We started reviewing professional video editing software in 2012. Since that time, our best overall pick has not changed. Adobe Premiere Pro CC is the perfect program for users who have cut their teeth in consumer video editing software and are ready to upgrade. Its traditional timeline layout and easy-to-find editing tools mirror the workflow of the best consumer video editors. The Best Video Editing Software of 2018 Whether you're a weekend GoPro shooter or a full-time video professional, you need editing software that's powerful but easy to use. Here's how the best.

Looking for professional video editing software to make advanced video edits on Mac? This post introduces you top 3 best professional video editors for Mac (including macOS High Sierra) in 2018 with their advantages and disadvantages, which can help you quickly choose the best one according to your request.

Nowadays, with the popularity of smartphones, more and more users like to use their phones to record a video of kinds of meaningful moment of their lives, such as a birthday, the birth of new baby, the happy moment of a wedding, etc. Also, many users would like to record kinds of videos with a professional camera. Most of them like to upload their videos to any online video streaming service like YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, etc.

You know that editing makes a video interesting or boring. It's common knowledge that great movies require great editors. Therefore, you need a professional video editing software to process your video, and then you can create great videos, even make a great movie with your iPhone camera.

If you are a beginner in video editing, you could have a try on some free software like iMoive, QuickTime, Blender and so on, which provide the basic editing functions. However, free video editing software is really not capable of many advanced video editing features that professional tools can give you. Everyone loves free applications, but some software is worth paying for.

Table of Contents:

What Is the Best Professional Video Editing Software?

Why we need a professional video editing software? As we mentioned before, professional video editing software can give you more advanced editing features. First of all, we need to make clear what is professional video editing software and how to choose a best professional video editing software.

Professional video editing is the manipulation and arrangement of video shots, not only the operations of crop, trim, cut, split, and combine of video segments, but more powerful and complex edit process of editing videos, like the manipulation of light and color, special effects and filters, sound process, audio control, transitions, closed captions, etc.

Then, how to choose the best professional video editing software for Mac? The criterions of the judgment depend on your specific demand and budget. Here are some common factors that users always take into consideration.

#1 Best Professional Video Editing Software Criterion - User Interface

There is no doubt that everyone loves easy-to-use software, that’s why video editing software makes effort to keep the interface simple and intuitive. But that is not to say, the simpler, the better. Because professional software has a wide range of functions, besides the simple & intuitive interface, it also try best to give you an easy access to advanced settings and controls. They will all look unfamiliar. So, in a word, an simple & intuitive interface that enables you easy to familiar and makes the editing more comfortable, that’s the good interface.

#2 Best Professional Video Editing Software Criterion - Formats

This is an important factor you need to think over when choosing an video editing software. Make sure exactly that your source videos files you want to edit are compatible with the video editor, and the output formats it produces.

#3 Best Professional Video Editing Software Criterion - Editing

The edit ability of an video editor is undoubtedly very important. A good professional video editing software should contains at least the following features:

• Basic video edit functions, like crop, trim, cut, split, combine.
• Besides, easy to insert clips, cut segments and rearrange.
• Supports converting videos into other different video file types.
• Allows audio tracks adjustment and add more effects like voice-over, background, etc.
• Having wide range of special effects video filters.
• Supports adding transitions between video clips on the timeline to create cross-fades, cuts, fades to black, fades to white etc.
• Easy to add titles and subtitles with good control and a wide range features for creativity.
• Allows to overlay additional video tracks while at the same time apply transitions to overlay tracks.
• Provides a set of effective and useful special effects & filters.
• Better audio process ability, take these points into consideration: audio compatibility, noise filter ability, numbers of audio tracks, volume control, normalization and leveling feature, etc.

#4 Best Professional Video Editing Software Criterion - Distribution

People make or create a great video aims to distribute videos to kinds of online videos service to share with more people or unfold their talents. Besides checking the output format whether supported by online services, good professional video editing software always enables you to directly publish the video to online video services such as Vimeo, YouTube, Google Drive, Dropbox, Facebook, etc.

