It’s been over three years since we last reviewed KineMaster - and that’s a lifetime when it comes to the best video editing apps for phones and tablets. As video production has grown in importance, the entire landscape has changed since our last look, from the arrival of rival free editors like CapCut to the release of LumaFusion and DaVinci Resolve for iPad, both bringing professional-level editing tools to mobile devices. So, we thought it was high time we went back and checked if it’s still worth a download.  

KineMaster: Pricing & plans

• Although there is a subscription option, you can do a lot without paying - much more than other subscription-based apps

Not only can you download and start using KineMaster right away for free, the developers allow you to do this while providing very few restrictions. 

The only obvious drawback would be a relatively large watermark top right of the video. In addition to that, you will have certain other limitations, such as not being able to use premium assets. If you’d like access to these, remove the watermark so you can use them for professional use, and add 10GB of cloud storage, you’ll need to set up a subscription. We would've also liked to see a one-off cost option, as with LumaFusion and DaVinci Resolve for iPad's Studio upgrade,. 

• Pricing & plans: 4/5

KineMaster: Interface

• Well-designed interface, offering you the tools you need when you need them

We did notice some changes to KineMaster’s interface in the intervening years, most prominently prior to diving into a project. The opening section is locked in the portrait orientation when viewed from a mobile phone, and this is where you can search for templates, ‘mix’ (i.e. use someone else’s creation as a template for one of your own projects). You can also check your inbox and manage your account. It’s worth noting that if a project you’d like to ‘mix’ contains premium assets, you’ll need a subscription to access those. Sadly, we couldn’t see a way of knowing if it requires a subscription until you hit that download button, so it’s a bit of a gamble browsing through the various possibilities.

Creating an account is free, and perhaps even better, is not needed if you just want to get started with your video projects. Once you tap on ‘Create’ and choose to either start a new project, or continue working on an existing one, the interface switches to landscape. You are restricted to editing in that way, and any experienced editor will likely prefer that anyway: there’s certainly more room to organise yourself.

On that side of the interface, very little seems to have changed. Even the best video editing software can often feel very restrictive on the small screen, and most developers have created very similar layouts, with tools mainly on the left, a preview section above, and the timeline below. On the plus side here, that does mean it’s 

KineMaster was a little more creative in that respect. That doesn’t mean to say you’d be lost in a wildly different interface; let’s put it this way, if you’ve used different editors in the past, it won’t take you long to figure out where everything is. The biggest difference is the circular interface top right. It’s divided into quadrants. This is where you get to add additional media, music, work with layers (titles, effects, etc), and record a voice over. The central button lets you access your device’s camera. There are also a handful of peripheral buttons just beyond that circle, to get into the asset store, playback your project or export it. It makes everything easy to access.

To the left are a series of buttons to control the look of your editing interface, take a screenshot, or jump to the next edit point.

• Interface: 5/5

KineMaster: Video editing

• Very easy to edit, from hands on in the timeline, to a series of parameters all accessible via changeable contextual tools

The editing itself starts by tapping on a clip in your timeline. This replaces that circle with various editing tools. It’s not immediately obvious, but that list is scrollable, giving you access to a vast range of options, for both your clips’ video and audio parameters. This is necessary to make sure those buttons aren’t too small, and their labels are easily readable - something some other video editors could pay attention to.

This contextual list changes if you select other types of media, such as an audio clip, or even the edit point between two clips - which reveals all available transitions.

Aside from these, you can also directly affect the edit from the timeline itself, like trimming a clip by dragging one of its edit points inwards, or tap and hold to move a clip to another position, with the other clips slotting along, making sure there are no gaps in your edit,

You can also zoom in and out of the timeline using the traditional touch gesture, to quickly see more of your project, or get close for some frame-accurate work.

