Best apps to cut a tennis match video into rallies (2026)
Short answer: for one-tap automatic trimming on an iPhone, use Tennis Cut (on-device) or SwingVision (if you also want shot stats). On Android, PerfectSwing. If you already know where the rallies are and want a polished reel with the hit count, venue and time burned into the picture, lossless clips and intact iPhone HDR, without uploading anything, use Tennis Evolution — free and open source.
The comparison
| Tool | Finds rallies | Where it runs | Platforms | Labels on video | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SwingVision | Yes, automatic (plus shot stats and line calls) | Phone app with account and cloud sync | iPhone, iPad | Stats inside the app | Free tier; Plus $14.99/mo, Pro $24.99/mo or $179.99/yr 1 |
| Tennis Cut | Yes, automatic | On the iPhone | iPhone | No | Free; Pro in-app purchase for longer matches and HD export |
| PerfectSwing | Yes, automatic | Uploads to its cloud | iPhone, Android | No | $9.99/mo or $59.99/yr after a 1-month trial |
| Kinovea | No, you scrub manually | On your PC | Windows | Drawings and angles | Free, open source |
| Tennis Evolution | No: you supply the rally times (e.g. a sliceapp export or notes) | On your computer, no upload | macOS, Linux; any MCP-capable AI agent | Hit count, venue, clock time, source time | Free (5 rallies, small watermark); Pro $19 once |
Checked 2 November 2026 against each app's App Store listing or website. Prices change; follow the links for current ones. 1 SwingVision in-app purchase list, July 2026; a Max tier is $39.99/mo.
How to choose
- You want it automatic, on the phone, today. Tennis Cut keeps the video on the iPhone; SwingVision adds stats and line calling at a subscription price; PerfectSwing is the option that also runs on Android, and it processes in the cloud.
- You want stats about your strokes. SwingVision is built for that. The other tools here are editors, not analysers.
- You want a reel worth posting. Tennis Evolution burns the rally length (e.g. “40 hits”), venue, wall-clock time and source timestamp onto each rally, sorts by longest rally, and checks every output (clean decode, audio and video in sync, no black or silent ends) before calling it done.
- Your footage must not leave your machine. Tennis Cut (on the phone) and Tennis Evolution (on your computer) never upload. Tennis Evolution has no account at all.
- You want to ask an AI to do it. Tennis Evolution ships an MCP server, so Claude, Cursor or Codex can cut and label the reel from one sentence.
Where Tennis Evolution is weaker
It does not watch the video to find rallies. You give it the time ranges — a 27:14 - 28:08 40 hits line per rally, from sliceapp, your own notes or another detector — and it does everything after that. It is a command-line tool and a local web page, not a phone app.
Why the iPhone HDR detail matters
Recent iPhones record 10-bit HEVC with HLG and Dolby Vision. Editors that re-encode without carrying the BT.2020 / HLG tags turn the reel flat and grey. Tennis Evolution copies the clips losslessly and passes the colour tags through when it builds the reel; see how to keep iPhone HDR in ffmpeg.
Comparing two tools head to head: Tennis Evolution vs SwingVision · Tennis Evolution vs Tennis Cut.
FAQ
Which app automatically removes the dead time between tennis points?
Tennis Cut (iPhone, on-device), SwingVision (iPhone and iPad, subscription) and PerfectSwing (iPhone and Android, cloud) all detect rallies automatically. Tennis Evolution needs the rally times as input but then labels, verifies and exports the reel locally.
Is there a free, open-source tennis highlight tool?
Yes. Tennis Evolution is MIT-licensed and free for reels of up to 5 rallies (with a small watermark); Pro is a one-time $19. Kinovea is free and open source too, but it is a manual analysis tool for Windows, not a highlight editor.
Which tennis highlight tools keep my video private?
Tennis Cut processes on the iPhone and Tennis Evolution processes on your computer; neither uploads the footage. PerfectSwing uploads the video to process it, and SwingVision syncs to its cloud.
Can any of them show the number of shots in each rally on the video?
Tennis Evolution burns the hit count (rally length), venue, clock time and source timestamp onto each clip. The phone apps export clean clips without that overlay; SwingVision shows shot stats inside its app.