#5 Best Professional Video Editing Software Criterion - Cost

As we said before, good software is worth paying for. But how much you want to pay for a video editing software essentially depends on what you really need. The price of professional video editor is variety different, from about more than $ 10 to even $ 3000. The one that meets all your demand and cheapest is the best.

There are still some other factors that you should consider like software upgrades (free or paid), software stability, support service, and whether provides free trials or not, etc. Based on the factors we mentioned above, in the following text, we’re going to show you 3 best professional video editing software for Mac.

# 1 Best Video Editing Software for Mac - ScreenFlow

ScreenFlow is the best video editing software for Mac that is recognized by many users. It is a full-featured video editing and screen recording software for OS X operating system from Telestream Inc., which makes it easier for users to create screencasts, edit and share videos everywhere, like YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, etc.

ScreenFlow dedicates to help users make technical reviews of programs, software tutorials, or other applications in which it is necessary to show others your screen. It eliminates the need to try and film your screen with an outside device. So, it is best for those who want to make good-looking videos for educational or marketing purposes.

ScreenFlow includes 3 major parts: Record, Edit and Share.

For edit section, as you can see from following screenshot, it has an extremely clean and user-friendly interface with all editing functions. Meanwhile, it can help you handle and process HD videos effortlessly.

ScreenFlow comes with a full range of editing features, besides the basic editing functions, it has lots of advanced editing features such as extensive transitions, filters and video effects as well as a newly updated audio module for more precise audio editing. You can change the preset size and background color of the canvas, insert speech clips, add pro touches to videos with transitions, add text animations, add video animations, chromakey, multi-channel audio and more. And here is a picture of the 8 editing buttons on the right side of the interface, which makes it easy to access and use.

Many of these editing options add tiles to the timeline, which allows them to be rearranged and changed easily. Meanwhile, ScreenFlow enables you to edit multiple video tracks at the same time. There seems no limit of the track numbers.

After finishing edit your screencast or other project, the final task is to convert it to a standard video format for publication and distribution. ScreenFlow provides two methods of converting projects to video. You can export a standard video file including AIFF, GIF, M4V, MOV, and MP4, then distribute or publish it by yourself. Or you can directly publish the video to 12 online video services.

Supported Formats:

Video Files: QuickTime Movie (.mov), MPEG-4(.mp4, .m4v), MPEG-2 (OS X Lion or later), MPEG-1, 3GPP, 3GPP2, AVCHD (OS X Mountain Lion or later), AVI (Motion JPEG only), DV

Image Files: BMP, EPS, GIF, JPEG, PNG, PSD, SVG, TIFF

Audio Files: iTunes Audio (.m4a, .m4b, .m4p), MP3, Core Audio (.caf), AIFF, AU, SD2, WAV, SND, AMR

Share Platform: Vimeo, YouTube, Google Drive, Dropbox, Facebook, Wistia, Box, Imgur, and Telestream Cloud.

Pros:

• Create screencasts with high quality.
• Record any part of the screen or the whole screen.
• Satisfy almost all recording needs of users.
• Intuitive user interface.
• Transitions, annotations, text, closed caption, audio and video filters are available.
• Provides many effects to animate titles and logos.
• Export directly to Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, Google Drive, etc.
• Easy to use and no technical skill needed.
• Provides detailed video tutorials of each part.

Cons:

• Exported videos will be watermarked with Trail version.
• Can’t record and save videos as slide-based projects.
• Exporting video to HTML5 is not supported.
• No free upgrade service available for this software.

Besides edit function, you know that there is a section of screen recording, it not only supports capturing the audio and video from the computer, but also enables you to capture what is happening on your iOS device, record audio from any connected microphone, record video from any connected camera, etc. There are lots of different ways to set up your recordings, and lots of different things you can record. Down here in this software, you’ll find everything you might need to record by using ScreenFlow.

More than anything, it provides you no time limited Free Trail, you need to fill a simple form and it will email to you with a download link.

#2 Best Video Editing Software for Mac - Camtasia

Camtasia is a professional-grade video recording & editing software published by TechSmith, which can help users record on-screen computer activities or import HD camera videos and create professional videos.

