The world of free video editing software is there for you to benefit from. After all, you have no money to spare due to working part-time jobs. If you want to do something outstanding in the field of video editing, a free video editing software can come in handy.
Everybody wants to make better videos, but not everyone has the skills or time to learn complex video editing software. Luckily, there are many free video editing tools available online that are easy enough for your grandmother (or even yourself!) to use.
Openshot
Platforms: Linux, Mac, Windows
Openshot is a free video editing software for YouTube that has a relatively user-friendly interface. Similar to Shotcut, it offers limited animation effects. Having said that, though, Openshot is a great option for YouTube creators. While there are minor differences with editing features, Openshot’s editing environment is different. Instead of on-screen editing, Openshot uses floating windows. This essentially means that your editing happens through the use of layers represented by separate windows within the software.
Shotcut
Platforms: GNU/Linux, Mac, Windows
Shotcut isn’t pretty. It’s open-source software that looks exactly like what you would expect free, open-source software to look like. But, looks aren’t everything, right? This platform performs very well and offers the features you need. If you can make it past the ugly exterior and not-so-intuitive user interface, Shotcut can be used for trimming and exporting. It does have limited transitions available, but if you just need to edit your creations for uploading to YouTube, Shotcut has you covered.
Free Video Editor in Windows 10 Photos App
If you are looking for the built-in free video editing software for Windows 10, the good news is that you can try Microsoft Windows 10 Photos app, which is pre-built in your Windows 10 computer, so you don’t need to download it again. If you can’t find the Photos app, you can also install it again from Microsoft Store directly.
This lightweight free video editing software can turn your images to videos automatically under the Automatic Video mode, which will save you time if you don’t want to do any editing. You can also use the Custom Video mode to trim, resize the video, change audio volume, add filters, text, motion, and 3D effects.
However, it doesn’t have a timeline, and some advanced features such as split tools, green screen, video stabilization effects are missing.
In case you don’t want to upgrade to Windows 10, you can still find installation packages of Windows Movie Maker on some third-party authoritative download sites. (Windows Movie Maker has been discontinued by Microsoft, remember to download it on your trust download sites. ) However, you must know it won’t upgrade anymore, so you are not able to enjoy some innovative and high video editing technology.
The built-in Movie Maker and Photos App in Windows include some features listed below:
- Input formats: ASF, AVI, DVR-MS, M1V, MP2, MP2V, MPE, MPEG, MPG, MPV2, WM, WMV.
- Output formats: Windows Media Video (WMV) or DV AVI.
- Advantages: Free, meets your basic editing demands.
- Limitations: Windows Movie Maker Service discontinued; No support for modern file formats; Windows Photos App Lacks color correction tools, visual effects, or any other advanced video editing options.
Lightworks
Platforms: Linux, Mac, Windows
Despite its dated website, Lightworks offers up a user-friendly interface and a great collection of features. It provides a selection of transitions, visual effects, and trim options that help YouTubers create stunning videos. Lightworks supports all popular video file formats and is optimized to help you save time on exporting files so you can get them up on your YouTube channel faster. There’s even a Multicam editing feature that makes it easy to edit footage that was captured by two or more cameras.
VideoPad Video Editor
VideoPad is a cross-platform software for beginners. The free version of VideoPad limits the video exporting options to just two file formats. The VideoPad’s interface doesn’t take much time to get used to, and it perfectly adjusted to the needs of inexperienced video editors.
This is an intuitive, feature-rich, and easy to use video editing platform. Beginners can enjoy easy editing with its drag and drop type timeline, and loads of transitions, effects, and speed adjustment features make customization easier.
If you like to use transitions and have various video clips, VideoPad includes more than 50 transition effects. After applying transitions, you can also adjust video speed to make a slow-motion or fast speed video effect. For audio, you can also record narrations to make your video more detailed, which is a bonus for game lovers.
However, this free video editor can’t be used to make a slideshow, so just pass it if you really care about this function.
Features of this free video editor you should know:
- Input formats: AVI, WMV, MPV, DivX, and many more
- Output formats: WMV, AVI
- Advantages: Intuitive interface
- Limitations: Certain features become unavailable when using the free version of the software over a longer period of time.
HitFilm Express
Platforms: Mac, Windows
HitFilm Express is a free video editing software for YouTube that doesn’t feel like it should be free. It comes with tons of features that YouTube creators will love and, with a small investment, you can get access to even more features. To be honest, though, the software is great without any addons. HitFilm Express includes:
- Dozens of keyboard shortcuts
- Auto-save as frequently as every minute
- Labels for 3D effects, text, models, composite shots, images, and more
- Set a custom maximum undo level
- Crop a clip and animate it to control which part is visible
- Default template options including 1080p Full HD
- Helpful select tool to grab everything before or after the playhead
- Mix and balance audio
- Add unlimited video and audio tracks
Windows Movie Maker
Platforms: Windows
Windows Movie Maker is, as the name implies, for the Windows operating system. Movie Maker 10 can help you make movies from your photos, video clips, and music and provides basic video editing functions like video joining, adding background music, and text caption to more advanced features like image filter, transition effects, and pan-tilt-zoom effects. Movie Maker supports most popular media formats: mp4, WMV, Mkv, MOV, Avi, MPEG, mpg, mts, jpg, png, gif, mp3, m4a, and wav files.
