Convert to and from MOV, free.
MOV is Apple’s QuickTime container. It is what an iPhone and Final Cut hand you, and it can hold anything from ordinary H.264 to enormous ProRes masters, which is exactly why it travels badly outside the Apple ecosystem.
Convert something else to MOV
Pick what you have. Each page opens the editor with MOV already selected as the output.
Convert MOV to something else
Pick where it is going. Windows and Android often refuse to play MOV files, or play the picture with no sound.
What MOV actually is
Apple QuickTime
H.264, HEVC or ProRes
Editing on a Mac, footage straight off an iPhone
macOS and iOS natively, patchy elsewhere
Large, especially ProRes
Keeps the file native to macOS, iOS and Final Cut Pro.
Preferred by some Apple-first editing and motion tools.
Windows and Android often refuse to play MOV files, or play the picture with no sound.
ProRes MOV files from a camera or Final Cut can be ten times larger than the same footage as MP4.
Some upload forms reject the extension even when the video inside is ordinary H.264.
Questions about MOV
What is a MOV file?
MOV is Apple’s QuickTime container. It is what an iPhone and Final Cut hand you, and it can hold anything from ordinary H.264 to enormous ProRes masters, which is exactly why it travels badly outside the Apple ecosystem. It is the Apple QuickTime container, usually holding H.264, HEVC or ProRes.
Is converting MOV free?
Yes. Convert and preview for free, then create a free account to download the result. Nothing is installed and there is no watermark on the file itself.
Will converting to MOV lose quality?
Some, whenever the codec changes: every re-encode discards detail. Where the container can simply be rewritten around the existing streams it is lossless, and where it cannot the default settings are chosen so the loss is not visible at normal viewing size.
Other formats
Converters
Convert it, then keep editing.
Every converter opens the full editor, so you can trim, caption and share without uploading the file twice.