By and large, you’ll be working with a single layer of video - which certainly makes things easier if you’re looking for the best video editing software for beginners on a mobile device. However, you can work with additional layers, but only for specific purposes. This allows you to insert titles, special effects that encompass more than one clip, or just a portion of said clip, or add some media for that a picture-in-picture effect. The latter is also how you can superimpose some footage, and remove its background to blend two layers together.

In order to do that, you can use the ‘Chroma Key’ tool (if you shot your clip in front of a green screen), or the ‘Magic Remover’, which we found does a pretty impressive job, as long as the background isn’t too cluttered and you’re not moving the camera too much.

For those who have seen us bemoan the casual disregard to a user’s privacy in our reviews for CapCut and Filmora, you’ll be pleased to learn KineMaster is a much kinder beast. You can easily restrict its access to your Photos Library at launch, and update your selection over time. We still can’t believe some developers don’t allow you to do that and insist on seeing your entire library.

All in all, KineMaster works surprisingly well, and will mostly get out of your way as you edit, offering you the tools you need for the job at hand, while hiding those that are of no relevance to the selected media.

• Video editing: 5/5

KineMaster: Store & export

• A vast store where many assets are available to download for free, and hardly any restriction when exporting your project

If you’re looking for more effects, transitions, stickers, music, and so on, this is where KineMaster’s Asset Store comes into its own. You’ll find a lot of these assets are available for free. Just tap on them to download them into your app. Those that have a little golden crown to the thumbnail’s lower right are only available to subscribers. As you’d expect, this accounts for most of the best ones, although there is a huge selection for you to explore and use, even if you’ve decided not to go down the paid road.

Once your project is complete, you may expect the push to subscribe would be relentless, but we found KineMaster to be quite unobtrusive: tap on the ‘Share’ icon, choose your format (from the standard H.264, the more modern but less compatible H.265, and GIF - for simpler/smaller projects), select the resolution, bit rate and quality, and click on ‘Save as Video’.

This is where the request to subscribe will rear its head, but simply click on ‘skip’ to get on with the rendering. We were very pleasantly surprised to see you can export projects up to 4K. Most competing products restrict their free offering to HD at the most. You will, of course, get a ‘KineMaster’ logo, top right of your movie, but this is a very minor drawback to have access to so much for free.

• Store & export: 5/5

KineMaster: Scorecard

Should I buy?

Buy it if...

You want a high end video editing app for your mobile device, with a wide array of tools, all for free (as long as you don’t mind having your work watermarked).

Don't buy it if...

You want a free video editor without a watermark. 

KineMaster: Alternatives

We've reviewed plenty of the best alternatives to KineMaster. For free video editing apps, check out Apple iMovie for iOS and CapCut. For professional-grade video editors, we love the free DaVinci Resolve for iPad and LumaFusion, available for a one-off fee. Both are very powerful with excellent performance.

SocialScreen started back in early 2016 under a slightly different name, SocialGrab AS by its co-founders, Joacim Lunde and Arvid Vasskog. From its office in Trondheim, Norway, it offered a number of media services, including web development, marketing and consulting services. The company endeavored to be able to link together multiple social media sources, for the delivery of an improved stream of info. The realization came that a screen needed to be developed as a display medium for these ‘Social streams.’

As this progressed, the screen itself became a product, and SocialGrab developed software specifically for these screens, with a subsequent emphasis on screen related products. To reflect this expertise with these screens, in 2019, the company’s name was changed to SocialScreen.

Features

SocialScreen, a comprehensive digital signage software, boasts a range of features. These include:

SocialScreen supports a wide variety of different content types, including:

Additionally, it offers compatibility with various platforms and devices:

Users should also be aware that there is no iOS app. While there is an Android app, with a recent update from this month, also keep in mind that it has zero reviews, with no rating, and comes up as only 10+ downloads, making us surmise that this app is less popular than using the software directly through a web browser.

Pricing

SocialScreen pricing is based on a choice of tiers. There are four overall, including a free tier and three paid tiers.

