“A robust non-linear video editor with enough tools to satisfy most levels of video editing skill.” Runner-Up, Best Overall: OpenShot “Makes video editing easy for beginners and experts alike.” Best for Mac: Blender Video Sequence Editor at Microsoft “You can use it for 3D modeling, sculpting, painting, animation, and much more.” Best for Linux: Kdenlive “An excellent and popular Linux video editing solution and a top open-source editor in general.” Runner-Up, Best for Linux: Flowblade at Github “Succeeds in creating a snappier loading and operating experience than a lot of other editing software.” Best for Windows: Avidemux at Sourceforge “Designed for making fairly simple changes and spitting out a modified file.” Best for Basic Editing: VidCutter at Github “Excels at doing just what its name suggests: cutting video.” Best for Real-Time Editing: LiVES at Lives-Video “Incorporates a number of real-time editing features that let a VJ mix and control video clips to go along with audio.” Best for VFX: Natron at Github “Provides a powerful open-source way to take on another important aspect of video production.” If you are not used to this type of format, we suggest starting off with a program like OpenShot. OpenShot is a program that is great for both beginners and experts, so it will be able to still be used as you grow as an editor. However, if you are a seasoned professional, try Natron at Github. This powerful software is the best for VFX. The best open-source video editing software allows you to create a tailor-made video editing experience. Shotcut can work with a wide range of video and image formats, including 4K-resolution content. You won’t see an “Import” button, though; the software boasts “native timeline editing” with no import required. But you can still open and preview files in Shotcut just like in other editors, create a “playlist” of the media you’re using for the project, and drag clips into your timeline. The timeline has a full range of editing capabilities including adding tracks, splitting and trimming clips, and shortcut keys for these functions. There is also a strong selection of video/audio transitions and stackable filters, from stabilization to chroma key (green-screen effects). The advanced features have some learning curve to them, but the Shotcut YouTube channel offers a collection of video tutorials to help. There’s also an online course available for purchase that has been reviewed and officially approved by Shotcut’s lead developer. The selection of included tools and effects aren’t groundbreaking, but you’ll find plenty to work with, including transitions with real-time previews and keyframe-based animation. One feature you don’t see in many other free products is 3D animated titles, which OpenShot can handle if you’ve also installed the open-source 3D-graphics software Blender (which itself happens to have video-editing capabilities, too). OpenShot is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux as a free download, though donations and Patreon subscriptions are accepted through the website to support development. Integrated within all of that is the Blender Video Sequence Editor (VSE), which can be a bit hard to get to and figure out at first, given that the interface is designed to handle much more than just video editing. Fortunately, there are many support resources available, from free tutorials to paid training from the Blender Institute and a Blender Cloud subscription. Once you know your way around, you’ll find the VSE to be a full-featured non-linear editor, with a multi-track timeline, cutting and trimming tools, keyboard shortcuts, and plenty of advanced options. Then, of course, you can always add in 3D graphics and animation if that’s something you’re into—or if the software inspires you to give it a shot. Kdenlive’s timeline is fully functional, supporting unlimited video/audio tracks, visible audio waveforms, preview rendering, and “JKL” playback shortcuts. It comes with a strong set of transitions, effects, and filters, and it’s simple to drag them onto clips, modify their settings, and see a live preview. When you’re ready to export your finished video, you can choose from a large number of mainstream file types and presets. Flowblade’s modern-looking interface should feel familiar and intuitive to many, with timeline tool buttons that fit on a single row. Within this slightly pared-down toolbar are more than enough move and trim tools for the job, though its “insert editing” model that automatically pushes all clips together to the left may take some getting used to if you’re coming from other programs. It also benefits from the many effects available to Linux video editors, from transitions and image filters to custom titles and keyframe-based audio editing. You might find Avidemux most useful when you don’t need to make any edits to the video at all; as part of its exporting step, Avidemux can encode video and audio to an impressive range of file types, with a robust amount of detailed options for the output. If you have a lot of clips to encode, you can queue them up to process one by one. Of course, being able to manipulate and control your clips quickly is crucial for live VJing, so LiVES lets you create a custom key map to call up effects or to transition between clips at the press of a button. You can also “scratch” backwards and forwards with the video, much like a DJ would do on a record. Even if you’re not planning to book a VJ gig anytime soon, the power to bring video and audio together in real time can open up possibilities for gatherings or live presentations. Effects in Natron are built using a series of “nodes.” You specify and tweak details of the effects on a node and apply them to a video clip, connecting and stacking multiple layers and branches of nodes as needed. This allows for functions like moving and resizing 2D/3D elements, chroma keying to replace backgrounds, and motion tracking to follow points on a video. Natron also supports a wide range of open-source and commercial VFX plugins to add more tools based on your needs. Once your shot is finished, you can switch over to another video editing or sequencing software (like any of the open-source ones in this article) to place it into a longer full video with audio and other scenes.
