Fastreel Review: How to Edit Videos Online

In recent years, video editing has stepped to another level. Users want high-professional results. And fast.

And sometimes, the urge to have the video ready in two clicks is so irresistible, they don’t want to install anything on their computer. It’s a waste of time.

Sounds familiar?

Well, there are thousands of people just like you. That’s why online video editing software has become a thing in the last couple of years.

Fastreel by Movavi is a prominent representative of such tools. This article will tell you all about its functionality, pricing, exclusive features, and possible downfalls.

About Movavi

This part tells about the company behind Fastreel. If you’re already familiar with Movavi and their work, skip ahead to the Fastreel review.

Movavi is a software development company with 17 years of experience. They produce all kinds of tools to make your work with multimedia easier.

Movavi’s programs are mostly for desktop, Windows and Mac. They include Video Editor Plus, Video Converter, Screen Recorder, and Picverse – photo-editing software.

We did a Movavi Video Editor review some time ago. If you’re interested, check out what we have to say about it.

As Movavi claims on their official page, their goal is to deliver top-notch tools that are easy to use for people with any level of expertise. They want everyone to be able to create videos, get inspired, and get better.

After making 3.000.000 desktop users happy, Movavi took a step in another direction and started developing online tools. 

Fastreel started out as a simple service for cutting and enhancing videos. Now, it’s a multifunctional toolkit with any video-editing feature you need.

Let’s take a closer look.

Fastreel overview

Fastreel by Movavi is an online video editor. It focuses mostly on less experienced editors, so it’s pretty easy to use.

The main page design uses a light theme, whereas the editing space relies on dark color patterns.

Fastreel leverages two groups of features: ready-made templates and enhancing tools.

We’ve played around with every tool and looked through most of the templates. And we’re glad to share our findings with you.

Fastreel Templates

Whether you’re a seasoned marketing specialist or an aspiring YouTube food blogger, there’s a bunch of different templates available: customer testimonials, advertisements, animated text, and more.

Each template is an almost-ready video. All you need to do is import your own footage and music. You can also add more scenes, reorder them, and delete unnecessary slides.

These templates are great for two reasons:

1. You can create a video literally in a couple of minutes.

2. Your videos will all have the same style and look cohesive on your blog or YouTube channel.

Needless to say, each template type has a different set of scenes, effects, and transitions. Pick the preset that fits your idea best: social media video, workout video, movie trailer, book review, or any other template.

You can also use these templates to make YouTube intros, outros, and channel trailers.

Tools

With Fastreel, you can do any simple or more advanced editing task.

Compress videos

This tool shrinks your large video files if they’re too “heavy” to upload online. You can resize your video at a high, medium, or low compression level. This will define the quality of the output file. The higher the compression – the lower the quality.

 

Cut videos

With this tool, you can get rid of unwanted segments in your footage. Place the marker on the filmstrip and cut your video. The marker moves frame by frame, but you won’t find exact timestamps on the timeline. So, there’s definitely room for improvement for this tool.

 

Crop videos

The cropping tool changes the video’s aspect ratio. You can choose from existing presets or set your own parameters.

Change video speed

Changing a video’s speed can lead to curious effects. Fastreel can speed up or slow down the events in your video. Just with a click of a mouse, you can make your video up to 4 times faster or slower. Having audio in the output file is optional.

Merge videos

Here, you can join two or more videos. By default, Fastreel merges your footage using hard cuts. It is a standard way to combine clips without using fades or effects. You can replace the hard cut with crossfade, gradient, parallax, or other types of transitions.

Mute videos

Many of you may be used to uploading a video to a program and removing the audio track manually. Fastreel does the job for you. When you upload the video, the tool deletes the sound automatically.

Reverse videos

The same one-click control rules apply to reversing videos. You upload a video and get an inverted file as a result.

Add music to a video

Background music can be a nice addition to your project. With Fastreel, you can overlay any tune from your collection or from the built-in media library.

Rotate videos

The rotation tool deals with the wrong video orientation. You can rotate it by 90, 180, or 270 degrees. The tool, however, doesn’t allow you to turn your videos by a custom angle. Unfortunately, this means you won’t be able to fix crooked horizons. 

Flip videos

Don’t confuse this tool with rotation. This feature flips, or mirrors, your video horizontally or vertically.

Loop videos

One of the most exciting Fastreel’s features is video loops. You can repeat your clip multiple times and save them as one long video.

Add text to a video

Captions add clarity to the video’s plot. Here, you can add and edit text, adjust its colour, font, and size, as well as choose a background colour.

Make a stop-motion video

Just like desktop stop motion software, Fastreel can turn your clip into a frame-by-frame animation. It selects every N frame and removes the others. That makes the video look like a cartoon or a vintage filmstrip.

Add a watermark to a video

Fastreel can also serve as a tool to protect your authorship. Overlay your logo so that everyone knows who’s made the video they’re watching. Pretty convenient, right?

Add filters to a video

The most popular feature people want from a video editor is adding filters. With Fastreel, you’ve got a bunch of various color effects aimed at making your clips be on fleek.