The entry level tier is free, but has its limitations, that include only a single screen, only one user, and 720p video. Support is limited to chat only, and just to convince you one step more there is a watermark on the video image, making this tier overall less desirable for anything other than occasional use.

Moving up is the Standard tier, which has a monthly cost of 109 NOK (about $9.84 USD) per unit. For this entry paid tier, there is no watermark, there can be three users, the single screen limit is lifted (although at an additional subscription cost), and the video is Full HD, namely 1080p. Also, the support is via both chat and email.

Next up is the middle paid tier, Business at a cost of 219 NOK (about $19.76 USD) per month per unit. This includes the features of the lower plan, along with up to 10 users on the system, and support is via email, chat and telephone (although not listed on the website if the numbers are only in Norway, or the hours and days of operation).

The top tier is Enterprise, available for a monthly fee of 329 NOK (about $26.69 USD) per unit. This plan is aimed at larger organizations, as the name suggests, with support for an unlimited number of users, support for 4K video, and full support, along with a customized service level agreement (SLA).

For each of the paid tiers, there is an offer of a full two week trial period. In terms of each screen needing an individual subscription, we would like to see a discount offered on an additional screen, and also an annual discount for prepaying 12 months at a time.

Support

While there is a Help Center for SocialScreen, overall, the direct support options are limited. We also found the website for some reason when we were accessing it from the USA seemed to default back to Norwegian on several occasions, but thankfully the Google Translate button kept appearing to get it back into English, a situation we normally do not find when accessing websites overseas. 

We found a link for a chat, but when we went to open it on our Chrome browser, it would not open on a few attempts. We also did not find any phone numbers listed which is often a preferred method for direct contact, nor were there any direct emails. The only method we found for direct contact is a contact portal. However, some higher tiers do list telephone and email support, so we’re gonna assume they disclose the contact info with the subscription.

In the self help category, there are multiple guides, for setting up the screen initially, specific to the OS, and also for the screen model. There is also a helpful FAQ of about a dozen or so questions with answers, such as “Do we have to have wired internet?” with a spoiler alert of no, but it is preferred.

Final verdict

SocialScreen is a powerful and versatile digital signage software that offers a variety of features and pricing options. It is easy to use and can be used to create engaging and interactive displays. However, the direct support options are limited, particularly on the lower tiers, and the phone support, which is limited to the upper tiers, the hours and days are not specified on the website. 

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.  

Since its release in 2020, CapCut has taken the short-form video world by storm. The fact it’s owned by ByteDance Ltd, the same company which also owns TikTok, might have helped in that regard. 

Starting life on iPhone and Android devices, it quickly became one of the best video editing apps out there, adding a web-based editor, and most recently, a desktop video editor for both Mac and Windows. For this review, we’re looking at where it all began: mobile video editing.  

CapCut: Pricing & plans

• It’s free for most tools, but some advanced features are locked behind a subscription

The basic CapCut editor is free, although this might make you think you don’t get much for nothing. Quite the contrary: CapCut is a very capable and feature-rich editor, as we’ll explore further below. You don’t even need to create an account in order to start using it: just launch the app, import some footage and away you go.

There is however a ‘Pro’ version of this video editor, but to explore its capabilities, you need to register. Pro offers you 100GB of online storage, and grants you access to a variety of advanced features, such as improving the quality of old photographs, upscaling video, removing flicker, image noise, and a bunch of transitions.

You can get all of this through an ongoing annual or monthly subscription - but it’s not especially cheap. Considering LumaFusion offers you a pro-level mobile video editing experience for a one-off price of $30, maybe CapCut are relying on their market penetration to convince people to subscribe to their business model.

• Pricing & plans: 3/5

CapCut: Shortcuts

• A useful list of ready-made templates and actions to help you speed up the creation process… but why does CapCut demand access to our entire Photos library to allow you to do this?

