If you're anything like us, you've shot a video for social media that you've wanted to make more interesting. You're not Steven Spielberg, after all. Most of us don't have the magical skill to create the perfect video in one go. It’s always more fun to enhance it and add cool effects, sounds, and filters, right?
If you can relate to this, then you've come to the right place. In this guide, we'll take a deep dive into the best free video editing software solutions available today. And, no, this isn't just a long list of video editing software, it's a hand-curated list of the best free video editors that are both easy-to-use and provide value.
We'll include a mix of software for desktop as well as mobile apps you can use to edit and share your videos. Some of these platforms also work on multiple devices and operating systems, providing truly omnichannel video-editing convenience.
Best Free Video Editing Software for 2026
We're going to start things off by taking a look at two different types of video editing software: standard video editing software and promo video editing software. From there, we'll share 39 additional free video editing software tools that you can use to create awesome, visually appealing messages for your business.
1. LTX Studio
LTX Studio is an AI-powered video creation and editing platform designed to help creators, marketers, and businesses turn ideas into high-quality videos in minutes. Unlike traditional video editors, LTX Studio focuses on script-to-video workflows, allowing users to generate scenes, visuals, and animations automatically from text prompts. This makes it an excellent choice for users who want professional-looking videos without advanced editing skills.
With its intuitive interface and cinematic approach to storytelling, LTX Studio bridges the gap between automation and creative control. You can fine-tune scenes, adjust camera angles, modify characters, and apply visual styles, making it suitable for social media content, ads, explainers, and branded videos.
Features
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AI-powered script-to-video generation
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Scene-by-scene video editing with cinematic layouts
2. Movavi
Movavi Video Editor stands out as a powerful yet user-friendly video editing tool, perfect for creators wanting to bring their ideas to life. Its refined interface is easy to navigate, eliminating the need for a steep learning curve often associated with professional editing software. Notable features like Chroma Key and keyframe animation boost creative possibilities, while lightning-fast processing and rendering ensure a smooth experience. This video editing software is an impressive, feature-rich, and accessible option for those seeking one of the best video editing software solutions.
Read More3. OpenShot
Compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux.
OpenShot is one of the best open-source free video editing software solutions in the market. It’s a powerful video editor packed with numerous useful features and has a simple-to-use, drag-and-drop interface that even beginners can use easily. It provides advanced features like unlimited layers, video transitions with real-time previews, and has lots of options for video effects, animation, and keyframes. Moreover, it is extremely easy to cut and slice any video using this tool.
Read More4. VSDC
Available on Windows.
This is an open-source, free video editor available only on Windows. It’s a good video editing software solution that supports almost all video formats and codecs. VSDC has both free and paid versions. The free version is good enough for almost all of your routine video editing needs. For professionals, the paid version offers more advanced features. It’s relatively simple to use and has features like color correction, visual and audio effects, blending modes and filters, etc.
Read More5. Lightworks
Compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux.
This is another powerful video editing software solution power-packed with useful features. It has a free as well as a paid version. However, the free version is more than enough for non-professional use.
Some of its best features include high precision video trimming, multi-cam support, and the ability to export to 720p for YouTube. The tool supports a wide variety of video formats and has a lot of video and audio editing options. The paid version of this tool supports 4K videos, but the free version does not.
It’s easy to start using this tool because it comes with many video tutorials to help you understand and work on it.
Read More6. Adobe Premiere Rush
Available on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows.
This is a new app launched by Adobe that can meet all your video editing and sharing needs. It’s a mobile app that you can use to edit videos anytime and anywhere. It also has a desktop version that’s compatible with both Mac and Windows PCs.
It has a very easy-to-use interface and color, audio, motion graphics, and other editing options. You can also create a video right from the app itself, making it even more convenient. The features are a bit limited for the free version, but the paid version has a lot more to offer.
