Loading...

MOV vs WebM

Comparing Apple QuickTime Movie and WebM Video - which format should you use?

	MOV	WebM
Full Name	Apple QuickTime Movie	WebM Video
Extension	.mov	.webm
MIME Type	video/quicktime	video/webm
Category	video	video

MOV Pros

+High quality video support
+Multiple tracks (video, audio, subtitles)
+ProRes support for professional editing
+Native Apple ecosystem support

MOV Cons

-Large file sizes
-Limited compatibility on non-Apple platforms
-Not ideal for web streaming
-Can be slow to load

WebM Pros

+Royalty-free and open source
+Excellent compression for web
+Native browser support (Chrome, Firefox, Edge)
+AV1 codec option for best compression

WebM Cons

-No Safari support (use MP4 fallback)
-Limited editing software support
-Less universal than MP4
-Hardware decoding varies

Use MOV when...

-iPhone video recordings
-Professional video editing (ProRes)
-QuickTime playback
-Video production workflows

Use WebM when...

-Web video streaming
-HTML5 video elements
-YouTube (internal format)
-WebRTC video calls

Learn more about MOV Learn more about WebM