Camtasia has a well-designed user interface, which consists of two major components: screen recorder and video maker & editor, compatible with Mac OS X and PC. It supports high-quality output, and most suitable for those videographers or web content producers who plan on making professional or unique YouTube videos, educational presentations, marketing projects, or sales presentations etc.

As a powerful video editing software, Camtasia offers a wide variety of editing tools. From editing visual effects to adding animations, you will be able to edit almost anything with Camtasia Studio.

It’s capable of powerful process ability, which can help you handle and edit HD videos without any effort, you can with great ease to cut and paste video sections, add scene transition, add overlays and effects, create and edit multiple tracks at the same time, rearrange and rename tracks as need, import and handle audio files with the options of noise removal, volume leveling, speed adjustments and fades, or even add narration to your video directly, etc.

Also, you can use its recording feature to capture computer screen with audio and video. It provides several options for screen capture. Therefore, it’s also used for creating video tutorials.

Supported Import Formats:

Video Files: AVI, MP4, MPG, MPEG, WMV, MOV, SWF

Image Files: BMP, GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG

Audio Files: M4A, WAV, MP3

Recording Files: TREC, CMREC

Other Files: PPT, PPTX, SAMI, SRT

Share Platform: Screencast.com, YouTube, and Google Drive

Pros:

• Capable of recording anything, record full screen, region, web camera, audio and voice narration.
• Insert callouts, annotations, shapes, and freeze-frames.
• Add effects, transitions, blur, and highlight.
• No limits on video length.
• Supports creating unlimited videos.
• Easy to share to Screencast.com, YouTube, and Google Drive.
• Working with Mobile devices.
• Supports adding interactive hotspot and even interactive quizzes.

Cons:

• Actually, many users reported that the interface is a little bit complex.
• More expensive than other affordable screen recorders.
• Only 30-day free trial, exported videos will be watermarked with the free trail.
• Deep editing features need UI work.

#3 Best Video Editing Software for Mac -Filmora

Filmora is an easy-to-use video editing software developed by Wondershare, which best suitable for beginner novice and casual users. It is a perfect combination of simplicity and practical use. Successfully striking the balance between maintaining simplicity and providing enough tools & features that common users would actually use.

As you can see from the screenshot, Filmora has a very clean and uncluttered interface, simpler than ScreenFlow and Camtasia. What you see on the screen is what you get. Every simple icon on the screen indicates what it is used for whether it be video, audio, effects transitions or whatever. But there are still over 300 special effects behind there, such as objects, overlays, sound effects, music tracks and transition, etc. It also has a built-in screen recorder with audio, mouse click tracking and varying quality options.

Supported Formats:

Video Formats: MPEG-1/2 Video file, MPEG-4 Video file, QuickTime Movie File, Camcorder File (dv, mod, tod, mts, m2ts, m2t), Flash Video (flv, f4v), wmv, asf, avi, mkv, mp4, webm, ogv, vob, vro

Audio Formats: mp3, m4a, wav, wma, ogg, flac, aac, aif, aiff

Image Formats: jpg, png, bmp, gif, tif, tiff

Share Platform: YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo

Pros:

• Easy to use.
• Clean & intuitive user interface.
• Ideal for beginners.
• Burn DVD collection directly.
• Uploading to YouTube and Facebook instantly.

Cons:

• No advanced options like closed captions, sound configurator, etc.
• Buggy social media importing.
• Add-on content packs are expensive.
• Some useful features in separated into standalone programs.
• Latest GPUs not supported for acceleration.

More Professional Video Editing Software for Mac

In this age of science and technology, all kinds of software emerge in endlessly, not excluding video editing software. So, you can see there are lots of professional video editors for Mac in the market you can choose from, it all comes down what you need and how much does it cost. Here we list other award-winning best professional video editing software for you.

1. Adobe Premier Pro CC

2. Cyberlink Power Director

3. Vegas Movie Studio

4. Apple Final Cut Pro X

Comparison Chart

The Bottom Line

As we mentioned before, if free video editor can’t satisfy your demand, you can have a try on professional video editing software. And how to choose the one that suits you best depends on your need and how much you want to pay for. Generally, if you want to make kinds of recordings and prefer easy video edits, you can choose ScreenFlow. If you like to make how to video from your system screen for YouTube, Camtasia is the best software for you. If you are video beginner, then Filmora is the most suitable choice. These 3 software are most recommended by users, but you can also choose other video editors according to your need. Anyway, just select one and begin your joyful video edit tour.