Read More7. Lumen5
Lumen5 is an online video editing tool and likely one of the most popular options available today. It’s used by the likes of Salesforce, SAP, TIME Magazine, and The Economist. Lumen5 is targeted at content marketing teams that need to churn out quality video content with limited resources, and it’s more than capable of delivering the goods. You’re able to create storyboards, set layouts that incorporate various types of content, include music, and also add text. It also offers hundreds of themes and colors to help you create perfect videos as fast as possible.
Read More8. Biteable
Biteable is an online video editing platform to make social media ads, slideshows, videos, and more. With Biteable’s free plan, you can use their basic video editing tools to export videos with a watermark. However, you can’t upload your own videos to the platform with the free Biteable plan. If you don’t want to export the videos, you can embed the videos or share them with a Biteable link. The premium plan starts at $29 a month and includes more features like over 85,000 extra stock videos, video privacy, and more.
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9. InVideo
InVideo is an online video editor. It’s perfect for beginners or marketers that need to produce video content fast, without the knowledge of the finer details that go into highly edited and professionally produced videos. While it’s online, it’s still packed with features you’ll love. You get access to over 3500 designed templates to streamline your video creation, can export your videos in HD, leverage the text-to-speech (and URL-to-video) feature for converting blog posts and other text-based content into quick and engaging videos, and access to Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, for royalty-free content.
Read More10. Animoto
Animoto is positioned as a tool designed to help drive marketing results. Like all online video editors, it’s built to streamline video creations. It comes with a stock library filled with videos and photos, the option to upload your own videos and photos, and a music library. To help speed up the video creation process, you have access to storyboard templates, text, and fonts to overlay, can crop and trim video, and add your brand’s colors and logo to each frame.
Read More11. Vyond
Are you interested in creating fun animated promo videos for your business? If so, Vyond is the right video maker tool for you. You can use it to create a wide range of promotional videos for your business such as explainer videos, tutorials, how-to videos, and more.
Templates make it easy to create a video instantly with its simple video maker dashboard. Its realistic lip-syncing is really awesome that makes videos professional.
Read More12. Blender
Compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Blender is one of the best, advanced video editing software solutions available on all platforms. It’s an open-source tool that is available for everyone to use. And, it packs some powerful punches in terms of features.
Some key features include live preview, chroma vectorscope, luma waveform, audio mixing, syncing, scrubbing, waveform visualization, and histogram displays. It doesn’t have unlimited layers like OpenShot but has 32 slots for adding videos, images, audio, and effects. It also has a 3D animation suite for professional users.
Pros & Cons
- Good enough to be used by professionals
- Almost limitless customization
- Not as easy to use as other tools on this list
- Buggy format support
13. Promo.com
Promo makes the lofty claim that they are the world’s #1 marketing video maker. As its name suggests, Promo specializes in helping you make promotional videos, but you can do much more than that. Promo.com has everything you need in an online video maker: high-quality professional video clips, royalty-free music, customizable video templates, and more.
You can use Promo to make all types of videos, too. Horizontal videos, vertical videos, square videos, and even banner videos. The videos you create are ideal for social media use, and you can post, publish, upload, and share your videos on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social networks, websites, or blogs.
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14. Shotcut
Compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux.
This is another open-source, free, cross-platform video editing software solution with decent features. You can simply download it and start using it.
It supports all video formats and platforms, though it was originally designed for Linux. One of its best features is that you don’t need to import your video into the editor, and that saves a lot of time. It provides 4K resolution support, which is another great feature.
Other cool features include audio and video effects, interlacing, color correction, and grading, wipe transitions, etc.
Pros & Cons
- 4K resolution support and other useful features
- Feature-packed
- The interface is not as easy-to-use as for some other tools on this list
15. iMovie
Available on Mac.
This is a sophisticated video-editing tool available only for Mac and iOS users. It also comes in the form of an app and can be used on mobile devices as well. And, it also supports 4K resolution, which is a useful feature for professionals.
