There are lots of other good options too. The free app DaVinci Resolve is very good, especially on colour correction, while HitFilm is especially powerful and good for both beginners and experienced editors once you get past the learning curve.
Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple Final Cut Pro may be considered some of the best video editing software on the market. But they both have a big barrier to entry for advanced editing tools, especially for newcomers.
Best Cpmpletely Free Video Editor For Mac
You can also get the more powerful Resolve Studio for a fee - of $295 for a perpetual license, with all future upgrades free from then on. The software even includes its own VFX software, Fusion - one of the best Adobe After Effects alternatives for designers.
Top free video editing software HitFilm is powerful, professional, and multi-platform. There are subscription tiers which include higher-end tools, and also grant you access to an extensive media library,
The free version retains all the features of the premium, paid-for upgrades (available on a monthly/annual subscription, or a lifetime license). The only downside is that Luxea adds an intro and outro to all exported videos.
On the free Premiere Rush starter plan, you can create and share as many videos as you like, but you're limited to the free features. Premium features are locked away behind a paid-for Creative Cloud subscription.
As you'd expect from Adobe, whose industry-standard Premiere Pro has grown to define the bar for modern video editors, using Premiere Rush is a sleek, simple experience. In our hands-on review, we noted the video app "sports a nice, clean interface with very simple editing features. A snappy clipper that's perfect for making short videos for social media."
Ultimately, it's fine for what it does. And it's one of the best free video editing software for low-end PCs. But there's a good reason we dubbed the tool Windows Movie Maker without any of the charm (or nostalgia, for that matter).
Remember that most, if not all, free video editing apps are limited while not all high-end editors are unaffordable. Think about whether a free-to-use option is best for you or if it's worth paying a little more for a bit more functionality.
If you don't need a fully featured video editor, then it's worth looking at EZGif (opens in new tab). When you need to crop a video to a specific aspect ratio, this simple online tool could be just what you need. It's not suitable for very large files, but you can set the dimensions, select from a list of presets, and position the crop area yourself.
Free video editing software may not be as involved as paid ones, but many of the best ones are still full of features that are worth taking a deep dive. So, when testing free video editing software, we go beyond its most basic and most used features.
We take stock of its available tools, testing the important ones to see how they fare against those on paid-for video editors like Premiere Pro, as well as check out the filters and effects on hand. We also make a note of just how many of them are free and how many are stuck behind a paywall. A number of free apps typically come bundled with bloatware, so we make sure to mention in our review if that specific app comes with it.
But all is not lost. There's a selection of capable, free video editing apps for Mac to sink your teeth into. Some are made for beginners, while others will satisfy seasoned video editors thanks to the impressive feature sets on offer.
iMovie is free for anyone who owns a Mac. Plus, the iOS version is free for all iPhone and iPad owners. The software targets consumers who want to quickly create videos with footage stored in their Photos library. To facilitate this, iMovie uses a simplified timeline editor that doesn't allow for multi-track editing.
The app has built-in music and sound effects that are ready to go. It can generate Hollywood-style trailers using footage that you supply. Additionally, the app allows you to export directly to YouTube and Vimeo at up to 4K resolution. So, if you were looking for an all-in-one, free video editor for your Mac that's simple to use, this is it.
The Studio version of DaVinci Resolve costs $295, but the basic version is completely free, which still includes the same high-quality image-processing abilities as the pricier version. You get a powerful video editor, some of the best color correction capabilities around, and even support for external hardware panels to enable faster editing.
The app might have a pretty steep learning curve, but DaVinci Resolve is one of the most powerful video editing suites on the planet, and you get a lot for free. See our comparison of DaVinci Resolve and HitFilm Express for more on how it stacks up.
OpenShot is a cross-platform, open-source tool that's been around since 2008. It was built to provide a stable, free, and accessible video editor. The project receives several major updates yearly, in line with the expectations for an open-source project with a small team.
OpenShot's feature list has grown over the years to include great support for various formats, animation keyframes, and unlimited video or audio tracks. It also packs in transition and compositing support, titles, and a heap of extra features you'd expect from a modern video editor.
Here's another free, cross-platform, open-source video editor. Shotcut's feature list is just as impressive as OpenShot, but Shotcut features a prettier interface. It more closely resembles a pro-tier application than a free one.
Of note are support for advanced features like 5.1 surround sound, three-way color correction, and a huge number of video and audio filters. There's even a complete set of official video tutorials on the Shotcut website that you can watch to get you up to speed with the editor.
Blender is a free, 3D-modeling and compositing app used in some high-profile productions. Yet, many don't realize Blender is also a capable non-linear video editor, provided you're willing to take the time to learn how to use it.
Lightworks is one of the most powerful apps on this list. We'd happily recommend it above all the other packages if it wasn't so restrictive for free users. The free version includes video effects, multi-cam editing, titling, and the usual multi-layered timeline approach you'd expect from a comprehensive editor.
Avidemux also made our list of the best Linux video editors. Though it's a basic program, it works well for simple editing tasks. The app supports a wide variety of input and output formats. The project also undergoes several updates a year, with development continuing at a steady pace.
Avidemux is best reserved for simple tasks like cutting a video down to size, applying video or audio filters, and transcoding. If you're willing to dig a little deeper, you'll find a capable script editor to automate many of these common tasks.
HitFilm Express is a free video editing software for Mac and Windows machines. It comes in two versions. We'll focus on the free version, HitFilm Express, which you can use to manage all your basic editing needs.
InVideo is the Canva of video editing. For the uninitiated, Canva is a free online graphic design tool. So, what this essentially means is that you can edit your videos right from your browser and avoid all the tussle and clutter that comes with offline tools.
With over 5,000+ video templates and over 3 million images in the standard media library, this is one beast of a free video editing software for Mac. Also, did we tell you that the videos will be watermark free?
So, which is the best free video editing software for Mac? If you're just dipping your toes in the video editing space, iMovie will probably suit you best: it's free, easy to use, and carefully optimized for Apple hardware.
Vimeo Create, a free editing software you can connect directly to your Shopify store, automatically turns your existing product images and text into polished ecommerce videos. No video experience needed.
Now that you know your options in finding the best free video editing software, you can start testing them out. While each option comes with its own advantages and disadvantages, hopefully, you now have a better idea of which option is best for your level of video production.
In our view, the best free video editing software for professionals is DaVinci Resolve from Blackmagic. Whilst it began as a colour correction tool, it's grown over time to cover everything for basic trimming to visual effects, motion graphics, audio post-production and more. In short, DaVinci Resolve gives you a full video editing suite at your fingertips, for zero cost.
If you're new to video editing, we'd personally recommend Openshot for editing your YouTube clips, as in our experience its interface is nice and easy to pick up, plus it works on Windows, Mac and Linux. If you're a video editing veteran, however, our top choice is DaVinci Resolve, which is packed with sophisticated pro features, despite being free.
1. Premiere Pro: the best video editing software overall (opens in new tab)Adobe's video editing software works on both Windows and Mac and is the industry-standard, offering professional class features. This free trial offer allows you to try Premiere Pro for free for seven days.
2. Final Cut Pro: the best video editing software for Mac (opens in new tab)Available for macOS only, Final Cut Pro X is industry-standard software that has a great reputation within the TV and movie professions. It's made by Apple, who offer a generous 90-day free trial so you can test it out.
3. Premiere Elements: the best video editing software for beginners (opens in new tab)If you're new to video editing, Adobe Premiere Elements is the best video editing software to start with. A simplified version of Premiere Pro, it's easy to learn. It's also cheaper and currently has a 30-day free trial. 2ff7e9595c
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