Looking for a Clipchamp alternative on a Mac?
Clipchamp has no Mac app, keeps 4K for Premium and leaves every zoom to you. Prequel records the Mac natively and opens the editor with the pass made: zooms placed, camera framed, background applied, cursor cleaned up. 4K at 120 fps, $9 a month or $29 once.
No credit card required
Clipchamp
Microsoft's video editor, in Windows and in the browser.
- Price
- Free at 1080p; $3–$7/user/mo paid yearly
- Free
- Unlimited watermark-free exports, up to 1080p
- Platforms
- Windows 11, Windows 10 via the Store, Chrome, Edge
Prequel
Cinematic screen recorder for Mac
- Price
- $9 a month, or $29 once
- Free
- 7-day trial, then paid
- Platforms
- macOS 14+, Apple Silicon
Checked on 22 October 2026 against Clipchamp on Microsoft 365, Clipchamp.
What is Clipchamp, and what is it good at?
Clipchamp is Microsoft's video editor, and on Windows 11 it is already installed. Record your screen, your camera and your voice, cut on a timeline, add text, transitions, filters and stock footage, then export at 1080p with no watermark on the free plan. It runs as a Windows app or in Chrome and Edge, and it is tied into Microsoft 365: Editor Standard is $3 a user a month paid yearly, Premium is $7 and brings 4K.
For somebody on a work PC who needs to trim a recording and put a title on it, nothing is cheaper or closer to hand.
Why do people look for a Clipchamp alternative?
There is no Mac app. Clipchamp is a Windows app or a browser tab. On a Mac it runs in Chrome or Edge, with everything that implies for recording the machine it is running on.
4K is behind Premium. The free plan and Standard both stop at 1080p.
Editing is manual, which is what an editor means. Zooms are keyframes you set yourself, the camera is a layer you place, and there is nothing that reads where you clicked. A demo that looks directed is an afternoon of work.
Is Prequel a good Clipchamp alternative?
On a Mac, yes, and it starts further along.
Prequel records the screen, the camera, the microphone and system audio as separate tracks and opens the editor with the first pass already made: zooms placed on every click and every burst of typing, tilted, with focus falling away from whatever the push-in is aimed at, the camera framed and cut out of its background, a wallpaper behind the window with padding and a shadow, the cursor smoothed. Captions are transcribed on your Mac.
Export is one file at up to 4K and 120 frames a second, encoded by the Mac's own media engine, at $9 a month or $29 once.
What do you give up by switching?
Windows, the Microsoft 365 account it bills through, and a general-purpose editor. Clipchamp cuts footage from any source, with stock music and video in the library. Prequel edits a recording it made, or a video you import into a project, and it carries no stock library.
Also free at 1080p, which Clipchamp genuinely is.
How do the features compare?
| Feature | Prequel | Clipchamp |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic zoom on clicks | Included | Not included |
| Zoom on what you type | Included | Not included |
| Cursor smoothing and resizing | Included | Not included |
| Camera overlay, shaped and placed after | Included | Included |
| Backgrounds, padding and shadow | Included | Stock backgrounds on a layer |
| Layouts for the screen and camera | Fourteen, per clip | Whatever you build on the timeline |
| Camera cut out of its background | Included | Background removal on a clip |
| Perspective tilt and focus falloff on zooms | Included | Not included |
| Captions transcribed on your Mac | Included | Auto-captions, in the cloud |
| Timeline editing | Included | Included |
| Separate audio tracks | Included | Included |
| System audio without a virtual driver | Included | In the Windows app |
| Reframe to vertical without cropping | Included | Change the aspect ratio and reposition by hand |
| Magnifying-glass loupe over the work | Included | Not included |
| Colour looks and filters | Included | Filters and effects |
| Microphone noise reduction | Included | Included |
| Import a video you already have | Included | Included |
| Records and exports without uploading | Included | No, projects live in the browser or the Microsoft account |
| Shareable links | Included | Included |
| Team workspace | Included | Through Microsoft 365 |
| Records an iPhone or iPad | Not included | Not included |
| Maximum export | 4K, 120 fps | 1080p free and Standard, 4K on Premium |
| Download size | 104 MB | A Windows app, or a browser tab |
| Platforms | macOS 14+, Apple Silicon | Windows 11, Windows 10 via the Store, Chrome, Edge |
| Licence | $9/month or $29 once, 7-day trial | Free tier, or a Microsoft 365 subscription |
What Clipchamp is good at
Already on Windows 11, free at 1080p with no watermark, and a real timeline editor with stock footage and music behind it.
What does each one cost?
Clipchamp
- Free$0 watermark-free, up to 1080p
- Editor Standard$3 per user, per month, paid yearly
- Editor Premium$7 per user, per month, paid yearly
Prequel
- Lifetime$29 once
- Pro$9 a month
Checked on 22 October 2026 against Clipchamp on Microsoft 365, Clipchamp.