It has a clean and minimal drag-and-drop interface that you can use to add titles, music, and effects, etc. to your video clips. You can slow down or speed up the videos and add filters to make them more interesting.
Another interesting feature is that you can change the background location in your videos and place your characters anywhere.
Read More16. VideoPad
Available on Windows.
This is a video editor and movie maker that works only on Windows PCs and is not available for Mac and Linux. However, if you’re a Windows user, this is an amazing tool for you to check out.
This is good for a starter tool that you can use to learn the basics of video editing, without too much hassle. It comes with a whole library of pre-made transitions and sound effects that you can play around with.
It also supports 3D video editing, which is a feature that not all video editors provide for free. And, you can directly export your edited videos to YouTube and other social media platforms.
Read More17. GoPro Quik
Available on iOS and Android devices.
This is a mobile video-editing tool that you can use to create engaging videos on the go. It has a simple interface and lots of useful features, thanks to the expertise of GoPro.
This app by the camera makers GoPro is essentially meant to provide an easy way to edit the videos shot on the camera. That’s because it can interface directly with a GoPro camera and lets you control things directly from your phone. However, you can edit all types of videos with this.
Read More18. Filmora
Filmora is a powerful, free and well-designed video editing software tool. You get many of the pro capabilities such as layering clips and sounds, and the chance to create perfect timing with Filmora’s keyframing feature. You’re also able to eliminate pesky background noise and publish your video in 4K. Filmora is available on Windows and Mac, and you’re can export your videos in various frame sizes for online sharing.
Pricing
Filmora price available upon request.
Pros & Cons
- Expansive video editing features
- Professional appearance for affordable price
- User-friendly interface
- Video saving process may lag
- Bug fixes may take time to resolve
- Watermarks on the free version
- Premade templates lack professional feel
19. DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve is one of the more professional-grade video editing platforms to make our list. Everything about the tool caters to pros that need state-of-the-art editing software to manipulate every aspect of their product. For example, the Individual User Cache feature is designed to give each user collaborating on a project the chance to generate and manage their own cache files, helping them optimize their system’s performance. You also have the option of protecting projects with the use of user rights. As a bonus, DaVinci Resolve also comes with a collection of 500 royalty-free foley sounds. DaVinci Resolve runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Read More20. Avidemux
Avidemux is the epitome of an open-source project. It’s been built by people from around the world and includes code from other projects, all of which come together to offer a modest, yet functional platform. Avidemux is not meant to be used by production houses. It’s designed to manage small projects and has enough for the novice user to get the job done. Features include cutting, filtering, and encoding. Avidemux also supports AVI, DVD-compatible MPEG files, ASF, and MP4 formats. It’s also available for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows under the GNU GPL license.
Read More21. HitFilm Express
HitFilm is a professional-grade editor. It’s part of a collection of projects released by FXHome Limited, a team of coders behind other development of Imerge and Action Pro. FXHome has strong ties to the production community, something that helps them build truly impressive video editing software. They work with Hollywood studios, software companies, and even YouTubers. Feature-wise, you’re getting a tool that’s designed to help produce blockbuster movies. It comes with full 2D and 3D compositing, 410+ effects and presets, free video tutorials and projects, unlimited tracks and transitions, and is available for Windows and Mac.
Pricing
HitFilm Express has a free plan and three paid plans:
Read More22. Machete Video Editor Lite
Machete Video Editor Lite is the free version of Machete. Its features are similar to Avidemux. This tool is designed to perform simple feats that include cutting, copying, pasting fragments of video files, and editing tags. You’re also able to edit WMV video files (*.wmv, *.asf), WMA audio files(*.wma), and AVIs. Regrettably, you can’t replace or add an audio stream. And, Machete Video Editor Lite is only available on Windows.
Pricing
Machete Video Editor Lite is free, but they also offer a full version for $19.95.
