12 Best Video Editing Software for Beginners [2024]

With the rapid growth of social media, video editing has become increasingly widespread. More and more users tend to share their lives online. If you have some videos in hand and hope to edit them for sharing online, you may be looking for beginner video editing software. So in this article, we bring you a list of the best video editing tools for beginners. Both free and paid desktop and online tools are involved. Just read on to pick your preferred one!

If you are totally new to video editing and want to start the editing journey with some simple tools, give WonderFox Free HD Video Converter Factory a try. Though it is designed for video and audio conversion and doesn’t have many advanced video editing functions, you can still use it to edit various videos on a Windows PC without import errors since it supports almost all video file types.

This functional video editor offers the most straightforward way to compress, trim, split, crop, rotate, and merge videos. You can also use it to add subtitles, soundtracks, watermarks (images or words), and filters without effort. If you hope to upload the edited videos to YouTube, Facebook, etc., you can directly convert the video to YouTube and other sites’ best specs.
It also enables you to download videos from YouTube and other 500+ sites.

Check out the simple guide for editing videos: How to Edit Videos on Windows 10/11 Handily

Price: Free

If you are on a Windows 10 or 11 system, you can also use the Windows hidden video editor built-in Microsoft Photos app to help with your video editing. With it, you can not only make a video with photos but also edit your videos with some basic features. You can use it to perform editing tasks like trimming, adjusting audio, splitting, adding music, text, motion, 3D effects, etc. The title card option, animated text styles, a decent-sized audio library, and some basic video effects are also provided.

It is really suitable for a beginner to start editing with its concise interface and basic video editing features.

Key Features of Microsoft Photos:
• Intuitive and user-friendly interface
• Able to add hand-drawn annotations or illustrations to videos
• Provide a variety of color filters and 3D effects
• 3 output quality options: 1080p, 720p, and 540p

→ Check out more about Microsoft Photos

Price: Free

Shotcut is a free and open-source video editing program that is suitable for beginners to start editing. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Thanks to FFmpeg, Shotcut supports a wide range of video and audio formats, including 4K, ProRes, and HNxHD. Apart from providing the must-need video editing tools, it also comes with multiple advanced editing features like keyframes for filter parameters, low-resolution proxy editing, etc. Multiple audio editing options are also provided to help users create bandpass filters, adjust gain, add dynamic compression, and more.

It allows beginners to start video editing and also supports advanced editing options for intermediate users.

Key Features of Shotcut:
• Support the latest audio and video formats
• Provide audio scopes and mixers as well as tone generators
• Native timeline editing allows users to directly import videos for editing
• Multiple video and audio editing features
• Offer a ton of tutorials to help beginners get started

→ Check out more about Shotcut

Price: Free

OpenShot can be the best free video editing software without watermark for beginners on Windows, Mac, and Linux, with its user-friendly interface and necessary basic video editing functions like scaling, trimming, rotating, snapping, etc. Moreover, some practical features like credit scrolling, frame stepping, time mapping, audio editing, and real-time preview are also provided. The movies you create can be quickly exported to YouTube and other social media, DVDs, and all major video formats.

With it, beginners can start video editing easily and step into advanced video editing.

Key Features of OpenShot
• Unlimited tracks for watermarks, background video, and audio tracks
• A variety of transitions to smoothly move between clips
• Powerful keyframe animation frameworkCustomizable title-card templates

→ Check out more about OpenShot

Price:
Free with limited features
Pro version: $ 19.99

Though the free version of VSDC doesn’t have all the features of the paid version, it still comes with multiple video editing features that are enough for a beginner. With it, users can cut and merge video files, apply visual and audio effects, use filtration and image correction, and more. Not only can you edit videos, but this free video editing software for beginners also supports improving audio, recording voiceovers, capturing desktop screens, and more.

Its user interface may be a little bit complex for beginners, but there is a page of how-to tips to help you get started with this app.

Key Features of VSDC Free Video Editor
• All popular video/audio formats and codecs supported
• Color-correction tools for a more professional look
• Advanced features like chroma-keying and subpixel accuracy
• A wide array of effects, transitions, and filters
• Convenient export profiles for various devices and social media sites

→ Check out more about VSDC Free Video Editor

Price:
Free with limited features
Lightworks Create: $9.99/month
Lightworks Pro: $23.99/month

Available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, Lightworks is also a great free video editing software for beginners with its intuitive interface and video tutorial collections. With it, you can apply some basic editing like trimming, changing video speed, adjusting brightness, contrast, saturation, adding effects, text, and more. It also provides a list of features, including color correction, audio adjusting, title adding, etc. The auto-save function enables you to focus on editing without worrying about losing a scene or object.

If you want to export video to YouTube or Vimeo, this program also provides direct Vimeo and YouTube 720p video export. However, the free version doesn’t support 4K exports.

