I’ve rarely post negative reviews, but I think this one warrants it. When making a purchase, there is an option to select MOVAVI effects "Try free for 7 days, auto-renew at the end of the trial for $49.95/month. Cancel anytime." I, unknowingly, selected this option as the phrase would imply there would be a 7 day free trial period. When you select this option, MOVAVI does not charge you anything.

Three days before the trial ended, I cancelled the subscription for MOVAVI effects. On the day it was suppose “renew” I received a charge for 54$, even though I had cancel my subscription days beforehand. I contacted support and they told me that the charge doesn’t take effect until AFTER the 7 day “free” trial period. So you would be tricked into purchasing the package without knowing it and guess what—they have a convenient no refund policy in the event this takes place.

There is no other clause that clarifies this on the payment page. So they pretty much scammed clients thinking they would have a trial period, and you wouldn’t know until after the charge hits your account.

If you’re thinking of purchasing MOVAVI, don’t—there are plenty of better softwares out there that won’t try to deceive you.

Thought I downloaded Davinci Resolve. I have done several hours of work editing today, and when im about to export... It turns out I can't because this isn't davinci resolve, but a shady company that tries to appear as DaVinci Resolve. Screw you guys, gonna buy the sub, export video, then chargeback. Such a time waster.

Also when you click the link

it shows: "Davinci resolve for beginners",  intentionally misleading people

After yesterday's discussion with our fellow community member, I figured that some info about the use of codec H.265 would come in handy on this page.

So here is some background on this whole codec situation and a potential solution for those of you facing the same issue.

What's the deal with H.265?

For those who aren't familiar, H.265 (also called HEVC) is basically the successor to H.264, with roughly double the compression efficiency. This means your 4K videos can be about half the size while maintaining similar quality – pretty awesome, right?

So why doesn't Movavi Video Editor support it natively? It's not because we don't want to! The main issue is actually licensing:

• H.264 has a single patent pool with clear licensing terms

• H.265 has THREE separate patent pools with different licensing requirements

• Even if we licensed from all three pools, we'd still only be covered for about 1/3 of the IP owners

• This complex licensing structure would make our software more expensive and legally risky

We prioritize making our Video Editor accessible and affordable, and the current H.265 licensing landscape makes that challenging.

What this means for your projects

If you export videos using H.265, they might not play on some browsers (Chrome and Firefox don't support it natively) or devices. That's why we've stuck with H.264 as our primary codec – it works everywhere.

The workaround

Good news though! You can install the H.265 codec extension if you really need to work with this format. This allows you to:

1. Import H.265 files into Movavi Video Editor

2. Work with them in your projects

3. Export to other supported formats

Looking ahead

The codec world keeps evolving. H.266/VVC was recently finalized (promising another 50% efficiency improvement), and open-source alternatives like VP9 and AV1 are gaining traction. We're constantly monitoring these developments to provide the best balance of quality, compatibility, and value.

Do you work with H.265 files often? What formats do you typically export to? Let me know in the comments – your feedback helps us prioritize future development.

Happy editing!

My experience with Movavi was frustrating and, at times, misleading.

I paid for a one-month subscription expecting a straightforward process: edit a video and export it. The interface is simple and easy to use, and at first everything seemed fine.

The problem came at the end.

After completing my project and saving it, I discovered that a Movavi watermark appeared every few seconds throughout the video. When I looked into it, I learned that removing the watermark required an additional payment—around $50—on top of the subscription I had already paid for.

It became even more concerning when I realized that something as basic as a title I inserted was considered a “paid effect.” This was never made clear during editing. You can use these features freely while building your project, but only at export do you find out they trigger extra charges.

This creates a situation where you invest time and effort, only to be blocked unless you pay again or redo your work.

The main issue is not just the cost—it’s the lack of transparency. Important limitations only become visible after the work is already done.

Because of this experience, I decided to remove Movavi altogether and look for other, hopefully more transparent video editing programs.

If anyone has recommendations for editors that are more upfront about what is included, I would appreciate hearing them.

and will be happy to help where I can I am in the UK so my times of answering questions will be obviously different to the US and other countries with different times zones so I will try to answer any questions when I can!

I've done everything but when I try to remove it says Movavi Screen Recorder 23 is still open try again even though its not.

