Best Video Editing Software in 2026: Free, Professional and Browser-Based Editors

The best video editing software depends on how much control you want and where you edit. CapCut and Microsoft Clipchamp get beginners to a finished clip quickly, DaVinci Resolve gives professionals editing, grading, effects and audio in one program, and Kdenlive is the free open-source editor to try first on a desktop.

The 14 picks below are grouped by job: quick edits, professional editing, open-source desktop editors, browser-based editing, screen recording and AI-assisted short-form video. The live table shows licence, self-hosting and pricing data for the main picks.

How we picked the best video editing software

Enlisted started from the catalogue's video editing category and kept tools that do a real editing job: cutting and arranging footage, finishing a project, recording a screen or turning long footage into short clips. Licences and pricing models are quoted as the catalogue lists them, and platforms are named only where the vendor's own page states them. For open-source editors, recent GitHub activity was a requirement. Nothing here was scored on render speed or output quality, so check each trial or free tier against your own footage. The method is in how Enlisted ranks tools.

Two things shape the choice more than any feature list. The first is your operating system, because some editors are tied to one platform. The second is the free tier: some hosted editors watermark free exports, while open-source programs never do.

Best for beginners and quick edits

These three trade depth for speed. They are built around templates, captions and one-click tools rather than a professional timeline.

1. CapCut: best for short vertical videos with templates and auto captions

CapCut is a video editor for short-form clips that combines templates, effects, auto captions and AI tools on desktop, web, mobile and tablet. Its feature list includes speech-recognition captions, text to speech, noise reduction, background removal and trimming, so a clip for Instagram or YouTube Shorts can go from raw footage to published in one app.

Projects can start on a phone and finish on a computer, which suits people who shoot on their phone. Enlisted lists a free plan with paid options, and the full entry is on the CapCut page.

• Best for: social media creators making short clips with captions and templates.
• Watch out for: it is closed source with no self-hosted version, and a template-driven editor gives less control than a professional timeline.

2. Microsoft Clipchamp: best free editor for Windows users and browser editing

Microsoft Clipchamp is a video editor from Microsoft that runs in a web browser and as a Windows app. It offers templates for YouTube, TikTok and Instagram formats, stock footage and royalty-free music, camera, screen and voice recording, an AI subtitle generator and text-to-speech voiceovers.

The free editor exports at 1080p without a watermark, according to its pricing page. Premium features such as 4K export, premium stock media and a brand kit come with a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription. See the Clipchamp listing for details.

• Best for: beginners who want a free editor with templates, recording and captions in one place.
• Watch out for: the standalone app is for Windows, and 4K export, premium stock and the brand kit need a Microsoft 365 plan.

3. iMovie: best free editor for Mac, iPhone and iPad

iMovie is Apple's free video editor for Mac, iPhone and iPad, designed for people who want to turn personal clips into finished movies without learning a professional suite. You add video, sound effects and other media, fine-tune the result and share it. It works with many third-party cameras and can keep its library on an external drive to save space on a Mac.

It is a natural first editor if everything you own is Apple hardware, and Final Cut Pro is Apple's professional editor if you later need more. The iMovie page lists its details.

• Best for: families and students editing on Apple devices.
• Watch out for: it only runs on Apple platforms, and it is a simple editor rather than a professional one.

Best for professional editing

Professional editors are timeline-based programs built for long projects, careful audio and colour work, and larger teams. All three below are closed source.

4. DaVinci Resolve: best professional editor with a free version

DaVinci Resolve is Blackmagic Design's application for video editing, colour grading, visual effects and audio post-production, available for Mac, Windows and Linux. Its workspaces cover editing on the Cut and Edit pages, colour on the Color page, effects and motion graphics in Fusion, and audio in Fairlight, so a project can move from cut to grade to sound without exporting between programs.

Blackmagic offers a free version and a paid Studio version. Its site says the free version handles most common video formats and includes multi-user collaboration and HDR grading, while Studio adds the DaVinci Neural Engine AI tools, extra Resolve FX, noise reduction, text-based editing and support for higher frame rates and resolutions. Read more on the DaVinci Resolve page.