Pros & Cons
- Simple and easy to use
- Limited functionality make this tool less attractive compared to other free options
- Not available on Mac or Linux
23. Horizon
Horizon is a mobile video editing tool. It’s available on iOS and Android and comes with just enough functionality to help you create simple, yet engaging videos. Features include tilt to zoom, up to 2K horizontal recording, access to eight real-time filters, 60 and 120 FPS slow motion support, and, as the name suggests, the option to capture video and photos horizontally.
Pricing
Free app. The Premium version can be yours for $1.99.
Pros & Cons
- Easy to use mobile app
- Allow for quick editing on the go
- Not designed for in-depth editing projects
24. VideoStudio
VideoStudio was created by Corel, the brand famously known for Corel Draw. Their video editing tool is designed for beginners. Its easy-to-use layout is almost intuitive, and you have access to filters, can use MultiCam editing, add creative titles, graphics and overlays, use color grading, and more. While not completely free, the 30-day trial is enough to give you a good feel for the tool.
Pricing
VideoStudio has a free 30-day trial. There are two versions of the software you can buy:
- VideoStudio Pro: $79.99
- VideoStudio Ultimate: $99.99
- Photo Video Bundle Ultimate: $199.99
Pros & Cons
- Easy to use
- Feature-packed for beginners
- 30-Day trial
- Limited features for pros
25. Apple Clips
Apple Clips is an iOS-based video editing mobile app. It comes with all you’ll need to quickly record, enhance ad share short videos with the world. Features include the ability to add text, speech-to-text, and add stickers. A feature we think makes Apple Clips a stand-out tool is its TrueDepth camera option. It allows you to use various backgrounds and animated landscapes that appear in 3D.
Pros & Cons
- Easy to use and intuitive
- Syncs with other Apple devices you own
- Sharing video phone apps
- Limited to iOS
- Can’t add sound clips
26. Kdenlive
Kdenlive is designed for the GNU/Linux platform but also works on BSD and macOS. Work is being done to make it available on Windows. It’s a far more powerful tool than most beginners will be ready for. Features are robust and include everything from multi-track editing to incorporating almost any audio file type, keyframe effects, transitions, and more.
Pros & Cons
- Feature-packed
- Ideal for pros
- Complex for beginners
- Not available for Windows users (at the time of this writing)
27. Clipchamp
Like Promo and InVideo, Clipchamp is an online video editing tool. We like that it comes with features you’d expect from more advanced editing tools. These include trimming and cutting, flipping videos, using transitions, and balancing colors.
Pricing
- Free
- Essentials: $11.99/mo
Pros & Cons
- Easy to use
- Perfect for marketers
- Unlimited video exports
- Free (no trial required)
- Exports in 480p (SD)
28. Kapwing
Kapwing is an online video editor that comes with just the right amount of functionality to make any marketer smile. You get to add and adjust elements (text, images, and sound) and a trimmer to perfectly size and time your videos. You’re also able to collaborate with team members in real-time.
Pricing
Kapwing has a free plan. You can get Kapwing Pro for $16/month.
Pros & Cons
- No watermarks on free plan videos
- No limit on free plan lifespan
- Content you save expires after seven days
- Video duration is limited to 10 minutes
29. Microsoft Photos
While not the first tool that comes to mind, it’s still free and likely one of the easiest tools to use. Microsoft Photos is designed to edit photos and also makes it possible to create and edit videos and movies. You’re able to include filters, text, add camera motion effects, music, and more.
Pricing
Free with in-app purchases.
Pros & Cons
- Easy to use
- Free for Windows users
- Not available for Mac and Linux users
30. Free Movie Maker
Free Movie Maker is a basic, yet easy-to-use video editor designed for small projects and video enthusiasts. You can add music, special effects, cut, trim, and join files. It also supports over 500 video formats.