 

Add subtitles to a video

Subtitles are a real lifesaver for movies and shows in another language. You can upload an SRT file and stitch your favourite subtitles to videos in Fastreel. You can also create your own text files right in the browser and download them as SRTs.

Make a video collage

The split-screen tool enables you to make video collages. That is, show multiple videos simultaneously.

Create a video or a slideshow

Last but not least, you can create your own movie from scratch. Import photos and videos, add music, insert transitions, and voila – your video is ready.

That’s pretty much all about Fastreel’s tools. There are a lot of them, and they’re all among the essentials at the start of your video editing path.

Export

Fastreel by Movavi has a limited range of exporting options. Actually, you can save video only in MP4. But you won’t expect more from an online editor. 

Plus, let’s face it: even if you were given a choice, you would probably still pick MP4 as an output format.

Alternatively, Movavi gives you a link to the cloud, where they store your video for 24 hours. You can copy that link to save your clip on another device.

However, when you make a video from a template, you can upload the results directly to YouTube. For some reason, this feature is unavailable when you save videos after editing them with other tools.

Accounts

You need to be logged in to be able to download the results. You can use your Google or Facebook account if you’re not a fan of having separate accounts for each service. 

However, if you create a Movavi account, it will be easier to manage your subscriptions. You can also use it for Movavi’s desktop products to be always in the loop.

Pricing & Limitations

Movavi lets you use all Fastreel tools for free. But there’s a twist. You can only save files in 480p resolution, and all output videos will have a watermark.

To drop these limitations, you are offered to purchase one of the two plans:

Single Premium gives you one-time export in 720p without a watermark for $5.95.

Unlimited Premium lets you save unlimited videos in high quality without a watermark. A monthly subscription costs $19.95. You can also pick an annual plan, which results in $9.95 per month (a total of $119.40 billed annually). 

Another benefit from an unlimited plan is access to all tools at once. This means you can rotate your footage, then switch to filters , and finally merge everything together.

In the free plan, you can use one tool at a time. Then you have to re-upload your video if you want to use another feature.

Creating videos with Fastreel

Here’s a short guide on how to edit a video online and create your first movie with Fastreel. It helps you use all its tools at their maximum capacity.

Note, that you have to log into your account and purchase the Unlimited Premium plan to get through with these instructions.

1. Sort your footage files into groups according to what kind of editing they need.

2. Make the necessary adjustments: rotate, flip, mute, and reverse clips.

3. Add filters.

4. Overlay captions.

5. Merge clips and join them with transitions.

6. Save and export the results.

Pros & Cons

Now, let’s discuss what’s amazing about Fastreel and what’s not so great.

Pros:

  1. Fastreel doesn’t require from you any specific knowledge of video editing
  2. It is a multifunctional tool.
  3. There is no installation required.
  4. Fastreel does quick tasks for you.
  5. Handy subtitle editor/creator.
  6. Multiple split-screen grids.
  7. Themed ready-made templates.
  8. The results are stored for 24 hours.
  9. One-click special effects: stop-motion, reverse, and loop.
  10. Clear-cut interface and intuitive controls.

Cons:

  1. Limited template editing. You can’t change their color schemes.
  2. The timeline is not precise enough. It would be nice to see milliseconds when you cut and trim videos.
  3. No custom angles when rotating videos.
  4. Tools are used separately. There is no common editing space.
  5. The free version overlays a watermark.
  6. Limited exporting options. You can either save videos in MP4 or upload them to YouTube. However, export to YouTube is only available for templates.
  7. You need to be logged in to save the results.

 

Final thoughts

We’ve covered everything that Fastreel offers.

Now let’s analyse it’s worth as an online editor.

Fastreel by Movavi has a great deal of useful tools. You can enhance video clips, join them together with transitions, overlay text and filters. There are also customisable templates made for any occasion.

On the one hand, Fastreeel can be an excellent start for those who have little experience in video editing. It takes difficult tasks and wraps them into one-click controls. Just like snapping your fingers, you’ll have a stop-motion video or an inverted movie.

On the other hand, Fastreel lacks depth compared to desktop programs. For instance, its older brother Movavi Video Editor Plus gives a lot more when it comes to special effects and output formats.

Nevertheless, Fastreel wins in mobility. You can use it anytime, anywhere without being glued to one computer. While you have Internet access, you’re all set.

This, however, at the same time, may cause a problem. You will need constant access to the Internet, and preferably, high connection speed. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck with never-ending file processing.

So, what’s our verdict?

If you’re a beginner and are not ready to invest in some professional software, you should definitely go with Fastreel. It’s perfect for occasional editing, and even the Ultimate Premium plan will cost you less than if you purchase desktop programs.

As you get experienced, you’ll probably lack some advanced features. However, it still will be of great use for some quick tasks like cropping or rotating.

Overall, Fastreel is a practical toolkit that will save you a lot of time and money. Be sure to check it out and live your comments below.

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Cristian Stanciu is a freelance video editor, owner, and post-production coordinator of Veedyou Media – a company offering video editing services to videographers, marketing agencies, video production studios, or brands all over the globe.