What is Video Editing?
Video editing is the process of manipulating and rearranging video shots to create a new work. Editing is usually considered to be one part of the post production process — other post-production tasks include titling, colour correction, sound mixing, etc.
Many people use the term editing to describe all their post-production work, especially in non-professional situations. Whether or not you choose to be picky about terminology is up to you. In this tutorial we are reasonably liberal with our terminology and we use the word editing to mean any of the following:
- Rearranging, adding and/or removing sections of video clips and/or audio clips.
- Applying colour correction, filters and other enhancements.
- Creating transitions between clips.
The Goals of Editing
There are many reasons to edit a video and your editing approach will depend on the desired outcome. Before you begin you must clearly define your editing goals, which could include any of the following:
Remove unwanted footage
This is the simplest and most common task in editing. Many videos can be dramatically improved by simply getting rid of the flawed or unwanted bits.
Choose the best footage
It is common to shoot far more footage than you actually need and choose only the best material for the final edit. Often you will shoot several versions (takes) of a shot and choose the best one when editing.
Create a flow
Most videos serve a purpose such as telling a story or providing information. Editing is a crucial step in making sure the video flows in a way which achieves this goal.
Add effects, graphics, music, etc
This is often the “wow” part of editing. You can improve most videos (and have a lot of fun) by adding extra elements.
Alter the style, pace or mood of the video
A good editor will be able to create subtle mood prompts in a video. Techniques such as mood music and visual effects can influence how the audience will react.
Give the video a particular “angle”
Video can be tailored to support a particular viewpoint, impart a message or serve an agenda.
Good video editing software can help you showcase your products from every angle by producing professional promos for platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or anywhere else you share brand videos. There are a number of easy-to-use free video editing programs that can help you stand out from your competition.
Well-produced product videos are a more engaging form of content marketing than photographs alone and can reduce a customer’s hesitation in making a purchase. In fact, according to online publication Small Business Trends, ecommerce product videos can increase conversion rates by up to 144%
Below, we’ve compiled a list of the best free video editing software from around the web, as well as a few with affordable paid versions. Each entrepreneur has their own specific needs, so we’ve run down some of the most useful features of each tool.
The Following Are The Best free video editing software for desktop
There’s a lot of desktop-based editing software available for businesses looking to create promotional videos. The biggest advantage of free video editing software for desktops is that they tend to have more features than most mobile video editing apps.
If you’re looking to edit your promotional videos on a budget, check out our list of free video editing software you can use to edit long-form content for youtube, your ecommerce site, or a variety of other platforms:
1. OpenShot
Best simple video editor for beginners
OpenShot’s easy-to-use user interface makes it a great video editing program for beginners. While more complex tools may offer more editing components, OpenShot’s intuitive interface and minimal design are perfect for simple editing.
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.
Features include:
- Unlimited layers for watermarks, background videos, and audio tracks
- Customizable title-card templates
- Drag-and-drop functionality for easily adding video, audio, or image files
- Digital video effects, including brightness, gamma, hue, greyscale, and chroma key compositing for green-screen effects
- Powerful key-frame animation capabilities for creating animated videos
Available for: Windows, Mac, and Linux
2. VSDC Free Video Editor
Top free video editing software with full editing suite
VSDC’s desktop video editing software is available as both a free and paid version. Although the free version has reduced features, it still comes with VSDC’s full video editing suite—including a mask tool and chroma key functionality for green-screen video effects.
If you have the funds to spring for the full version, the suite of tools expands to include video stabilization, robust post-production effects, slideshow/presentation capabilities, 3D diagram templates, and direct social media publishing.
Features include:
- Color-correction tools for a more professional look
- A full suite of transitional effects
- Easy-to-use image filters, similar to what you’d find on Instagram
- Mask tools for hiding, blurring, or highlighting specific elements
- Social media link for sharing videos on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Vimeo
- HEVC/H.265 (an advanced video-compression standaed, for maintaining the highest quality at the minimum file size—essential for processing 4K and HD files
Available for: Windows
Price: Free; $19.99 for Pro version
3. Movie Maker 10
Good free video editing software for Windows
Movie Maker 10 is a convenient video editing software for Windows for people looking to go back to basics. It’s great for making quick edits to short video clips you need ready right away.
Movie Maker 10 comes with a free version that includes its suite of video and picture editing tools as well as the ability to add captions with customizable fonts and colors.
Features include:
- Auto-preview tool for edits and effects
- Auto-movie options for creating customizable cuts of your video clips
- Animation tab to easily add music, titles, and credits
Available for: Windows
Price: Free
4. Lightworks
Best online video editor for real-time project sharing
Lightworks includes a simple and intuitive interface, so it’s easy to pick up. Lightworks also offers a collection of detailed video tutorials, making it one of the more accessible and easy to learn Linux video editing software options on this list.
