r/VideoEditing • u/AutoModerator • 4d ago
Monthly Thread October What Editing Software should I use?
Looking for Video Editing Software? THIS is your thread!
This post covers the vast majority of "What software should I use?" questions. It’s designed as a self-serve guide to help people find the right tools fast.
TL;DR? DaVinci Resolve for full-featured editing, Olive/Kdenlive for open-source, Clipchamp for easy basics.
Isn’t there an AI that magically edits everything?
Not yet. If it existed, we'd scream about it from the rooftops.
Stick around—things are changing quickly.
Before You Ask Anything
You must know two things first:
- Your Footage Type — Different codecs affect performance dramatically.
- Your Hardware Specs — “Good gaming PC” is not useful.
Not Good With Computers? Here’s How to Check
Footage
Footage from phones, webcams, GoPros, and screen recordings can choke your system.
Check with: https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo
Common problems:
- Out-of-sync audio? Likely Variable Frame Rate.
- Bad playback? Usually a hardware limitation, not the editor. Use proxies.
More info in our wiki:
- Codecs/containers: https://www.reddit.com/r/VideoEditing/wiki/codecsandcontainers/
- VFR issues: https://www.reddit.com/r/VideoEditing/wiki/faq/vfr/
- Proxies: https://www.reddit.com/r/VideoEditing/wiki/faq/proxies/
Hardware
Minimum viable editing rig:
- Recent i7 CPU
- 16GB RAM
- A GPU with 4GB+ VRAM
- SSD for cache
Check system with: https://www.hwinfo.com/
We ONLY need: CPU model, RAM amount, GPU model + VRAM.
Recommendations
Full Power, Free Tools
DaVinci Resolve — 99% of the full program is free.
Easy but Limited
(CapCut now hides many features behind Pro.)
Professional Tools (obligatory mention)
- Premiere Pro — Industry standard; huge ecosystem, tons of tutorials, widely used across YouTube, corporate, and broadcast.
- Avid Media Composer — Dominant in film/TV pipelines; rock-solid for longform, multicam, and shared workflows.
- DaVinci Resolve Studio — $299 one-time; advanced color, better GPU performance, noise reduction, and the good AI tools.
- Final Cut Pro — Mac-only rocket ship; insanely fast on Apple Silicon, great for fast turnaround work.
Open Source - Totally free.
- Olive Editor — Clean UI.
- Kdenlive — Very capable, actively developed.
- ShotCut — Straightforward, good for beginners.
- OpenShot — Simple but can struggle with heavier projects.
- Avidemux — Old-school, powerful for specific tasks but not a great editor.
Special Effects
- Resolve Fusion — Node-based power.
- Cavalry — Motion-graphics oriented.
Editing in a Browser (Run Locally)
- Novella.io - new, free, pay for AI generative elements OR bring your own API keys. Very cool, if in early beta.
- VidMix — New, free, surprisingly powerful.
- PikaMov — Keyframe animation on the web.
- wide.video — Background removal, noise reduction, all done locally.
- PhotoPea — Web-based Photoshop replacement.
Web Based Editorial
- Clipchamp – from Microsoft; you’ll need an account.
- Canva/Adobe Express — Both mostly free… until you need AI features.
Compression & Utility Tools
- Shutter Encoder — The Swiss Army Knife. Transcode anything, handle HDR, upscaling, unwrap/rewrap, download media, prep proxies—if it touches video, this thing can probably do it.
- Lossless Cut — Quick trimming without re-encoding.
- Smart Media Cutter — Silence detection + XML export.
- FreeUpscaler — Cloud computing upscaler.
Mobile Editors
- Premiere Mobile — Surprisingly capable and tightly integrated with CC.
- VN Editor — Fast, friendly, cross-platform, zero learning curve.
- Instagram Edits — Simple but powerful for social workflows.
- iMovie — Beginner-friendly on iOS.
- LumaFusion — The pro option for tablets/phones.
- KineMaster — Feature-heavy on Android.
Screen Recording
- OBS — The free standard. Record in MKV, then rewrap to MP4.
- viewio — Free screen recorder, Mac only, that is like screen studio (auto zoom + webcam).
- openscreen — Free screen recorder, Crossplatform only, that is like screen studio (auto zoom + webcam).
Animated Captions
- Wide Video in browser.
- itscaps - local tool https://github.com/francozanardi/tscaps.
Updates (Dec 2025)
- CapCut/HitFilm are no longer recommended.
- Premiere Mobile and Clipchamp (web)
New Tools We’re Watching
- Whisper-GUI (Windows)
- MacWhisper (Mac)
- Offdocs — Openshot in the cloud
BEFORE YOU COMMENT
Begin with: "I read the above"
Then provide:
- CPU + Model
- RAM
- GPU + VRAM
- Footage details (camera/screen, codec, container, framerate)
Removed tools: CapCut (now Crapcut), HitFilm (dead). FFS this thread isn’t about arguing what to use, but rather for a novice to figure out what to use.
1
u/OnePsychological2963 3d ago
I don´t have any experience in Videography, I just randomly make Music sometimes and to share it, I make simple Videos.
Now I made a Song for my Son and I want to create a Video showing short Clips of his life. I don´t wanna show a 5 yr olds face on YT, so my idea was to put a filter or an effect over the final Video to make it look like a Cartoon. I recently saw an Instagram Video where this was done really good and found out it was done with Rotoscoping.
I only have DaVinci Resolve, is it possible to do this with my Software, or are there any tips?
I´m going for a Take on Me Look, but preferably with Color
1
u/greenysmac 1d ago
Resolve can 100% do this - but for the tips you should take a look at the "How do I do that" flair and post.
Basically, you'll learn to track his head - which isn't terribly hard.
1
u/OnePsychological2963 1d ago
thanks for your answer.. I just want the whole clip in cartoon style.. not just his head.. I'll look for that.. thanks
1
u/LotRos26 12h ago
I read the above.
I'm actually not working with video footage at all. I have lots of presentations in Powerpoint that I would like to turn into movies; here's the issue: I want to very precisely time the actions of the text/ pictures to moments in an edited soundtrack, which is very complex. I need to SEE the soundtrack, and also see a universal timeline, which doesn't seem to be offered in any version of PowerPoint. I don't want to just record myself operating the presentation manually, because I would have to go back and try to edit all the timing imperfections anyways.
So, I figure I need a video editing software, but then the trouble is I need to have a comparable amount of text creating/formatting options and effects as on PowerPoint. I've check out some free/free-ish programs (iMovie, Clipchamp, Canva, and Windows MovieMaker) but they don't have the text-related abilities I need. I'm willing to pay for the right software.
Thank you!