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Editing a video in 2018 can’t get easier, with the latest technology and the new super duper video capturing devices like Action Cameras, DSLR etc. the quality of videos we make has gone far better. Still, you should always edit a video if you want to impress someone. And if you are looking to become a professional video editor, then starting out with following tools will make the process quick and easy. In this article, you will find twenty-seven best video editing software (free and paid) that let you edit videos with the help of your computer.

Do check the section of frequently asked questions at the bottom of this page and find out the common queries and I hope this article will provide you with ample information about video editing.

See Also –Video Editing Apps for iPhone & Android

Another thing to note before moving into the list of software is understanding your needs and wants. If you plan to make simple videos, then there are plenty of free video editing software and you don’t need to buy anything for it. But if you plan to earn from your videos from platforms like YouTube, then you should buy video editing software that fulfils your needs.

You get all sort of different options in the software below, so just go through each of them and decide what software you would require as per your plans and wants. You don’t have to pay a higher cost if you are not planning to make it that big. The software in the list are very renowned and being used by millions of users. So, take a cup of coffee and go through everything we have in this article.

1. CyberLink PowerDirector 16 Ultra

(Best video editing software for Windows) | Price: $72.99

It’s an easy-to-use home video editing software with 500+ editing tools and effects. PowerDirector is one of the fastest and most advanced consumer-level video editing software for PC (Windows) and it also has 360-degree video editor for the VR Footage

You will be able to create amazing videos in minutes! It has creation modes that ensure you spend less time learning and more time creating.

Effects like – Transition, Animated titles, PiP objects, Particle Effects, Color presets and much more are present to help make your videos quickly and easily.

Supported formats and codecs include MOV, MKV, H.264, FLAC and many more. PowerDirector 15 has significantly improved video performance when working with the popular WMV format, as well as adding FLAC audio editing support.

Read – CyberLink PowerDirector 16 Ultra Review

2. Adobe Premiere Pro CC

(Best overall performance and compatibility, Price: $19.99 per month or $239.88 yearly)

Platform: Mac, Windows

Adobe Premiere is the most sophisticated, user-friendly and feature-rich video editor that is also cross-platform, and it has a huge number of output format choices for your convenience.

All the things you need every day are covered with new features like audio remix, haze removal, video collage, enhanced face detection and adjustment layers focus. For Windows 10 users you also get the touch-friendly interface that is complemented with the good old Organizer app to keep photo, videos etc. in a more searchable organized fashion.

Adobe’s Premiere Pro CC enables you to make visually stunning videos from virtually anywhere.

With the industry-leading video production toolset, you can work across desktop and devices to edit virtually any media in its native format and create professional productions with brilliant color for film, TV, and web.

The new version CC is the most powerful Premiere Pro yet. Premiere Pro is part of Creative Cloud, and it comes with Adobe CreativeSync, so your assets are always at your fingertips right when you need them.

CreativeSync powers your Libraries, and it connects your mobile and desktop apps to get your files wherever you need. And read my detailed review and why I consider this as the best video editing software in 2017.

Read – Adobe Premiere Pro CC Review

3. Final Cut Pro

(Best video editing software for Mac, Price: $299.99)

Supported platforms: Mac only

FCP or Final Cut Pro is a premium software developed by Apple Inc. for Mac computers. I have started using this recently and until now it is the most efficient tool I have ever used. It has tons of features that no other software possess. The intuitive interface and timeline features are just perfect for post-production. In version 10.3, which is the latest at the time of writing it has got some powerful set of features that have been introduced recently.

The best of them all is the timeline color coding, where you can see different colors for timeline objects.

