The 10 Best Free Video Editing Software for Beginners

Best Free Video Editing Software for Beginners

Video is the new king! With the unstoppable rise of TikTok, almost all social media platforms introduced new features and algorithm updates that favour video content in order to compete with this new player in the industry. From interactive reels in Instagram to the new tweet format in Twitter which allows sharing multiple videos in one tweet, we are welcomed by encouraging new features on social media to share more videos. Moreover, it is not just social media that prefers video content over static images or text: Google lists video results on a higher rank in the search engine results page. That is why most businesses include video in their marketing strategy.

Moreover, new research by invideo shows that online videos are behind more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic and more than 70% of the consumers claim that watching a video of the product has convinced them to purchase that product at least once.

As a result, now is the best time to create impressive videos of your product to reach your potential consumers and grow your brand. If you are hesitant to creating video content because of how daunting video editing tools look, we are here to help you. We shortlisted the best free video editing software below. See our detailed guide to learn more about video editing and which tool is the best for your purposes.

Due to rising competition amongst brands and content creators online, creating a remarkable video is very important for your brand. You should make sure that you use high quality images and high definition videos, also you need to edit them in a way that grabs the attention of your target audience. This way you can outshine your competition, grow your follower base and increase the engagement rate of your content. In this journey, music is your best friend. With the right background music, you can evoke very strong emotions in the audience hence convince them to follow your social media accounts, watch your live streams, and purchase your product. If you want to advance your social media strategy, you must learn how to choose and add music to your videos.

In addition, you should pay attention to music licensing. All social media and video sharing platforms have strict rules against the use of copyrighted content. If you use a copyrighted song as intro music or background music for your videos, you can lose your account, get your video removed by the platform, or sued by the copyright owner. That is why you should always use non copyrighted music or free music for YouTube. If you are looking for high quality, copyright free music for your videos, feel free to discover our extensive royalty free music library.

If you want to learn how to edit your videos and how to add music to them, see our beginner friendly video editing software guide below.

1. OpenShot

2. Movavi Video Editor Plus

3. VSDC

4. Lightworks

5. Adobe Premiere

6. Movie Maker 10

7. Lumen5

8. Blender

9. Shotcut

10. iMovie

What is the easiest video editing software for beginners?

Video editing can seem like a very difficult task from afar, especially because of the complex and expensive video editing tools like Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects. Yet there are many free and equally potent video editing tools that offer beginner friendly interfaces! You can use these free video editing tools easily even though you have no prior editing experience.

If you want to learn more about free and easy-to-use video editing tools to finally realize your YouTube channel ideas for beginners, take a closer look at our guide below where we introduce the best video editing tools and list their key features.

1. OpenShot

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux

Watermark: No

OpenShot is one of the easiest free video editing software available for beginner to intermediate users. Due to its intuitive interface and minimal design, you can use OpenShot even though you have no prior experience with video editing software.

In addition to basic features like scaling, rotation, resizing, trimming, and snapping, OpenShot also offers more advanced features like frame stepping, real-time preview, credit scrolling, and time mapping.

Key Features

Key frame animation features
Unlimited layers
Drag & drop interface
Digital effects such as hue, brightness, gamma, chroma key compositing

2. Movavi Video Editor Plus

Available for: Windows, Mac

Watermark: Yes

Known for its fast processing, Movavi Video Editor Plus is one of the best beginner friendly video editing tools available. It offers a wide range of features and a drag & drop interface which makes it accessible to users of all experience levels. Another big plus of Movavi Video Editor Plus is its guides. You can find a wide range of guides and tutorials on how to use Movavi Video Editor Plus online.

Key Features

14 interface languages
Basic and minimalistic interface
A rich selection of editing features including crop, trim, zoom, transitions, pan, deshake, filters, animated titles, stickers, and effects.
Built-in video and voice recorder
Special effects like background changes, animation, slow motion, reverse.

3. VSDC

Available for: Windows

Watermark: No

VSDC is one of the best video editing tools for Windows. It has two versions: A free one and a paid, pro one. Free version has reduced yet still impressive features that will answer all your needs.

This tool is often used to edit GoPro footage so if you take a lot of action videos, this tool is the best option for you.

Key Features

Color correction tools
Easy to use filters, effects, and transitions
HEVC/H.265 video compression standard that allows creating high definition videos in small file sizes
Mask tools that you can use for blurring, hiding, or highlighting

4. Lightworks

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux

Watermark: No

There are two versions of Lightworks: Free and Pro. If you are a beginner, free version will be able to answer all your video editing needs.

With its very minimalistic interface, Lightworks offers a very smooth user experience for both beginners and professionals. Moreover, you can find a myriad of tutorials for Lightworks online.

Key Features

Original stock videos and music clips that come with the tool
Real-time project sharing which allows you to edit videos simultaneously with your contributors
Advanced multitasking abilities: You can edit videos while importing new content
Multicam editing

5. Adobe Premiere

Available for: Windows, Mac

Watermark: No

Adobe Premiere is one of the most popular video editing tools that is used by professionals, YouTubers and industry veterans. It offers a very rich selection of features that allows you to do create anything you can imagine.

There are two downsides of Adobe Premiere, though: It has a rather complicated interface and after the 30-day trial period, you need to purchase the license to keep using thesoftware.

Key Features

Guided edits that will help you complete your projects faster
Impressive customer support
A wide range of guides and tutorials available online
A lot of impressive features that will allow you to create professional videos

6. Movie Maker 10

Available for: Windows

Watermark: No

Movie Maker is one of the oldest video editing tools in the industry. With Movie Maker 10, it offers improved features and a very user-friendly interface.

You can use either the free version or pro version of the software. Free version offers less but still impressive features.

Key Features

Video transitions, photo transitions, and basic video editing features like trimming
Text captions, speed adjustment, music editor

7. Lumen5

Available for: Browsers

Watermark: No

Lumen5 is a free online video editing tool. It is one of the best free tools for absolute beginners. It allows turning blog posts into social media videos that you can share instantly.

Key Features

Drag and drop interface, simplistic design
Available templates and transitions

8. Blender

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux

Watermark: No

Blender is one of the most popular video editing tools used by social media content creators. It is free and open source.

Key Features

Video sequence editor that allows you to cut, split, and rearrange videos
Live preview
Advanced video editing features including masks, effects, layers, transitions and keyframes
Audio mixing features like synching and mixing
Speed adjustment

9. Shotcut

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux

Watermark: No

Shotcut is one of the best free video editing tools. It has a very minimalistic user interface and allows advanced audio editing operations such as fine tuning, bass and treble adjustments.

Key Features

Supports a wide range of formats including 4K, DNxHD and ProRes
Extensive guides and tutorials
Impressive audio editing options: Bass and treble adjustments, dynamic compression, fine-tuning, bandpass filters and more.

10. iMovie

Available for: Mac

Watermark: No

iMovie is a native Apple app that allows creating impressive videos. It has a very user-friendly, drag & drop interface. Moreover, it saves files and projects on Apple’s cloud so you can share your videos easily and reach them through your other Apple devices.

Key Features

Saves projects and assets on Apple cloud
Supports 4K and ProRes
High quality transitions, title animations, and filters
Built-in voice recording
Speed adjustment
Sound effects and sound editing tools

What do most YouTubers use to edit their videos free?

Most YouTubers create impressive and professional looking videos to increase their revenue. If you want to make money through your YouTube channel, you should learn how to monetize YouTube videos and get familiar with professional grade video editing tools.

Most YouTubers use iMovie, Adobe Premiere, Lightworks and Final Cut Pro X to edit their videos.