The Movavi Video Editor 15 Personal Edition presents a solution to a common issue: the inaccessibility and high cost of most video editing software. If those barriers to entry have dissuaded you but you want to learn to edit or create your own pro-looking videos, Movavi may just be the program for you. Movavi features an improved timeline that makes editing simple and accessible without sacrificing fundamental features, and includes some fun extras like stickers, preset title animations, and filters for your footage.
Design: Simple but versatile
The Movavi 15 Video Editor Personal Edition is the basic version of the company’s video editing software. There is a Movavi Plus Edition that has some extra features but the Personal Edition is similar in functionality and design. Movavi is designed to excel as an easy-to-use video editor of personal footage, marketed for travel diaries, wedding videos, and vlogs. In that vein, the ‘Montage Wizard’—where the program will create a quick slideshow sequence for you—is great for stitching related videos together, while the full feature mode goes more in depth for editing titles, graphics, and effects. Movavi’s export options were also designed with YouTubers and vloggers in mind, allowing you to upload directly to YouTube from the program. The export window even includes a YouTube form to add a description, and the option to make your video public or private just like you would in YouTube Studio. The Movavi user interface has three main panels: a preview monitor, media panel, and timeline workspace with a selection of tools. The media browser lets you choose from a variety of configurations to begin a project: you can record video straight into Movavi using your computer’s camera or a webcam, you can record a screencast, or add media files and import a folder of video, audio, or image files to work with. Movavi’s timeline is designed to make the editing process simple and straightforward. When you import media files it will automatically throw your footage into the timeline and order your footage chronologically. Thanks to Movavi’s magnetic timeline, it’s easy to reorder the footage if you haven’t shot your clips chronologically. It’ll snap your clips up to one another and automatically reorder them when you move something, so if you want a clip in a different spot than where Movavi imported it into your timeline, just select the clip you want to move and drag and drop. Movavi will automatically place the clip within the sequence and move the clips around it to make space. Movavi also has a host of instant video filters, scene transitions, stickers, and titles you can drag and drop onto your clips to polish and stylize them. The stickers are a quick way to add some fun and personality with emoji style graphics. Movavi’s title graphics feature some preset animations, and there’s an Effects Store online where you can purchase additional titles and different graphics.
Setup Process: Direct download
You can purchase and directly download Movavi from their website. The software is quick to install and ready to use in a few short steps. Upon purchase of the software you will receive your activation code via email, which activates your program with a lifetime license for the software.
Performance: Basic ‘all in one’ editor with a lot of presets
Movavi performs well and can import and export a range of file formats and codecs including .avi, .mov, .mp4, .mkv, .flv, .webm, h.264 and more. Movavi also supports HD and 4K UHD video, which is a big perk for this price. Making cuts to your footage and deleting clips is straightforward in Movavi, but it does differ slightly from other video editing programs. The scissors tool, for instance, lets you cut your footage wherever the cursor is, convenient for new editors to ensure they don’t accidentally slice content, but a little awkward for veterans who are used to being able to cut wherever they place their mouse and click. Following these same lines, Movavi has condensed other elements of video editing software right into the timeline panel for convenience. These include video effects and audio properties. The ‘Settings’ gear icon will allow you to access video effect parameters of any clip you have selected, which gives you access to a pretty good variety of video parameters and effects, although you can’t go terribly in depth. The video effects include the speed of the clip, color adjustments, rotate and crop, pan and zoom, animation functions, camera stabilization, chroma key, and more. The settings panel for audio is similar and you can easily edit the volume, speed, and EQ of any clip. Audio effects are accessible by selecting a clip and clicking the ‘Mixer’ levels button, which opens up the audio panel for that clip. Transitions are also displayed as simple parameter-based effects in the audio panel which allow you fade a clip in and out. Although the timeline editor is a trackless-based, magnetic timeline for video, it is a more traditional track-based timeline for the audio channels, which conveniently allows you to layer audio clips into the background of your footage.
Price: Very affordable
You’d be hard pressed to find a better video editor for $55 with the same amount of functionality that Movavi offers. Two of the most popular video editors are Apple’s Final Cut Pro X and Adobe’s Premiere Pro, which cost between $239 and $300 (for Premiere, that’s just the cost of annual subscription). It’s a steep price to pay for your travel vlog or to edit your family videos, so if those are your main use cases Movavi is a worthy option.
Movavi 15 Personal Edition vs. Wondershare’s Filmora9 Video Editor
Another affordable program that’s a direct competitor to Movavi is Wondershare’s Filmora9, which sells for a one-time fee of $80. Filmora is a similar, timeline-based editor that supports HD and 4K video and is easy to use (while affording a bit more control of video effects and color than Movavi does). Filmora also features a host of stylistic titles, graphics, and filter effects for your footage, but Filmora has a bit higher level of integration with Wondershare.com’s content library of animations, emoji style characters, and title graphics than Movavi does with their Effects Store. Filmora has an annual plan that also includes unlimited access to Wondershare’s stock footage and photo library. For content creators looking for an affordable source of stock media, the Filmora Unlimited Plan may be a valuable upgrade. Access to the Wondershare stock library with the annual plan is considerably cheaper than a combo video editor and stock library plan from a company like Adobe. Be aware, however, that Movavi may better for exporting uploads straight to YouTube—there are reports of issues using Filmora’s similar feature. The Movavi 15 Personal Edition Video Editor is a quality program that delivers solid functionality and ease of use to its target market of vloggers and home videographers. At this price, you’re not getting a lot of high end effects and tools: most of Movavi’s color effects are auto adjustments which process your footage but don’t offer much depth, and the video filters are similarly basic. For value and core features, however, Movavi gets the job done admirably.
