Apple Compressor Alternative for Mac: When $49.99 Is More Than You Need

Compressor is the right purchase in four situations, and in each of them paying us $29 would be the wrong move.

You deliver to a platform with a spec sheet. Compressor produces IMF packages, iTunes Store packages and MXF files with codecs such as ProRes, AVC-Intra and XDCAM HD, according to Apple’s own pages. Smol writes MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV. If a client sends a delivery document, use Compressor.

You work in Final Cut Pro or Motion. Apple says Compressor integrates with both. Smol only sees finished files, so you export first and compress afterwards.

You make spatial or immersive video. Apple documents Compressor workflows for Apple Immersive Video and Apple Vision Pro. Smol has none of this.

You need captions, LUTs, markers or effects at export. These are part of Compressor’s job. They are not part of Smol’s.

Yes, if you use its professional formats, and probably not if you only want smaller files.

The Mac App Store listing prices Compressor at $49.99, shows version 5.4 as the current release (listed as Sep 29, year not shown) and lists no in-app purchases. Apple also includes it in Apple Creator Studio, at $12.99 a month or $129 a year, with one month free for new subscribers. If you already pay for that bundle, Compressor costs you nothing extra and the question answers itself.

The App Store page also lists a requirement of macOS 26.6 or later. If your Mac cannot run it, that settles things before price does. Smol runs on macOS 13 or later on Apple Silicon, and macOS 14 or later on Intel.

In the documentation we could read, it does not mention compressing PDFs or photos.

Apple’s Compressor User Guide describes a media transcoder for device outputs and professional video and audio formats, with image sequences as an import. It says nothing about shrinking a PDF or recompressing a folder of HEIC photos. That is not a flaw, because it is not the job. It does mean a person with a messy folder of videos, scans and photos needs a second tool.

Smol takes all of them in a single drop. For the PDF side see how to compress a PDF on Mac, and for the video side reducing video file size on Mac. If your work is client delivery rather than your own files, the video production delivery page lays out where Smol fits and where a dedicated encoder is still needed.

Drag your finished videos into Smol, pick a quality, and it writes a copy next to each original.

For video you choose MP4, MOV, WebM or MKV, H.265 (the default) or H.264, and a quality label. “High” is CRF 24 and “Web” is CRF 28. You can also type an exact CRF from 0 to 63. Resolution can be kept or reduced, and audio can be removed. Which codec to pick is covered in H.265 vs H.264.

Two things do not carry across. Compressor presets and droplets cannot be brought into Smol, so recreate the few you actually use as Smol presets, which are saved on that Mac. And anything you send as a ProRes or MXF master has to stay in Compressor.

Many editors end up with both: Compressor for the deliverable, Smol for the review copy that goes to a client by email. The $29 license covers one Mac, with free updates, and there is no trial, so check the format list first.

It depends on what you are missing.

For free, detailed video control, see HandBrake alternatives, which covers what the free tool does well and where its settings get in the way. For another compact Mac compressor, read Compresto alternatives. For a broader pick, our tested video compression methods compares the options. If you need broadcast delivery formats, nothing in that list replaces Compressor.