7 Free Video Editors

Free video editors are great for creators who can’t justify the costs of Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas, and other proprietary options. Maybe they don’t work on your operating system (OS), at least without a lot of extra configurations like a virtual machine (VM) or dedicated partition for a supported OS.

Videos, similar to podcasts, are great for expanding your reach to more people. And there are quality, open source video editors for your creative suite, regardless of your Unix distribution.

Below are free video editors for editing videos via desktop, online, or command-line interface (CLI).

• InVideo Online Video Editor
• Blender
• kdenlive
• OpenShot
• PiTiVi
• Flowblade
• FFMPEG
• Other Free Video Editors

InVideo Online Video Editor

InVideo.io is an online video editor ideal for Chromebook users and creators constantly on the go. Notable features include video templates, watermark free videos, and live support. There’s a lot of template multimedia content you can use, customize, and automate with ease.

Pros:

• Very user-friendly
• WYSIWYG drag-and-drop interface with lots of video, music, and graphic templates to choose from

Cons:

• Online only
• Need a paid account for other features including 1080p renders, watermark removal, and more than 1GB cloud storage

To get started, create an InVideo.io account with your email address and phone number.

Blender

Blender, unlike the others on this list, isn’t primarily a video editor. It’s more of a visual production suite capable of 3D modeling, story art, VFX, and much more.

Blender does include a basic video and audio editing interface with more than enough features for the casual video editor.

Pros:

• Perfect all-in-one solution for versatile graphic and visual artists
• Good documentation

Cons:

• Overkill for creators only needing a video editor
• Video editor section takes time to learn

Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

kdenlive

kdenlive is an in-depth, multi-track video editor with plenty of effects, transition, and final rendering options. You can create titles, automate effects, and make changes within the interface to fit your workflow. It even supports screencasting.

Pros:

• Lots of useful audio and visual effects including compression, limiting, cropping, and fades
• Plenty of documentation
• Automatic backups

Cons:

• Lots of available features may seem overwhelming for those new to video editing
• MacOS users will need to install outdated MacPorts package

Available for Linux, Windows, and MacOS.

OpenShot

OpenShot is a solid video editor with essential capabilities to render less complex video projects. There aren’t many effects to choose from but there are dozens of transition styles for fading into another video track. The workflow is a bit different as it requires you to make many adjustments via sliders.

Pros:

• Easy to navigate
• ChromeOS download option
• Active, transparent development for stability and support via GitHub

Cons:

• Minimal drag-and-drop functionality within the timeline
• Workflow requires sliders and drop-down options which could take time to get used to

Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

PiTiVi

PiTiVi is another basic video editor with essential functions for simple video renders. It has just enough for creating podcast video renders for YouTube.

Pros:

• Many native effects available

Cons:

• Only available on Linux
• Basic features only

Available for Linux.

Flowblade

Flowblade has plenty of effects, transition, and rendering options. It also includes two workflows: one similar to most other video editors and film style for insert editing.

Pros:

• Good collection of creative visual effects
• Easy to navigate

Cons:

• Only available on Linux
• Advanced audio effects like compression and limiting may require a separate audio editor

Available for Linux.

FFMPEG

We’ve covered how to create audio spectrum visuals and convert media files with the FFMPEG CLI application. Within your terminal, you can also cut, crop, resize, and even combine videos with audio files. You can learn more from their official documentation and Wiki. Since both can be very difficult to understand, we recommend browsing for vetted, example code from trusted websites.

Pros:

• Light-weight
• Can be installed on web servers and desktops

Cons:

• CLI only, although you can download graphic wrappers to use features on PCs

Available for Debian, CentOS, and more. It may even be installed on your Linux server already.

Other Free Video Editors

Find more free video editors at alternativeto.net.

What great, free video editors are missing from our list? What tasks would you like to see covered with these video editors? Let us know in the comments below.

Learn more about video editing from our Live Broadcasting Education Channel.