It’s been a long time since I was satisfied with Windows Video editor – and it’s still available on Windows 10, just hard to find.
But when you need more capabilities, need keyframing, better choices over FPS (you do, you just don’t know you do), coloring and light correction, more choices for transitions, better titling, etc… it’s time to look elsewhere.
On my 2019 Best Video Editor post, I rated Filmora 9 the best video editor. But not many have $100 to spend on a video editor! So – what’s your choices?
Adobe Premiere Rush – Premiere Rush is to me the single biggest waste of time on video editors. It doesn’t matter if it’s free, if you’re only allowed to render three times. What that means is, you can edit and create 10,000 videos – but Rush only allows you three of them to be rendered into a video you can show other people. Or more likely, pick the one you want, because something was placed in the wrong spot, or you forgot to add something. It’s a shame.
Without that limitation, this could have been the takeaway favorite for a lot of people – and after using Rush for six months and perhaps 25 videos, a lot more people might have looked into Adobe Premiere and decided the $25 a month license was affordable and made the jump. Bad business decisions follow a company, and unless I start making Stephen King kinds of income, I won’t be interested in Adobe Premiere as a result. I’ll stick with Filmora 9 or DaVinci Resolve. Dead Last on my list. Should have won, except for the limitations.
Open Shot – An easy little free program to edit video. Open source and very compact, I gave it a going through and not one crash – something PowerDirector couldn’t say. The entire program gives you a feeling of “do as much as you can within this one interface window as possible”, which makes it a great choice for the beginner video user. If you want to do more than what you can with Windows Movie Maker, this is probably the program for you. Easy interface, you can jump right in and begin editing video, no learning curve at all! If you’re the kind of “I want to be up and running right away” kind of people, this is your program. It’s possible to do more advanced things with it, but I could see for the kind of things I’m interested in doing (like speed ramp – freeze frame – speed ramp, or shift-click focus), that’s right at the ceiling of capability for this program – which suggests that some of the things I’m now doing like color correcting and advanced keyframing is beyond its capabilities. The programmers are encouraged to come on and tell me I didn’t spend enough time with it! Number Three on my list.
Shotcut – Open source, completely free. Within a deceptively easy interface, there is a lot of capability here. It seemed to me that this program was not as easy to use as Open Shot, but Shotcut has a lot of power to it. The very first thing it did when importing my cell phone video was to let me know it didn’t fit the 24 frames a second I wanted it at – did I want Shotcut to increase the frame rates of the videos to fit the project? Um… YEAH!!!! So, go get a cup of coffee. By the time I’m back, all three film clips were increased to 24 frames per second, and looked quite good. Editing! Whee! There’s a number of video tutorials teaching you how to do everything you need to know for most video processing needs, and if you want to stretch your reach a little and try some speed ramps, Shotcut can do it nicely. I spent about as much time with it as Open Shot, and liked it better. Number One on my list.
PowerDirector 15. I include this because it’s free, and you can render projects without a watermark – that’s why Filmora 9 won overall best, but doesn’t appear here. I mention this program because I used it exclusively for my model railroading videos (to be resumed once I move and have room and finances for a Lionel railroad layout). The reason it doesn’t win the shootout is simple – every time I reach for a feature I need to complete a project, it’s locked and I need to buy the $99 package. Easy interface, and more control over color correction (a feature which every amateur video maker needs and doesn’t know they need). Try both this and Shotcut to decide if you agree with my summary. You’ll outgrow the free features within a year. Number Two on my list.
Conclusion: Shotcut for me wins out as the best free video editor. As I see it, Shotcut has a lot of features that will satisfy the average user and those who want to grow a little. For those wanting something more professional, Filmora 9 wins the semi-pro and DaVinci Resolve wins the pro level.