When you first launch CapCut you’ll find the interface filled with icons to take you to commonly performed actions, such as Ad Maker, Product Photo and Retouch. The Ad Maker grants you access to templates you can use to create adverts in seconds, applying your own clips on top of the chosen template. It lets the software do a lot of the work for you, but there is a puzzling request.

Usually, you can instruct apps to gain access to all your Photos library, or choose the select few it can view. All pretty straightforward, and leaves the user in full control of what the software can see. Here, although you can manage the shots you wish CapCut to use, this only applies when creating a project from scratch. 

If you want to use one of these shortcuts, CapCut puzzlingly needs to see your entire library. Now this might concern only a handful of people, but we thought it worthwhile for the privacy-conscious among you, to know those shortcuts and templates may be worth avoiding. There is no technical reason for this request, and it makes us wonder what else the software might do with your photographs and video clips. 

• Shortcuts: 2/5

CapCut: Interface

• A simple interface, stuck in one orientation, but everything you need to get working is there

Whether you choose one of these template shortcuts, or wish to start a new project from scratch, you’ll eventually end up in CapCut’s main editing interface. 

It’s solely designed for your device to be held in portrait orientation. If you turn your phone horizontally, the interface won’t budge. The same happens when working on a tablet. There’s also no way to change the layout - you’re stuck with it, whether you like it or not. But frankly, there’s little to dislike. The top third is devoted to a preview of your project. Beneath that is your timeline, and at the bottom, is a row of tools for you to use.

There’s a button to let you preview your work in full screen (and in landscape), but no editing is possible in that orientation. You don’t even have access to any tools, aside from a playback button.

You’ll notice a sign, top right, showing you the resolution you’re working in. By default it’s set to 1080p, but you can change that from as low as 480p to as high as 2K/4K. This is where you can also alter the frame rate from 24fps to 60fps. When some apps restrict 4K editing behind a paywall, it’s nice to see it’s available here for free.

You can also tell this app is aimed at, shall we say, those with sharp eyesight. The icons’ labels, especially those for the tools at the bottom, are in an extremely fine print, making it a challenge for the less visually acute. We did find the size is perfect on a tablet though.

• Interface: 4/5

CapCut: Tools

• Very easy to use, with surprising quality and accuracy, with a direct upload to TikTok

You’ll find it’s incredibly simple to edit, trim, and split footage. It’s just as easy to add clips, and quickly build a project. You can’t work with multiple layers except in the form of an overlay, where a second clip is added on top of another, which you can resize and reposition in order to create a picture-in-picture effect, or use the ‘Cutout’ tool to remove the background, be it a green screen, or just whatever was behind you.

The Pro tools are reportedly much better, but truth be told, we found what’s on offer for free to be remarkable - both in its ease of use and in the impressive results. Just check out the ‘Speed’ options to alter the duration of a clip, which are a cinch to alter, and include the ability to perform complex changes with just a few taps and drags.

The audio tools are quite interesting, and include a vast array of sound effects, and a whole section devoted to Sounds, which are clips of songs. 

Some of the ‘Commercial’ sections have apparently been licensed for commercial use on CapCut and TikTok, whereas the other section supposedly isn’t… even though we found some clips were present on both sides of the aisle. 

There’s also a VoiceOver option for you to record audio directly into your project using your device’s built-in microphone, or any other external one connected to it.

Another feature we were most impressed with was the amazing Auto Captions tool. It will analyse your video for you and generate captions, and in our experience, even when whispering, the output was incredibly accurate. Even if there’s the odd glitch, editing them is as simple as tapping on the subtitle box in the timeline, followed by tapping on the text in the main preview section.

When you’re done and it’s time to export your work. You can upload directly to your TikTok account, or save it to your Photos library, where you can share it to other platforms.

• Tools: 4/5

CapCut: Scorecard

Should I try?

Try it if...