- Record your screen and cameraPick a display, a window or an area you drag out, with your camera, microphone and system audio each on their own track.
- Zooms and layout are applied automaticallyPrequel reads where you clicked and typed, then places the zooms, frames your camera and sets a background behind it.
- Edit, export and shareMove a zoom, trim a clip or fix a caption, then export one MP4 at up to 4K or send a link that plays anywhere.
Zoom and pan
Zooms that follow the action
Prequel automatically zooms in when you click or type, then softens the rest of the window so viewers know where to look. Every zoom is added to the timeline, so you can move, retime or delete it at any time.
Layouts
Switch layouts clip by clip
Choose from fourteen layouts for the same take: camera in the corner, beside the screen, split with it or hidden entirely. Use one layout for the whole video, or change it clip by clip.
Subtitles
Subtitles you can edit like text
Prequel transcribes every word on your Mac when the editor opens. Fix captions by typing in the transcript, choose a subtitle style or delete a sentence to remove it from the video.
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thanks so much for jumping on this call
Iwanttoshowyousomethingcool
[pause here]
we’ve been building for the past few months
Teleprompter
A teleprompter that follows your voice
Prequel hangs your script from the notch, just under the camera, and follows your voice — the word you're saying lights up as you say it. Wander off script and it waits for you; skip ahead or fall behind and it catches up within a couple of words.
Apple Silicon · macOS 14+
Native
Built for your Mac
Prequel is a native app for Apple Silicon. It records with the system’s own capture, encodes on the video hardware and draws every frame in Metal. Your recordings stay on your disk.
The editor
Everything you would have done by hand
It opens by itself when you stop recording, on the take you just made. Nothing to import, nothing to line up.
Guide attention automatically
Prequel zooms into the part of the screen that matters: the cursor, a region you draw, or whatever you are typing into. Set the level, the speed and how much the rest of the frame blurs.
Look present without taking over the video
Your camera stays framed and out of the way: circle, squircle, rounded, wide or portrait, in any corner and any size. It is never burned into the recording, so none of it is decided while you record.
Make recordings look designed
Add a background, padding and a shadow without editing any of it by hand. Your own wallpaper by default, seven bundled presets, gradients and solids.
Cut the parts nobody needs to see
Trim the pauses yourself, slice by slice, with a waveform under every clip. Layout, background and audio can all change mid-take.
Keep the pointer out of the way
Fifteen pointer styles, resized so the cursor survives a zoom. Smoothed while it travels, and hidden after a few seconds of stillness.
Export the frame you approved
The preview and the exporter draw the same plan, so the file matches what you signed off in the editor.
Quality
Videos stay sharp at 4K
Capture and export run on your Mac's own media engine. 1080p at 60 fps records without dropping frames, and 4K is a setting you pick.
- Resolution
- Up to 4K
- Frame rate
- Up to 120 fps
- Codecs
- H.264 · HEVC
- Encoding
- Hardware, VideoToolbox
- Compositing
- Metal
- Output
- Constant frame rate MP4
Formats
Export in any frame
Turn one recording into different formats without manually reframing every element. Switch from landscape to vertical and the layout stays intact.
- Landscape 16:9
- 4K
- Vertical 9:16
- Square 1:1
- Portrait 4:5
- YouTube
- Shorts
- TikTok
- Reels
- X
Record demos worth sharing
Free for 7 days. No watermark on anything you export.
No credit card required
Curious about the internals? Read the blog
FAQ
Zooms, exports and the rest
Is there a Clipchamp for Mac?
Not as an app. Clipchamp is a Windows 11 app, available on Windows 10 through the Store, and otherwise a web editor in Chrome or Edge. On a Mac it runs in a browser tab, with everything that implies for recording the machine it is running on. Prequel is a native Mac app on Apple Silicon.
How much does Clipchamp cost?
The free plan exports up to 1080p with no watermark. Editor Standard is $3 per user per month paid yearly, and Editor Premium is $7 and brings 4K export. Checked on 22 October 2026.
Can Clipchamp zoom in on clicks automatically?
No. Clipchamp is a general-purpose editor, so a zoom is a keyframe you set on a clip. Prequel places a zoom on every click and every burst of typing while it writes the recording, tilts the push-in, and lets focus fall away from whatever it is aimed at.
Is Prequel a good Clipchamp alternative?
On a Mac, for screen recordings, yes: it records screen, camera, microphone and system audio as separate tracks, finishes the first pass automatically and exports at up to 4K and 120 frames a second for $9 a month or $29 once. It is not a general-purpose editor, so footage from a camera roll with stock music under it is Clipchamp's job, or iMovie's.