Which is the best video editing software for right now, in 2022?? I think this question was continuosly popping up in your mind. Well, here in this article I'll tell you some of the latest options with our picks for the best video editing softwares in every category. From the best free software with everything that you need to know to decide what's right for you.
Today in this article I'm gonna tell you my personal favorite top five free video editing softwares and when I say free these truly are free. There are no watermarks. There are no time limitations. None of that. They're just entirely free, and they're also pretty good. When you compare them to paid video editing softwares, in many cases these are just as good, if not better.
And in the end I'll also share with you 3 tips to use video editors more professionally and it will also reduce your time.
1. Video Editor
All right, let's jump into our topic and let's check the first best software for video editing. This software is probably one that you already have if you're running Windows 10. Windows 10 comes with a video editor. What?? yes, it's true. Just go into your search field on your taskbar, simply type video editor. Let's click on it. And this will drops us into the Windows 10 free video editor, and if you're still scratching your head and wondering how you ever missed, don't feel that bad. It's very difficult to discover. The video editor is actually within the photos app and in the past you had to open the photos app and then you had to go into the video editor. Recently Microsoft added video editor to the search field so it would pop up there.
Let's start with what I like about the video editor, and there is a lot to like.
You can easily drag and drop some video files directly into the video editor, and can use storyboard to pull together that videos.
You can trim, split, add text and the list goes on with what you can do. Up above, you also have access to background music, so you can insert music and can even sync it to your video's music beat. You could also insert custom audio.
It has a lot of very nice functionality and in a pinch this works extremely well. So this sounds like a pretty good video editor. But the question comes in our mind is, Are there any downsides?? And unfortunately, there are a few. One of the most glaring omissions is you can't add any transitions between clips, so all you could do is a hard cut between two of your clips on the storyboard. Also, because it uses a story board layout that makes it very easy to use, but you also don't have any tracks, so let's say you want to do a picture in picture effect or basically you want to have one video play on top of the other. Well, unfortunately you can't do that. Also, if you looked at this background music catalog you have a lot of songs you can insert. However, if you upload your video to YouTube, you won't be able to monetize with any of those tracks.
Also, probably one of the biggest drawbacks is, Once you pull together your video and you have your storyboard laid out, when you go to export your video, the highest quality that you can set it to is 1080P. So let's say you have a new camera that shoots at 4K. Unfortunately, you won't be able to render your video in the top-quality level.
All-in-all, the Windows 10 free video editor is a decent option and you can pull together some pretty nice videos, but the drawbacks are somewhat of a dealbreaker, at least for me personally.
2. OpenShot
Okay, so let's jump onto the next free best software for video editing. And this brings us to number 2. And that is the OpenShot video editor. You can download and install it at OpenShot.org, It's completely free. It's an open source and you can install it on any platform, whether it's Windows, Mac, or Linux. Simply click on the download text right here. Once you finish installing, this drops you into the OpenShot video editor and it looks pretty simple, but yet it also has a lot of power under the hood.
Here also you can simply drag in video files and they'll show up under project files and here you can simply drag and drop different files onto the timeline. If you pull in multiple items down onto the timeline, this is a big improvement over the Windows 10 video editor. You can also insert transitions and there are many different transitions that you can choose from. Along with transitions, you can also insert different effects on top of your different media files. Now I mentioned it looks very simple, but it does also have some advanced capabilities.
So once again it also has a lot of advanced functionality. So, are there any drawbacks? I mean it is free software and it does quite a bit. Well there is one. Let's say you want to insert a title, you can insert a standard title just fine and this works well. But there's also an option for an animated title, which sounds neat, but if you select any one of them, you have to install another application called Blender which will allow you to do an animated title. Now Blender is also a free application, so it's kind of hard to complain. But it is a little bit of extra friction to be able to insert an animated title. All-in-all, OpenShot is an excellent choice if you want a simple but yet also powerful free video editor.
