Final Cut Pro free alternative Mac

Top 8 Final Cut Pro for Mac Alternatives for Free Download

Final Cut Pro, also known as FCP, is a professional video editing application designed by Apple Inc. It's Apple's solution to post productions, which includes everything you need to turn your footages into masterpieces. The latest Final Cut Pro X only supports macOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra) or later. If you're finding link to download Final Cut Pro for Mac, click here (registration required). If you're not using the compatible macOS, have lower budget, or you're not a satisfied FCP user, you may need a Final Cut Pro alternative to edit video on Mac. Actually, you're not alone. Below is the similar questions asked on Quora:

Question 1: Are there affordable alternatives to Final Cut Pro? by Roger Collins
Question 2: What is the best alternative to Final Cut Pro X for macOS? by Richard Hicks

Now you're in the right place. This article includes a list of 6 good alternatives to Final Cut Pro, some of which are like FCP that only runs on Mac, while others supports both Mac and Windows. Enjoy!

1. Wondershare Filmora (Mac and Windows)

Filmora, created by Wondershare, is a new player in video editing for recent years. It has become one of best video editing applications for making good-looking video, especially for YouTube videos. Filmora comes with easy user interface, but also include professional tools like what exists in Final Cut Pro. It's considered as one of best alternatives to Final Cut Pro for Mac.

Regarding to video editing, Filmora has a powerful timeline with real-time management of editing media, video cutting, video rotating, voiceover, 100x speed change, etc., which is sufficient for the all types of editors' video editing needs.

In audio editing, Filmora has more than 50 built-in free music, each of which has a separate cover for them for easy use. In addition, Filmora has a frame-by-frame preview feature that allows users to control audio and video from frame to frame for more precise editing.

In title editing, Filmora comes with 100+ preset animated titles. You can easily add stylish titles to your video. You can even collect the favorite materials for future use. It's very convenient.

However, this well-known Final Cut Pro for Mac alternative has less track editing and compositing features than Final Cut Pro. It also have no diversified debugging functions. Plus, it combines all features in one place, different from Final Cut Pro which can work with Motion and Compressor to provide more features in post-production. However, for those who are beginning and intermediate users, Wondershare Filmora is a great FCP alternative that deserves your trial.

Download Wondershare Filmora for macOS

FCP Alternative Key Features

• Texts & Titles: create animated and beautiful titles from preset title templates. 
• Music library: Add favorite music to your movie to create the perfect atmosphere. 
• Picture-in-picture: A movie becomes spectacular with our hand-made overlays and filters. 
• Creative Elements: Easily take your video to the next level by adding impressive graphics . 
• Expandable library: Quickly expand your imagination with unique visual effects. Get paid filmstocks to clear the limit of imagination.
• Speed ​​Control: Control your clips and create fast-forward video, or stunning slow motion video. 
• Filters: Includes both creative filters and professional 3D LUTs.

2. Movavi Video Suite (Mac and Windows)

Movavi Video Suite is a video production software suite. Generally speaking, it includes all features of Movavi Video Editor, video converter, screen recorder, video cutter, photo editor, DVD burner, and more. Compared with Final Cut Pro, it has intuitive user interface, broad format support and other advantages. Even if you don't have the relevant experience, you can quickly create professional-looking movies using any footages on your Mac, and then share anywhere you want. Video production is simple and fun with this Final Cut Pro for Mac alternative.

Download Movavi Video Suite for macOS

FCP for Mac Key Features

• Cutting and Merging: Split and remove unnecessary parts from your footages with high quality.
• Filters: work with 160 filters to make your clips perfect.
• Transitions and Titles: Professional preset titles and transition for use by dragging and dropping.
• Easy Slideshow Making: Automatically make slideshow movies step by step.
• Better Compatibility: Support macOS 10.7 or later, including the latest macOS 10.15 catalina.
• Other features: video conversion, screen recording, video capturing, video cutter without quality loss, batch video uploading, photo editor, video player, and so on.

