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Free Video Editing Software

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By // Updated on VST Plugins

A couple of years ago, I was planning on launching a YouTube channel for BPB, so I went on a search for freeware programs to handle the job of video editing and 2D animation that I would use for the channel.

There were actually quite a few free non-linear video editors to choose from back then, but none of them were nearly as feature packed and easy to use as the recently announced HitFilm 3 Express. Since this brilliant free video editor by FXHOME is such a major game changer, we’ve decided to publish an updated and completely re-written version of our free video editing software list that you can read below.

While a list of free video editors is probably not something that you’d expect to find on a website about music production and sound design, the truth is that a lot of musicians (including myself) like experimenting with video in one way or another. Not to mention that having a decent YouTube channel can attract more potential listeners to your music. So, whether you want to create a simple slideshow video for a demo track or edit a complete music video for your latest single, this list of freeware video editing tools has you covered. Enjoy!

#1) HitFilm 3 Express

HitFilm 3 Express by FXHOME.

The program that changed everything, HitFilm 3 Express is arguably the best freeware non-linear video editor on the market. It is actually much more than just a video editor. Apart from basic and advanced video editing, it can also be used for color grading, motion graphics, 2D and 3D compositing, and even for adding all sorts of high quality special effects to your footage.

The free version of the software includes tons of features (full video editing support, over 100 built-in effects, motion tracking, green screen removal, etc.), whereas additional functionality (such as support for a broader range of video formats, additional effects and transitions, etc.) can be added via in-app purchases which are priced at $9.99 an up (with an additional 15% during the ongoing January sale). Still, the truth is that the basic free version of the program does not feel crippled in any way. You can use it to create fantastic videos right out of the box.

Of course, the booster packs that can be added to the free version will certainly expand your creative horizons. For example, music producers and DJs will probably want to check out the Audio-visual pack which contains a whole bunch of awesome animated audio spectrum and waveform patterns for use in music videos.

The coolest thing about HitFilm 3 Express, though, is the program’s excellent workflow and unparalleled user friendliness. This application is incredibly easy to use and you’ll find your way around it in no time, even if you’ve never edited a video before. In case you get stuck, there are dozens of helpful tutorial videos on YouTube to get you started with various aspects of HitFilm 3 Express.

More info: Hitfilm 3 Express (Windows, Mac OS)

#2) DaVinci Resolve 12

DaVinci Resolve 12 by Blackmagic Design.

Another marvelous piece of free video editing software, the basic version of DaVinci Resolve 12 was made available for free download in September last year. Blackmagic Design, the company behind DaVinci Resolve, is offering three differently priced versions of the software. The basic version is free to download and use, the Studio version is priced at $995, whereas the most advanced version (which actually includes a hardware video editing panel) would cost you a whooping $29,995.

Now, a free version of a high end piece of software such as DaVinci Resolve would, in most cases, be severely limited feature-wise when compared to the full product. However, in this particular case, the free version covers all of the features that a regular video editing software user would need, and then some. It includes most of the features from the Studio version, including high quality video export in resolutions up to UltraHD.

Compared to something like HitFilm 3 Express, DaVinci Resolve is inferior as an all-in-one tool for animation and video editing. But if video editing and color grading is all you need, then this excellent piece of software will provide an insane amount of firepower completely free of charge. A slightly negative point that we noticed while testing the application, though, is that it takes quite a while for it to open (the startup took up to one minute on our test machine, which is quite a bummer).

To sum it up, the free version of DaVinci Resolve includes tons of high quality professional tools for video editing and color grading, along with a rather decent set of audio processing tools (something that could be very useful if you’re editing demo and/or tutorial videos for YouTube). It is absolutely fantastic for video editing and color grading, and not that great for any sort of animation apart from basic transitions and animated titles.

More info: DaVinci Resolve 12 (Windows, Mac OS)

#3) Blender

Blender free video editor.

Blender is an open source software suite that is primarily intended for 3D animation. It can, however, also be used as a very powerful and versatile non-linear video editor, although the truth is that the workflow will probably be a bit too complicated for most users. There are, however, several custom keyboard shortcut setting files that are floating around the web that can make the program a bit easier to use for newcomers.

More info: Blender (Windows, Mac OS, Linux)

#4) Lightworks

Lightworks video editor.

Prior to the release of HitFilm 3 Express, Lightworks used to be my #1 pick in the category of free video editing software. It’s a professional non-linear video editing application which became open source in 2011. Lightworks is not the easiest video editor to learn, but it’s definitely worth investing some time into. I mean, some of my favorite movies were edited on Lightworks (even some Oscar award-winning titles like Mission Impossible, The Departed, Pulp Fiction, and more)! Sadly, the free version of the software has some significant limitations, such as the maximum export resolution of only 720p.