Your world is TikTok and you want a video editor that’s fully integrated with that platform, you like having loads of powerful tools for free, and like the idea of subscribing for additional editing features.

Don't try it if...

You have concerns about the app’s privacy aspects, and would like an app that works in any orientation.

CapCut: Alternatives

We've tested,. reviewed, and rated a massive range of video editing tools. For alternatives to CapCut, we recommend checking out the iOS version of Apple iMovie and LumaFusion.  

Editing on a computer is one thing, but why not edit on the phone or tablet you used to shoot your movie in the first place? This is nothing new, as ever since coders realised a phone was powerful enough to do some editing on it, we’ve been able to do that. But how far can that particular envelope be pushed? For instance, Final Cut Pro has finally made it to the iPad, but only on tablets with M1 chips or better. 

But they’re actually late to the party. One of the best video editing apps, LumaTouch’s LumaFusion, launched in 2016, and provides many advanced video editing features across loads of different iPads, iPhones, and Android devices.  

LumaFusion: Pricing & plans

• Great balance - a simple, one-off price with some optional add-ons for those who want or need them 

LumaFusion isn’t free video editing software. And it’s not easy to compete in a field where many of your competitors offer their apps for free with ads, in-app purchases, or ongoing subscription. 

But if you’re in the market for an advanced professional-level video editor in your pocket, you might well find the $30 cost to be more than justified. And that’s a one-off fee, no never-ending subscriptions, with all future updates included in the price.

There are some in-app purchases as well, but these are for some advanced features that most will not need, so it makes sense to include them as optional add-ons. There are currently three available: 

Multicam Studio automatically synchronises up to 6 sources for you, letting you tap to switch between cameras, thus editing on the fly, for $20.

Export to Apple Final Cut Pro transforms all the work you’ve done on your project’s timeline into an FCPXML file, which, along with all the media you’ve used, is merged into a single file, ready for you to transfer to your Mac to carry on editing on Final Cut Pro… for $20. A kind of alternative to subscribing to Final Cut Pro for iPad.

And finally, we have the Storyblocks library, offering royalty-free music samples, songs, sound effects, videos, and backgrounds right from within the LumaFusion interface. This one’s a subscription, being either $10 a month, or $70 for the year. 

• Pricing & plans: 4.5/5 

LumaFusion: Interface

• Sleek interface in any orientation, looks great on large and small screens with good keyboard integration, although it’s not necessary to edit 

The designers at LumaTouch have done an excellent job here. The interface works great whether you’re working on a tablet or a phone, and in either portrait or landscape orientations. There’s even a way to choose between six different layouts as well. Everything works flawlessly, with panels resizing and reorganising themselves instantly whichever layout you choose and however you’re holding your device.

The interface is divided into sections. One’s the Preview, where you get to see your work as you build your edit, another’s the Timeline, where you add your clips, and essentially create your film, and the last one is where you access various elements, such as your clips, titles, transitions, effects, etc.

If you’re familiar with the best video editing software on desktops, you’ll feel right at home in LumaFusion. And if you’re in the market for one of the best video editing software for beginners on mobile, we really liked to see the app offer a series of tutorials to help you quickly understand the interface. It’s all very welcoming, whatever your experience level. 

Should you need to change the parameters of a particular clip in your timeline, simply double-tap on it. The interface will be replaced with your clip and all its alterable parameters. As you’d expect, you can also keyframe these, changing their values over time.

If you’re working on a tablet, you can hook up to a keyboard, and take advantage of various keyboard shortcuts, many of which are pretty much industry standard, like setting in and out points (‘i’ and ‘o’ respectively), adding a marker (‘m’), jump to the beginning or end of a clip (the ‘up’ and ‘down’ arrows), and so on. You certainly don’t need a keyboard to work with LumaFusion, but it grants you additional functionality if you have one.

• Interface: 4.5/5

LumaFusion: Video editing

• Great responsiveness, coupled with ease of use and loads of features - LumaFusion offers a lot and does it all exceedingly well.

