound effects, adding one of dozens of available soundtracks, shooting some footage right from within the app itself, and even recording a voice-over, it almost feels too simplistic and limited compared to the more advanced tools the competition, like LumaFusion, offers. 

• Movie: 4/5

Apple iMovie for iOS: Storyboard

• Follow the instructions and build your edit based on ready-made templates - it’s more limited but you get nice themes as compensation

The Storyboards in iMovie are designed to make things a little easier, while offering you options not readily available in ‘Movie’. You start by choosing which category you’d like to work in, from ‘About Me’, to ‘Gaming’, ‘Makeover’, ‘Q&A’, and many others. Whichever one you select, you get to choose from a list of styles, parts of which are customisable, such as the font selection, colors, and effects.

Once that’s done, it’s time to build your project. This is a little like paint by numbers: the template will ask for specific types of shots with which to build the project, such as medium shots, wide shots, close ups, all in a specific sequence. You’re not obliged to follow that request, but obviously a template is there for a reason. Your editing options are vastly more restricted than what you can do in ‘Movie’, limiting you pretty much to trimming a clip, altering its audio’s volume, and making basic speed changes. 

If you like to follow a script, with effects, transitions and titles all set up in advance for you, you may well enjoy this way of working. As mentioned above, it’s very similar to how Trailers work on the Mac, except this offers you a broader range of subjects, helping you create a quick movie with ease.

It’s worth noting that we encountered a glitch on an iPhone 14 running iOS16, with the footage shot on an iPhone appearing upside down (the same footage appeared the right way round in ‘Movie’). An iPad Air running iPadOS 16, and an iPhone XS running iOS 17 using the same clips, worked as expected.

• Storyboard: 3/5

Apple iMovie for iOS: Magic Movie

• Simple editing that does most of the work for you. It’s basic, simple, and fast, and great if you don’t have the time to create a short film yourself

Your last choice, ‘Magic Movie’ doesn’t even pretend to offer you options. It’s clearly designed for the person who doesn’t have the experience or time needed to make a short film, but would like something nice to remember an event with - so why not let a machine do all the work?

‘Magic Movie’ will ask you to choose the clips you’d like to use, and once you’re happy with your selection, tap on ‘Create Magic Movie’. There’s really nothing particularly ‘magic’ about the process though: the app will trim the clips for you and apply transitions between them, including an opening title, and some background music. It’s pretty basic fare.

You’re not completely out of the loop: you’re able to reorder your clips, trim them differently, and even change the type of transition, but your options will be the same as for the ‘Storyboard’ section - in other words, not as extensive as they could be - but if you need a short film done in record time, this is the way to go.

Apple iMovie for iOS: Scorecard

Should I try?

Try it if...

You own an iPhone or iPad, and are looking for the best free video editing software that's easy to use and offers various levels of complexity depending on your ability.

Don't try it if...

You’re looking for a mobile video editor with more advanced options, or one  that gets updated with more features on a regular basis.

Apple iMovie for iOS: Alternatives

For the best alternatives to iMovie for iOS, we recommend checking out LumaFusion, DaVinci Resolve for iPad, and CapCut.

It may be pitched as one of the best video editing apps for GoPro wearers, but there’s more to Quik than meets the eye. With unlimited cloud storage, an automatic highlights reel, and even the option to remote-control devices, the app has a lot of potential for habitual photographers, streamers, and video-makers.  

We wanted to see whether Quik is just a cute companion for the best GoPro cameras, or whether the mobile video content creation tool stands up on its own. So, we took the iOS app, identical to the Android version, out for a spin.  

GoPro Quik: Pricing & plans

• Cheap subscription and deals squarely aimed at GoPro users

You can download the app for free, and even start using it without having to register an account. But there are serious limitations to this ‘free’ app, because GoPro really wants you to subscribe.

There are two subscription levels: ‘Quik' costs $2 a month or $10 a year. It unlocks all of the app’s editing features, and lets you upload your Murals to the cloud as a backup option. It’s not a high price to pay by any measure, but we do think it’s quite a lot compared to the best free video editing software (like Apple iMovie or DaVinci Resolve), or those you can get for a low one-off cost, like the excellent LumaFusion. 

‘GoPro’ is the second subscription tier, which is priced at $25 for the first year and $50 thereafter. This plan offers more goodies, especially for GoPro fans - and frankly that will describe most users of this app. Alongside the Quik subscription features, it adds discounts for GoPro gear, auto uploads, some of the best cloud storage if you want unlimited space for GoPro footage. There's even guaranteed faulty camera replacement, and 1080p live streaming. The discounts on cameras, mounts, accessories alone might make this a very attractive proposition: at last, a subscription to an app that offers way more than just the app itself. 