More info: Lightworks (Windows, Mac OS, Linux)

#5) ivsEdits LE

The free “LE” version of ivsEdits is a very powerful non-linear video editor with 4K support and exporting to uncompressed AVI/MOV formats. It does come with a set of limitations compared to the full version of the software, however most of these limitations can be overcome by using various 3rd party freeware utilities. For example, while ivsEdits LE won’t let you export compressed footage directly from the app, you could always use a freeware program such as Handbrake in order to compress your video afterwards.

More info: ivsEdits LE (Windows)

#6) Shotcut

Shotcut is a free (open source) video editor for Windows, Mac OS and Linux. Although it’s not as advanced as some of the higher ranked programs entries on this list, the simplicity and ease of use is definitely something that a fair share of users will appreciate. A great entry-level non-linear editor for beginners and users who don’t like their video editing software too advanced or complicated.

More info: Shotcut (Windows, Mac, Linux)

#7) Avid Free DV

Another good free video editing tool is Avid Free DV, which was a freeware version of the professional Avid video editor. After Avid bought Pinnacle, they dropped support for this great little non-linear video editor. However, it is still available for free download via digitalFAQ. The software is a bit dated, but it’s still a pretty decent video editor with good workflow and all the basic features you may need, especially if you’re using an older computer to edit video.

More info: Avid Free DV (Windows)

#8) VirtualDub

VirtualDub is a free video editor, as well as a free video capturing utility.  It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters. Here’s a nice tutorial for using VirtualDub as a free screen capturing utility (very useful for creating video tutorials and such).

More info: VirtualDub (Windows)

Honorable Mention: Sonic Candle

Sonic Candle by Ryan Schroeder.

If you need the simplest possible tool to make an animated spectrum video for a piece of audio, look no further than the excellent Sonic Candle application by Ryan Schroeder. Using this program is as easy as loading an audio file into it, adding a background image, choosing the color scheme and exporting the video which is ready for upload to YouTube. And the final result looks very nice indeed!

More info: Sonic Candle (Windows)

Extended List

Here are some additional free video editors that are also worth checking out:

  • Avidemux by Mean (Linux, Mac, Windows)
  • Movie Maker by Microsoft (Windows)
  • OpenShot by OpenShot Studios (Linux, Mac, Windows)
  • VideoPad by NCH Software (Windows)
  • Wax by DebugMode (Linux, Windows)
  • ZS4 by t@b (Linux, Mac, Windows)

A special thank you goes out to our readers Tesseract for suggesting Expression Encoder 4 and Scott Lavender for suggesting Blender. Another big thanks goes out to Eddie and SAGE for suggesting DaVinci Resolve Lite, and of course Bojan B for reminding me of Sonic Candle.

And that’s all we had in store for this article. If there’s a free video editor that isn’t yet included in the list, please let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading BPB and happy video editing!

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About Author

Tomislav is a music producer and sound designer from Belgrade, Serbia. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief at Bedroom Producers Blog.

54 Comments

  5. Bojan B

     on

    Sometimes you just need something simple for youtube, especially if u r musician. I like this software for such purpose: Sonic Candle. It probably wasnt mentioned because its less known. Its totally free, very simple to use, “generates a video (full hd) file with a visualization of frequency spectrum bars”. More info and video demos: http://sourceforge.net/projects/soniccandle/

    Reply

  6. sick

     on

    I was desperate for a free NLE a few months back and really struggled. Many programs were really homebrew and had issues just installing and this seemed like a common thing on the forums. Blender could install but the workflow was odd and there was something off about the playlist window that I couldn’t get around. On top of that file support was lacking.

    Lightworks gave me output errors when I tried to input any file. Someone else on a forum had the same issue and the resolution from the company was, “oh, that is odd.” So that was a no go.

    Others looked more impressive but they were Linux/Mac only.

    Finally I found a Windows program called Shotcut. It works. It’s not fancy but it works. I could install it. It could import files I threw at it and it wasn’t crash crazy. The interface made sense to me as someone coming from FCP, AP, and a little little bit of Vegas. I haven’t tried Davinci or Hit Express but if they can be installed, load video, and have an interface not designed around the ethos of “let’s be hell to anyone familiar with NLEs”… if they do that they’re like Top 3 progs by default.

    Reply

  7. Rafael

     on

    VSDC Video Editor maybe? Never used it much to evaluate its power (and I know nothing of video editing too so there’s that), but it’s another free option that may be helpful.

    Reply

  10. Irion Da Ronin

     on

    Interesting article, mate.
    I’m looking for one video editor which can automate the play position in the clip, i mean, i can pause it, reverse it, and forward it again and things like this. Do you know which of them can do this? I love playing with the movement in video clips, specially if i can reverse it.

