Editing your own videos brings more excitement into your life. It allows you to create memories that will last forever through creating videos that you will be able to enjoy for years. Video editing software makes it possible to do the types of things that only professionals used to be able to do.
Ever since the emergence of video-capable digital cameras, the trend of self-produced videos on YouTube, Facebook, or other social media platforms has exploded. Maybe you want to join in that trend–or maybe you just want more flexibility when editing your home movies. Either way, there are lots of great video editing options out there these days.
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker was never a powerful video editing software, but it always provided a quick and simple way to edit videos for Windows 7 users. However, on January 10. 2017, the iconic video editing software that was bundled with all versions of Windows in the last couple of decades has been discontinued.
If you are using Windows 7 operating system, you are lucky to use Windows Movie Maker: adding titles, trimming or cutting videos in this software doesn’t require you to be a professional video editor, and to make things even better Windows Movie Maker offers support for a lot of different video and audio file formats.
However, the software doesn’t provide any filters or visual effects that significantly limits your possibilities. Windows Movie Maker is one of the best video editing software for beginners which is totally free, but it is designed for quick edits that don’t require a lot of video editing skills, so semi-professional and professional YouTube video producers will be better off using some more powerful video editing suite for their projects.
Platform: Windows
Pros:
- It is easy to use. If you are using Windows version below 7, this editor is best for YouTube
- Ideal software for photo slide shows as it can import multiple photos
- It also provides fun transitions when making a video for YouTube
Cons:
- Advanced users get irritated by using it as its functions are limited
- Limited options for editing videos
- Susceptible to crashing down
- Not Available on Windows 10
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker is another best video editing software for YouTube videos, and Microsoft designs it. You can create, edit, and publish your videos using this program on online sites like YouTube and Facebook. That will help in enhancing your overall editing experience. It has support for many transitions, effects, and titles to help customize the video.
Pros:
- The key advantages of using this software program are available for free.
- This video editor for YouTube is easy for beginners to learn.
- This video editing tool offers a variety of editing tools and functions and perfect for photos slide shows.
Cons:
- Limited to basic editing tools with no up-to-date filter, effect, or overlays.
- This video editing tool is not suitable for advanced users.
- It is highly prone to crashing down, thus not reliable enough.
Supported Platform: Windows
Price: Free
Wondershare Filmora Video Editor
Platform: Windows, Mac
Becoming a skilled video editor takes years of practice, but with Wondershare Filmora video editor, you can produce YouTube videos that have a professional look and feel, even if you are new to the world of video editing. This YouTube Video Creator has big icons and an intuitive interface, so those YouTubers who edit videos for the first time can quickly make a video.
As one of the best video editing software for beginners, Filmora YouTube Video Editor contains all the tools you’ll ever need to create a well-rounded video with the video & audio editing features, stunning effects, and efficient color grading.
Besides the fact that you can easily add as many video, photo and audio files to your projects, this YouTube video creation tool also enables you to perform all basic video editing actions such as trimming or cutting video clips, or advanced editing features such as de-noise, video stabilization and more.
The software’s rich effects library enables you to enhance the colors in your videos, add text or image overlays. Wondershare Filmora also offers a royalty-free audio library which includes music track and sound effects you can use to create a perfect soundtrack for your videos that can be exported to YouTube directly from the editor (for personal use). You can add text and add emoji with animations and save it as a preset to use in the future. You can also make some creative videos with the split-screen video or chroma keying feature.
Pros:
- Extremely intuitive and easy to use
- Beautiful and fashion effects, royalty music, sound effects
- Simple color correction and audio editing (audio keyframe included)
- Advanced features like PIP, Green Screen, Tilt-shift, Mosaic, video stabilization, etc
- Compatible with the most commonly used formats like MP4, MKV, MOV, FLV, etc
Cons:
Filmora is a freemium video editing software, and you need to pay to remove the watermark in the Free Trial Version.
You can share the video made with Filmora to YouTube directly. We have also made a video to introduce some of the best video editing software for YouTube videos, no matter you are using Windows or Mac, you will find the free and paid software based on your needs.
YouTube Video Editor
This free YouTube video editor allows for easy customizing of video files through specialized tools and effects. It would be best if you choose the right combination of those that will suit your video editing. Also, the program helps in trimming down the size of videos.
Pros:
- You will have an easy time learning how to use this program.
- This video editing tool works at high speeds, and it is available for free and allows adding music to video.
Cons:
- Its availability for free means this program comes with limitations on some features.
- You will enjoy only the basic features.
Supported Platform: Windows, Mac
Price: Free
iMovie: Best free video editing software for beginners for Mac Users
If you are a video editing newbie and do not want to download any third-party editor for your YouTube videos, you can try iMovie, which is one of the best options for YouTube Video Creator beginners for Mac users. iMovie was released in 1999, and since 2003 it has been included in all new versions of Mac OS.
