Comparison

MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker vs NextPlay Highlights

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker

Easily create professional sports highlight reels from your phone's videos. Use stylish templates, effects, and annotations to showcase your skills for coaches and recruiters. Share your best plays anywhere or export them to your photo gallery.

Highlights
  • Create recruitment reels
  • Stylish video templates
  • Add effects and transitions
  • Annotate videos with lines and arrows
  • Royalty-free music options
  • Trim clips and create collages
  • Share to NCSA, YouTube, Vimeo
Features
Read full description

It's easy to create showcases of your student athlete with MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker, the all-in-one video editor everyone can use! Make professional-grade recruitment reels using videos from your phone and quickly share on your NCSA profile or anywhere. MatchCut reels are perfect for showing off your skills to coaches, players, parents, and college recruiters! Use our stylish templates to quickly compile your best plays, then upload them to video and social media sites or export them to your photo gallery. MatchCut comes with effects, transitions, and slides to make your plays pop. Scrub to the best part and turn it into an instant freeze frame. Drag lines, arrows, and spot shadows directly onto the video to help pick you out from the crowd, or add stickers and overlays. Add music to your video with our selection of royalty-free tunes. A handful of subtitles can go a long way as well. Clips are reusable, so you can quickly tailor different highlight reels for each recruiter you wish to impress. Land that scholarship by including a MatchCut reel of your best achievements with your college application. Place multiple reels into an online portfolio on sites like NCSA, YouTube and Vimeo. Make a sizzle collage for social media like TikTok and Instagram. Trim individual plays into short-form clips. You can even use it for analysis of your skills and improvement over time. It's like if CapCut was made especially for athletes. Don't wait forever to start documenting your athlete's sports journey. Colleges and professionals are always scouting for talent. Take MatchCut with you everywhere you go as a quick highlight trimmer at training camp and away games. You never know when you'll need such a simple and easy clip merger app, whether to land that promotion within your club, or just capture your bloopers for the memes.

About

NextPlay Highlights

Automatically transform game footage into polished highlight reels using AI. Simply upload your videos, and the app identifies and compiles the best plays for easy sharing on social media or with college recruiters.

Highlights
  • AI play detection
  • Multiple cut lengths
  • Combine games
  • Season recap
  • Game snapshot
  • Content kit
  • Recruiting-ready reels
Features
Read full description

Make a highlight reel of your child's best sports moments from the videos already on your phone. NextPlay Highlights helps parents turn sideline clips, tournament footage and game film into videos to share with family, teammates and coaches. Start with the footage you have, review the plays AI finds, and choose the moments that tell your athlete's story. FOR SPORTS PARENTS - Combine phone clips from a game or across the season. - Keep highlights organized by athlete, including siblings who play different sports. - Make a season recap, a short social highlight or a recruiting video. - Download an MP4 to Photos or share a viewing link in a family group chat. - Use the same account on iPhone, iPad and the website. Sign in with Apple is available on the app and web. FROM CAMERA ROLL TO HIGHLIGHT REEL 1. Upload phone clips or game footage. 2. Review the detected plays and choose what to include. 3. Create a Highlight, Recruiting Highlight or Hype version. 4. Save the video or share it yourself through your preferred app. FOR YOUTH TEAMS AND ORGANIZATIONS Coaches and club organizers can manage athlete profiles and team rosters, review full-game film, and prepare clips to share with families. Game Tape keeps every detected play in order; Coach Film lets you remove plays from the cut. Choose a plan for the number of athlete profiles and teams you manage. FILMING YOUR ATHLETE For individual highlights, keep your athlete and the action in frame. With wide team footage, review the plays and remove those that are not your child's. NextPlay does not automatically identify your child in every play or contact recruiters for you. Full-game analysis takes over an hour; allow time for uploading and preparing the video too. SPORTS Soccer, football, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, lacrosse, flag football, hockey, wrestling, swimming, track and field, and more. SUBSCRIPTIONS The app is free to download. Adding film requires a paid plan. NextPlay offers auto-renewable monthly Athlete, Family, Team and Team Pro subscriptions. Current prices are shown in the app before purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. Manage or cancel purchases made through Apple in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://nextplayhighlights.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://nextplayhighlights.com/privacy Support: https://nextplayhighlights.com/contact

Screenshots

MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker4 screens
NextPlay Highlights4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: NextPlay Highlights at 100% against MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker's 0%. NextPlay Highlights also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.0) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 5 months). MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker's advantage is ratings volume (36 vs 3). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and NextPlay Highlights sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

NextPlay Highlights holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker has 36 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker's written reviews are positive against 100% of NextPlay Highlights's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker ships an update every 5 months, NextPlay Highlights every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker versus NextPlay Highlights: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMatchCut Highlight Reel MakerNextPlay Highlights
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (36 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings36 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size33 MB47 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFirecracker SoftwareNeil Brown

Customer experience

MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker

All ratings36 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral2.8%
Negative22.2%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

NextPlay Highlights

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker

One-time1
  • MatchCut Pro$9.99
5 purchases

NextPlay Highlights

Subscriptions5
  • Athlete$9.991 Month
  • FlagPlay Add-On$9.991 Month
  • Family$19.991 Month
Show 2 more
  • Team$99.991 Month
  • Team Pro$199.001 Month

Questions

Is MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker free?
MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is NextPlay Highlights free?
NextPlay Highlights is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker or NextPlay Highlights?
NextPlay Highlights is rated higher. MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker averages 4.0 out of 5 from 36 ratings, while NextPlay Highlights averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker or NextPlay Highlights have ads?
Neither MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker nor NextPlay Highlights shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker or NextPlay Highlights?
MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker ships an update every 5 months, and NextPlay Highlights every 5 days. Most recently, MatchCut Highlight Reel Maker was updated on November 1, 2026 and NextPlay Highlights on October 31, 2026.

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