• Best for: editors who want colour grading and finishing tools without a subscription.
• Watch out for: it is a large program with several workspaces, so expect a longer learning curve than the beginner editors, and the strongest AI tools are in the paid Studio version.

5. Adobe Premiere Pro: best for teams already using Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe Premiere Pro is a professional, timeline-based video editor used for film, television and online video. Editors trim clips, assemble sequences and layer effects, titles and audio, and Premiere also includes colour correction tools. Because it is part of Adobe Creative Cloud, it commonly sits alongside After Effects and Photoshop in the same production pipeline.

It is sold by subscription, with plans for individuals, businesses, students and teachers. There is no free plan, so use Adobe's own trial terms to test it on your footage, and look at the Premiere Pro entry for the catalogue data.

• Best for: professionals and agencies whose workflow already runs through Adobe apps.
• Watch out for: Enlisted's data shows it sold by subscription only, with no free plan.

6. Final Cut Pro: best for Mac and iPad editors who like a magnetic timeline

Final Cut Pro is Apple's professional video editor for Mac and iPad, built around a magnetic timeline that keeps clips connected so footage is quick to rearrange. It covers editing, audio, motion graphics and colour grading, adds captions and subject isolation without a green screen, and includes AI features that build on Apple Intelligence.

Apple sells it as a one-time purchase and also includes it in its Apple Creator Studio subscription, with a trial offered. The Final Cut Pro page has the latest listing.

• Best for: solo creators and small studios committed to Apple hardware.
• Watch out for: it is available for Mac and iPad only.

Best free and open-source video editors

If you want a desktop editor with no licence fee, no watermark and source code you can read, three open-source programs cover most needs. For a look at the wider field, see the video editing category.

7. Kdenlive: best open-source editor for larger projects

Kdenlive is a free, open-source video editor from the KDE community, built on the MLT framework, that covers both quick family videos and more involved projects. Its site says it works on Linux, Windows, macOS and BSD and lists multicam and three-point editing, proxy editing, nested sequences, keyframed effects, LUT-based colour correction and subtitle creation with automatic transcription.

It is released under GPL-3.0, and the project publishes stable releases and daily builds. The Kdenlive page shows recent activity.

• Best for: hobbyists and indie creators who want a full multi-track editor for free.
• Watch out for: it is a feature-dense desktop program, so expect to learn its workflow before it feels fast.

8. Shotcut: best free cross-platform editor with wide format support

Shotcut is a free, cross-platform video editor released under GPLv3, written in C++ with Qt and built on the MLT framework. It relies on FFmpeg for formats and codecs and supports Frei0r video plugins, which gives it wide format and codec support.

The project builds binaries regularly and publishes them on its site. The Shotcut entry shows the licence and release activity.

• Best for: people who want a straightforward free editor on Windows, macOS or Linux.
• Watch out for: its interface is more technical than template-based editors, and it has no hosted version.

9. OpenShot: best free editor for simple projects, titles and animation

OpenShot is a free, open-source video editor for Linux, macOS and Windows with unlimited tracks, a drag-and-drop timeline, title templates and curve-based keyframe animation. It is built with Python, C++ and Qt on top of FFmpeg, and includes 3D animated titles, SVG titles, scrolling credits, chroma key and speed changes.

It aims at a wide audience rather than professional finishing. Check the OpenShot page for release activity.

• Best for: home videos, school projects and simple animated titles.
• Watch out for: hardware encoding and decoding are listed as experimental, and it is aimed at everyday projects rather than professional finishing.

Best for editing in the browser

10. Kapwing: best browser editor for subtitles and repurposing videos

Kapwing is an online video editor that runs in the browser, with a subtitler, templates and AI tools for creating and repurposing video. You can trim video by editing its transcript, remove silences with smart cut, resize footage around the speaker, add text-to-speech voiceovers and dub into more than 40 languages. A clip maker cuts short clips from a longer video.