Pros & Cons
- Easy to use
- Ideal for beginners
- Limited features
- Not available for Mac and Linux users
31. Movie Maker
Movie Maker comes as a free video editing tool, however, there is a pro version. It has a long list of features, including everything from merging photos and video, overlaying text, animated pan-zoom, along with over 30 transition effects and font captions. You also have access to a music editor with clip trimming, fading-in and fading-out effects, and the option of producing HD quality video. This tool is free to download from the Microsoft Store and isn’t standard on Windows.
Pros & Cons
- Feature-packed
- Possibly advanced for beginners
- Only available on Windows and for Windows 10 or higher
32. Splice (by GoPro)
Splice is a GoPro mobile video editing tool. It comes with a flurry of valuable features, all of which make editing on the fly as easy as possible. With the iPhone and Android app, users can sync video with music, add title slides, text overlays, and even customer outros. In addition to these features, you’re also able to perform all the standard actions one would expect from a video editing tool. You can cut, trim and control the speed between transitions, and even bring photos to life with pan and zoom effects.
Pricing
Free app. Get full access for $69.99/year.
Pros & Cons
- Feature-packed
- Features for the free version are limited
33. KineMaster
Like other mobile apps on our list, KineMaster aims to bring as much of the desktop editing functionality to a handheld device, and the results are pretty impressive. KineMaster makes it possible to trim, and split video, preview your works instantly, add multiple tracks to your video, and include multiple layers of text, video, and images. You’re also able to use the art tool to blend backgrounds and control the speed of your videos.
Pricing
Free app. Get an annual subscription to the full app for $39.99/year.
Pros & Cons
- Feature-packed
- Possibly too many features to manage on a mobile device
34. Cinelerra
Cinelerra has been around since 1998. While it is used to perform more advanced editing, it’s true that the UI is a little dated. But, it includes a host of features that rival more the high-end video editing tools on our list, and for a free tool, we think it really packs a punch. Features that stand out include motion stabilization, the chance to elevate images and make them appear as videos, pass live input through your timeline, and perform other crucial tasks like syncing video and leveraging optical flow.
Pros & Cons
- Feature-packed
- Produce videos in 8K resolution
- Too advanced for beginners
- Dated UI design
- Built for Linux
35. Movie Creator
Movie Creator aptly dubs itself a “video editor and slideshow maker app.” Its feature set, while not as robust as other desktop editing tools, is also not the slimmest on our list. In fact, while it’s available for download, its features include many that online video editing tools offer. You can use the app to trim, merge, and mute videos, and add music and extract MP3s. Movie Creator also allows you to add stickers, filters and themes, text, and save your video in a host of formats and resolutions.
Pricing
Free with in-app purchases.
Pros & Cons
- Perfect for beginners
- Only available on Windows 10 or higher and Xbox One
36. Headliner
Headliner is one of the more uniquely positioned tools on our list. While it looks and feels like another online video editing app, it’s targeted at marketers who want to take their video, audio, and generally any idea, and transform them using animations, captions, gifs, and other tools. The app allows you to create waveforms, automatically transcribe audio (perfect for social content), clip audio, add text, images, and more, and export your creations in 1080p resolution and various sizes for social media.
Pricing
Headliner offers one free plan and two paid plans:
- Basic: $7.99/month
- Pro: $19.99/month
Pros & Cons
- Easy-to-use
- Perfect for marketing teams that need to churn out content fast
- Videos are watermarked
37. Moovly
Moovly is an online video editing tool and the perfect solution for producing important content marketing videos like explainers and tutorials for hungry customers. It comes with a health library of video templates, images, sounds, music and motion graphics, drag-and-drop functionality, the ability to animate characters, and add text and synchronize sounds. It also allows you to layer multiple elements along your timeline. The tool is built to make your marketing team’s life easier, and that shines through its look and feel. In fact, Moovly drives this message home by stating that if you can work PowerPoint, you can manage their video editing app.