Dragging and dropping is pretty much ubiquitous throughout the interface. Which isn’t surprising since it’s designed for touch. And here it works exceedingly well.

You’re able to work with up to six video layers and six additional audio tracks, allowing you to create fairly complex video sequences. Your timeline’s first layer has a ‘magnetic’ effect, which means that if you delete a clip, all subsequent ones will automatically move to the left to fill the gap left by the now-missing clip. This is a standard feature on Final Cut Pro and some others, and not only makes editing much faster, as you don’t have to deal with unwanted gaps in your project, but having to move all your clips by touch would be unbelievably tedious.

There’s a miniaturised timeline directly beneath the preview section. This represents your entire project. It is very useful to have when you’re zoomed into the timeline itself, as you can always see where you are within your project at a glance. It’s also a great way to scroll through your project, and see how all your clips are placed.

Your media can be accessed either from your device’s Photos app, a connected drive if you’re on tablet, and most of the best cloud storage providers. This includes services such as DropBox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and iCloud. 

Editing videos felt surprisingly easy, even on a phone’s relatively small screen (although admittedly, the larger the screen, the easier it is to work). Rendering is pretty fast. The app even lets you work with 4K clips, and we can tell you, it handles these high-resolution clips with ease.

It’s not loaded with the best VFX software, but you will find a good number of transitions, titles, and visual and audio filters are available, and pretty much everything (aside from transitions) can be keyframed and altered over time, including colour correction effects. In addition to that, there’s all the usual tools you’d expect from such an application, like trimming and cutting, chroma and luma keys, and even a built-in image stabiliser.

One thing we really liked was how you’re given the ability to create your own presets, for anything like titles or keyframed effects for instance. This allows you to have at your disposal unique looks that you can reuse in other projects, greatly saving you time, and helping set a unique tone for yourself across your videos. You can also export these presets, and import other ones.

Once you’re done, you’ve the option to save your work back to your device’s photos app, send it to an online storage service, or publish it directly to YouTube or Vimeo.

• Video editing: 4.5/5

LumaFusion: Verdict

LumaTouch has done an impeccable job packing in professional-grade video editing tools into an app like this. And somehow, it feels like the most natural thing in the world. 

If we had to nitpick, we could ask why we need to select “original” in the colour filters in order to gain access to a clip's colour parameters? Why can’t those values be available as you select the ‘colour and effects’ option, saving you a tap? And LumaFusion does put your battery to the test, but to be fair, this sort of software will chew through batteries on the best video editing laptops, let alone a phone. 

LumaFusion is a great piece of software and the designers have done a remarkable job fitting a powerful editing studio in your phone or tablet. Add to that the fact this app gets regularly updated, and you’ve got a hit on your hands. If you’re serious about editing on the go, give LumaFusion some serious consideration.

LumaFusion: Scorecard

Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Since its establishment, iTop has had an impact on the software utility market. This Hong Kong-based company offers a range of applications that strike the balance between performance, flexibility, and security.

Among their offerings for Windows computers is the iTop Private Browser. This web browser stands out for its cleanliness, security, and speed. It also includes a built-in VPN that allows users to hide their IP addresses and bypass geo-restrictions. By optimizing its network schemes, iTop Private Browser has greatly improved its speed, ensuring users can enjoy distraction-free browsing sessions. Additionally, it features an Auto Trace Shredder function that automatically deletes cookies, caches, and browsing history when users close a tab to prevent data leaks.

If you're looking for a browser that prioritizes privacy while being lightweight and compatible with your system, look no further than the iTop Private Browser – it might just be the alternative browser for you if you like trying out new browsers.

Features

iTop Private Browser focuses on user-friendliness by basing its architecture on Chromium, at the same time relying on its patented speed to show off its functionalities. According to the company, the browser uses military-grade encryption and comes with built-in features, such as an ad and pop-up blocker, as well as a VPN client. However, to fully utilize the functions of the VPN, you will need a monthly subscription if you want unlimited access. 

