The best LosslessCut alternatives for Mac

LosslessCut cuts video and audio without encoding them again. Instead of making a new video, it copies the data you keep almost directly, so a cut of an hour-long recording takes seconds and loses nothing. Its GitHub page lists cutting out parts, rearranging segments, joining files that share the same codec settings, adding, removing, replacing or extracting tracks, editing metadata, jumping between keyframes, saving frames as JPEG or PNG, splitting a video by length, size or count, and changing the container. Smart cut, which cuts between keyframes, is marked experimental. It has a command line and an HTTP API too.

It runs on Mac (Intel and Apple silicon), Windows and Linux, and it's open source under GPL 2.0. The download from GitHub is free and, in the developer's words, will always be. The Mac App Store version is $18.99, a way to support the developer, and needs macOS 12 or later.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Koi is first below because it's ours, and it does a smaller part of this job: its Trim and Split copy the video without encoding it again, but Koi doesn't join files or work with tracks. Every fact about another app comes from that app's own site, checked October 21, 2026. We didn't run tests or speed benchmarks.

• The interface is built for people who know codecs and keyframes, and you just want the end cut off a clip.
• Previews rely on Chromium's own format support, so some videos must be converted before you can watch them in the app.
• There's no batch export yet.
• You want edits that need encoding again, like cropping, speeding up a part or hiding a face, in the same place as the cut.
• You want the trim right where the file is, without opening an app first.

The free way, in QuickTime Player, from Apple's QuickTime guide:

1. Open the video in QuickTime Player.
2. Choose Edit, then Trim.
3. Drag the yellow handles to the start and end you want to keep. Hold a handle to step frame by frame.
4. Click Trim, then save the movie.

With Koi, from Finder or the desktop:

1. Start dragging the video, then press and hold Shift. The video wheel opens round the pointer.
2. Drop it on Trim. The video plays over a strip of its frames.
3. Drag the strip's ends in, or move a frame at a time with the left and right arrow keys.
4. Click Trim. Koi saves a trimmed copy beside the original and shows it in Finder.

Apple doesn't say whether QuickTime's trim encodes the video again. Koi's Trim and Split copy the picture as it is; the full list of what each video tool does is on the Shift wheel page.

A video file is a stream of compressed frames. To make a shorter copy, a tool can either copy the frames you keep as they are, or decode the whole thing and compress it again. Copying is quick and loses nothing. Encoding again is slower and loses a little each time, but it's the only way to change what's in the picture: a crop, a blur over a face, a sped-up part, a new background.

Copying has one catch, and it's why LosslessCut talks about keyframes. Most frames in a compressed video depend on an earlier full frame, a keyframe, so a copy can only start cleanly at one. LosslessCut gives you keyframe navigation and an experimental smart cut for cuts in between. If a cut has to land on an exact frame that isn't a keyframe, expect to encode at least part of it again, whichever app you use.

In Koi, the split is simple to remember. Trim, Split, Mute, cleaning out metadata, and converting to MP4 or MOV copy the picture. Crop, Compress, Speed, Redact, GIF and Edit Video's Export encode again: HEVC for Compress, H.264 otherwise, or the encoding you pick in Export.

Drop a video on Edit and Koi opens an editor laid out like a screen-recording app's: undo and redo at the top, settings in one panel on the left, the video in the middle, and a timeline along the bottom you zoom by scrolling or pinching. Split with C, delete with the Delete key, drag the line between two pieces, and click a piece to give it its own speed or mute it.

The panel has Background (a blur, a picture, a looping video, a colour or a gradient), Frame (shadow, rounded corners, padding), Crop, Redact (boxes hidden for the whole video), Audio, Snapshot and Details, where you keep or leave out the date, the place and the device. Export picks MP4 or GIF, Low, Medium, High or Original with their sizes shown, Fast (H.264), Balanced or Quality (HEVC) encoding, and 24, 30 or 60 frames a second. None of this is lossless, and none of it is uploaded.

From each app's own site. “Not listed” means the site doesn't mention it.

• A free trim, nothing installed? QuickTime Player.
• Lossless cuts plus a full converter, free? Shutter Encoder.
• A smaller file after the cut? HandBrake.
• Trim, split, mute, crop, speed up or hide a part of a video by dragging it with Shift held, on your Mac? Koi.

To turn a clip into a GIF after you've cut it, see our Gifski alternatives. To record the video in the first place, Koi records calls with the screen's video, saved on your Mac. Plans are on the pricing page.