Review of the best free video editors in 2023, including my pick of the top free editor for beginner, intermediate and professional use, as well as the best free editors to run on lower-power hardware. In alphabetical order, the programs compared are Blender, DaVinci Resolve, Flowblade, HitFilm, Kdenlive, Lightworks, Media Composer | First, Olive, OpenShot, Shotcut and VSDC.
Note that I have no relationship with any of the companies or open source projects that publish the above applications.
My full review of DaVinci Resolve 18 is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyzO2MTKwY0
And I have a series of videos on Blender, starting here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsufneMOvWA
Oh, and the video edited I on a Raspberry Pi 4 is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3ddj9_LMgU
Links to download the editors covered in this video are as follows:
Blender: https://www.blender.org/
DaVinci Resolve: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com
Flowblade: https://jliljebl.github.io/flowblade/
HitFilm: https://fxhome.com/product/hitfilm
Kdenlive: https://kdenlive.org/
Lightworks: https://www.lwks.com/
Media Composer First: https://my.avid.com/get/media-composer-first
Olive: https://www.olivevideoeditor.org/
OpenShot: https://www.openshot.org/
Shotcut: https://shotcut.org/
VSDC: http://www.videosoftdev.com/
The three additional editors that I looked because they offer a free download, but which require payment for continued use and/or to remove a watermark, were:
Coolcut: https://www.coolcut.tv/
Filmora: https://filmora.wondershare.net/tech-spec.html
Videopad: https://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/index.html
For additional ExplainingComputers videos and other content, you can become a channel member here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbiGcwDWZjz05njNPrJU7jA/join
More videos on computing and related topics can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/@explainingcomputers
You may also like my ExplainingTheFuture channel at: http://www.youtube.com/@explainingthefuture
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:30 Beginner editors
03:45 Intermediate editors
07:25 Professional editors
10:40 Editors for lower-power hardware
12:50 Wrap
#FreeVideoEditors #explainingcomputers
Thanks! Going to try out some of your recommendations.
@SuperCacahuete93 Says:
Bonjour, si vous saviez tout ce que j'ai appris depuis que je suis votre chaine...😊😊😊
@daveys Says:
Using proxy clips makes a lot of difference to the performance of video editing. Great videos by the way!
@Елена-к-и8ж Says:
im at the intermediate level of editing ig and i use movavi for my vids, its tools are a real savior for my job🙏🏼
@HarryOsirian Says:
I randomly discovered this channel. Glad I did. Very informative.
@ravindra_devrani Says:
Nice list..
I use shotcut video editor to edit programming tutorials. I records them in 1080p. It works fine on win 11 + rayzen 5 + 12 gb ram.
@anDromedaIOT Says:
ayup chap. Nice work thanks, just what i needed but... are there any 360 editors? The Insta360 has Studio but Mac/Win only, i tried everything to fire it up in ubuntu but zilch. I don't have GPU on my trusty old W520 so i doubt anything would run on it anyways, and i can flatten and export from my phone then drop it into any of these editors. Maybe next time you do another video editor vid there might be something worth a mention, thanks again for doing the donkey work for me.
@billysgeo Says:
Loved the presentation, the straight forward information, the categorization of the apps AND the voice / cadence! I AUTOMATICALLY LIKED AND SUBSCRIBED!!! Thank you
@Delta66-jz1vl Says:
Very good overview. I dived straight into DaVinci Resolve, with the help of some very good tutorials. And I am very happy and impressed by this software.
@HasyaVinod Says:
this kind of video require minimum one year video editing experience on all these softwares. i have used vsdc very smoothly on my 15 year old pc (dual core). vsdc never crash. i am now using kdenlive and vsdc both.
@fbushphone Says:
Comprehensive coverage well structured for all level of users, thanks for sharing
@du39104 Says:
The only true free and useable one is probably kdenlive as all the others are simply freenom version of a paid version....
@IsaacParks Says:
Really wonderful vid. Thank you for making these!
@ynyslochtyn Says:
Do you film yourself in front of 'ideal' background or are the walls behind you actually crumbling with skeletons hanging from hooks and other horrors, but you removed background with software trickery?