3. Shotcut
Okay now, the next free video editing software is called Shotcut. You can download this at Shotcut.org, Shotcut is free and it's open source software. It works on all major platforms including Windows, Mac and Linux. Once you finish installing Shotcut, you'll be prompted to create a new project. Just like with the other apps, you can drag and drop your media files and you can see a playlist of all your files. Just like with the others, you can select one of your files and you can drag and drop it down onto the timeline. With Shotcut, you can add any number of tracks. Unlike the Windows 10 free video editor, Shotcut supports a massive catalog of transitions. Now if you click into properties, you can choose many different transitions similar to OpenShot. Along with inserting transitions, you can also select one of the clips, you can click on filters and you can add a massive catalog of different filters to this clip.
One other thing that I really like about Shotcut is depending on what you're working on, they have different views optimized to that task. Here for instance, if you'er currently in the editing view which shows you the timeline and the preview. But you could also jump into an FX view. Or maybe if you want to do some color grading so you can easily jump into the color view. There's also an audio view and a player view, if you just want to review what your video looks like.
All-in-all, Shotcut is a very powerful video editor. So you'll ask are there any drawbacks?? Well, Shotcut is a little bit more complicated than the first two video editors that we looked at. So he learning curve is a little steeper, it really depends on how serious you are about video editing. If you really plan on creating some advanced videos then this could be a good choice. But if you really just maybe want to pull together a simple video, this might have a few more capabilities than you really need.
4. Kdenlive
The 4th free best software for video editing is Kdenlive. You can get it at the website kdenlive.org. Once you land on the homepage to download it, you'll see a link right here and this works on cross platform. So whether you have Windows, Mac or Linux. And once again this is also an open-source video editor, so it's completely free to use. Choose your operating system and then go ahead with the install. This drops us into the main kdenlive interface, and it looks pretty similar to the previous few video editors that we looked at. Similar to previously discussed video editors you can drag and drop different files into the editor and here too just like we saw before, you can drag the different items onto the timeline and here too you'll get multiple tracks on your timeline.
One of the key differences you'll notice now that you have two different ways you can view your videos. In Kdenlive you can view the clips so you can jump into a clip and you can preview that and then you also have a separate view of your projects. In terms of editing, you have many different tools to edit your videos. In fact, you have what's referred to as normal mode, there's an overwrite mode. So if you drag a clip down, it'll overwrite the existing clip, or you could insert it. They also have a wide variety of different editing tools that you can use. Similar to Shotcut, there are also views that are catered to what you're doing or the task at hand. But let's say if I want to work on audio, I could shift into a dedicated audio view. Or maybe I want to focus on effects. Or maybe I want to focus on color grading my video. There are views that specialize in each one of those different tasks. Back on the main view, you can also add many different transitions. In Kdenlive you have two different clips and if you click into compositions. Let's say you want to add a wipe transition between clips. So in Kdenlive you can insert it between two clips and that's now added a transition.
All-in-all, you can pull together some very impressive and advanced videos using kdenlive although similar to Shotcut, one of the drawbacks is you do have a lot of different options and a lot of different controls so the learning curve is a little bit steeper, however there are lots of help resources online that will help you get started with this video editor.
5. Davinci Resolve 17
The number 5 free best software for video editing is Davinci Resolve 17, and this is the one that I personally use to pull together all of my videos. Davinci Resolve is a very impressive application. In fact, many different TV studios or film studios use Davinci Resolve to pull together their projects. Davinci Resolve is a freemium product. What that means is you get most of the core or foundational capabilities entirely for free. However, if you want additional effects or tracking, it costs some money for those. But I've been using the free version and I've been able to do all of the editing that I want to get done. The is Davinci Resolve 17 is the most recent version. You could also get an older version, however I'd recommend going with the latest. Davinci Resolve is a powerhouse video editor. Just like the others, you can pull your different media clips in and you can pull them down onto the timeline.
