Editing program review

Using the filters, you can automatically give your video footage looks like vintage western, comic book styling, and silent movie nostalgia. Here is a selection of features you should look for when choosing between the recommended video editing programs.

Most video editing software is scary when you sit down and face it for the first time. That said, not all video editing software is created equal when it comes to simplicity of use. Do consider that the simplicity of the interface tends to align with the simplicity of the tools.

Other programs are more limited in what you can input. If so, good for you — you can run pretty much any video editing program without issues. It just means you have to be more careful about which one you choose.

All video editors have different system requirements, so just be sure to check that you meet them before you buy. It may be that you can start with a free program until you decide to expand your video editing skills. A library of stock assets is a handy thing to have for video editing. Many apps offer royalty-free images, audio files and stock footage you can use to build up your personal and even professional projects and take them to the next level. While such resources are available separately StoryBlocks is a good resource , having them integrated into your video editor makes life easier — and gives you access to media you might otherwise have to pay additional fees for.

For more advanced or professional video projects, you might look for some of these additional features:. Looking to load in footage from several devices so you can cut to different angles of the same scene? If so, you need multicam support. Premiere Pro, for example, supports an unlimited amount, while some programs have no multi-camera support at all. Motion tracking is an advanced feature with several useful applications.

For example, use it to stabilize footage, blur out faces or pin text captions to moving objects. Motion tracking tools used to be the domain of pro-grade special effects software, but these days many programs make them available even to beginners.

There are different types of motion tracking tools and they range in complexity, from single-point to multi-point or 3D tracking. Tools like colour correction, colour matching and colour grading add an extra layer of control to your video editing.

Enthusiasts may not require the same level of control, but having these tools can certainly help you change the look and mood of a video in a more nuanced way. Not everyone needs degree support, but if you happen to be shooting spherical footage e. Not all video editors offer this support, and the ones who do offer it with varying degrees of functionality — so if VR or video is your thing, do check the software support for it before you buy.

Depending on what kind of videos you want to produce, you might look for a range of other advanced features. While the tools do lack a high degree of refinement, that can only be expected from a completely free video editing program. The only downside is limited export options and a subtle but non-removable watermark on your finished output. This Hollywood-level video processing software is available in a completely free version that works on Windows, Mac and Linux.

If you want to get started on the path to becoming a pro, this is a great free choice. This free movie maker warrants a mention for its free VFX toolkit, professional editing tools, and extensive free tutorials. Then export all your finished video to YouTube, Facebook, Google Drive, and other mobile devices quickly and easily. The only drawback is that it may be too simple for advanced video editors. HitFilm includes animation tools that let you create and edit audio and video transitions without the need to create composite shots, which is a huge time saver when editing.

DaVinci allows for both offline and online editing, and its high-performance playback engine saves time when editing and trimming—even for processor-intensive file formats like H.

OpenShot is an efficient option for small businesses and is best for clip resizing, scaling, trimming, snapping, and rotation. It also offers credit scrolling, frame stepping, time mapping, audio editing, and real-time preview.

Shotcut is an open-source, cross-platform video editor with a vast collection of tutorial videos. A warning, however: Shotcut was originally designed for Linux, so some may find the interface a little quirky. Shotcut also provides extensive audio editing options, making it ideal for audiophiles.

Its host of fine-tuning audio tools allows users to make bass and treble adjustments, create bandpass filters, adjust gain, add dynamic compression, and much more. Blender video editing is a free, open-source 3D creation suite. It includes features to help model and render 3D animations. The software is a collaborative creation of hundreds of developers from around the world. It can also tackle more complex edits, like video masking, making Blender a flexible video editor for both novice and experienced users, and an excellent option for more advanced projects that may involve 3D animation.

Windows Video Editor is more a photo editor, but offers the basic editing tools like cropping, trimming, and including text or audio. Included with Windows 10 and up, Video Editor is completely free and is good for basic video enhancement.

Popular standby iMovie comes bundled with Mac OS. Like many native Apple apps, iMovie is uncomplicated and uses a simple drag-and-drop interface for moving files from your drive to your workstation. Vimeo Create , a free editing software you can connect directly to your Shopify store, automatically turns your existing product images and text into polished ecommerce videos.

No video experience needed. The overall quality of your footage can easily be enhanced by stabilization, removing noise or other artifacts, upscaling resolution, editing brightness and contrast. The software also solves the problem of protecting your work by allowing you to add unique text or picture watermarks. Verdict: Amateurs and video bloggers often call Wondershare Filmora the best video editing software for Windows.