Enlisted lists a free plan with watermarked exports and paid per-member plans. If browser-based editing is your priority, Kapwing sits alongside the Clipchamp editor above and the open-source OpenCut project, which is a free MIT-licensed editor for the web that is being rewritten around a Rust core. See Kapwing's catalogue page.

• Best for: marketers and educators who caption, resize and repurpose video without installing software.
• Watch out for: it is closed source, hosted only, and free exports carry a watermark.

Best for screen recording and tutorials

Recording the screen and editing a finished video are different jobs, and these two sit between them.

11. OBS Studio: best free program for recording and live streaming

OBS Studio is a free, open-source application for recording video and streaming live, with versions for Windows, macOS and Linux. Content is composed as scenes built from sources such as window captures, webcams, images, text and browser windows, and an audio mixer offers noise suppression, gain and VST plugin support.

It is a capture and streaming tool, not a timeline editor, so most people record in OBS and cut the result in one of the editors above. It is released under GPL-2.0, and the OBS Studio page shows its recent releases.

• Best for: streamers, gamers and anyone recording screencasts or webinars for free.
• Watch out for: there is no editing timeline, and a scene-and-source setup takes some time to learn.

12. Camtasia: best for software tutorials and training videos

Camtasia is TechSmith's screen recorder and video editor for tutorials, training videos and software demos. It records screen, camera and audio as separate layers, lets you edit cursor movement after the fact and offers video background removal for webcam footage, with an asset library of music and motion graphics.

TechSmith sells it in paid yearly plans, with team packages through sales, and Enlisted's data shows no free plan. Its suite also includes Snagit and Camtasia Online for free online screen recording. See the Camtasia listing.

• Best for: teachers and training teams who record software walkthroughs and polish them in one app.
• Watch out for: it is paid software with no free plan, so confirm the trial and refund terms on TechSmith's site first.

Best for AI-assisted and short-form editing

13. Descript: best for editing video by editing its transcript

Descript is an AI video and audio editor in which you edit the transcript like a document and the media follows. It combines recording, transcription, multitrack editing, captions and screen recording, and its AI tools remove filler words and retakes, improve sound with Studio Sound, fix eye contact and create clips.

Enlisted lists a free plan alongside paid per-person plans. The Descript page has the catalogue summary.

• Best for: podcasters, interviewers and anyone whose videos are mostly speech.
• Watch out for: it is hosted and closed source, and it suits spoken content better than footage-heavy edits with lots of b-roll.

14. Submagic: best for captioning and clipping for TikTok, Reels and Shorts

Submagic is a hosted AI editing tool that adds captions, zooms, b-roll and sound effects to short-form clips. Features include Magic Clips for extracting short clips from longer videos, AI eye-contact correction, video translation, publishing automation and an editing API.

Enlisted's data shows no free plan, a free try, and per-member paid plans. See the Submagic listing.

• Best for: creators and agencies producing a steady stream of captioned short clips.
• Watch out for: it is paid, hosted only, and built for short-form content rather than long edits.

More tools worth a look

A few catalogue entries solve narrower problems. Wondershare Filmora is a consumer editor for desktop and mobile with a free edition, and its free exports carry a watermark. Lightworks has a free edition and paid tiers for film and TV work, and VEGAS Pro is a Windows editor with a free trial. Cap is an open-source screen recorder positioned as a Loom alternative, and Screen Studio adds automatic zooms to Mac screen recordings. HandBrake and FFmpeg are open-source tools for converting and processing video rather than editing it.

If you need still images edited first, the free photo editing software guide covers that side, and the AI tools guide includes generative video options.

How to choose video editing software

Start from the video you want to make and the computer you will use.

A practical route for a beginner is to start with the free tool that matches your computer, then move up only when a project needs multi-camera work, colour grading or tighter audio. Open-source editors are the safest long-term bet if you want files and projects you control, and the video editing category lists more.