Best solution
To really speed up your workflow, you need tools for the tasks outside your NLE, like clearing scratch disks and compressing client files. Usually, building a solid collection of the best Mac apps for video editors requires buying multiple standalone licenses. Setapp solves this by grouping these post-production utilities (and 300+ more) into one simple subscription.
Here is a breakdown of the specific apps I pulled from the catalog to make your daily editing routine faster.
Or get Permute as a standalone app for $4.99 USD/yr.
| Your task | Tool | How it helps |
| Batch video compression & conversion | Permute | Batch-converts, compresses, and adjusts video, audio, and image files. |
| Local AI video transcription | WhisperTranscribe | Generates timestamped transcripts locally from raw footage without per-minute cloud fees. |
| AI video transcription | TranscribeX | Converts footage into text. |
| Auto-captions for social cuts | VidCap | Generates and inserts subtitles in 60+ languages. |
| Screen recording with auto-zoom | FocuSee | Records tutorials or client review walkthroughs with automatic cursor tracking and zoom effects. |
| Universal codec playback | Elmedia Player | Plays MKV, WebM, and high-bitrate ProRes files without QuickTime black-screen glitches. |
| Duplicate media & scratch disk cleanup | Gemini | Helps to get rid of duplicate files and free up disk space. |
| Project folder archiving | Archiver 4 | Compresses finished client projects into password-protected split archives for cold storage. |
| Renaming files with AI | Keep It Shot | Generates meaningful names for your files. |
| Preventing Mac sleep during exports | Lungo | Keeps your Mac awake during overnight renders or large cloud uploads with one click. |
Let’s walk through the video editor apps from Setapp that can help you stay on top of your day and keep your workflow moving.
If you need a reliable video compression app for Mac, Setapp includes Permute, which can handle large ProRes (Apple's high-quality video format) master files. Using the popular Adobe Media Encoder just to create a quick preview for Slack is excessive and uses up a lot of RAM, distracting you from your active timeline. You can simply drop the master file onto the Permute window, select H.264 or H.265 (the latest video compression standards), specify the target file size, and let the process run. The best part? You can do that in batches. Permute uses Apple silicon hardware acceleration. This means that heavy exports are processed in the background while you continue working on your edit.
What it offers to users:
“After downloading a video with Downie, I convert it to the format I need in Permute and bring it into Final Cut Pro. It takes minutes, and I can focus on the content instead of dealing with unsupported files.”
Raw footage is only useful once it's searchable. These three apps turn interviews, quick audio, and social clips into text or captions, each suited to a different speed and use case.
WhisperTranscribe is a lifesaver for documentary and corporate editing. When you’re faced with a huge amount of interview footage, the last thing you want to do is scrub through timelines just to find one specific soundbite. Uploading the media to this app provides you with a clean, timestamped transcript in minutes. This completely changes the approval process. Instead of forcing a director or client to watch a 45-minute raw file, you can provide them with a text document for them to highlight the quotes they want. This creates a quick “paper edit” before you even start cutting.
What it offers to users:
TranscribeX transcription tool for video editors for Mac is great for smaller files or quick tasks. Instead of waiting for a browser-based service to upload and process your audio, everything runs on-device. It’s incredibly fast for those times when you just need to pull a quick quote from an audio memo or check a single line of dialogue without interrupting your entire workflow.
What it offers to users:
If you edit social clips, VidCap is a dedicated AI caption generator included in Setapp that embeds trendy word-by-word subtitles into a video. It supports 60+ languages for quick localization, but the real highlight for me is how it saves messy talking-head footage. Imagine a client sends a clip where they are blatantly reading off an iPad or sounding like they recorded in an empty hallway. You can fix that really fast with VidCap because the app uses AI to redirect their eyes to the lens and strip out the echo. Add in the ability to blur distracting backgrounds, and you completely avoid having to open After Effects for rotoscope work (frame-by-frame manual masking).
What it offers to users:
Rotoscoping a talking-head clip by hand? That's hours you don't have. VidCap's AI redirects eye contact and strips echo automatically. Fix My Footage Free.
Recording a clean tutorial or client walkthrough usually means editing in zoom effects and cutting dead air afterward. One app handles both automatically while you record.
FocuSee is an automated screen recorder for Mac that tracks your cursor and zooms in on active windows. If you often record timeline walkthroughs or software tutorials, this app is incredibly practical. I like that you don’t have to open the raw footage in a new project to upscale the display. The software automatically inserts smooth 2D and 3D zoom-ins exactly at the areas you click. Furthermore, you are fully in charge of what those changes to the screen and click points are going to reveal to the user.
If you have to read through any client notes while recording, the internal teleprompter will help you stay focused without having to look away, so you don’t forget where you were. You can either record the whole monitor or just one app. As soon as you hit stop, it’ll sort your footage in a flash. I also found the Auto Cut tool really useful. It helps you get rid of dead air and filler words.
