14 Best Video Editing Software for Windows 11 (2026)

Finding the best video editing software for Windows 11 is not always easy. Some programs are designed for beginners who only need to trim and merge clips. Others are built for gamers, drone video editors, or advanced creators working on 4K projects. Some run smoothly on low-end PCs, while others require more powerful hardware.

To help you choose the right one, we’ve rounded up the best video editing software for Windows 11 for different needs and skill levels. Whether you want a simple free editor, a beginner-friendly all-rounder, or a professional-grade video editing suite, you’ll find a suitable option here.

Price:
Free version for beginners
$11.99/month

Best for: Beginner and intermediate editor

Watermark: No

Clipchamp is a web-based video editor capable of editing clips of all sizes directly in browser without the hassle of inconvenient uploads. It has been acquired by Microsoft as default editing app for Windows 11. Thanks to its self-explanatory interface, novices can use it to trim, crop, or add filters and transitions easily. Moreover, after connecting Clipchamp with your Microsoft account, you can edit, save and share files seamlessly while using Clipchamp alongside other Microsoft services, such as OneDrive.

Some of Clipchamp’s best features include:

• Speed up or slow down;
• Library of free and paid stock options (song/ sound effect/image/video);
• Cut/trim/crop/rotate/split/loop/zoom in and out;
• Add or remove audio and even add filters and transitions to videos;
• Offer special tools for businesses like brand kit, corporate video editing;
• Directly publish to YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, and OneDrive;

→ Check out more about Clipchamp

Price: Free

Best for: Entry-level editor

Watermark: No

If you are completely new to video editing, Free HD Video Converter Factory might be a good place to start. You can use it to trim, split, crop, rotate, merge, apply filters and watermark, or replace the audio track, add subtitles, and more. After editing, you can convert the edited video to a popular format, device, or social platform. Additionally, you can use it to download video from YouTube, Facebook, Dailymotion, CNN, and 500 more websites.

Hope to unlock more amazing features, you can upgrade the free version to HD Video Converter Factory Pro.

Some of the WonderFox editor’s best features include:

• 500+ configured output profiles;
• All video formats are supported;
• Trim/rotate/crop/merge/watermark...
• Attach new subtitles to your video;
• Make adjustments like brightness, contrast, saturation.

Check out more about Free HD Video Converter Factory

Price: Free

Best for: Beginners, Youtuber, small businesses for their footage editing

Watermark: No

OpenShot is a open-source, free video editor for Windows 11. It provides rich features, including unlimited tracks and layers, title templates, advanced timeline. Also included are basic features like cropping, resizing, rotating, and adjusting brightness and contrast. Besides, it shows real-time previews when you create transitions between clips. However, the novices need to go on a learning curve to grasp the workflow as soon as possible.

Some of the OpenShot’s best features include:

• Available for Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, OS X;
• Compositing, image overlays, watermarks;
• Title templates, title creation, subtitles, 3D animated titles;
• Customizable templates for projects;

→ Check out more about OpenShot

Price: Free

Best for: Small business, intermediate editors

Watermark: No

Thanks to FFmpeg, a leading multimedia framework, Shotcut supports a wide range of video formats. It comes with both basic and advanced editing features. For example, the multi-format timeline, making it easier to mix and match resolution and frame rates within a project. These features are accessible for all users once you download it, making it one of the best free video editing software for Windows 11.

Some of the Shotcut’s best features include:

• Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux;
• Support for the latest audio and video formats/codec;
• Multitrack timeline with thumbnails and waveforms;
• Keyframes for filter parameters and full list of video filters;
• Append, insert, overwrite, lift, and ripple delete editing on the timeline;
• 3-way (shadows, mids, highlights) color wheels for color correction and grading;

→ Check out more about Shotcut

Price:
Monthly plan: $19.95/month
Annual plan: $69.95/year
Lifetime license: $94.95/one-time

Best for: Content creators, intermediate editors

Watermark: No

Movavi Video Editor helps when you need an easy drag-and-drop workflow with lost of visual effects and solid choice of advanced tools. In this Windows 11 video editor, you can do basic cuts, add transitions, filters, titles, and work with AI to create stunning video content. It also supports export in popular formats and offers presets for various devices and platforms.

Some of the Movavi Video Editor’s best features include:

• Intuitive interface layout;
• Assets collection for various themes;
• Auto subtitles, background removal, and other practical AI tools;
• Advanced features like color correction, highlight and conceal, zoom, equalizer, and compressor;
• Allows setting a specific quality during the export;

→ Check out more about Movavi

Price: Free
Pro Version: $19.99

Best for: Both beginners and advanced users

Watermark: No

If you’re looking to create engaging videos for your business without watermark, VSDC Free Video Editor could be a good option. This non-linear editing app can deal with high-definition videos and equipped with VSDC’s full multimedia suite. It contains a large set of trendy video effects, filters and transitions, offers a powerful Chroma Key tool to remove green background, and also provides advanced tools like zoom, 360 video editing, and color correction.