In addition to the features we’ve already mentioned, Movie Maker can be used to overlay text captions and emoticons, add still picture-in-picture, adding title slides, and access to 30+ transition effects (including fade, ripple, cross-zoom, wave, pixelate, square wipe, and more) for photos and videos and 30+ fonts for text overlay. You can also use the music editor for clip trimming, fade-in, and fade-out effects.
VSDC
Platforms: Windows
YouTube vloggers, listen up! VSDC lets you import existing video clips or record directly from your webcam. The interface is user-friendly and VSDC offers several great options that seem like they were built with YouTubers in mind: Instagram-like filters, titles, shapes and effects (both visual and audio), and voiceovers. Plus, you can export directly to YouTube or your other social media platforms easily.
iMovie
Platforms: Mac, iOS
If you’re a Mac or iPhone user, you’re probably familiar with iMovie. We think it’s one of the best options out there for YouTube influencers who need an easy-to-use software for Macs. iMovie offers up the basic video editing features you’d expect like cropping, trimming, and clip arrangement. You can also use it to add visual effects or titles to your videos as well as editing audio files, so iMovie covers your bases. And, once you have your video looking just how you want it, you can share directly to YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo quickly and easily.
Kdenlive – Free and Open Source Video Editing Software
Kdenlive is an open-source video editing software that is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux. This video editing software combines the simplicity of entry-level video editors with advanced video editing tools frequently used by experienced professionals.
As a free video editor, it is popular at first on Linux, but now you can also use it on Windows. It includes a multi-track timeline to use, so you can import various video and audio clips onto the timeline. For some special situation, say crash, Kdenlive can back up your file automatically, so no worries about a file missing.
From the online forum and community, you can ask them questions if you have any questions, but sometimes you won’t get answered as there is no support team.
- Input formats: QuickTime, AVI, WMV, MPEG, etc.
- Output formats: MPEG, AVI, MP4, MOV, etc.
- Advantages: Allows you to extend your capability with free add-ons.
- Limitations: No technical support.
Wondershare Filmora
Platforms: Mac, Windows
Wondershare Filmora makes it easy for YouTube creators to produce and edit videos that look just as good as anything a video editing professional could do, even if they don’t already have video editing skills. This free video editing software for YouTube has an intuitive user interface that makes it a standout option for beginners while still providing all of the video editing tools you need to create gorgeous YouTube videos that your subscribers will love. Filmora lets you add video, image, and audio files to your project and includes all of the basic video editing tools like cutting and trimming videos, as well as advanced features like video stabilization, de-noise, and more.
Filmora also includes an effects library so you can add interest to your videos with color grading and text and image overlays. It also has a large royalty-free audio library with music and sounds effects you can use on your videos. Up the creativity with chroma-key (green screen) and split-screen video features.
Blender – Free & Open Source & Professional Animated Film Toolset
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation which supports all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License. Blender has many advanced features, such as modifier-based modeling tools, powerful character animation tools, a node-based material, etc. and is one of the best video editors for both Windows and Mac.
As a beginner user, it is difficult to use as it is designed for pros. It is totally free to use and distribute. The interface is customizable and flexible in color settings. On the other hand, if you a semi-pros or want to improve your video editing to a higher level, this free video editor is best for you. The thing is you need to spend many time and energy to learn it.
- Input formats: The latest audio and video formats
- Output formats: .MOV, .MPEG4, .MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, WebM.
- Advantages: A lot of advanced features, perfect for advanced users
- Limitations: The learning curve is steeper for beginners; Very limited learning resources.
Clipchamp
Platforms: Online
Do you need a quick editor for your YouTube videos? Clipchamp is definitely worth a look! It’s an online video editor so you don’t need to download any software. Plus, it’s so easy to use. While Clipchamp doesn’t produce HD videos, it does export to MP4 and allows video, images, and audio. With Clipchamp, you can change the speed of any video clip, resize or crop, rotate and flip videos, fade-in or fade-out your audio or video files, and pick from a dozen filters to add more visual interest to your video.
To use Clipchamp, you simply upload your files to the Clipchamp website and drag them onto the timeline. From there, you can rearrange the files and clip what you don’t want. Since Clipchamp is online, it works for all operating systems.
Avidemux – Free Video Editor for Windows 10/7/8
Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering, and encoding tasks on Windows 10/7/8. It supports various file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs.
As its interface is so clear, it lacks a timeline, so you can’t add filters and transitions. The whole design of Avidemux is that many functions are for practical use, not for stylish purposes. If your needs are fundamental, this free video editing software is a choice. For advanced video editing, it can’t let you have more control. The good thing is you can use it smoothly and learn it quickly if you are a new user in the video editing industry.
Avidemux includes some features below:
- Input formats: AVI, MPEG, MOV, MP4, etc.
- Output formats: AVI, MPEG, DIVX, XVID, MP4, etc.
- Advantages: Avidemux also has solid an encoding option, and its interface is user-friendly.
- Limitations: There are no video effects or transitions.
Conclusion
YouTube is a great place to watch videos as well as share videos with viewers worldwide. The platform couldn’t be easier to use but creating powerful YouTube content that generates likes, comments, shares, subscribes, and views isn’t as easy as just uploading your video and hoping for the best. If you want to make your mark on YouTube, you’ll need to create content that is engaging and entertaining… and aesthetically pleasing to watch. That means your videos need to be well put together. Fortunately, there’s a number of free video editing software for YouTube and we’re going to share our favorites with you!