Lightworks has a suite of original stock videos and music clips licensed for use in any videos you edit on the program, letting you give a polished look to any marketing video.
Features include:
- High-quality simple trim functions for fast and precise video editing
- Speed optimization, letting you continue to edit while importing new content
- Multicam editing for syncing clips from multiple cameras
- Real-time team project sharing with full control over which user has editing access
- Easy sharing of videos with fast export to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Instagram
- Supports a wide range of video formats
Available for: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Price: Free $24.99 per month for Pro version
5. Shotcut
Best open source movie maker for audiophiles
Shotcut is an open-source, cross-platform video editor with a vast collection of tutorial videos. It also supports a wide range of formats, including FFmpeg, 4K, ProRes, and DNxHD. A warning, however—Shotcut was originally designed for Linux, so some may find the interface a little quirky. Despite this, it’s still a top-notch editor.
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.
Features include:
- Support for the latest audio and video formats via FFmpeg, the leading multimedia framework
- Native timeline editing, which allows users to import video files directly into their project file rather than a media library
- Multi-format timeline for mixing and matching resolutions and frame rates within a project
- Advanced audio filters like balance, bass and treble, bandpass filters, compressor and more
Available for: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Price: Free
6. Blender
Best professional video editing software with 3D creation suite
Blender 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. The huge community of users gives Blender’s software an extensive group of tools.
Blender is designed as a 3D animation suite but comes with a functional video editor that should be enough for most users’ needs. 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.
Features include:
- Path-tracer engine for realistic rendering of animated objects
- Advanced rendering processes to speed up the saving and exporting of your project
- Option to code game logic into the software for video game development
- Advanced character animation tools for realistic kinematics
- Extensive library of visual effects and vignettes
Available for: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Price: Free
7. HitFilm Express
Best free video editor with all-in-one editing and professional visual effects and tutorials
If you don’t have a lot of experience with video editing, Hitfilm express may feel a little advanced at first—it’s used to produce Hollywood-style films—but it’s worth the learning curve, as it’s one of the best all-in-one free video editors available. (HitFilm does ask you to share a social media status update when you download the software, but that’s a small price to pay.)
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.
Features include:
- Professional grade video editing
- Composite shot enhancements that allow you to animate two separate shots together for surreal video effects
- Unlimited video and audio timeline track creation
- An adaptive trimmer that lets you re-trim your clips after adding them to the timeline
- Ability to copy a group of attributes from one clip and apply them directly to another or to a whole project
- Audio mixer for fine tuning sound for professional quality output
- Various transition options, such as push, zoom, and dissolve
Available for: Mac and Windows
Price: Free; $497 for TK
8. DaVinci Resolve 16
Best free video editing program for professional editors
DaVinci Resolve combines professional 8K editing, color correction, visual effects, and audio post-production in a single production tool, which is why it’s the software of choice for many professional editors of films, television shows, and commercials.
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.264 and RAW. DaVinci Resolve’s complex features may be too extensive for some users, but its free version is perfect for more advanced projects.
Features include:
- Dual timeline for quick navigation, cutting, and trimming
- A dedicated trim interface that gives you the ability to edit in minute detail
- Intelligent auto-editing that syncs audio and visual clips for you
- Built-in tools for picture-in-picture effects, retiming, stabilization, dynamic zoom, text, and audio
- Facial recognition that detects faces in your clips and automatically creates bins based on the people in each shot
- High-quality motion estimation speed changes and frame rate conversions to easily and realistically speed up or slow-down clips
Available for: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Price: Free, $269 for the full Studio version
9. VideoPad
Best free video editing software for sound mixing
VideoPad is a good starting point for those just getting acquainted with video editing software, thanks to its uncomplicated, easy-to-use interface. Despite its deceptively easy controls, VideoPad comes packed with professional features like multiple displays for fast editing and unlimited overlay audio tracks—providing users with the option to have more control over their sound mixing without the added complexity of more professional editing software.
VideoPad doesn’t come with as many advanced features as some of the other free video editing software on this list, but with options to add light effects, fine tune colors, and overlay text and images, there’s enough here to make it worth the free download.
Features include:
- Double built-in screen (one to preview selected clips, one to preview complete sequence) for easy and intuitive editing
- Pre-made, customizable transitions for polished professionalism
- Exporting presets to easily create video files optimized for specific platforms—such as Facebook and YouTube—and post them directly from within the software
Available for: Windows
Price: Free
10. iMovie
Best free YouTube video editor
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. It’s an easy way to build powerful videos to boost your Youtube marketing efforts.
A big advantage to iMovie is that files are saved on Apple’s cloud, meaning you can work on your project interchangeably on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. iMovie is constantly being updated as well, so you can always look forward to new features and improvements.