    You tell me. Thanks :)

    Reply

  12. Jeff

     on

    Lightworks is worthless now because the free version won’t let you export at all now. There’s point in editing a video of you can’t export it. And Da Vinci resolve doesn’t install properly.

    Reply

  16. Frank

     on

    Is HitFilm really a product or some kind of scam? Fairly respectable products offer fairly simple downloads– not a maze game of hiding the download links.

    Reply

  21. Nicolas

     on

    I used to use lightworks as my free editor of choice, but it’s hard to justify using it over hitfilm 4 express. The 720p limitation hurts it the most.

    Reply

  23. Timothy Obialo

     on

    Hmm. Google presented me just the Extended List in response to a search for ‘free nle video editors’. I’m glad I went ahead and clicked the article for the real list!

    Reply

  24. Oleg

     on

    Thank you for the review. I’m intrigued about HitFilm Express. Already version 4 is out. It’s interesting, what where changes/improvements in comparison with v.3, which was reviewed in this article. Anyway, the most important for me is the quality of audio for my future videos. I would like to be able to save my videos with the best possible audio quality. I tried to use Windows Movie Maker. But it seems that the highest parameter for saving audio is 192 kbit/s (when saving in .wmv format. If saving in .mp4 format, then it will be even less, than 192, I don’t know why). Another important thing for me is ability to synchronise my externally recorded wav-audio with video, and to be able to delete (not just mute like in Movie Maker) original audio track from the recorded video. I would like to be able to make sync very precisely and conveniently, because it will be my main operation (I don’t know what HitFilm Express can offer in this regard).

    Reply

      • Oleg

         on

        Thank you, that’s good. But I was quite disappointed yesterday: only 64-bit support. So, I can’t use it. Going now for Sony VEGAS Movie Studio 13 Platinum.

        Buy the way, despite I chose “Notify of new replies to this comment”, I didn’t receive any notification on my e-mail about your reply.

        Reply

      • Oleg

         on

        By the way, the link you gave me is HitFilm Pro 2017 review. But I was speaking about HitFilm 4 Express, I’m not interesting with any Pro versions, I need just basics with quality audio.

        Reply

  25. musiquepourrever

     on

    I know it’s not free and it’s not precisely a video editor, but the video editing capabilities of Reaper are pretty much ok for a lot of simple edits, not to mention it can manipulate audio as much as you want.

    Reply

  27. roberto castellano

     on

    Tom

    I’d like ask if you could to update your already precious ivsEdits review. The current free version 4.2.597 can export MPEG2* and H264 and can upload the movies or clips directly to Vimeo accounts and it gots additional several enhancements supporting much more input formats and can enable a free option to conform automatically all clips to same resolution and frame rate of the project before to edit. It is up to double faster thanks a new better memory management compared with version you have tested. We have improved picture scaling and aspect ratio making it much more comfortable to master slideshows.

    MPEG2 exporting is enabled after 1st upload to Vimeo

    Best regards
    Roberto Castellano

    Reply

  28. George Rosebush

     on

    You have to mention that with Davinci Resolve, even for the free version, you must have an Nvidia graphics card for it to work, and even then, if it’s not one of the ones they recommend (preferably a Quadro or something with CUDA), you’ll struggle with performance. It has very high requirements to get it to run smoothly, people build systems just for this software.

    Reply

  29. Jacques

     on

    Tomislav,

    I hope you can help. I am looking for sftware to use for live multicam footage editing/ mixing.
    I do not want to go all out and spend the 250k that I would need to buy the monitors, mixer, etc.

    Do you know of any software that one might be able to use the accomplish the same effect as an OB unit, without the bulk of all the equipment?

    Reply

  30. Mike

     on

    Avid Mediacomposer First is the free Version of the indistry standard. A little complicated to install and to use but worth a look for those who want to work at tv stations etc.

    Excellent blog Tomislav, i read it frequently! Mike

    Reply

  31. Daniel M

     on

    Hola! Que editor de video fácil de usar como Sonic Candle recomiendan para crear un video de audio podcast para YouTube? Solamente audio y una imágen fija todo el tiempo. Actualmente uso VSDC pero estoy buscando algo más sencillo de usar. Gracias!

    Reply

    • Dave

       on

      I’ve used this a few times and quite enjoyed it. It does throw up a nag screen if you export to certain formats, and I’ve not used enough to know whether or not it will cease those “premium” functions.

      Reply

  33. Mauro Dechen

     on

    What about Fusion 9 Free? I didn’t tried it yet, but in features it looks better than Hitfilm Express, which is what i’m using at the moment.

    Reply

  35. Kate

     on

    Nice article, thank you! For almost 2 years I have used FXHome and it was fine. But then I opened Movavi Video Editor and I know it’s paid, but I just wanted to share it with people in the comments. I’m just an ordinary user and now I decided to pay for editing software because it’s more functional, more comfortable.

    Reply

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