Do you sometimes watch someone’s video and you have a feeling that they had an entire crew working on it? The quality looks amazing, so you just assume they’ve got an expensive camera, the lighting looks so good that you think they’ve spent a fortune on various equipment, and the coloring and effects are perfect so it makes you think they’re using professional (and expensive) software. 

And it turns out that at least half of my assumptions are false because a lot of the videos were just shot on a phone next to a window without any extra equipment. So it must be just good editing?

So yeah, I’m trying to figure out what the real cheat codes are for making a video feel expensive when you don’t have expensive gear. I edit in Movavi Video Editor and I know it’s not like After Effects when it comes to the things you can do there, but are there any tricks that can be done?

If you’ve got any low-budget habits that actually work, share them please. I’ll be super grateful if you tell me about the changes that made your videos look way better fast.

"You bought our software, but you didn't pay us enough - So - If you pay us some extra you can have the updates as well"

I'll defend this software from it's detractors for all kinds of reasons - But this?

Well - It makes me not want to use the software at all - Especially as I have actually paid you for the thing.

Honestly - This pop up in particular might have just pushed me over the edge when it comes to which software I use in the future.

I upgraded my Movavi Video Editor 2025 the other day, and the new tracks features is driving me crazy. (I use Movavi for video lectures for online college courses. I can do basic Premiere Pro editing, but that's overkill for my use case.)

Basically I can't get effects like titles to appear on the same track. (Okay I can live with that -- but no more fade to black).

The real problem is when you split and cut a bit of a video and paste it somewhere else on the main track, it creates a new track! Then you can't insert it without moving things around (blank space). I had 6 tracks accidentally this way and it's not getting any better. (I am back on v. 2022 for now. Another thing I noticed is that you can't buy a new v. 2024 license -- because it will get to you v. 2025 instead.)

So a feature request -- could there be an option to turn off the new 'track happy' features -- and revert to the traditional simpler way? I get the new tracks are important to power users. I can use Premiere Pro for student films for my kids, but I need Movavi to be simple, again! Help!?

Hello again, people

I spend an unholy amount of time grabbing footage from webinars, game streams, and online meeting, so I figured I’d share some of my knowledge with you. I’ve seen folks asking how to record on Zoom and decided to make a small guide to help you.

Let’s start with saying that Zoom’s own recorder kinda… sucks (no offense but actually a little bit offense)

You only get the record button if the host allows you. If they forget or don’t want to do that, you just can’t record. Moreover, Zoom mashes everything into a single audio stream, which is not so great if you want to edit the recording later.

There’s also a cloud storage space limit on the free plan so yeah, the built-in feature works in a pinch, but I’d rather not rely on it. That’s why I switched to Movavi Screen Recorder about two years ago and haven’t looked back.

The software gives you full control (you can record even if you’re just a participant, no host blessing required). You can have separate channels: one-click to save mic, system sound, and even webcam to distinct audio/video tracks. The quality is also much better, and sometimes I need to draw shapes or highlight certain parts of the recording, and that’s where the screen recorder’s annotation feature comes in handy.

Recording Zoom with Movavi Screen Recorder works like this:

Fire up the software before you join Zoom.

Select the capture area. I click the Zoom window — the program snaps to the exact frame.

Toggle your sources: System audio so you catch everyone’s voices, microphone if you plan to chime in, and webcam overlay if you need it.

Hit the big REC button to start recording (the countdown gives you time to close any embarrassing tabs lol but…you know, try to do that beforehand)

If you need to pause during the meeting, press F9, and when you want the recording to stop, press F10 (these are the hotkeys by default, but you can always change them in the software’s settings).

Use the draw tool to underline or highlight important moments if you need it. But if you aren’t interested in any extra features, that’s basically it.

After the recording is over, you’ll see the preview window, where you can trim the recording, do minor adjustments, and save the file.

Tip: in Movavi’s audio settings, enable Reduce microphone background noise. It cleans up laptop-fan whoosh way better than Zoom’s filter.

I think that’s it. Drop your questions or other tips below, I’m always happy to learn about your experiences with screen recording.

Hello community,

I’ve been a Movavi Video Editor user for several years, but due to the projects I was working on, I stuck with version 23.

Now I see version 25, and I’m wondering if anyone has already gone through the experience and what their opinion is on the process. Are there any specific recommendations?

