Open-source Avid Media Composer alternatives

Shotcut is a free, open-source, cross-platform video editor. It is written in C++ with the Qt 6 framework for its interface and uses the MLT multimedia authoring framework as its editing engine. It is released under the GPLv3 license, and Dan Dennedy is credited as the main author.

Its direct dependencies include FFmpeg for multimedia formats and codecs, Frei0r for video plugins, FFTW and SDL for audio playback. Prebuilt binaries are regularly built and available on the project website, while building from source is recommended mainly for beta testers and contributors, using Qt Creator or the command line with CMake.

The project maintains a features page and a roadmap on its website, and invites translations through Transifex. As a desktop program it runs locally on the user's computer, and there is no hosted service. A credits page lists the full set of direct, indirect and bundled dependencies.

Kdenlive is a free and open-source video editor that targets both quick family videos and larger, more involved projects. It is developed by the KDE community and built on the MLT multimedia framework, which provides the core video editing functionality behind the interface.

The interface is written in C++ with Qt and KDE Frameworks 6. Video effects come from the frei0r library and audio effects from LADSPA plugins, so the effect set can grow through those ecosystems. Downloads of stable releases and experimental daily builds are published on the project website, and users can also help with translations, bug triage, documentation and tutorials.

Kdenlive is licensed under GPL-3.0 and runs as a desktop application on Linux, Windows and macOS. Primary development happens on KDE Invent, with the GitHub repository acting as a mirror, and contributors discuss development in a Matrix channel.