Features include:
- Support for 4K resolution, allowing users to create cinema-quality films
- Cloud-storage functionality that allows you to work on the same project from your iPad, iPhone, and Mac
- Dozens of studio-quality title animations for professional-looking credits
- Stylish, contemporary video filters built for specific film genres, such as western and sci-fi
- Built-in music, sound effects, and voiceover recording so that your sound and picture editing are always consolidated
- Speed controls that let you make high-octane action scenes faster and sports highlights slower
Available for: Mac
Price: Free
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Best free video editing software for mobile
11. Quik
Best free video editing app for quick and automated editing
Quik, from GoPro, is a free video editor designed to create videos on the move. You can record, edit, and post all from one place. The app makes it easy to search your clips to find the best moments, plus, it can automatically edit clips and add transitions. If you want more control over the process, you can edit videos manually, too.
Features include:
- Ability to add photos
- Professional time-lapse sequence creation
- Access to 100-plus royalty-free songs
- Automatic synching of videos to music
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) editing assistant
- Variety of fonts and emojis
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free. You can upgrade to GoPro Plus, which offers a larger music library and premium technical support, for $4.99 per month with a 30-day free trial.
12. Magisto
Best AI-powered video editor for creating professional-looking videos fast
Magisto, an easy-to-use free video editing software for mobile, uses AI to create video content in minutes. Yo only have to do three things: choose editing style, add footage, and pick music. Magisto then automatically edits and makes your video. It also makes music suggestions to match the style and theme of your footage, or you can use your own.
It’s especially useful for creating videos at scale, such as if you start a youtube channel and want to streamline the creation process. Also, if you want to see how many people watched your video, the app has a simple insights dashboard built in. It’s a popular video-editing tool with over 90 million smartphone users and counting.
Features include:
- Wide variety of themes
- Facial recognition, filters, effects, and auto cropping
- Professional auto-editing ability
- Ability to share videos across marketing channels
- iStock integration for high-quality stock images
- Unlimited HD movie downloads
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free. Premium and Professional subscriptions start at $4.99 per month and offer access to a wider range of editing tools. Magisto also offers a free online video editor, no download needed.
13. Splice
Best mobile editor for combining multiple clips
Splice boasts a simple and intuitive way to make powerful videos. It gives you the ability to splice multiple clips together, customize transitions, and create a soundtrack from the app’s built-in music library.
With its straightforward and sleek design, Splice is an easy-to-use, must-have tool for making video content that’s impactful and .
Features include:
- Automatic synching of video to the beat of your soundtrack
- Ability to trim, cut, and crop your video clips and photos
- Special effects, including animation
- A selection of transition and title styles
- A free sound library
- Pan and zoom effects for photos
Available for: iOS
Price: Free
14. KineMaster
Best full-featured online video editor for Android and iOS
KineMaster is a full-featured video editor for smartphones featuring powerful, easy-to-use tools, such as blending modes,voiceovers, speed control, video reverse, chroma key, and more. You can even edit frame-by-frame to adjust fine details of your video. This free video editing software is for those who want to take it up a notch with a professional touch.
Features include:
- Multiple layers of video, images, stickers, special effects, text, and handwriting
- Ability to add voice overs, background music, voice changers, and sound effects
- Green-screen technical support
- Ability to edit and export 4K 60 FPS video
- Keyframe animation tool for adding motion to layers
- Instant preview options
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Basic plan is free but includes watermark. Users can upgrade to the Pro Edition for $4.99 month.
What video editing software do YouTubers use?
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Final Cut Pro X
- Adobe After Effects
- Lightworks
- Freemake
- iMovie
- Shotcut
What is the best video editing software for beginners?
- Movavi Video Editor Plus
- Pinnacle Studio
- Apple iMovie
- Lumen5
- HitFilm 4 Express
- Blender
- Nero Video
What is the best free video editing software for Mac?
- iMovie
- DaVinci Resolve
- Lightworks
- OpenShot
- Video Editor MovieMator
What is the best free video editing software with no watermark?
- VSDC
- OpenShot: open source video-editor for beginners
- Lightworks: free professional editing software
- Shotcut: free open source video editor
- DaVinci Resolve: high-end free video editor for professionals
Choose a video editing software that fits your marketing needs
Now that you know your options in finding the best free video editing software, you can start testing them out. While each option comes with its own advantages and disadvantages, hopefully, you now have a better idea of which free video-editing program is best for your business.
Videos consistently are shown to get more engagement on average across all social media platforms than pictures and text posts. A professional, well-made marketing video can help tell a story about your products, capture the attention of your audience, develop your brand’s personality, and maximize your ROI on paid social ads.
Take your content marketing to the next level. With so many free video editing software options to choose from, there’s no limit to the creative potential of your brand’s marketing video content.
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