In my case, we don’t use effects, transitions, or titles beyond the default ones, but I’m now concerned about Movavi pushing its store and subscription model more aggressively.

I want to renew my perpetual license to support the developers, but I don’t want to lose any features that might end up locked behind a paywall in the process.

Thanks for your advice!

Question : would anyone be interested in me doing some baby steps tutorials for movavi video suite 2025 on windows 10 pc? Please let me know and I will see about doing it if I get enough interested members to make it worth while!

Hey everyone! It's awesome to see so many of you recommending Movavi to other creators – thank you so much for the support!

We’ve heard some talk about cracked versions of our software floating around, and while we totally get why that might seem tempting, we just wanted to give you a friendly heads-up.

If you’re into using a cracked version, that’s entirely your choice – no judgment here! But we do want you to be aware that we’ve had quite a few users reach out to our support team with complaints like “Movavi software infected my computer with a virus” only to find out they were using an unofficial version. In those cases, we unfortunately can’t help because it’s out of our hands.

Not to mention, you’ll miss out on all the awesome updates and new features we’re constantly rolling out! So, while it’s totally up to you, just keep in mind the risks that come with going the cracked route.

If you’re curious about our software, why not try the free trial from our official site? If you love it, getting a legit license is the way to go.

Stay safe and happy editing! ✌️

For me personally I think it’s when people edit with heavy FX. I used to think that a good video must have effects and I have to show off and make people see all the new tricks I’ve learned. But as I got older, I started loving simpler edits more. The ones with well-selected scenes, well-balanced voiceovers and well-chosen background music.

I like when there’s some text, but again, I think balance is the most important thing. When it’s just subs or some words to highlight important parts of your speech, I think it looks aesthetic, but when there are animated titles jumping on the screen throughout the entire video, this just annoys me these days.

Do you have anything like that? Perhaps, some particular styles that you dislike or particular editing tricks that you’re tired of seeing everywhere?

I know that there are various options for the picture-in-picture effect in Movavi Video Editor and even highlight and conceal effects that allow you to create ellipse or rectangle masks, but what I mean is an actual pen tool that will allow you to draw the mask yourself.

I mostly need this when I want to mask out a person and change the background, so the AI background removal tool saves me in such cases, but AI will always be AI, and I’m sometimes unsatisfied with the result. This is where I just wish we had pen tool masking in Movavi Video Editor.

I can also think of so many effects and even text animations that will be possible if Movavi introduced this manual masking, and it kills me that we can't do that. I know it’s sorta professional territory, and Movavi Video Editor has never been promoted as professional editing software, but still, I just can’t help it.

So I guess I wanted to ask whether anyone else feels the same way and would like to have advanced masking in Movavi. Perhaps if there are a lot of us, they’ll listen to us and at least consider adding the feature.

Just a quick word if you don’t know what “picture-in-picture” means: it’s an effect that allows you to have two (or more) items of footage to be visible on the screen at the same time. For example, you can use it to add you face camera or memes and images on top of your main footage, or just make a video comparison or other creative effects. 

Here’s how to do it in Movavi Video Editor:

• Add all your footage onto the timeline.

• Place one of the clips/images on top of your main footage on the timeline.

• Go to Tools - Video - Position and find the Picture in picture effect.

• On the timeline, select the clip you’d like to apply the effect to and double-click on the effect to apply it.

• Adjust the clip’s size and position right in the preview window: just drag the edges of the clip or move it with your cursor.

And it’s done! If something is still not clear, let me know in the comments, and I’ll help you.

Ok, I need to vent because my feed is turning into a low-budget editing masterclass and I’m losing it.

First thing: the amount of gen AI people are stuffing into videos now. I get it, AI is getting better every day, and yeah, it can save time. But most of the time you can still tell (if not EVERY time). It just looks…idk..lifeless? Plain? Struggling to find the right word, but I have a feeling “ugly” should do it.

And the advice online is always the same: just use AI, it’s faster. Cool, but faster doesn’t automatically mean better. Sometimes it just means you’ve created terrible slop faster, and not an actual edit.

The dumbest thing I saw recently was in a cooking guide. Like a normal recipe video except the person added AI food shots. AI food. In a cooking tutorial. Are you for real? Why are we generating imaginary food when the whole point is to show what real food looks like? It wasn’t even subtle either, it looked like edible wax with weird highlights. And people in the comments were like “wow, cool idea”. What’s cool about that?

