Best color grading software for Mac

For most people, the best color grading software on a Mac is DaVinci Resolve: its free version already has node-based grading, full scopes, colour management with ACES, and LUT export. Final Cut Pro is the better pick if you grade inside a fast edit and rarely leave the timeline. Premiere Pro's Lumetri suits editors who already live in Adobe. Dedicated systems in the Baselight mould belong in facilities with trained colourists. Momentum cinemaOS's Finisher ($9.99 a month after 60 days free, Apple silicon only) is a newer option for Apple silicon users who want grading, matching and LUT work in the same project as the edit, with clear limits that this article spells out.

Prices change often, so check each vendor's own site before deciding. The comparison below looks at the parts colourists actually care about: wheels and curves, shot matching, scopes, ACES and colour management, and getting a look out as a LUT.

What to compare before you choose

A grading tool earns its place on five questions:

• Controls. Are there lift, gamma and gain wheels, curves, qualifiers and windows, and can you organise corrections in layers or nodes?
• Matching. Can it bring one shot towards another, and does the result stay editable?
• Scopes. Waveform, RGB parade, vectorscope and histogram, ideally visible while you work.
• Colour management. Can it handle log footage, wide gamut and HDR, and does it support ACES or an equivalent scene-referred pipeline?
• Output. Can you export a grade as a LUT for set monitoring, another app or a client, and hand the timeline to a colourist elsewhere?

Your answer to the last question often matters most. A grade you cannot move is a grade you have to redo.

DaVinci Resolve: the default for serious grading

Resolve began as a high-end grading system and it shows. The Color page is built around nodes, so you can separate a primary balance, a secondary on skin, a window on a face and a look into distinct steps that are easy to bypass and reorder. Primaries are available as wheels, bars and log controls, with curves, qualifiers, power windows and tracking alongside.

For matching, Resolve offers shot matching between clips and colour chart matching. Its scopes cover waveform, parade, vectorscope, histogram and CIE chromaticity. Colour management includes DaVinci's own wide gamut pipeline and ACES, and you can generate LUTs from a grade. Blackmagic Design also makes grading panels, and Resolve runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, which helps mixed facilities.

Trade-offs: the interface is large, the node model takes time to learn, and some features such as certain AI tools and higher resolutions are reserved for the paid Studio licence. Check Blackmagic Design's site for the current split between free and Studio. If you also weigh Resolve as an editor, Final Cut Pro vs DaVinci Resolve covers that side.

Final Cut Pro: fast grading inside the edit

Final Cut Pro treats colour as effects on clips. You get the Color Board, colour wheels, RGB curves, hue and saturation curves, and masks with shape and colour isolation. Match Color can bring a clip towards another frame you choose. The video scopes include waveform, RGB parade, vectorscope and histogram, and you can apply camera LUTs and custom LUTs.

It handles wide gamut and HDR libraries well on Apple silicon, and the speed of playback while grading is a real advantage on a laptop.

Trade-offs: there is no node structure, so complex grades become long stacks of effects. It does not offer an ACES pipeline the way Resolve does, so check Apple's current documentation if your project requires one, and it has no built-in way to export your grade as a LUT. Many editors grade in Final Cut for quick work and send larger projects to a dedicated grading app by FCPXML.

Premiere Pro's Lumetri: good enough for many, inside Adobe

Lumetri Color sits in a panel with sections for basic correction, creative looks, curves, colour wheels and match, HSL secondary and vignette. The Color Match feature compares two frames and can try to protect faces. Lumetri Scopes give you waveform, parade, vectorscope and histogram.

You can export a Lumetri grade as a .cube file from the panel menu, which is handy for sharing a look. Adobe has been reworking colour management in recent versions of Premiere, so check Adobe's current documentation for log handling, wide gamut working spaces and ACES support in the version you run.

Trade-offs: Lumetri is a single effect with fixed sections rather than a node graph, so layering corrections means stacking several instances. It is part of a Creative Cloud subscription. If Premiere is your editor, Lumetri saves a round trip; if colour is your main job, it is not the deepest tool here.

Baselight and other dedicated finishing systems

FilmLight's Baselight is widely used in finishing facilities for feature film and high-end series. Its strengths lie in layer-based grading, colour science, scene-referred management and pipeline features for large teams and long deliverable lists. Similar dedicated tools, such as Assimilate Scratch, also target finishing work rather than editing.