Key Features of Lightworks
• Support a variety of video and audio formats
• Able to access files in your Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.
Multicam support for syncing clips from multiple cameras
• 800+ customizable and motion graphics provided

→ Check out more about Lightworks

Price: Free

iMovie is a popular video editor built into Mac OS, which can be the best video editing software for beginners on Mac thanks to its Magic Movie feature. It can make an instant video out of your selected media files with titles, transitions, music, and more added. Its simple drag-and-drop interface and powerful video editing tools allow you to quickly add titles, music, effects, etc. You can also use it for voiceover recording and other basic editing functions.

It supports keeping the files on the Apple cloud so that you can process the projects interchangeably on an iPhone, iPad, and Mac. You can also use it to easily save and upload videos to some popular social media sites.

Key Features of iMovie
• Support 4K video editing and exporting
• Built-in file management system
• Dozens of title animations, video filters, music, sound effects, etc.
• Storyboards with premade templates
• Intuitive interface and easy to learn

→ Check out more about iMovie

Price:
Free
Premium versions available for $60 for Home, $99 for Masters or $5.50/month for Masters with ongoing updates

Being one of the easiest video editing software for beginners, VideoPad is available for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android devices and has received many good reviews for being intuitive and powerful. With wide format support, it allows you to edit files in all popular video formats with its powerful video editing functions. You can use it to add special effects, overlays, texts, and transitions, as well as apply color adjustment and sound effects.

It supports drag-and-drop for easy video editing. After finishing editing, you can export videos to various formats, device presets, and social media in multiple resolution options from 720p to 4K. You can also directly upload videos to YouTube, Vimeo, and other sites.

Key Features of VideoPad
• Double built-in screen for easy and intuitive editing
• A library of video transitions and visual effects
• Customizable pre-designed templates
• Supports 3D and 360-degree video editing

→ Check out more about VideoPad

Price: Free

Blender is a free and open-source program compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux that focuses on 3D creation, including modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, and rendering. But it can still act as a video editing app for beginners since it also comes with a powerful Video Sequence Editor. The Video Sequence Editor contains many tools that can help you perform basic video editing tasks like cutting and splicing videos, as well as more complex tasks like video masking or color grading.

With it, you can customize options to change settings, including playback speed, transitions, etc.

Key Features of Blender
• Live preview, luma waveform, chroma vectorscope, and histogram displays
• Audio mixing, syncing, scrubbing, and waveform visualization
• Up to 32 slots for adding video, images, audio, scenes, masks and effects
• Speed control, adjustment layers, transitions, keyframes, filters and more

→ Check out more about Blender

Price:
Free with limited features
Paid plans start at $7.99

Beginners may feel a little advanced with HitFilm, but it is really a good video editing software for beginners to take time to learn. This tool is compatible with both Windows and Mac. The free version of HitFilm is enough for beginners to start editing. It can be user-friendly with the standard drag-and-drop model. You can use it to create and edit video and audio transitions. Multiple video editing tools like composite shot enhancement, picture-in-picture, behavior effects, and more are also provided.

If you want to learn video editing, this is one software that can help you along the way as you become a more skilled user.

Key Features of HitFilm Express
• Composite shot enhancement for animating two separate shots together
• Multiple visual effects, transitions, presets, plug-ins, etc.
• Unlimited video and audio timeline-track creation
• Support for 360-degree and 4K video

→ Check out more about HitFilm Express

Price:
Free with limitations
Pro version: $11.99/month

Clipchamp is a web-based video editing app for beginners with its self-explanatory interface and intuitive operation. This video editor can help with editing clips by trimming, cropping, filtering, adding transitions, and more. It also offers some time-saving features like batch editing, auto-captions, and text-to-speech. A variety of filters, transitions, GIFs, and effects are also available for making videos.

Moreover, it is available for download on Windows 11 since Microsoft company has already acquired it in 2021. So that you can connect Clipchamp with Microsoft for editing, saving, and sharing files while using Clipchamp and other Microsoft services.

Key Features of Clipchamp
• Libraries of templates and royalty-free music
• Unlimited 1080p export without watermark
• Directly publish to YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, and OneDrive
• Quickly compose a video with AI editing features

→ Check out more about Clipshamp

Price:
Free with limits on file size/length and the number of projects
Pro version: $16/month

Kapwing is also a web-based video editing program that can be friendly for beginners to start editing. It is available for any system and allows beginners to create videos from anywhere on any device once it is connected to the network. With it, you can upload, edit, and share the projects all in one place.

allows you to crop and trim video clips, add transitions, overlay images, voiceover, generate subtitles, and more. Multiple templates, transitions, filters, audio effects, etc. are provided. Besides editing videos, it can also act as a screen recorder, video converter, and more.

Key Features of Kapwing
• Automatically resize videos for various popular platforms
• Support HD video output
• Easy-to-use collaborative workspace
• Provide text-to-speech, auto-translator and more for editing with high efficiency

→ Check out more about Kapwing

That’s all about the best video editing software for beginners. Some of them are totally free, and some offer free trials, so you can test them out and find the best one for you. Hope you can find a suitable video editor with this article. Thanks for reading.