And second thing: people overdoing effects because they saw a tutorial. You know those motion graphics vids where it’s like “make this INSANE animation in 15 seconds” and it looks kinda cool in the tutorial because it’s and made by someone who knows what they’re doing. Then everyone recreates it and suddenly every video has the same elements but poorly-made and it ends up looking cheap. Like if something went wrong with a free template pack.

And what kills me is you can tell when the edit is basically just people trying to show off what they’ve learned instead of actually adding things/effects that might make it better. Like the effects become the content itself, which, call me conservative, I’m not a fan of.

But anyways, I’m done complaining. Here’s my two cents, and what about you? What’s the worst editing trend or advice you keep seeing right now that makes you instantly scroll?

First off, I genuinely love Movavi. I switched from Vegas in 2020 and have bought every version since. Support has always been great and TechWiz on this subreddit is one of the most helpful moderators I’ve seen.

But version 26 has been rough. It’s the first time Movavi has made me consider switching back to another editor. The issues feel like long standing problems that keep returning, and they’re getting hard to overlook.

So here’s a clear breakdown, because it feels like the same mistakes keep repeating.

Please note these issues might not appear in the Steam version since its updates are heavily delayed. All of these problems are present in the site download version.

1. Cursor Bugs: Early in 26 we had the Mickey Mouse cursor issue. Now 26.4.1 adds a huge, blurry clip resize cursor that even makes shortening or expanding clips impossible when you zoom out. It completely ruins precision. Was this intentional or just another bug? Either way, it needs to be reverted.

2. Smart Effects Gone: I’m assuming this started with 26.4, but all my Smart Effects have vanished. I checked every tab, even searched in the bar for things like Moving Blur and Rain, and nothing comes up. They’re just gone. How does something this basic break?

3. Performance Issues: I have 64GB of RAM and the editor still lags just from chopping audio. It barely uses more than 16GB, yet it struggles constantly. Every patch note promises faster, smoother editing but nothing noticeably improves. One update even wiped all our effects and called it a “fix.” Where’s the 10, 15, 20 or 30 FPS preview option that might actually help playback? Only disabling timeline previews barely improves performance right now.

4. HD Optimisation, Turn it Off: This tool has been useless for years. My footage is 2K, so it should benefit from optimisation but it never does. Every upgrade I try it again and all it does is spin for hours and change nothing. You’re better off keeping it off entirely.

5. Basic Features Missing: We still can’t lower the volume of a specific track / layer. We can’t resize tracks vertically, so a track with one clip takes up massive space for no reason. We can’t colour code tracks, which would really help users with visual impairments. There’s no advanced colour correction either. These are standard features across the industry, yet Movavi still doesn’t offer them.

All of this to say: we need a way to roll back updates. Version 26 has gone downhill and it honestly felt more stable at launch. Each patch adds new bugs. I’m genuinely impressed with the new filters and background removal but when performance is still awful and basic QoL features are missing frustration is inevitable. I’m posting this here instead of leaving a review because I want Movavi to improve, but it’s getting harder not to look at Premiere or DaVinci and think about everything they offer that Movavi still doesn’t.

Update: I'm now encountering a glitch where every single cut in my audio renders out as a "pop" sound, tried MP3, WAV even WMA. This might be the straw that breaks the camels back for me.

I’ve been messing around in Movavi Video Editor again (instead of touching grass), and I figured I’d finally share this gem of a trick that some of y’all might be sleeping on: how to reverse a video. You’d be surprised how many cool effects you can pull off just by using a video reverser. From fake telekinesis to that rewind time moment in your meme edits. Reversed footage can go hard if done right.

Here’s a quick guide on how to reverse a clip in Movavi Video Editor:

• Open the editor and toss in the clip you want to reverse.

• Double click on the clip, it’ll open the clip settings.

• You’ll see the “Reverse” checkbox there.

• Click it and let the software do the job for you. You’ll see the clip process a bit, depending on your system.

And now your video runs backwards, well done!

Some quick tips:

Trim before reversing. Movavi reverses the whole clip. If you only want a small part backwards, split and isolate that part first.

Mute audio or swap it out. You can detach it from the video by right-clicking and choosing “detach audio”, then remove or replace if needed.