How to Use Movavi Video Suite on Mac

Step 1: Decide what you want to make. With Movavi Video Suite, you can create movies using video or audio clips stored on your computer, mobile device or camera, create slideshows with photos or music, capture videos from screen for making video tutorials, and record yourself on a webcam at the same time.

Step 2: Edit video and audio. Stabilize shaky video, adjust color settings, sharpen blurred video, etc., cut off unwanted clips or join multiple clips to make longer movies. Don't forget to connect different segments of the video with stylish transitions.

Step 3: Apply dazzling video effects. In Movavi Video Suite, you can find more than 100 different visual effects, including old movies, slow motion, pan/zoom, animation and more.

Step 4: Add music to set the mood of your video and add titles anywhere it's necessary.

Step 5: Export your movie to watch it anytime, anywhere! Upload your movie to YouTube or Facebook directly from this Final Cut Pro for Mac alternative.

3. Apple iMovie (Mac and iOS, Free)

People always talks about Final Cut Pro. Believe or not, most people don't need such an powerful video editor application, especially for those who are beginners in video editing. iMovie is usually enough for most video editing needs. Compared to $299, iMovie looks like the lower version of Final Cut Pro, both designed by the same company Apple Inc., totally free of charge.

Download iMovie for macOS

iMovie Key Features

• Easy to Get Start: No prior experience required. Get it and start editing video immediately.
• Comprehensive features: From basic cutting and rotating to green screen, color adjustment, and filter effects, it provides you all regular video editing tools.
• Works seamlessly with FCP: If iMovie is insufficient, just get Final Cut Pro for Mac. You can send your old iMovie projects to Final Cut Pro for continuous editing.
• Cross-platform: Not only iMovie is compatible with Mac, but iOS and future OS maybe. With the help of iCloud, you can actually edit video anywhere.

4. Adobe Premiere Pro (Mac and Windows)

Adobe is one of the best software companies in the world. In addition to the kind of photo editor Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro is also the top-class video editing and production software you cannot ignore. It's definitely one of the candidates while talking about alternatives to Final Cut Pro for Mac. It provides you free trial. After trial, the price is impressive, $20.99 per month or $239.88 per year, which is actually expensive than Final Cut Pro ($299 for lifetime). But it's worthy because it works on either Mac and Windows, and if you could spend time on learning how to use it, you can make very professional video with this Final Cut Pro for Mac alternative by Adobe, especially together with other Adobe products like After Effects, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Audition.

Download Adobe Premiere Pro for macOS Now

Adobe Premiere Pro Key Features

• Filters & LUTs: Easily make your footages perfect for delivery.
• Better Collaboration: Use Adobe Anywhere to start editing anywhere. A team works on the same time effectively.
• Audio Mixing: Process audio easily in various types of audio tracks (mono track, stereo track, 5.1 track and adaptive track), along with Audio Track Mixer and Audio Meter panel.
• Sync Settings: Use your Creative Cloud account to save your video settings online to make video editing easier, saving you big time.
• Adobe Story: the Story panel links every raw file so you can locate desire file and start editing conveniently.
• Extensions: The Adobe Exchange panel helps you find extensions and plug-ins quickly.

5. TechSmith Camtasia (Mac and Windows)

TechSmith Camtasia is not a traditional video editing application. It's at first a screen recorder and then video editor. Camtasia is well-known as software for making video tutorial and product demo, and for recording webinar, software, presentation and YouTube videos. If you're looking for video editor to make how-to videos, TechSmith Camtasia is exactly what you want.

Download TechSmith Camtasia for macOS

FCP Alternative Key Features

• Screen Recording: Global leader in screen recording.
• Video Editing: Gives you everything you need to make a high-quality video, 4K UHD supported.
• Fancy Effects: Drag and drop good-looking effects, as well as titles, transitions, graphics.
• Easy Share: Upload high-quality video to YouTube, Vimeo, Screencasts, or your online video course.
• Record & Import PPT: Turn your PowerPoint slides into video, or record online presentations.
• Create Quizzes: Make quizzes with interactivity and measure learning in your videos.

