Top Free Video Editing Software

Video content is highly important in the world of marketing today, but it can be a challenge to find effective, free video editing software. A study by Sprout Social found that 95% of social media users will remember the message of a video as opposed to only 10% read in text. Therefore, if you’re trying to get a message across to your customers or audience, video is the way to do it.

In this blog post, we’ll be giving you some recommendations on what we would consider to be excellent free video editing software that will save your business a lot of money! While they may not have all the features that paid software would have, these applications can still provide you with the tools to create effective and engaging video content that will generate appeal amongst your audience. Let’s get started and explore some of our favourite free video editing software available.

OpenShot Video Editor

One of our favourite free video editing software is OpenShot, and this one is particularly good for editing amateurs because of its user-friendly, sleek, drag and drop interface. OpenShot, as one of the main free video editing software, is available to download on Mac and Windows. Some of our favourite features about this free video editing software include:

• User-friendly drag and drop timeline.
• Special effects e.g. saturation, greenscreen, blur and colour shift.
• Easy trimming, splitting and cutting options.
• Video stabilisation (particularly if you’re filming using solely a handheld camera device like a phone).
• Speed up or slow motion.
• You can add an unlimited number of video and audio tracks.

So there’s a ton of features on here for you to get started with video editing, from social media videos and YouTube videos to home movies and promo videos, OpenShot is a really great example of one of the top free video editing software available on the market, particularly for those just starting out their video editing journeys. While there may be some limitations with this software, such as slow loading times, it’s a great free video editing software to have available. All you have to do is simply download the software onto a compatible computer. 

VSDC Free Video Editor

So while VSDC may be a slightly more complex video editing software, it’s another great example of one of our favourite free video editing software. We probably would recommend this one to those who have a little experience in the video editing world. While the pro version offers a few more visual effects, the free video editor is full of video transitions, colour filters and effects, text animations, and it’s super high speed! Some of our favourite features of this free video editing software includes:

• Simplistic Interface: Like OpenShot, VSDC has a really simple-to-use and easy-to-understand user interface.
• Powerful Editing Tools: Some of the built-in features include trimming, splitting, rotating, transitions, and a limited number of visual effects.
• Visual Effects: Some of the visual effects available on this free video editing software includes 3D effects, motion tracking, colour grading and correction, and green screen support.
• Downloading Video: You can download your video onto a range of different formats such as MOV, MP4, and more. 

As we’ve said before, this software may not be the most suitable for those starting out their editing ventures. One of our top tips for this free video editing software is to go onto YouTube and follow along with some tutorials on how to effectively use the application.

iMovie

All of you Mac/iOS users will likely be familiar with Apple’s own free video editing software, iMovie. This is one of my favourite editing software to use personally because it’s so simple to use and is really suitable for all skill levels; the interface is very sleek, there’s some great features, and you can integrate your video between your MacBook, iMac, iPad, iPhone, and really any other Apple product. iMovie can help you make a wide range of videos such as videos for your website, promotional videos or just home videos.

Like the other free video editing software we’ve discussed, iMovie does have its limitations, for example, videos can only be sped up to 2x speed, and it can take up a lot of storage space, particularly on smaller devices like your iPhone.

Let’s go through some of the key features of iMovie as one of our top free video editing software:

• Simple drag and drop clip organisation.
• Sound effects and integration with Apple Music.
• Support for 4K resolution.
• Optimised sharing to YouTube, Facebook and Apple TV.
• Lots of visual effects including trimming, rotating, transitions, colour grading and correction, 3D effects.

While iMovie will come pre-downloaded on a number of devices, particularly desktop ones, you can simply download it for free on the App Store. The Apple website offers a lot of support on how to use this application too.

Shotcut 

Shotcut is another one of our top free video editing software because of its easy-to-use format. So like VSDC, we would say this software is perhaps not the most suitable for video editing novices, and perhaps works better for those with a little more expertise. Again though, there are plenty of tutorials available on YouTube to help you get started on how to use the app. Let’s talk about some of our favourite features in this free video editing software:

• Lots of new updates!
• 4K resolution editing.
• Editing tools such as crop, split, merge, and trim.
• Visual tools and effects like slow-mo and greenscreen.
• Video enhancement using Artificial Intelligence.
• No watermark.
• Video compressor tool.

Shotcut is a great free video editing software for everyone, from vloggers and presentation presenters to creators and TikTokers. That’s right, Shotcut has tools specifically designed to create YouTube videos, TikToks, and Instagram Reels. 

DaVinci Resolve

Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve free video editing software is a great tool for video editing professionals (it’s a little more complex than some of the other softwares we’ve discussed). There is a premium version of this software too, but we love all the features available on the free version! Some of these include:

• Available to download on a number of different devices including Windows and macOS.
• Visual effects, including 3D, motion tracking, and colour correction and grading, noise reduction.
• Excellent sound management tools.
• Support for 4K resolutions.
• Collaborative workflow features.

This free video software has a lot of great features, but we would say it’s probably more targeted to those who have some prior experience and knowledge with video editing.

Key Takeaways on Top Free Video Editing Software

As we’ve discussed, video is so important in the digital world for truly capturing the attention of audiences and encouraging message resonance. Thanks to these free video editing software applications, it’s more accessible for businesses than ever before.

For those just getting started, user-friendly free video editing software like OpenShot and iMovie lower the barrier with intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces to make the editing process fast and straightforward. More advanced free video editing software such as VSDC, Shotcut, and DaVinci Resolve offer deeper toolsets when you’re ready to level up with pro techniques.

It’s a great idea to think about dedicating some time to read information about these different video editing softwares or watching a few YouTube videos to improve your editing skills. It’ll be worth it, trust us!

So with a range of free video editing software at your disposal, you simply need to download the one that matches your goals, your existing knowledge and expertise, and the features you feel are necessary for your video editing. Get creative!