Systems at this level are often bought for a whole suite, with dedicated hardware, panels and trained staff, and licensing is arranged with the vendor. Check FilmLight's or Assimilate's sites for current Mac availability and terms. For a solo Mac user, the realistic way to use one is often to send a timeline to a facility that already has it.

cinemaOS Finisher: grading in the same project as the cut

cinemaOS, from Momentum Studios, is a Mac-native editor for Apple silicon. Colour happens in the Finisher room, under Grade ▸ Color, using the Color Engine. The grade lives in the same .mntm project as the edit, so there is no export and re-import round trip between editing and colour.

What it offers for colourists:

• Controls. An Input LUT for camera transforms, COLOR and LIGHT controls for the primary balance, secondary corrections, tracked windows and looks. While Color is open, the Momentum Dial works as a colour trackball. The grade in one minute tutorial shows the basic pass.
• Matching. Shot Match brings a shot towards a reference still, and you then compare and refine the result for that shot. See the Shot Match tutorial, or our guide to matching a grade to a reference still for technique that applies in any app.
• Scopes. Scopes sit beside the picture in the grade, so you can watch both as you adjust.
• Colour management. A bundled OpenColorIO runtime with an ACES 2 studio configuration handles colour-space transforms. Inputs include Rec.709, Display P3, Rec.2020 HLG and PQ, and ACEScct frames, and HDR outputs go through compatible HEVC or ProRes paths.
• LUTs. LUT Lab shows a look as a 3D cube so you can spot irregular mapping, repair artifacts and export a .cube file. The LUT Lab tutorial walks through it.
• Hand-back. If a colourist will finish elsewhere, cinemaOS can export the cut as FCPXML or EDL with a report that flags what may need attention, such as audio roles or track layout, as the import and hand-back tutorial shows. Check the result in the receiving app, because not everything travels in an interchange file.

The limits, plainly: cinemaOS is young, at version 0.2 (Build 9), and it runs only on Apple silicon Macs, with Windows planned for November 2027. It is not ACES-certified; its Filmic SDR output is ACES-inspired rather than an Academy reference transform, and display profiles are preview references that are not baked into delivered pixels. Node-graph grading and collaborative colour are still evolving, vendor RAW controls need the vendor's own decoders, and the depth of Resolve's or Baselight's toolset is not there. It costs $9.99 USD per month excluding VAT, with 60 days free, no card and no automatic charge.

Which one fits your work

• You want the most grading depth without paying: DaVinci Resolve, free version first.
• You edit in Final Cut and grade short projects yourself: stay in Final Cut Pro, and move to a dedicated app by FCPXML when a job outgrows it.
• You are a Premiere editor doing your own correction: Lumetri, plus .cube export when you need to share a look.
• You deliver features or series to strict specifications: a facility with Baselight or a comparable system, or Resolve Studio with panels.
• You want edit, grade, LUT inspection and delivery in one Mac project: cinemaOS is worth a trial, as long as its current limits fit your jobs.

Whatever you pick, calibrate your display or at least grade in a controlled room, and trust scopes over a bright laptop screen. For client or broadcast work, a video output device feeding a calibrated reference monitor gives you a more dependable picture than the computer's own display.

FAQ

Is the free version of DaVinci Resolve enough for grading?

For most independent work, yes. The free version includes the Color page with nodes, scopes, colour management and LUT generation. The Studio licence adds features such as some AI tools and higher resolutions, so check Blackmagic's current comparison.

Which Mac grading apps support ACES?

Resolve supports ACES in its colour management. cinemaOS uses OpenColorIO with an ACES 2 configuration but is not ACES-certified. Final Cut Pro does not offer an ACES pipeline the way Resolve does, and Premiere's support depends on the version, so check Apple's and Adobe's current documentation.

Can I export my grade as a LUT?

In Resolve, Premiere's Lumetri and cinemaOS's LUT Lab, yes, as a .cube file. Final Cut Pro has no built-in LUT export. Remember that a LUT captures a fixed transform, so windows, tracking and keyframes do not travel with it.

Try a grade on your own footage

Pick one scene with a log clip and a hero shot, and grade it in two of these apps. Compare how quickly you reach a match and whether you can still edit it afterwards. To try the Finisher, download cinemaOS and use the 60-day free trial; no card is required.