More Salient Features :

• Customized window layouts to suit your style.
• Easy to follow workflow with color coding and magnetic timeline.
• Support for RAW videos and Rec. 2020 wide colour space.
• Accelerated rendering to watch the preview in real time.
• Timecode effect to check which footage was used.
• A new browser for content and media surfing.
• Full height inspector, flow transitions, Support for professional formats like MXF-wrapped ProRes
• Instantly remove any effects and attributes added previously and much much more.

Surely the best video editing software for Mac lovers and do read the review below for extra information on Final Cut Pro X.

Read – Final Cut Pro Review

4. Corel VideoStudio Ultimate 2018

(For Beginners – easy & simple interface,Price: $98.38)

Platform: Windows only

Make your most engaging movies ever with VideoStudio Pro X10. Smart new features take routine editing tasks out of your way, freeing you to explore exciting new creative options.

New Audio Ducking automatically detects audio and narration to keep foreground and background sound balanced. Helpful features make it easier to manage clips, combine projects, and re-use custom filters and transitions.

Get creative with new overlay objects, Video Masking, Freeze Frame and bonus effects from NewBlue. Access 6 weeks of free training from StudioBacklot.tv to get started quickly and learn about advanced editing techniques.

With proven 64-bit performance and support for multiple formats, including new XAVC S, Video Studio Pro X10 makes it fast and fun to create movies you’ll love to share.

Read – Corel VideoStudio Ultimate 2018 Review

5. VEGAS Movie Studio 15 Platinum

Platform: Windows only – Price $79.99

Even beginners can easily remove unwanted scenes from videos or add incredible effects, transitions, and suitable music to turn raw video footage into movies that will impress any viewer.

Comprehensive support for the latest camcorders and faster video import makes Magix Movie Edit Pro a favorite for may. It also contains resolutions up to 4K for truly enjoyable editing. Create impressive videos in a flash with brand new title templates and proDAD Mercalli V2 for image stabilization.

Accurate editing down to the frame, 32 tracks, and an intuitive user interface let you stay one step ahead.

Export your movies to DVD, Blu-ray Disc, mobile devices, YouTube and Facebook.

Read – MAGIX Movie Edit Pro Review

6. EDIUS Pro 9 – Buy Now (Starts at $429)

EDIUS Pro 9 is among the best nonlinear video editing software that we have tested, and it has proven itself on various parameters. It provides a wide range of support and offers a whole range of editing options for different audio, video etc. formats. It has a fast as well as a flexible user interface that includes an unlimited amount of audio, title, video as well as graphics track. It provides an entire spectrum of editing features for creating some of the best appearance and appealing output for captivating the audience.

6. Pinnacle Studio 21 Ultimate – Buy Now (Price: $125.35)

Platform: Windows only

Make your most interesting and exciting movies ever with the new Multi-Camera Editor in Pinnacle Studio 20.

View and edit footage from 2 cameras, and align clips automatically with Audio Syncing. See results faster with 64-bit power, support for Intel’s 6th Generation processor (Skylake), and enhanced HD processing and playback performance.

Add style with 1,500+ 2D/3D effects and choose the perfect sounds and music from the ScoreFitter library.

Share your movie directly to Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo, on the latest devices, or enjoy an easy authoring experience with Pinnacle MyDVD.

Read – Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Review

7. Nero 2017 Platinum – Buy Now (Price: $39.99)

Platform – Windows only

With its ability to simply import photos and videos from almost any device; edit with the aid of cutting, text, image, and sound effects; create DVDs, AVCHD, and Blu-ray™ Discs; and play back and stream images – Nero Video 2017 is the powerful all-rounder for your next movie project.

Nero Video 2017 offers a full range of tools for top image quality for your discs and files as well as dazzling 4D effects. Full-HD video edit previews, a choice between single or double monitor setup, and automated use of project settings – can making movies get any easier?

Read – Nero 2017 Platinum Review

8. AVS Video Editor 7.5 – Buy Now (Price: $49)

Platform – Windows only

Trim, cut, split, merge, rotate, mix videos. Apply effects and overlays, insert menus, audio, texts, and subtitles. Burn DVD/Blu-ray discs.

AVS Video Editor supports all key video formats. Edit & save video files in AVI, VOB, MP4, DVD, WMV, 3GP, MOV, MKV, H.263/H.264 codecs, etc.