Some of the VSDC Free Video Editor’s best features include:

• All the popular video/audio formats and codecs supported;
• Objects can be placed in any position on the timeline and have any size;
• Various parameters, shape and position of objects can change arbitrarily over time;
• Different shaped masks for hiding, blurring or highlighting certain elements in a video;
• Register and track movements of any objects in a video;

→ Check out more about VSDC Free Video Editor

Price:
Free (non-commercial)
Home Edition: $79.99
Master Edition: $139

Best for: Home users, beginners, content creators

Watermark: No (paid version)

VideoPad Video Editor, developed by NCH Software, is one of the most beginner-friendly desktop video editors available for Windows 11. Its clean and straightforward interface lets you import footage and start editing within minutes, without any prior experience required. VideoPad also shines when it comes to export flexibility. It lets you output videos to a wide variety of formats optimized for DVD, Blu-ray, YouTube, Vimeo, mobile devices, and more.

Some of VideoPad Video Editor's best features include:

• Built-in audio mixing tools, voiceover recording, and sound effects library;
• Supports 4K video editing and a wide range of input / output formats;
• Over 50 visual and transition effects with real-time preview;
• Direct upload to YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, and Google Drive;
• Optimized export presets for mobile devices, DVD, and Blu-ray;

→ Check out more about VideoPad Video Editor

Price:
Free
Lightworks Create: $12.99/month
Lightworks Pro: $24.59/month

Best for: Intermediate editors and lite-level editors

Watermark: No

Lightworks is a full-featured and cross-platform video editing program. It supports any frame rate file and play it at its original resolution and shape. You can also use it to trim video, change video speed, adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation. Besides, it lets you apply video effects, and add text to video. Simply drag the new content to your sequence and start editing. It is qualified to be one of the best free video editing software for Windows 11, despite of its maximum 720p export limits.

Some of the Lightworks’s best features include:

• Offer a variety of effects/ color adjustments;
• Import files from cloud services including Dropbox and Google Drive;
• Execute keyframing to make a smooth transition between clips;
• Work with Blackmagic Fusion to create pro-level visual effects;
• Export videos to YouTube through a right-click menu;

→ Check out more about Lightworks

Price:
Free version
HitFilm Express for creator: $12.99/mon
HitFilm Express for pro: $19.99/mon

Best for: Experienced editors

Watermark: No

HitFilm Press is packed with professional-grade visual effects(VFX) tools. You can work with the inbuilt color adjustments, keying effects, lens flares, and light swords to create stunning visual content. It can also track the movement of moving objects in your video so that you can add new objects that follow the same motion pattern. Other advanced features include custom video masks, green screen chroma keys, and 3D compositional features.

Some of the HitFilm Express’s best features include:

• Support for 360-degree and 4K video;
• Unlimited video and audio timeline track creation;
• Free yet professional visual effects toolkits;
• Auto-stabilizer to make shaky footage look smooth;

→ Check out more about HitFilm Express

Price:
Monthly plan: $19.99/month
Annual plan: $54.99/year

Best for: Both beginner and advanced video editors

Watermark: No

CyberLink’s PowerDirector 365 video editing software features a simpler interface and more affordable price than some of the professional editors, such as Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X. Besides basic editing features, it is loaded with a 100-track timeline, striking effects, enhance options for audio and video denoising, video templates, and so forth, making it one of the best video editing software for Windows 11/10.

Some of the CyberLink PowerDirector 365’s best features include:

• Support making stunning slideshows, 3D animated titles, subtitles…;
• Allow editing 360-degree video;
• Loads of effects and AI tools;
• Built in motion graphics titles and royalty free music;
• Support audio scrubbing and 4K video preview.

→ Check out more about CyberLink PowerDirector 365

Price: Free

Best for: Starters and experienced users

Watermark: No

Blender is free, open-source software mainly used for 3D modeling and animation. But it also comes with a powerful Video Sequence Editor built-in. This Video Sequence Editor, also named Sequencer, includes a wide variety of tools used for video cutting and splicing, as well as some complex tasks like video masking or color grading. You can insert fades and transitions, change playback speed, adjustment layers, transitions, keyframes, filters, and more!

Some of the Blender’s best features include:

• 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:
DaVinci Resolve: Free
DaVinci Resolve Studio: $295

Best for: Lite-level users

Watermark: No

DaVinci Resolve offers everything you could ever need and much more in a single program. It is one of the most comprehensive and best video editing software for Windows 11. It supports cloud-based workflows which make remote collaboration easier. You can use it to handle large projects without hassle. Anyway, for many professional editors of films, television shows, and commercials, DaVinci Resolve is a convincing option.