6. ScreenFlow (Mac Only)

Like TechSmith Camtasia, ScreenFlow is also a powerful screen recorder with professional video editing features. Different from Camtasia, ScreenFlow only works on Mac. It helps Mac users to record their screen with system audio and microphone. Like Final Cut Pro for Mac, ScreenFlow equals high quality. It records higher resolutions and 60fps video, and then export edited recordings to videos up to 4K. The price is also acceptable - $129 for lifetime.

Download Telestream ScreenFlow for macOS

ScreenFlow Key Features

• Screen Recording: Record Mac screen to high quality video. Also support iPhone/iPad screen recording. It's very helpful to record app demos.
• Video Editing: An array of tools included: transitions, titles, animations, freehand annotations, etc.
• Extra Stock Media: Pay more to get expandable stock media for video making.
• Styles & Templates: Easier to make a series of software tutorials and product demos.
• GIF & APNG: Quickly make animated GIFs and APNGs from your recordings.
• Closed Caption: Add and edit soft subtitles to your videos.
• Highest Quality Export: ProRes, MP4 and a lot of preset output profiles for easy share.

7. DaVinci Resolve (Windows, Mac and Linux)

Don't want to pay money? There are free substitutes to Final Cut Pro for Mac. DaVinci Resolve is the best one among them. DaVinci Resolve was originally a color correction and color grading software. But now DaVinci Resolve has become an all-in-one system that handles editing, color grading, audio and effects. It's not only compatible with Mac, but also Windows operating system. DaVinci is a commercial video editing solution, but free version is provided and it's more than enough for non-commercial use.

Download DaVinci Resolve for macOS

DaVinci Resolve Key Features

• Easy to use: Like Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve makes it as easy as possible to get started.
• Quick Export: Instantly render video and upload video to YouTube and Vimeo.
• High-end Color Grading: The DI color grades are widely used by post-production organizations in Hollywood and around the world.
• ProRes Compatible: Apple ProRes is fully supported, including 4444, 422, 422(HQ), 422, and 422(LT).
• GPU accelerated: 3D operations, time effects, dissolves, vector motion, color adjustment and more.
• Creative Hardware: Lots of panels are designed to give you fluid controls on editing parameters.
• Upgrade: Upgrade to DaVinci Resolve Studio for more possibilities, like 8K UHD, 120FPS, HDR grading, 10bit H.264 support, stereoscopic 3D support and multi-user collaboration tools.

8. Avid Media Composer (Mac and Windows)

Avid Media Composer is a complete solution for video production which is widely used for broadcast, television shows, and commercials. It comes with a clean and modern user interface, that simplifies the complexity. This industry-leading Final Cut Pro alternative gives you everything you need: broad format support, advanced video editing and finishing tools for highest quality delivery. Avid Media Composer First is the free version to get started. You could upgrade to higher version for $23.99/month or $239/year (at the time being).

Download Avid Media Composer for macOS

FCP Alternative by Avid Key Features

• Wide Format Support: Works well with cutting-edge formats and resolutions like ProRes, DNxHR, OpenEXR, OP1a, 4K, 8K, 16K, HDR, stereoscopic 3D and IMAX. 
• Media Management: A powerful media management tool is included to keep track of all your source files. 
• Video Editing: From titles to high-quality effects, color grading to 7.1 surround, you're all set.  
• Versatile Purpose: Use this FCP alternative to edit and finish video, or deliver to other applications for continuous editing. 
• Connect & Collaborate: Thanks to Avid Link, you can find, connect and work with others to accelerate your editing and get more inspirations. 
• Multicam Editing: This is an Oscar and Emmy-winning tool to save you big time to tell all perspectives of the story. 

Conclusion

What's the best alternative to Final Cut Pro for Mac? Different people will have definitely different answers. It totally depends on your needs. If you want easy to use video editing software, iMovie or Wondershare Filmora is probably what you want. For those who require professional tools like 3D titles and 360 video editing, Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve is what you're looking for. Anyway, you can find the best Final Cut Pro for Mac alternative here.

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