In Davinci Resolve 17 you can adjust all sorts of different settings related to the video, the audio, different effects or transitions that you decide to insert. One of the really nice things about Davinci Resolve is I have all of the other applications that are all part of Davinci Resolve. In this editor you'll have a dedicated cutting view which makes it even easier and quicker to cut your different video clips. You also have a standard editing view, but also if you want to add any VFX, you have a Fusion page where you can add all these different effects and you'll also have a node view where you can start pulling them together. The color view in Davinci Resolve is one of the industry leading ways that you can set color on your video. You also have access to something called Fairlight Audio and this is a super powerful tool that you can use to adjust the audio on your projects. With Davinci Resolve, they bring together multiple, what could be stand-alone applications, all into one interface, so as you're pulling together your project, you can very quickly jump between, say, the editing view and then the VFX view using that clip. Out of all of the video editors that we looked at today, arguably, Davinci Resolve has some of the most advanced functionality.
In terms of another application that's similar to Davinci Resolve, you have Hitfilm Pro and then you also have Adobe premiere, and those are comparable to what Davinci Resolve offers. But what's great about Davinci Resolve is it's entirely free to start using and only some of the features are behind a paywall. Overall, Davinci Resolve is an excellent choice and that's why, I use it as my primary editor. Although the one downside is it has a very steep learning curve. In fact, anytime I use this video editor, I feel like I'm constantly learning new things about it, but that's also what makes it so exciting.
We've looked at a lot of fantastic and free softwares for video editing, but I did want to call out some other noteworthy free video editors beyond the five that we already looked at.
One of them is the VSDC video editor and this is also a freemium video editor. So you get most of the core functionality for free, but then a few items are behind a paywall. This is also a good option.
There's also Hitfilm Express, and this is similar to Davinci Resolve in terms of what you can do. This also follows a freemium model where you get most functionality for free and then you can upgrade if you want to unlock more functionality.
And lastly another great video editor is called Videopad and this is made by NCH Hardware. Now it is free for home use, but you do get an annoying notification that tells you and always reminds you that you're on the free version. There are also some limitations like you could only insert so many audio tracks, they limit the number of plugins. But once again for a free video editor this also works fairly well.
I said I'd also share with you three quick tips to help you edit faster in any video editing application.
So, tip number one is to learn some of the keyboard shortcuts. This is something that over time is going to speed up your editing dramatically. Most video editing programs out there have keyboard shortcuts that will actually do multiple things with just a single key press to save you clicking and dragging your mouse or your track pad around. You're gonna be able to perform things much faster. So, to figure out some of the keyboard shortcuts in your application you can usually just go up to Help, and then find the keyboard shortcuts in there or just a simple Google search for your video editing software and keyboard shortcuts.
Tip number two is to not waste time creating everything custom from scratch. There are amazing websites like Placeit and VideoHive where you can download and customize up amazing video intros and titles, and graphics, and things for your videos. So, this will save you an absolute ton of time and make your videos look really good.
And tip number three, is to fix the colors in your video last. We see so many people that just jump straight in and they're putting all these filters, and grades, and tweaking, and adjusting the look of their video before they've actually gone through the process of editing it down. What if you went through that process, you wasted a ton of time making it look good and something was missing. You didn't have a usable video at the end of the day. So, save your sanity. Save the color correction until last. Focus on cutting down the content of the video first then, make it look good afterwards. This will also make your editing faster because your computer won't need to be processing all of those color adjustments while you're editing.
All right, well that was a quick look at my favorite free best softwares for video editing. Let me know down below in the comments which one are you going to use moving forward.
Conclusion
All right let's summarize this once and get the data here, the first software for video editing we seen is Video Editor, second one we seen is OpenShot, third one which we discussed about is Shotcut, fourth one we seen is Kdenlive and fifth one we talked about is Davinci Resolve 17. Then we also discussed some more free softwares for video editing which you can use. And atlast I've given 3 valuable tips to make you video editing journey more easy going.
The free softwares which I've discussed are all good one's and I've used that so from my experience I've given you a summary about that. You can use any one of that softwares for video editing.
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Vrushal,
(Freelance Writer and Web Developer)
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