Some of the DaVinci Resolve's best features include:

• Market-leading color correction tools;
• Support virtually all 8‑bit video formats at up to 60fps in resolutions as high as Ultra HD;
• Work on colossal projects and edit up to 2,000 tracks at a time with real time effects and EQ;
• Set individual presets, text positions and intuitively edit between regions;
• Support for relinking subtitle clips from the media pool.

→ Check out more about DaVinci Resolve

Price:
Premiere Pro plan: $20.99/month

Best for: Professional editors

Watermark: No

When searching for the best video editing software for Windows 11, you can’t get very far without running into Adobe Premiere Pro. Actually, we rate Premiere Pro as a top-of-the-line Windows 11 video editor. With a simple interface, this industry-leading video editor aims to enhance productivity and deliver quality results with advanced tools and fastest editorial workflows. It’s not simple nor easy to use, making for a steep learning curve. It is overkill for beginners. Luckily, there are lots of detailed tutorials.

Some of the Adobe Premiere Pro’s best features include:

• Responsive interface;
• Support for Immersive Virtual Reality (VR);
• Simultaneous and hassle-free editing;
• Integrated work process;
• Filter the audio by genre, mood, tempo, duration, and even vocals;
• Export all of the titles in your sequence as text files for sharing and proofreading

→ Check out more about Adobe Premiere Pro

Price:
Starter: $39/year
Essentials: $179.88/year
Create: $249/year
Pro: $599/year

Best for: Educators, trainers, tutorial creators

Watermark: Starter Plan has watermark

Camtasia, developed by TechSmith, is a uniquely powerful all-in-one screen recording and video editing solution for Windows 11. Unlike general-purpose video editors, Camtasia seamlessly blends screen capture capabilities with a full-featured video editor — meaning you can record your screen, webcam, and audio simultaneously, then polish the footage all within a single tool. Its library of pre-built assets, intro templates, and royalty-free music makes it easy to produce polished, professional-looking tutorials without design skills.

Some of the Camtasia’s best features include:

• Integrated screen recorder with webcam and system audio capture;
• Callouts, annotations, and spotlight effects for drawing viewer attention;
• Library of pre-built intro templates, transitions, and royalty-free music;
• AI-powered features: auto-captions, noise removal, and background removal;
• Direct sharing to YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive, and TechSmith's Screencast platform;

→ Check out more about Camtasia

Before selecting a video editor, consider:

1. Skill level: Beginners benefit from clean interfaces and simple workflows, while advanced users may need professional tools with keyframes, color grading, and multi-track editing.

2. PC performance: Lightweight editors work on low-end machines; advanced editors require more CPU/RAM and GPU.

3. Editing purpose: Home videos, gaming, drone footage, or professional projects require different feature sets.

4. Features you need: Trimming, cropping, merging, subtitles, transitions, and format conversion cover most basic needs.

5. Budget: Free editors handle many tasks; paid tools offer smoother workflows, advanced templates, and AI-assisted features.

👉 Generally, here’s a quick overview of the best video editing software for reference:

• Choose Clipchamp if you want the easiest mainstream starting point on Windows 11.

• Choose WonderFox Free HD Video Converter Factory if you want simple editing plus strong format support.

• Choose VSDC or Shotcut if you want a free desktop editor with more control.

• Choose Movavi if you want a polished and easy paid editor.

• Choose Camtasia if you edit gameplay, screen recordings, or tutorials.

• Choose PowerDirector if you want a creator-focused editor with stronger features.

• Choose DaVinci Resolve or Premiere Pro if you need professional-level tools.

A: VSDC Free Video Editor and WonderFox Free HD Video Converter Factory run efficiently on low-end machines.

A: Some older tools like WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro, OpenShot, VLC, Nero Video, and Clipify may still work, but newer software is optimized for Windows 10/11.

A: For gaming videos, Camtasia and PowerDirector are both strong options. Camtasia is especially convenient for recording-based workflows, while PowerDirector offers more editing flexibility.

A: If you only need simple trimming, merging, or format adjustment, beginner-friendly tools may be enough. But for more advanced drone footage editing, especially 4K video and color correction, DaVinci Resolve and Adobe Premiere Pro are better choices.

A: Yes. If you are editing on Mac instead of Windows, Final Cut Pro and iMovie are two of the most common Apple-side options.

The best video editing software for Windows 11 depends less on hype and more on what kind of editing you actually do.

If you just need quick edits, go with a beginner-friendly option. If you create gaming videos or tutorials, choose a tool that fits recording-heavy workflows. If you edit drone footage or more advanced 4K projects, step up to software built for serious post-production.

Start with the editor that matches your current needs, not the most complicated one on the market. That is usually the fastest way to get better results.