is a solid choice if you are maintaining a legacy project or using an older Mac that cannot run newer Creative Cloud versions. However, if your hardware supports it, upgrading to newer versions (v26.0+) is recommended for modern GPU acceleration and support for current RAW camera formats.
“It’s a versatile and powerful tool that seamlessly integrates with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications... consistently delivers top-notch results.” Software Advice
Users on Adobe Community have noted mixed experiences with this version on older hardware: adobe-media-encoder-cc-2018-12-1-2-69-macosx-1-6gb-2022
: This specific version finally brought native animated GIF export to macOS users, a feature previously locked to Windows.
“Prior to updating the software I had no issues... [with CC 2018] I frequently get 'Cannot read from source' errors, or Media Encoder just hangs.” Adobe · 8 years ago is a solid choice if you are maintaining
: It streamlined direct uploads to platforms like YouTube and Facebook, including the ability to select custom thumbnails directly from the encoding panel. Legacy Performance & Reliability
Adobe Media Encoder CC 2018 is a reliable, high-performance background processing engine designed to handle video and audio encoding for the Adobe ecosystem. By v12.1.2, the 2018 cycle had matured into a stable release that fixed many early bugs from its initial October 2017 launch. consistently delivers top-notch results
: Excellent background queuing, native GIF support for Mac, and stable integration with legacy After Effects CC 2018.