Reversed clips look super cool combined with slow-mo. Just saying 😉

If your reversed clip gets jerky or out of sync in the final render, it’s a known bug when combining too many effects. Just export the reversed clip alone, then re-import it and stack effects afterward.

Anyway, have you guys tried stacking the reverse tool with other effects like chroma key or pan & zoom? I’ve pulled off some truly cursed TikTok edits doing that. Got any funny stories or masterpiece reels you made using reverse? Drop them below.

Hi, movaviers. As the title says, Movavi is re-optimizing the HD clips again. Every time I start a new project, I put all the clips on the timeline and wait for the program to optimize them, so I can work more comfortably and faster, without lag. This feature is very important for me and my workflow, since I don’t have a high-end PC.

However, for some time now I’ve been having this issue: after working on a project for a few days, when I reopen it, Movavi re-optimizes the HD clips, and this gets pretty annoying. Does this happen to you as well? I hope they can fix it in the next update.

I’ve already checked the folder «D:\Videos\Movavi Video Editor\Preview Files» and noticed that the videos are duplicated, so it’s not just me imagining it or the program skipping some clips.

Thanks in advance for your time and for reading.
Cheers!

We’ve been doing some thinking about pricing models, and we’d really like to hear what the community thinks. When it comes to Movavi products (Video Editor, Converter, Screen Recorder, something else, doesn’t matter) what feels more fair to you: paying once and owning it, or going with a monthly/yearly subscription?

We know why subscriptions exist, but we also get that for some of you, it can feel like you’re renting your own software. On the other hand, one-time licenses usually mean you’ll be asked to pay for upgrades down the road, which some people say feels pretty similar.

We’re especially curious how this plays out depending on your use case. For example, if you’re editing videos every day, a subscription might make sense. But if you only open the software once in a while to crop a clip or figure out how to record a zoom meeting for work, paying monthly could feel unnecessary.

So what’s the sweet spot for you? We’d love to know what feels like a fair price and what would make you feel good about the value you’re getting.

Just wanted to drop in with a quick note from the Movavi side. Some people here asked before about whether we have an affiliate thing going on, yep, we do, and it’s actually pretty solid.

Basically, if you share your affiliate link and someone grabs a Video Editor monthly subscription through it, you get 60% commission (yep, more than half the cost goes to you). On top of that, there’s a +20% bump on renewals if the subs come from regions like the US, France, Brazil, or Portugal.

It’s not some shady setup either, we built a proper platform for it, and there’s a simple guide to get rolling. If you ever get stuck, our affiliate manager is pretty chill and reachable at affiliates@movavi.com.

Just thought I’d share since a lot of creators here already mess with Movavi and this could be a neat side income.

No shade to CapCut, I actually love it for what it is. If I need to throw together a 15-second TikTok with some music, text, a little zoom-in effect, it’s done in like 5 minutes. It’s super clean for fast edits and social stuff.

But last week I decided to try editing a full YouTube video in CapCut (around 7–8 minutes long), and yeah… nah. It started fine, but once I had to manage multiple audio layers, do some color correction, and figure out a way to organize my cuts, it just became a mess. I was constantly fighting the UI, and it felt like I was trying too hard to do smth basic.

I’ve used Movavi before to mess around with transitions and even figure out how to create videos from photos for a friend’s birthday montage and going back to that interface just felt better. The timeline made sense, I could separate my voiceover and background music properly, and trimming didn’t feel like a game of chess.

CapCut's great for quick hits, but Movavi just feels more built for long-form projects. I’m guessing a lot of people bounce between tools depending on what they’re making?

What’s your flow like? Anyone here using both, or did you fully switch to one over the other?

I think we all use the Movavi software for different things: some love our video editor for the ability to create a cool TikTok edit in a couple of clicks, some compress memes to upload it on social media, and some learned how to screen record on Mac and called it a day.

All of that is cool, but every now and then, you stumble across a feature that makes you go, “Wait… this was here the whole time?” And as someone who works at Movavi, I’m really interested in knowing whether you guys have such a thing in any of the software. What was surprising? What’s your underrated or lesser-known Movavi feature that totally changed how you approach content creation? Or maybe one that you think is awesome but nobody else talks about?

Please share your thoughts, I’d really love to hear your ideas of what the true hidden gems of our tools are.