Despite all of these functions, the browser tends to show ads when you perform Google search, which seems to be sourced by the browser itself. Either that or the ad blocker does not work as intended. If you’re hoping to use extensions for ad blocking, you may look for a different browser right now since you won’t be able to utilize them in iTop’s solution.

By default, all of the protection offered, such as the ad blocker, anti-tracking, and anti-phishing, is turned on, except the VPN. For the VPN, you will have to turn it on yourself, which makes a lot of sense, as not all of us want to be behind a VPN at all times. You can turn on the VPN with just a few clicks by clicking on the VPN icon in the upper right corner. From there, you can let the VPN automatically choose the best location for you, or you can choose it from a list. Note that some locations are behind the VIP pricing plan, while others are free. There are roughly 87 locations to choose from, dispersed across the world. One thing that sticks out is the erroneous dimensioning of the flag icons, which just look like the VPN part of the browser has been rushed in production. 

Privacy

The browser focuses on privacy and brings in a lot of options. Through the VPN, it offers military-grade encryption, as claimed by iTop itself, while also offering various server locations to help you stay protected online and break geo-restrictions. Furthermore, the anti-tracking feature prevents sites from tracking your online activities and, coupled with the ad-blocker, pop-ups, and malicious links are avoided. Another neat function is the Surfing Protection, which serves as a safeguard against visiting harmful websites, shielding you from privacy breaches, online dangers, and unauthorized cryptocurrency mining.

Ease of use

iTop VPN Browser focuses primarily on ensuring user privacy while browsing. It offers a minimalistic set of tools that are designed to prioritize privacy. However, after conducting tests, we found that these features do not impede navigation in any way. In our view, the available features, along with the easy-to-use options, create a user-friendly and uncluttered browsing experience. This makes it suitable for both beginners and those who prefer a simple approach.

Competitors

Vivaldi - Vivaldi's design and approach may not appeal to everyone. The abundance of options on its main search page can be overwhelming. However, Vivaldi stands out among other browsers by offering a commendable environment for work and efficiency. It provides a separate set of task management tools that aid in tab organization and maintaining a clutter-free workspace, focusing on security through Chrome extensions, as it's based on Chromium.

Firefox - Firefox remains highly customizable, allowing you to personalize its look and expand its functionality through a wide variety of extensions and plugins. The recent update significantly enhanced its performance, making it faster and more efficient. It offers a diverse set of features, excels in terms of privacy, and is user-friendly. Additionally, it boasts lightning-fast speed.

Final verdict

If maintaining a high level of security during your browsing sessions is a priority, the iTop Private Browser could be a choice for you. This browser not only offers a secure browsing experience, but it also includes a built-in VPN client and various helpful features like encryption, anti-tracking, and an adblocker. While the settings may be more basic compared to other browsers, they still provide all the essential functionalities that most users require. Furthermore, if you already use a secure browser, there is little here to persuade you to change it for iTop’s solution. Moreover, from the visual and overall functional side, iTop has little to offer when it comes to competing with established browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera, and others. 

iTop Software, the creator of the popular iTop VPN, has recently introduced DualSafe Password Manager. This new tool offers password management for users looking to secure their account information and store all passwords in one place. Once you memorize your master password, all of your other passwords will be auto-saved and auto-filled by the application at no cost (if you choose the initial pricing plan). 

The priority has been set on security, which is why AES-256 encryption comes as standard across all plans, offering the current industry standard for protection. There are also other additional security features that the app offers, but for those, you will have to pay for a premium plan. All in all, if you’re looking for a place to store your passwords and have the health of your passwords monitored, then DualSafe presents a solid entry into the world of password managers.