@ynyslochtyn Says:
Some of the programs you mention are actually ‘crippled’ in some way which may be a put off. Kdenlive is nice but lacks feature to import video live from usb webcam. Filmora is nice intuitive video editor and while not free, not as extortionate as the adobe software you use.
@gregh.g.83 Says:
Thanks
@ParisAldebaran Says:
Thank you good Sir for your excellent research and explanation, keep doing precise videos such as this one.
@zbiromax9228 Says:
Hello. what are the computer parameters for DaVinci Resolve? This is the budget version. 4 cores, 16 gb ram, 4 Gb graphics. is it enough for 30 minutes of video?
@prentrupathome5319 Says:
Very useful, will try Kdenlive. As a non-pro who has been editing since the days of S-VHS videotape, I loved Serif Movieplus during the early 2000s (paid but cheap) and was sad when it went out of business. Still using the final version (X6) today. Have attempted DaVinci at least 4 times, but abandon it every time due to unpleasant user experience. Would like to know which of the reviewed programs has built-in stabilise - Movieplus does. Wonder who if anyone now owns Movieplus code, wish someone would continue development. Bemused by Microsoft Clipchamp, silly featureless program, unusable offline. Why on earth doesn't Microsoft, with all its resources, develop a decent video editor? They could ship it with Windows and gain a vast and increasing user base.
@CallibanMcGee Says:
An excellent review Chris. I tend to watch your videos based on the theme in which my current interests lie. As I'm now constructing a home office/studio to begin content creation...here I am. Four months late but thoroughly enjoying another well-put-together production.
You said you use Kdenlive on your laptop, but what do you use on your main production machine? What is your personal favorite? Seeing that university professors are fabulously wealthy, I'm sure it's a top-shelf application. Yet this common man is still interested. 😅
@enfolded_light Says:
Wait........is it Shortcut or Shotcut?
@NoMastersNoMistress Says:
I love Flowblade. It handles like the older versions of Premiere with which I taught myself how to edit video and it's as reliable as a block of granite.
@Mikkall Says:
Dang Brits... there's no way of knowing if your saying Free or Three.
@KarimMGS Says:
It must have taken much effort and time to go through all the choices and prepare screenshots of them all. I appreciate your effort and the high quality videos you make. As always, another excellent video and keep up the good work 👏🏽
I like the consistency in your videos, such as the black shirt and white background. This consistency does not distract me from video to the next, and allows me to concentrate on what matters: the content being explained, because after all I am here to learn.
Moreover, comparing software or hardware is the best service you do to your viewers, because it is what we need but do not have the resources (time and money), effort, nor expertise to perform. I wish I had come across this video in the past when I was searching for a video editor software to cut out commercials from movies I record from live TV. This was before streaming become mainstream, and probably before YouTube became mainstream too. I had to search around and try different software until I settled for VideoReDo, which did the job and was good for the task and for that era. I was much younger then and had the patience and energy to do that, but now I don't anymore, so thank you.
@rameshkanojiya52 Says:
Thank you
@behramcooper3691 Says:
Great suggestions. Unfortunately DaVinci Resolve and I did not start off on a good footing. It kept giving me the dreaded Media Offline warning as soon as I dragged any media into the program. How is that even possible? My computer is not very old and runs very smoothly. So, I started with Shotcut and now I am also using Capcut.
While Capcut has a lot of features, it does not have the two features I need on a regular basis: (1) a lens distortion corrector (fisheye and pincushion) and (2) a graphic equaliser for sound. These are the two drawbacks. Otherwise, Capcut is a pretty good software.
@Alxium Says:
You introduced me to DaVinci Resolve a few years ago and I was blown away. I used the free version to successfully build my YouTube channel, and recently I purchased a full license.
I am majoring in Film, Video and Media, and have used Premiere Pro quite a bit. Needless to say, I absolutely prefer Resolve over Premiere. Resolve does just as much, isn't subscription based, and has a better user interface in my opinion. Thank you for introducing me!
@zwerne42 Says:
Thank you for the informative content
@SunShinesBlack Says:
I'm surprised Avidemux didn't make it on here, it's a very nice and simple open source editor able of keyframe cutting without re-encoding and nice fast workflow + basically a GUI frontend for FFmpeg for encoding tasks and filters. I use it for pre cutting even if i need to use more sophisticated software, it's so quick!