The software offers basic video editing features, that enable its users to crop, trim and arrange their video clips in any way they want. Adding titles, applying visual effects or editing audio files is also on the list of features iMovie provides. The latest versions of the software offer support for HD and 4K videos, which means that you can edit footage captured with iPhones, GoPros, and all other modern digital video cameras.
The software’s video-sharing capabilities are impressive since it enables its users to share 4K videos to YouTube, Facebook or Vimeo with just a few clicks. Even though iMovie offers a lot of powerful video editing tools, professional video editors may find the software’s features underwhelming.
Platform: Mac, iOS
Pros:
- A shaky video can be fixed easily for YouTube editing
- Offers background music and great visual effects
- You can also change audio over a video clip
Cons:
- It can be accessed by Mac and ions users only
- Support various importing formats
Avidemux
Avidemux is a free MP4 video editing software for Linux, Mac OS X and windows. It supports video formats such as ASF, MKV, AVI, MP4 and MPEG and comes with a feature that does filtering, cutting and encoding. It also has features such as encoding options, processing tools, different filters, and frame rate configuration. Another great feature of this program is that tasks can be automated with the use of job queue or projects.
Pros:
- It is fairly simple to use and is lightweight.
- It has a great selection of filters.
- It has a command line interface meant for advance users.
Cons:
- The interface is outdated.
- In some formats it may drop frames.
- It can be complicated for new users.
Supported Platform: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7
Price: Free
Final Cut Pro: Professional Video Editing Software on Mac
This video editing software is famous for its high-end video editing capabilities on Mac and it is frequently used by the industry’s leading professionals on demanding projects. Final Cut Pro is designed for non-linear and non-destructive video editing and it offers tools that make working with large amounts of video, audio and image files easier. The recent versions of the software offer support for 4K and 5K videos, while the 360-degree video editing is also an option that is available to the video editor’s users.
A brief look at the list of feature Final Cut Pro offers will leave you wondering if there is anything this software cannot do. That’s the reason why YouTube video producers can only benefit from editing their videos in Final Cut Pro, one of the best video editing software for Mac ever created.
Platform: Mac
Pros:
- It is convenient to use for YouTubers
- You will get updates regularly. If you don’t want to update, you can turn it off
Cons:
- It supports only Mac operating system.
Cost price: $299.99, free trial available
VSDC Free Video Editor–Free Suite for Editing Video and Audio Files
VSDC is a free MP4 editing software for windows. It supports video formats such as AVI, MP4, MPG, MKV, FLV, WMV and other formats. It provides drawing and selection tools, audio effects, transitions as well as video filters. Once you have completed editing, you can select the optimized outputs for devices such as gaming consoles and smartphones. It has a non-linear editing feature, and unlike other programs that uses linear editing tables to locate files in a sequence, this video editor locates and edits videos at any place of the table. It recognizes any graphical element as independent, and thus any effect tool can be used on any type regardless of its format.
Pros:
- It has different output options.
- It provides many useful filters.
- It is absolutely free.
Cons:
- At a high level it requires computer resources such as RAM and CPU..
- Its interface is not very visceral.
Supported Platform: Windows 7 or newer
Price: Free: $0; Pro: $19.99
Lightworks: Professional Video Editing Software for Making Hollywood-Like videos
The features Lightworks offers may seem intimidating to inexperienced video editors, but this software is also a perfect learning tool. The user-friendly interface is equipped with a rich selection of visual effects, transitions and superb trimming options which guarantee that each YouTube video you edit in Lightworks is going to be a small masterpiece.
The software supports all popular video file formats, including 4K videos, and you can export your videos to YouTube easily. What’s more, Lightworks is optimized to save time on exporting files, so you won’t have to spend a lot of time waiting for your videos to be uploaded to your YouTube channel. Professionals will enjoy the Multicam editing feature that enables you to work with the footage captured by two or more video cameras.
Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux
Pros:
- Compatibility with all the major operating systems
- Good speed when editing YouTube video
- Multi-camera editor is great
- The custom-made interface is what YouTubers need
Cons:
- The free version of the software has limited export capabilities
- Demanding system requirements
Cost Price: Free version available, $24,99 per month, One Year License: $174,99
Shotcut–Free, open source, cross-platform video editor
Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor for Windows, Mac and Linux. Its major features include support for a wide range of formats; no import required meaning native timeline editing; Blackmagic Design support for input and preview monitoring; and resolution support to 4k. As such, it can be of interest to those who would rather not be dependent on giant software corporations, but prefer the continual regular upgrades of a community of enthusiastic and dedicated developers.
Pros:
- Wide Format Support.
- Free and multi-platform.
- Full featured.
Cons:
- No thumbnail previews for effects or transitions.
- Can’t automatically create new layers.
Supported Platform: Window/Mac/Linux
Price: Free at cost
Conclusion
Above are our picks for the best video editing software for YouTube videos on the market, from some free video editing software for Windows and Mac, to the paid solution to edit your YouTube videos. Some of the video editing software programs are best suitable for video editing beginners such as iMovie and Windows Movie Maker, some are creative professional software like Adobe Premiere.