Transfer video from DVR, web or VHS-cameras and save the video on hard drive or burn DVD discs. Or record media files from your PC screen and create video guides, training videos or demos. Share Your Video by uploading newly made video files to all popular video hostings such as Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, etc., directly from AVS Video Editor interface.

Read – AVS Video Editor Review

9. Lightworks – Buy Now (Price: $437.99)

Platform – Windows, Mac and Linux

Lightworks is EditShare Academy and Emmy award-winning, professional Non-Linear Editing (NLE) software supporting resolutions up to 4K as well as video in SD and HD formats.

In the last 25 years, Lightworks has been used to edit some of the finest films in cinema history: The Wolf of Wall Street, LA Confidential, Pulp Fiction, Heat, Road to Perdition, Hugo, The King’s Speech and many more! We’re proud of its heritage, and we want to share it with you.

Discover the incredible features of this application and why Oscar-nominated editors around the world use Lightworks Pro every day. Another best video editing software that I love due to ease of use especially for beginners.

Read – Lightworks Pro Review

10. Vegas Pro 14 – Buy Now (Price: $394.99)

Platform – Windows only

(formerly Sony Vegas Movie Studio) Smartphones make it easy to make movies and Sony Movie Studio makes it even simpler to make those movies stand out. With a streamlined workflow, powerful editing tools, and a vast array of video and audio effects, the art of moviemaking is right at your fingertips.

Add titles and music. Add color correction and transitions. Movie Studio offers all the tools and features you’ll need to put your masterpiece together, fast.

Movie Studio is touch-enabled for touch PCs, which means that using a mouse to drag and drop clips to the timeline is a thing of the past! Make edits, add transitions and effects, and record a voiceover – all with the touch of a finger.

Share your movies with others. Upload them directly to YouTube™ or Facebook™ from the Movie Studio application!

Read – Vegas Pro 14 Review

Bonus: 11. Wondershare Filmora – Buy Now (Price: $59.99)

Platform – Windows and Mac

Use Filmora video editor to express your creativity and amaze with beautiful results. Cut, edit, merge and trim clips.

Add music and text. Apply special effects. Get a professional-looking movie in minutes. Share with any social media sites like Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube. A nice choice for beginners in video editing. The interface is quite simple and intuitive.

Read – Wondershare Filmora Review

Rest of the Best Free Video Editing Software

12. Apple iMovie – Download

Platform – Mac only

This is the entry level video editing software for your Mac that can turn your photos and footage into a brilliant production in no time, plus it now supports the 4k video. Its comes free with Mac and you download it from the Mac App Store.

PROS – Simple interface, good themes and color matching option to make movies look smoother and consistent. Good solid chroma-keying functionality, with enough audio tools and a theatre features that allow you to share movies with your other Apple gadgets and gear.

CONS – Limit of two video tracks, missing of few controls like tagging, motion tracking and multi-cam capabilities.

It doesn’t have all the tools but for basic video editing like putting together clips and images for good-looking movies, it provides a lot of support and appeal. iPhone movies can be easily imported and you can make a good impression by adding few effects. Beginners should go for this, before moving to anything flashy on Mac.

13. Windows Movie Maker – Resources

Platform – Windows only

Although Windows Movie Maker is now not supported by Microsoft anymore and on January 2017, everything was removed from their website, Still you will be able to access the old archives via Wayback machine in the download link above. It was the best free video editing software for many years in the past.

Windows Movie Maker was perfect at a time as it had tons of things within for a home video editing enthusiasts. My first movie with me friends was edited on Windows Movie Maker I thoroughly loved the interface back then, it was simple and easy to grasp.

You had the options of Import/Edit slideshows and videos. To make a movie with Movie Maker, you’ll need some photos and videos on your PC. Import photos and videos from your phone or another device to get started.

Trim it, split it, speed it up or slow it down, you can also choose a theme to express your unique style.

Bring your movie to life with a soundtrack that you can edit yourself. When your movie’s done, publish it to the web so you can share it with family and friends.

So, if you still go the old Windows, then you can use the Windows Movie Maker by clicking the Start button, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Windows Movie Maker.