• Pricing & plans: 3.5/5

GoPro Quik: Interface

• A simple interface, focused on your phone’s portrait orientation - more versatile on a tablet

The interface is designed to be worked solely in a phone’s portrait orientation. Tablets are more versatile and the interface will resize itself in any orientation. This is not the only mobile video editor that works like this, and although it could be argued to make sense on a phone, some might prefer to work in landscape, but can’t with Quik.

The app is actually well designed, with all the tools available at the bottom of the screen, which you can swipe through, with the main preview taking up most of the top half, and your edit filling up the rest of the available space in between.

In order to keep the visible tools to a minimum, the bottom bar is contextualised, changing depending on what’s selected. It makes it very convenient on a phone. You have more space on a tablet, but for the sake of consistency, the layout is the same as for the phone, whichever way you’re holding your device.

But Quik is more than just a video editor. It’s also a link to your GoPro equipment. You can use it to access the media stored in your camera and upload it to your phone or tablet, and you’ll also find tools in the edit section that are designed to work exclusively with shots taken with specific GoPros. That level of access and control makes Quik most interesting, and as it can also see your phone’s media library, you can easily mix and match shots from different devices within a single edit. Just as the top subscription is very attractive to GoPro users, this side of Quik is also chiefly focused on GoPro users.

• Interface: 3/5

GoPro Quik: Video editing

• Two different ways of editing, depending on how involved you wish to get

Quik offers you two different types of projects to create: Murals and Studio. You give away most of your control with Murals, but we did find it a great choice if you just need something done at lightning speed. 

If you’re a rookie looking for the best video editing software for beginners, this is about as gentle an introduction as you could hope. You select the clips you wish to work with, give your project a title, and the app will create everything else for you, editing, effects, transitions, the works. 

You do have some editing control, but if you prefer a more hands on approach, we recommend using the Studio which is more fleshed out, although here too, there are limits. Set appropriate expectations. This isn’t (and doesn’t aim to be) the best video editing software. It won't help you work with chromakey green screen effects for instance, or let you build complex multi-layered edits. This is for quick, simple jobs, with a few flashy effects. 

• Video editing: 4.5/5

GoPro Quik: Tools

• Limited tool, good for beginners but may constrain experienced editors - and the ‘free’ option is only a trial

Playing with the app you’ll notice quickly that it’s designed for simplicity. The fact each clip is represented by a thumbnail of the exact same size no matter how long a particular clip might be, makes that clear. This makes the app great for beginners, but more cumbersome for more experienced editors as you don’t really get a feel for the length and flow of your project.

Even still, performing basic edits like trimming feel more involved than they should be, as you need to tap on a clip to select it, tap on the edit button at the centre of the thumbnail, tap on the trim tool, then trim your clip. That’s a lot of tapping, when competing editing apps let you do that directly from the Timeline.

Having said that, you have a nice number of options, such as good color correction. It’s never going to hit the accuracy of the best monitors for video editing, but for the small screen, it’s excellent. There’s also a series of themes you can choose which set your project’s fonts, music, transitions, all for you, greatly speeding up the creation process.

Any effect, theme, music, and so on, sporting a blue lightning bolt icon, means this is a premium subscription-only feature. You can certainly select it and work with it, but you won’t be able to save your work unless you’re a subscriber.

It is possible to find a few that are free and create a project without having to pay for anything but there’s a huge caveat here: the ‘free’ option is only free for a limited time. In fact, you can only work on a few Murals and even fewer Studio projects before Quik prevents you from working on anything else. Making a change after you’ve saved your project doesn’t work. Deleting it doesn’t reset the count either. Think of ‘Free’ as a very limited trial run. If you want to continue to edit with Quik, you’ll need to give them your money in a recurring way, each year.

The best thing Quik has going for it, is its integration with GoPro’s hardware. In that respect, it’s a great fun app, with loads of simple features, and ways to quicken the edit for you while you get on with taking your next awesome shots. The video editing capabilities are simpler than we were expecting, but they may well suit many people who can’t be asked to get down and dirty in the minutia of video editing. 

A subscription makes perfect sense if you use a lot of GoPro gear. You get great discounts and even replacement protection, with the app just being a bonus at that stage. However, if you don’t own GoPro equipment, there are undoubtedly many other editors out there that would suit you better.

• Tools: 3/5

GoPro Quik: Scorecard

Should I try?

Try it if...

You own GoPro equipment, need to transfer your media from your camera to your phone or tablet, and don’t mind limited editing options.

Don't try it if...

You don’t own GoPro equipment, and in that respect the options and deals are not relevant to you.

GoPro Quik: Alternatives

We've tested, reviewed, and rated a massive range of video editing tools. For alternatives to GoPro Quik, we recommend the iOS version of Apple iMoviem and the mobile video editing apps CapCut and our favorite, LumaFusion.