Pricing
Moovly has one free plan and three paid plans:
Read More38. Typito
Typito is an online video editing app. Like others in its category, it’s made to help you quickly and easily adapt ideas from paper into video, without a big studio budget or in-house videographer. Typito comes with live preview functionality, the chance to create square and vertical videos (perfect for social media), the option to upload your own audio, music, and access to over 600k high-quality images. As an online video editor, you also get to leverage their 200+ free motion graphic templates and add video transitions to your creations. You can also add text layers, which is actually one of the app’s core selling points.
Read More39. Powtoon
Powtoon is a visual communication platform where you can create professional and fully customized videos. It offers a free version and three paid plans. It includes a vast video template gallery. You can easily edit your preferred templates. The app places a real emphasis on animation. With the free plan, you make short videos, lasting up to three minutes. Your production comes with Powtoon branding, and you can use a selection of free soundtracks and select royalty-free objects. The paid plans allow you to make longer videos (up to 30 minutes on the Agencies Plan), without the Powtoon watermark.
Read More40. AVS Video Editor
AVS produces a range of video and audio software, with their flagship product being the AVS Video Editor. You can use this program to trim, cut, split, merge, rotate, and mix videos. It allows you to apply effects and overlays, insert menus, audio, texts, and subtitles. You can even burn DVD/Blu-ray discs if you still use physical media. You can select between 300 innovative video effects and transitions. Insert menus, audio, text comments, and subtitles. Stabilize video camera shaky recordings.
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Final Verdict
All the video editors mentioned on this list have amazing features and are free to use. They all have their good and bad points and you really have to make a decision based on your needs and usage.
As much as we would like to say that Quik is great for mobile users and Shotcut and OpenShot are great for desktops, we really can’t. You need to select the right tool for you, depending on what you want out of it.
Are you going to use it for professional work? Are you looking for a free trial but willing to invest in a paid version later? Do you want the best free tool available for personal use?
Whatever your requirements may be, this list of best free video editing software will have what you’re looking for. Just select the one that you like best and start editing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best free video editing tools?
There is a surprisingly extensive range of free video editing tools on the market today. In this post, we looked at 39 such tools, all of which may be suitable for you.
What do most YouTubers use to edit their videos?
There are many video apps that YouTubers can use to edit their videos. Indeed any of the 39 apps we have covered in this article could be suitable, depending on your needs. Some apps are only available for some operating systems, so check that you can use your preferred app on your device. For instance, VSDC is only available on windows. iMovie, being made by Apple, is only available for their devices: Mac and iOS.
What do influencers use to edit their videos?
Most influencers have had time to build an audience and establish a reputation for the quality of their social posts and videos. They probably began making their online videos using a free app, possibly one of the 39 reviewed in this post. Over time, however, they will likely have upgraded to more professional-quality video editing software. This could be a program like Adobe Premiere Pro (or the full version of Adobe Premiere Rush) or Apple Final Cut Pro.
What free app can I use to edit videos?
There are many free apps you can use to edit videos. We have reviewed 39 of them in this article. Some of these are cut-down versions of professional software, for example, the free version of Adobe Premiere Rush. Others, such as iMovie and Microsoft Photos, are video-related apps from major software and hardware companies. Take a close look at the pros and cons of each review (along with the operating systems for which they are available) to determine the best product for your needs.
Does Google have a video editor?
While Google (and Google-owned YouTube) no longer have their own video editor, you will find many that operate on Google’s Android operating system. The following apps reviewed in this article have a Google Android version:
- GoPro QuikStories
- Adobe Premiere Rush
- Horizon
- FilmoraGo
While there are not many Chrome-specific apps, you can use any web-based video editor on a Google Chromebook
Is Adobe Premiere Pro free?
Adobe Premiere is a serious video-editing program released by Adobe. It comes in several versions, at varying prices. The full Adobe Premiere Pro is a full-blown video editor with all the bells and whistles and the cost to reflect that. However, you can get Premiere Pro as part of Creative Cloud for US$54.99/month. Adobe Express allows you to create and share online videos and costs $9.99/month. Adobe does offer a free trial on its products.
