Social media is a place for fun and work, as over 70% of adults use it daily. With video content dominating the landscape, businesses and influencers actively adopted social media video editors to generate better content and gain an edge over their peers. If you want to enter the market for such apps and develop your own social media video maker, this article is for you, as it saves you time on researching your competitors. In it, you will learn:
- Updated stats on video content viewership and effectiveness
- 10 popular social media video creator apps with core features and pricing models
- How SDKs help save up to 50% of development time when making such an app from scratch.
How Social Media Video Makers Help Brands Engage and Monetize
Video content is the undisputed king of social media and the Internet, as evidenced by TikTok surpassing Google as the most popular web destination. The business was quick to jump on the bandwagon and use the trend to its advantage: 86% of companies use videos for marketing.
Social media is the main place where brands can interact with customers through video — to great effect. Twitter clips alone get 2 billion views per day and Facebook ones — over 8 billion. In 86% of cases, using videos led to more leads, in 49% — to getting fewer support calls, and in 87% to a good ROI.
Having a good video editor is crucial for making effective social media clips. Firstly, they are one of the few tools people need to do this job. 40% of people spend less than $500 on a single video. Secondly, a great number of videos are watched without sound: 92% of users don’t turn it on. This means you have to rely on captions and other visual aids. Finally, videos with effects (AR masks, filters, etc.) get much better engagement.
Summing up, a solid social media video creator app is important for business users.
10 Tried and Tested Social Media Video Editors to Create Viral Content
These are some of the most popular social media video creation tools that you can use as inspiration for your own project. There isn’t a universally accepted best social media video maker. However, you will definitely find one that suits your vision.
1. FilmoraGo
FilmoraGo is a free mobile and desktop app that allows you to create videos for social media. It is a complementary tool to Filmora, which is paid. It is available on mobile, Windows, and Mac platforms.
FilmoraGo is designed for speed and usability so that even people without any experience in the field can create quality social media content. Its feature set includes the core functions like trimming and sound editing, as well as extras: background replacement, motion tracking, video stabilization, and more. It is further strengthened by ready-made templates that speed up the production process even more.
Reviewers and users alike praise FilmoraGo for its streamlined interface, powerful tools, and extendability, as people can purchase upgrades through a store.
Price and pricing: it’s technically free but it doesn’t mean that the developers don’t make money from it. Firstly, they sell additional features and templates via the shop. Secondly, there is a premium version for $6/mo that lets users access advanced features. Finally, this product can serve as advertising for a more powerful Filmora.
2. Wave
Wave is a video editing software and a live streaming tool combined. It is cloud-based, which means it is available on pretty much anything with a screen and an Internet connection.
Wave is feature-rich, having pretty much everything a casual user could need and then some: trimming, captioning (including speech-to-text), resizing for specific social media, etc. This is complemented by millions of stock photos and videos, as well as templates that users can apply to their content.
Users like Wave’s drag-and-drop functionality and the general ease of making videos. However, they sometimes complain about its technical instability and wish for additional features like Web AR.
Price and pricing: there is a free plan that has limited features (e.g. 15 seconds max video length). More expensive ones start from $16/mo and allow access to more advanced options and more stock content.
3. Ripl
Ripl positions itself as a dedicated video editing software for social media. Its primary audience is small business owners who want to promote their products or services on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc. Ripl is available on Android, iOS, and Desktop platforms.
This app boasts certain unique features that fit its SME-oriented business model: adding branding (logos and fonts) in one click, social media management tools, and even ad creation.
Users say that Ripl does its main job (video editing for social media) rather well. However, many feel that it is a bit too pricey for what it offers.
Price and pricing: Ripl offers a 7-day free trial. After that, the users can choose one of two plans starting from $8.33/mo.
4. InShot
InShot is a simple video-editing app for iOS and Android. It is a great tool for someone who only learns how to make social media videos thanks to its great interface and straightforward workflow. It fits explainers and training videos as well, though.
With regards to features, InShot has all the core ones (trimming, merging, etc.) as well as some effects like color filters or background blur. It supports several different aspect ratios making it convenient for any social media. However, it lacks certain popular functions (e.g. zoom).
Users like the overall convenience of InShot, from its interface to its monetization. However, many would like more features and some are irritated by the watermark.
Price and pricing: InShot is ad-supported, so it’s free — with a caveat, as each exported video will have the app’s logo in the corner. Removing it will cost $3.99/mo. Users can also buy lifetime licenses for $34.99
5. Lumen5
Lumen5 is another cloud-based social media video editor with a focus on time-saving features powered by AI. The level of automation sometimes lets the app do everything on its own with barely any human input.
Lumen5 can integrate third-party content, highlight important keywords, and even create videos from your text prompts. It is also integrated with Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, making it easier to upload videos there.
People enjoy the automation that this app provides, as well as its massive amount of royalty-free content to use. However, there aren’t any sound editing features, which is puzzling to some.
Price and pricing: there is a free plan with limited features and a Lumen5 watermark. Paid subscriptions start from $59/mo, and enterprise users need to contact sales for the details of their plan.
6. Animaker
Animaker is an online video editor for social media, instructional videos, and other audiovisual content. It is mostly focused on making animations, hence the name. Its UI is based primarily on drag-and-drop interactions for maximum ease of use.
The animation capabilities of this app are state-of-the-art, as it can quickly make characters move in complex ways and even add automatic lip-syncing. But if you need more common videos, Animaker can work with them too, supporting resolutions of up to 4K.