@dgillies5420 Says:
This is an extremely valuable video - thanks so much for creating it! One of my favorite YouTubers uses the free version of Davinci Resolve and I recently worked with iMovie and was wondering if I should start learning a better editor such as DaVinci Resolve ... The answer appears to be "YES".
@kuchesezik Says:
big props to the folk who develop and offer widely available professional software without nickel-and-diming every user till the last drop. disappointed to see apple also continuing to head in that direction with ipad fcp. software for rent does not go well with the free spirit of artistry, culture and education. there are some things that no amount of money can ever buy. glad to see others understand that as well. thank you for the effort and hard work!
@imam-icereyan5471 Says:
Kdenlive requires high hardware resources whereas Shotcut is lighter.
@TH-xj8ep Says:
Look at that thumbnail! Clear and uncluttered - genuine descriptive text & even includes some examples. In the current youtube thumbnail hellscape you should be applauded for this alone 👏...and then a great video too! Bravo
@NintenloupWolfFR Says:
Nice video !
I can understand why you might've forgot to talk about it, but since I still do 4:3 video editing (DVD, VHS, etc), I would've liked to see how they do with that and how they fair with non square pixels.
Thank you.
@JPChampion Says:
Great video! I did some editing in KDEnlive on my ThinkPad T400 this last weekend, and I was surprised at how well it worked. I will try out the proxy clips tip for sure.
@ShizukanaEntertainment Says:
I'm sure that you've already told us this before somewhere, but what is your goto (free or paid) application for video editing? What are you using to create your own fabulous videos with?
@kb7yim960 Says:
Just viewed your video. You mention Video Pad from NCH but I don't see the review in the stream. Did I miss it?
@NaturallyCuriousUK Says:
Thanks Christopher, very interesting. "Liked" and subscribed! I've been editing my YouTube videos for a while now on my 9 year old i5-4440 3.1GHz PC with 8GB RAM and a modest NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 graphics card. Before eschewing Windows I was using Hitfilm free version and found it very good. But since switching fully to Linux at home I've been using Kdenlive AppImage on Ubuntu (20.04 then 22.04). I was initially using fully installed Kdenlive but found I was (for some unknown reason) missing certain useful effects. Since switching to using AppImages I've had no issues and highly recommend Kdenlive - currently using kdenlive-23.04.0a-x86_64 AppImage. Thanks again, and all the best, Graham.
@datamike00 Says:
I started with Kdenlive and transitioned to Davinci Resolve. both are awesome, but probably the the best part is that there's a wealth of YouTube tutorials for both packages
@WouterB76 Says:
Thank you very much sir!
@mcclausky Says:
Wonderful video, thank you so much! So, which one do you use on your day to day editing? 😊
@EugeniaLoli Says:
You forgot to include CapCut. It's relatively new, so you might not know about it, but it's the new darling in the free editors space.
@XtremeConditions Says:
What would you guys say is the closest experience I'll get to Magix Vegas in one of these choices? Usually most of my edits are simple and doable on any old timeline, with some motion tracking occasionally etc. A lot of these confuse the hell out of me, but haven't tried all, and haven't tried to learn just because I'm so used to Vegas. But that's the issue, I'm so used to it it's hard to switch. But it's often unstable and hangs up a lot.
@BobDoe_69 Says:
Kdenlive still reigns supreme
@jeffdingle9677 Says:
Chris, Have you had a closer look at the free video editor "Pitivi" ?
I ask as I have had it pre-installed on some of my Linux distro's. Haven't tried it myself but I am now wondering whether it is worth a punt in the future, as an alternative to Kdenlive.
Your thoughts....
@HuguesD Says:
DaVinci resolve does not support Sony's camera video format .mts which is a deal breaker
@HansCCT_OG Says:
You didn't show CapCut for Windows! It's free and on many other OS platforms
@theflourishing Says:
Such a helpful video. It takes a lot of time to locate free video editing software that does not then turn out to have some restriction that makes it unusable for a persons use case. This is going to save so many people so much time that they would have spent trying to do this evaluation themselves.
@KameraShy Says:
I have encountered that too many times now, search for a particular software and the top hits on Google take me to sites to download fake software. Often they also lead to some "installer" which I presume is some kind of spamware. You have to be very, very careful.
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