The primary advantage of the program is the requirements for hardware capabilities. This software will operate even on low-power PCs. Verdict: All versions of Pinnacle Studio offer regular users the ability to combine, edit and modify multimedia files and images in real time.

This Windows video editing software boasts a user-friendly interface and plenty of tips on various processes that will help users edit videos and music tracks. Additional effects and transitions are quite easy to install. The ability to instantly copy exact changes will save time spent on video editing. By the way, users can customize almost any process of creating video, visual effects and surround sound to their liking.

Verdict: Nero Video is one of the most affordable options although it has plenty of tricks and effects. Express video editing is made easier. Verdict: DaVinci Resolve is the best video editing software for Windows with discrete graphics used for high-budget movies and TV shows.

Along with traditional color capabilities, such as curve editors, there is also a Neural Engine with face recognition and tracking. It lets users customize skin tones and eye color using machine learning for speed distortion. For audio, DaVinci Resolve uses a qualitative Fairlight toolset that allows for mixing up to channels. It incorporates Fusion, with high-performance modules for video production, color correction, audio playback, video effects and motion graphics.

Verdict: Lightworks is another professional video editing suite that has been used in Hollywood productions. The free version is available with a restricted output format. The software is meant for non-linear top-grade video post-processing, where various special effects, transitions and filters will improve the quality of projects. The superbly designed timeline provides a high degree of control, so users can crop and mix audio and video clips in a convenient way. If you're creating video for commercial purposes, in particular, it's worth investing in the proper tools.

These are currently the best three paid-for video editors out there:. Adobe also offers a free 7-day trial of either Premiere Pro or its full Creative Cloud package, so you can try it out before committing. Also note that you can download PowerDirector for free and use the full feature set, but with a watermark in the bottom-right corner.

That's not to say it doesn't have a great feature-set: it supports a huge array of tools for when you're ready to make more complex videos. A free trial lets you try it out for 30 days. After testing numerous suites, we think the best free video editing software overall is HitFilm Express.

It works with both Macs and PCs and has a revamped interface that's powerful but easy to use and customizable to your needs. These include such features as degree video editing, 3D titles, advanced color-grading tools and LUTs, and even audio tools such as Doppler Shift and noise reduction. Lightworks is another great option, offering plenty of advanced tools completely free, but with the caveat that exports are limited to p.

Mac users who only need a simple video editor will find that Apple iMovie is the best free video editing software, because of its strong integration with Apple's operating system and easy-to-grasp editing tools. However, you won't get advanced features such as degree video editing and special effects here.

But if you need just the basics, you've come to the right place. Hitfilm Express is the best free video editing software package. Its high-energy style appeals to budding filmmakers who want to put a special touch on a personal event or get creative with a video blog, but it's still easy enough for the adventurous friends-and-family crowd.

The latest version, Hitfilm Express Other great features include the ability to create your own lightsaber battles, degree video editing and lens distortion correction from action cameras. Read our full HitFilm Express 16 review. Lightworks is advanced enough that the Pro version has been used to create multiple award-winning movies including the likes of Pulp Fiction and The Wolf of Wall Street, but the free version is only marginally less full-featured.

There's a wide range of tools to create professional-looking videos, including some fairly advanced audio-editing options, VFX, color adjustments and more. And while the interface may take a little getting used to, even a beginner can master the essentials relatively easily. It also works on almost every platform, with versions for Windows, Mac and Linux. The main drawback is that with the free version, output options max out at p — but depending on what you're planning to upload your film to, that may not matter.

Read our full Lightworks review. Recent updates tweaked the interface and added Touch Bar support for the latest Macs, plus it now lets users edit and adjust focus in videos shot with the iPhone 13 range's new Cinematic Mode.

It's also now been optimized for the latest Apple Silicon, so it'll have improved performance when used on the new MacBook Pro 14 or inch models and the M1 Pro or M1 Max chips. While you can now edit and share 4K videos, iMovie lacks features found in other free apps, such as the ability to edit degree video, multicam editing and motion tracking.

You also have limited control over output settings. Because it's so deeply entwined with macOS, iMovie was always one of the fastest apps when it came to encoding video. Once that's finished, it also gives you plenty of sharing options: you can upload directly to YouTube and Vimeo, and share any video frame as an image. Read our full Apple iMovie review. This free video editor makes it a cinch to export your creations to YouTube, Facebook, Dropbox, Flickr, Google Drive and an assortment of mobile devices through a simple pull-down menu.

You have to sign in to these services first — and while YouTube uploaded directly to my channel without incident, you may have to save your video to your hard drive with social media specs, then upload to the social network yourself.