Plans and pricing

The initial tier offers basic functionalities that are more than enough for most users, and to top it all off, it is completely free. With it, you can save as many passwords as you like, and the auto-fill and auto-save functions will work fine. Though, you will be limited to only three devices. 

If you’re looking for additional features, such as unlimited devices, and health checks for your passwords, dark web monitoring, and alerts, you will have to choose the premium plan. The premium plans also have an Emergency Access function. When you are unable to access your data, the individual you grant emergency access to can request the exportation of your data or modify the Master Password for DualSafe Password Manager. For the premium plans, there are two payment options: a monthly one that costs $5.99 a month and an annual one that allows you to save 65% and pay $2.08 a month for a total of $24.99 for the entire year.

Setup and in use

The setup is pretty straightforward; once you download the .exe file, run it, and the app will be installed on your desktop and browser of choice (Chrome in our case). From here, you will be asked to create your iTop account using your email or simply sign in using your Google or Facebook account.

After you log in, you will have to create a new master password, the only one you will need to remember going forward. A neat feature is that the recovery code the app generates for you is available as a PDF download so you can store it securely. 

Interface and performance

The app's interface is modern and stylish, with a rail menu on the left side that leads you to all the app's functions. In the upper part is the search bar, which can help you find items you saved in the app itself, like notes or login details. 

Importing all of your passwords is easy; you can import from all major browsers, or if you have your passwords in a .CSV file, you can import that as well. We had a properly formatted database of passwords, which were imported quickly and functioned flawlessly. Other than that, you can manually add your login details if you so wish, though we would go with the import option, as it's fast and hassle-free. 

The Windows app boots up quickly, and we haven't noticed any issues in using it. Similarly, the browser extension immediately springs into action when trying to log in to a site you frequent, and either offers to auto-fill or save the login details in its vault. Overall, we've had quite a positive experience with the app.

Security

The DualSafe Password Manager, utilizes the advanced AES256 encryption method to keep your data secure. It also employs a zero-knowledge architecture, ensuring that only you can access your information. Even the DualSafe Password Manager team cannot view your login details because all passwords are end-to-end encrypted.

To protect your passwords, DualSafe Password Manager creates backups, ensuring they are preserved even if there is a device malfunction. Before being backed up, the passwords are encrypted for security. As a result, they are highly secure and practically impossible to decipher. Furthermore, all your data is regularly updated so that you can access it from the browser extension or app. When it comes to the password health check feature, you have the ability to assess the strength of your passwords. This feature examines all saved passwords for any security vulnerabilities. Provides an overview of outdated, duplicated, and weak passwords that may pose risks to your security. We understand that it can be challenging to create unique passwords for each of your logins, which is where DualSafe offers its password generator. With DualSafe, you can effortlessly generate complex passwords. It even provides time-based, one-time passwords for an added layer of security. The Password Generator features of DualSafe allow you to easily create personalized passwords with varying lengths and combinations whenever you need to create an account or update your existing passwords.

Support

While there is a detailed manual for the application, the ticket support system that is available to users covers all of iTop’s products. In short, this means longer wait times to get support from a customer support representative. The app itself is not that complicated, and most of its functions are straightforward, still, we would like to see more responsiveness for this application alone. 

The competition

Bitwarden - Bitwarden is an exceptional password manager that offers a comprehensive range of features without any cost. While there are certain premium features available, none of them seem unreasonable to us. Free software doesn't get much better than this.

LogMeOnce - Prefer not to use master passwords? LogMeOnce offers an alternative method for securing your vault by using a selfie or scanning a QR code. Additionally, they guarantee that their free tier will always remain the same, providing unlimited password storage and 2FA.

For more alternatives, check out our Best free password manager of 2023.

Conclusion

The DualSafe Password Manager offers reliable security features and an attractive free plan. It is a great choice for individuals who are new to password security or find advanced tools challenging. While the free option provides a secure space to store passwords, the subscription plans offer enhanced security measures and protection against data breaches.