InVideo review: from skeptic to fan

I've recently come across a product called InVideo. Here's my unbiased review.1

First glance: I completely disregarded it. Video? Who wants video? Who wants to actually spend money on video? Not me. I don't need video maker software.

Initial thoughts —

• I don't need this
• It's probably full of crass effects
• Why would I even want to make a video in a business like mine?
• Stock video footage always seems plastifake (yes, I made that word up)
• I'll keep my $, thanks.

Second glance (for some reason I was tempted to look again—drat those multitudinous satisfied customer reviews): ok, whatever, I'll take a look over breakfast, just because I can.

Subsequent thoughts — hmmm, looks alright actually. It has potential. Who'd have thought?

15 minutes and one surprisingly impressive looking video later, I was searching for reasons to convince myself that I needed this because I was beginning to want it. Reader, I purchased it. No regrets.

The Good:

• The template designs are mostly quite good, and by 'good' I mean that they fade into the background so that my story can shine through. No sign of enthusiastic 9th grade PowerPoint transition animation madness.
• I was pleasantly surprised by the quick video templates—it was indeed very quick to replace the placeholder video with ones and text and come up with a decent result.
• Stock videos can look good when chosen and used carefully.
• The team at InVideo are making improvements at an impressive pace! They listen to customer feedback and take it on board.

The Not So Good:

• At the moment it is not possible to move elements between layers; this is coming soon, I've been told. Their roadmap looks very promising, and the team behind this software are approachable and genuinely interested in what the users of their product have to say about it.
• A couple of the fashion templates (eg. Glamour) grate on my sense of good typography—Josefin Slab isn't working here.2 It just doesn't have the elegant sophistication I'd want for anything to do with fashion. Disappointing, but a) I'm a designer and can fix that, and b) I'm not likely to be putting together a fashion video. (If you take a look and can't see what I'm talking about, that's a good thing. These guys iterate faster than you can blink.)
• More templates, please. These are on the roadmap, so here's hoping they are pretty.

As someone with only minimal video editing experience, I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with this tool with practice.

Click below to see my first serious effort with InVideo. It took me a day to make as I was learning the ropes as I went. I expect future videos will come together much more quickly.

1 This is a completely independent review. I'm just a satisfied user who liked it enough to subscribe to their Enterprise level plan.

2 Josefin Slab was styled after the 1920s and 1930s typefaces, and retains that retro look even with the addition of modern details. It's a great font when you're after a specific retro vibe, but it's totally out of place in a sleek and modern fashion video and really pulls the design standard down. I'd like to see a font pairing for this genre something like Playfair Display and Fira Sans.