Read – Windows Movie Maker Review

14. Lightworks Free – Download

Platform – Windows, Mac and Linux

Lightworks Free version is considered to the best free video editing software by TechRadar.com and rightly so, it has a number of features available in free version and all the basic video editing can be done in a proper way.

The major difference are listed here. Lightworks is not very easy to use at first, but once you start using it more often you will see how it can be customized to user preference. Another good about this software is that its multi platform, be it on a Mac, PC or a Linux machine it will run smoothly on all.

15. HITFILM 4 EXPRESS – Download

Platform – Windows and Mac

HitFilm 4 Express has all the great cinematic, stylish abilities and interface. You have good resources on their website to learn this software, as it will take time for beginners to get the look and feel.

The free version is actually pretty good and has 1080 HD capabilities with 8-bit pixel depth. You also got the 180+ effects and presets to play with your editing tricks. The graphic editor of HitFilm is pretty good as well, many other software can’t match the quality of editing and tools within.

You get almost 10 premium effects packs in the free version and chroma key with extraction tools at disposal. Rightly referred to as the best place to start filmmaking.

16. DaVinci Resolve 12.5 – Download

DaVinci Resolve 12.5 is said to be the best advanced editing plus the color grading toolset for user that need to work with SD, HD & UHD projects. For beginners that want to get intense with video editing in future, this software will give them a good boost.

Their website features all the advanced features their pro version supports and if you want to take it to the next level, the hardware provided is absolutely amazing. You will definitely want to look what’s inside this heavyweight video editing suite.

17. Shotcut – Download

Platform – Windows, Mac, Linux

Its a free, cross-platform video editors that is also open source. It came to linux at first and slowly it got converted in Windows and Mac. It supports video up to a resolution of 4k and has a wide variety of format that can be imported for video editing.

The interface before was hard to figure out, but it has improved a lot and you can feel the sleek and intuitiveness in the interface in the current version. Definitely a worth spending time on.

18. VideoPad Video Editor – Download

Platform – Windows, Mac, iOS, Android

Designed to be intuitive, VideoPad is a fully featured video editor for creating professional quality videos in minutes.

Drag and drop video clips for easy video editing. Apply effects and transitions, adjust video speed and more. One of the fastest video stream processors on the market.

Upload to YouTube – save your login credentials to upload videos directly to YouTube, Facebook or Flickr from VideoPad.

Read – VideoPad Video Editor Review

19. Wax – Download

Wax is a high performance and flexible video compositing and special effects software.

The idea for Wax is to be a very general purpose and flexible in video compositing and effects so that you can compose your dream video sequence with ease every time.

Wax can create 2D & 3D special effects and can work in two modes – as a standalone application which would appeal for home users/beginners, and as a “plug-in” to video editors/NLEs which would be more useful for professional editors.

Currently, Wax can work as a plug-in with Sony Vegas®, Pure Motion EditStudio and Adobe Premiere® and work for integrating with various other NLEs is in progress.

20. Avidemux – Download

Platform – Windows, Mac and Linux

A free video editor to cut, filter, and encode projects.

Avidemux is a free, open source cross-platform video editor for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and BSD. It is written in C++, and you can use it for various tasks such as encoding (convert videos from one format to another), cutting (cut certain portions from a recording) or filtering (resize, deinterlacing, add subtitles, color correction, etc.).

Has built-in support for many popular codecs and files: AVI, MP4, ASF, DVD, MPEG, MKV. It is one of the best free video editors whenever you need to automate video processing or editing process.

The software is released under the GNU GPL license and has been released (binaries) in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Read – Avidemux Review

21. Blender – Download

Platform – Windows, Mac and Linux

Blender supports all major operating systems and its a GNU licensed program that enables you to make 3D content.

Some of its features include advanced modelling, animation tools, character animation, node-based material. Its works pretty well on all platforms – Windows and Mac.

22. ZS4 Video Editor – Download

Platform – Windows only

ZS4 Video editor is another good software that is free and it can easily combine clips, trim, add sounds and many good effects that video editor needs.