Users praise this app for being very user-friendly, some calling it the best video editor for social media. Others, however, point out that it is a bit too hungry for RAM and the 5-minute limit on the basic plan is not enough.
Price and pricing: Animaker has a free plan. The paid ones start from $10/mo.
7. Adobe Premiere Rush
Some influencers consider Adobe Premiere Rush the best social media video editor. It is a powerful tool for making YouTube content, Instagram stories, and other similar clips. It is available on mobile devices, as well as desktop computers.
Rush has a large and diverse feature set that includes auto-reframing, color correction, sound editing, captions, and much more. In total, this is one of the most feature-rich apps in its class, although it is not as powerful as professional video editing tools.
Users like the simplicity of the app’s interface, as well as the value it could bring. However, some dislike the fact that it is closely tied to the Creative Cloud (Adobe’s umbrella project for all its media editing tools), occasional glitches, and the discrepancy in features between mobile and desktop versions.
Price and pricing: there is a free version. Access to premium features will cost $9.99/mo.
8. Promo
Promo is a social media video maker for influencers and marketers. It is cloud-based for better accessibility.
Promo allows users to start from scratch, use a template, or upload a filmed clip. Then its array of features (including one-click branding) helps modify and prepare it for publication. The app is integrated with most social media platforms and several file storage services (e.g. Dropbox and Google Drive) for ease of export. It also includes certain social media management tools.
Users like Promo for its feature set and the quality it allows them to achieve. However, many report issues with their customer support.
Price and pricing: plans start from $25/mo.
9. VidLab
VidLab is one of the best video editing software for social media. It is available on Apple devices only and is intended for TikTok posts, Stories, Reels, and other similar content.
VidLab has a long list of filters and effects, multi-track and multi-clip functionality, animated text, AR masks, and other features. It positions itself as a one-stop-shop for all the video editing needs a user might have.
People who tried it tend to like the slick visuals and the quality of the effects. However, the app is limited to iPhones and many features need to be purchased first.
Price and pricing: the basic version is free. Premium subscription costs $4.99/mo, and features can also be purchased separately.
10. MotionDen
MotionDen is one of the answers for “how to make great social media videos”. It is cloud-based and offers many templates for explainers, infographics, ads, Instagram stories, etc.
MotionDen’s features are relatively simple, focusing on cropping, trimming, color correction, aspect ratio change, etc. It boasts over 1500 templates that speed up the process.
Price and pricing: the free plan has severely limited functionality. The paid one costs $29/mo if billed yearly.
Video Editor SDKs: 50% Dev Cost Savings and Fast Launch
There is an option that allows companies to slash their development costs by half and get easy video editing software for social media.
Video editing SDKs and APIs are premade modules that come loaded with a pack of features. In this context, they are functionally similar, but API offers more customization options at the cost of fewer premade functions. They can be integrated with a project in progress or a completed app in under a day. Compare this with spending months of development on making each feature from the ground up. The license costs are also far lower than that of a single dev’s monthly salary.
Decreased time-to-market is an even more important benefit that a video editor SDK brings. Companies who release sooner gain an edge over their competitors and decrease the risks associated with launching a new app. Spending just one day on features that would take months to develop from scratch is like joining a horse race while riding a motorcycle.
There are plenty of video editor SDKs on the market. They differ in features they offer, pricing models, platform support, etc. Some of them can also perform additional functions, e.g. live streaming or photo editing. Moreover, non-technical aspects (e.g. customer support quality) also play a part in the selection.
Why Banuba SDK for the Best Social Media Video Creator
Using the best video editor SDK is a major step in developing the best social media video editor. This is why you should choose Banuba:
- SDK and API versions available. Choose between customizability and feature set, depending on your vision.
- Complete functionality. Get both core video editing features and extra effects in one package.
- Diverse and impressive filters. The SDK includes AR masks, AR makeup, AI touch-up, Instagram filters, and a lot of other visual improvements.
- Asset store. If you don’t want to create more masks yourself, there is over 1000 available in our asset store.
- AR cloud. A single filter or mask can take up to 3Mbs of space. Including a lot of them in the app will bloat the file size. To decrease it, store your filters in the AR cloud and let users download what they need when they need it.
- Cross-platform framework compatibility. Banuba Video Editor SDK can be easily integrated into apps built with Flutter or React Native. This adds additional time- and cost-saving potential to the one that the frameworks themselves bring.
Conclusion
Videos dominate the social media landscape, and businesses use such content to increase their sales, making video editing apps invaluable to their growth. The existing apps like FilmoraGo, Adobe Premiere Rush, or Ripl are a good source of inspiration for startuppers who want to launch a competing offering. And if they want to go to market faster and risk less money, they would do well by integrating a video editing SDK — preferably, Banuba.
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For that, you will need to download (or access online) at least one of the social media video creation tools listed above. Then you will need to change the aspect ratio to the one that fits your chosen platform, remove bad takes and superfluous frames, and add captions and effects.
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There isn’t one social media video editor that can be called the best for everyone. It all depends on the feature set, pricing, platform, UI quality, and personal preference. Use the list of the apps in this article to make the selection easier.
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Good social media content needs to fit your target audience, bring value (entertainment value counts too), and be well-made. For the first part, learn who your audience is and what they like. For the second, make sure to give them what they want. For the third, use a quality social media video maker and edit your clip in a dynamic way.