What it offers to users:
“FocuSee captures my screen and webcam at the same time, then adds professional touches that would normally take me hours to create manually. The automatic cursor following keeps viewers focused on exactly what I’m demonstrating.”
Record a polished walkthrough on the first take. FocuSee's teleprompter and auto-zoom mean no more re-reading client notes from memory. Get FocuSee Free.
Elmedia Player is a universal Mac media player that can open all the weird file formats and codecs you get stuck with. So, if your client sends you an .mkv screen recording from OBS or a .webm clip, you no longer need to convert the file to open it on a Mac. Install Elmedia and open everything directly and quickly.
What it offers to users:
“Elmedia Player has become my go-to tool for previewing and reviewing videos. Its playback quality is better than what Final Cut Pro’s viewer can offer, and its support for high-resolution video matters when I need to check every detail in 4K and 8K footage.”
Once the edit is locked, the busywork starts: clearing duplicate footage, archiving the finished project, and keeping screenshots findable. These three apps cover that end-of-job cleanup.
Gemini is a duplicate file finder that scans your edit drives for redundant media. When you pull footage from different camera cards, you usually end up with the same heavy clips copied into multiple folders. Manually digging through old project directories to clear up some SSD space is something I used to waste hours on. Because heavy editing software needs a ton of free space to run smoothly, I actually consider Gemini one of the best DaVinci Resolve companion apps Mac video editors can install. My personal hack is scheduling a scan every Friday to get my space back automatically.
What it offers to users:
When a job is signed off and ready for storage, get Archiver 4, a straightforward Mac utility that compresses your folders into .zip or .rar files. You just drag your project directory into the app and pack it up. The main reason this is useful for video work is the split feature. Trying to upload a single 100GB project file to Google Drive or Dropbox is usually a difficult task because the connection often times out. The Archiver app lets you quickly break that massive directory down into smaller chunks (like ten 10GB files). Then the upload finishes without network errors.
What it offers to users:
Keep It Shot is a Mac screenshot manager that uses on-device AI to automatically rename your screen grabs based on what’s in the image. If you constantly grab color references, log render errors, save client timestamps, etc., your desktop is probably buried under dozens of files called “Screen Shot at 11.45.png.” Trying to find one specific frame a week later usually means hitting the spacebar on fifty identical icons to see what’s inside. The app scans the content of the grab and gives the file a descriptive name. Basically, you don’t have to manually organize anything anymore! You just search Spotlight for “neon lighting” or “timeline settings,” and the image you need shows up.
What it offers to users:
Lungo is a Mac menu bar utility that prevents your system from going to sleep and interrupting long video renders. You know how macOS loves to save power. But it’s not always what you need. Sometimes, you walk away while exporting a heavy timeline. Then you come back from a break and find the progress bar frozen at 10%. This basically means you just wasted an hour. Before you hit export, don’t forget to click the Lungo icon and tell it to keep your Mac awake. It overrides your default settings to stop the screen from dimming and keep your drives spinning until the queue is done.
What it offers to users:
Video editing is never just about cutting clips on a timeline. It doesn’t matter how powerful your NLE is, you still have to deal with transcoding huge files, organizing messy screenshots, digging through duplicate media to keep your drives from choking, and more. Bringing in external utilities to handle that busywork is all about working smart.
The best part is that you don’t have to hunt down and pay for all these apps one by one. With Setapp, you get Permute, WhisperTranscribe, TranscribeX, VidCap, FocuSee, Elmedia Player, Gemini, Archiver 4, Keep It Shot, and Lungo (plus 300+ other productivity tools) under a single monthly subscription.
Setapp for video editors: is it actually worth it? You don't need 10 separate subscriptions to round out your edit bay. Setapp bundles Permute, WhisperTranscribe, VidCap, FocuSee, Gemini, and 300+ more tools for one price. Get 300+ Apps.
Yes. Permute from Setapp can handle batch video compression, letting you shrink file sizes using modern codecs like H.264 or HEVC.
Yes. VidCap from Setapp can add captions to video or embed them directly, and you can customize styles, fonts, and colours.
Yes. Elmedia Player from Setapp supports 70+ audio and video formats (including AVI, MKV, FLAC, MP4, and legacy codecs like Xvid and DivX) and opens most video and audio files.
Setapp doesn’t host primary editing apps like DaVinci Resolve, but it includes utilities that support the surrounding workflow. You get AI transcription for raw footage, batch video converters, tools to download reference media, disk cleaners, and more.
Yes. If you regularly use software for video compression, subtitle generation, screen recording, and disk cleanup, getting them all under Setapp’s single monthly tier is significantly cheaper than buying separate perpetual licenses or paying for web-based SaaS subscriptions.
Security-tested
Best solution