Althought the interface is not that attractive, but you can sure do the basic stuff and export your files in multiple outputs.

23. Jahshaka – Download

Platform – Windows, Mac and Linux

One more software that is open source and has been in the market from a long time. The total downloads of this software have crossed 3 millions.

Being an open source content creation platform it provides sevral benefits like media management, playback, compositing, editing, animation and special effects that can make your video look fantastic. Video editing software that are free and open source, do have some elements that you can’t ignore.

24. Movica – Download

Platform – Windows XP

Movica is a simple UI based video editor that lets you join files, split movies, select or delete portions, copy-paste and fine tune selections etc.

It is an open source project and it runs on Windows XP with .net framework and it also requires Windows Media player. So, if you are still using Windows XP and haven’t upgraded somehow then Movica can do the trick for you.

26. HyperEngine-AV – Download

Platform – Mac only

HyperEngine-AV is licensed under GNU GPLv2 which means its free and open source. Its an award winning video editing software that previously was paid.

Video editing features like capture, arrange and process video, editing of audio and text, creating movies, slideshows, trackless document and much more can be achieved in this software.

27. VirtualDub – Download

Platform – Upto Windows 7

VirtualDub has a fast linear operation over video and it has a good number of capabilities for batch operations that can also be extended with third party filters. It doesn’t process files other than AVI as it was meant to be used with AVI only. For MPEG-I it will be able to read it, but it will not be write in this file format.

The development of VirtualDub has stopped and the developer has done the last update in late 2013. So, if you want to do basic editing for videos and need a free software in your Windows PC then you can still use it. Otherwise, you have plenty of more video editors.

Do let us know, if you have used any of the software above, your thoughts and comments are welcome below.

People also ask

How do you edit a video on your computer?

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To edit a video on your computer, first, you would require a video clip. Let’s assume you have a new video in your mobile phone that you recently shot. Open that video in video editing software from above. Usually, you will need to connect a wire from your mobile phone to you computer and transfer the video. Some of the video editors allow you to directly transfer a video from mobile device to their software.

Once your video is inside your video editor, you then need to see the timeline or storyboard. You can edit your video, cut a particular section or anything in between. For each software, the options may be different but concepts are same. You will have options to add transition effects, titles and credits, audio or music in the background.

After editing your video you can export it in multiple formats, a few video editors will allow you to upload video directly to sites like YouTube, Facebook etc.

Which free software is best for video editing?

By trying almost every other video editing software I would consider CyberLink PowerDirector the best one out of the lot. Its easy to use, affordable for beginners and it doesn’t have a steep learning curve and you will enjoy their video editing interface. But it does have a pro version and hence the free version will export a video with a watermark of their logo. Still, if you want to try before you buy, then this software has all the guns and whistles for pro video editing.

What is the best video editing software for YouTube?

Adobe’s Premier Pro is one such software that need no introduction. People rely on them and they have all kind of resources like support and detailed video tutorials for using their software. The trust factor always play in when you are buying a software, so my advice would be to take their trial for a month and then decide what to do. YouTube videos made by professionals and millions of follower base channel heads have time and again mentioned Adobe for the supreme quality and stability.

What kind of editing software do YouTubers use?

Again Final Cut Pro & Adobe Premier Pro is the software YouTubers use in all kind of computers, laptops be it on Windows or Mac. Its a bit costly but worthy enough to be mentioned as the best video editing software for YouTube.

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How do you edit a video for YouTube?

If you have a decent internet speed at your location, then YouTube video editor is the best online video editor one could have. It has all the necessary features like Transitions, Trimming, Controlling Video speed plus many more essentials that video editors require everyday.

How do you edit videos on Windows?

Windows Movie maker is pre-installed software that comes together with Windows 7, 8 and 10. So, editing videos on Windows gets easier with their native application that is the Movie maker.

Can I use iMovie on my PC?

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No, PC with Windows installed doesn’t have iMovie software as Apple hasn’t made a Windows platform support for their native video editor. People with Windows can use the Windows Movie maker to edit videos for free on their PC.

This concludes of our long article on video editing. If you have any questions, suggestion or feedbacks do let us know by commenting below.