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MURRRAAAAY's avatar
MURRRAAAAY

With being in the YouTube game for a few years now and having used a few different video editing software packages I hope this roundup can help you with your editing!

So due to the excellent DaVinci Resolve having a free and paid tier im going to split this a tad differently and give a few options for PC and Mac!

Best Free for PC - DaVinci Resolve litteraly is incredible and has everything you could ever want, but it does have a bit of a learning curve as this is the software that is used by professionals making big budget Hollwood movies, I'd recommend either sticking with this and learning, taking your time or start with something which is simpler to get you into the groove of basics of editing! This is the software which I currently use for most of my videos.

Best Free for Mac - Every Mac comes loaded with a copy of iMovie, which is a fantatic basic video editor and where I started my editing journey learning the basics of chopping up a video file, its also pretty powerful once you figure out everything it can do so if your on mac, and want to get started id recommend you start with iMovie. This is also a great backup which I use when I want to edit away from my main setup or on the go! (well i did until my MacBook died on Monday night RIP MacBook... let the saving up for a new one commence)

Best Paid for PC beginner - I am going to throw in Wondershare Filmora, I used this software for a few years as it was a great price with a lifetime update package for like $50 or something so you always get the latest version and its so simple to use and has some nice user friendly pre-made effects which you can easily use to add a little bit more flair to your videos. Also it can use your GPU for super quick render times.

Best Paid for PC Pro - I'd suggest paying for the full version of DaVinci resolve, whilst it doesn't get you a lot more features than the free one it allows you to utilise your GPU for your video editing and rendering which can make a huge difference if your editing really large files which would strain most CPU's! (I will be upgrading when I can afford too and also get some dedicated editing hardware for my setup which they sell on their website like a speed editor keyboard which looks great)!

Best Paid for Mac - for this I think there is only one option to go for which is Final Cut Pro. This is a great next step and can almost be thought of like as being the Pro version of iMovie. Also much of the basics which you learn on iMovie can be easier transferred over to Final Cut so you are not starting at square one as they are both from Apple! With the software being created by Apple, who make the hardware you will be running it on it makes the most of your hardware for a great editing experience!

I hope this helps any of my fellow creators and any questions fire away!

Murray

Lanah Tyra's avatar
Lanah Tyra

Best paid: Vegas Pro

If you want stable, reliable and easy to use for beginners editing software, then it's Vegas Pro. I used it at uni for my diploma work and loved it ever since. Even if you are used to other editing software you'll get the hang of it very quickly as the UI is simple and user friendly. It has all the features what you need and probably the biggest bonus point for me is that in a world where everything runs on a subscription, you can still buy the current version of Vegas Pro on a perpetual licence, and use it as long as you want. I used the version I bought during uni for around 5 years... Either you choose to pay just for the current version or pay monthly to get all the recent updates, you'll get great value for your money. £200 for the perpetual licence or £20 per month.

Adobe Premier Pro?

While Premier Pro is a great editing software, I think it's only worth the price if you are using multiple Adobe products and pay for the whole CC bundle. £22 for Premier Pro (or any single Adobe product) £57 for the entire Creative Cloud bundle per month. It runs smoothly on Mac (at least when I last had one) but on Windows crashes quite often. I got Premier at the moment because I wanted to try some of the new AI features but found out that for what I need it currently, I don't use most of the features so probably I will be swapping back to Vegas Pro or I might give Davinci Resolve a go.

Best free: Davinci Resolve

Even though I never used it myself, I'ld recommend it as the best free editing software, based on what I heard about it. It has everything what you need for starting out as a creator, easy to use and very reliable.

avrona's avatar
avrona

Best free has to be Davinci Resolve. It's more than enough for most YouTubers in terms of editing, effects, audio, and more, all in one. It's fairly easy to learn the basics, and once you got it, it goes super deep.

As for best paid, I know it's a bit of a cop-out answer but the paid version of Davinci Resolve, Resolve studio. I never used any other paid software apart from Hitfilm Pro, which was alright, but even the paid version was pretty limiting compared to the free version of Resolve. The paid version of Blackmagic's software is by no means necessary, just adds a few very high-end features that most people won't care about. The only other paid option I can really think of that is worth going for is maybe Premiere Pro, if you really need to stay within the Adobe ecosystem for some reason.

Retro Stu's avatar
Retro Stu

Looks like I'm in the majority here but for me it's a no brainer and look no further than DaVinci Resolve by Blackmagicdesign.

I've got a bit of history with editing videos as a creator and as part of my uni course - one project was we were given a clip from LOTR completely stripped of all sound and we had to recreate the music, dialogue and SFX for it. So I've tried a lot of things over the years, some good, some bad, some middling but for a free piece of software Resolve just packs in so many features and it's incredibly intuitive. Little things like having the different areas on a bar down the bottom like so:

It saves time back and forth trying to navigate endless menus and remembering where exactly the options are.

I know other software will offer this too but it's pretty seamless in adding all my audio plug ins as well, so if there's a particular compressor or effect that I enjoy using it's easy to fire it up in Resolve and add it to my creation.

All in all it's a fantastically powerful piece of kit that doesn't require too much knowledge in order for you to start with nothing and end up with something tangible right out the box. I've really only scratched the surface of it so far with my own use but knowing that it's capable of more means I can be confident that as my skills grow I can still rely on using Resolve without having to pay out for something new or getting an entirely different piece of software to have to learn.

So all in all, whether you're looking to dip your toe into video editing or you're a seasoned pro who wants to break away from subscription models (I'm looking at you Adobe!) you can do a lot worse than picking up DaVinci Resolve.

Sturmer's avatar
Sturmer

For paid video editing software, my top recommendation is VEGAS Pro by Magix. Here's why:

  1. Versatility: VEGAS Pro is a robust tool capable of handling nearly any video editing task. It's versatile enough to be used for simple projects by beginners, much like Word or Excel, yet it has the depth to satisfy advanced users.

  2. Learning Resources: Due to its popularity and long-standing presence in the market, there's an abundance of tutorials available. This makes learning new techniques quick and easy.

  3. Affordability: Despite its professional capabilities, VEGAS Pro is relatively affordable. You can often find lifetime licenses for around $20 on sites like HumbleBundle or Fanatical.

  4. Performance: It offers excellent performance, both in editing and rendering, thanks to GPU support. I've handled edits with over a thousand media elements smoothly with this software.

For free software, I recommend the proprietary app for Insta360 for those working with 360-degree videos. It's a specialized tool tailored for editing footage from 360-cameras, offering unique features for this niche.

Another invaluable tool in my kit is Audacity. Although it's an audio editor, not a video editor, it's crucial for refining audio tracks in my video projects. The quality of your audio can significantly impact the overall production value of your videos.

My usual workflow involves all 3: frame the content in Insta360, clean audio in Audacity, make a final edit, and render in Vegas.

Lanah Tyra's avatar
Lanah Tyra
Sturmer

Audacity is so good. Used it at uni and when I got back to making videos again I totally expected something better to be on the market but no, still sticking with Audacity.

Laura's avatar
Laura

DIsclaimer: I'm rather in-experienced in this area, seeking to become less so and truly learn the process and streamline my editing process.

I'm a total novice with video editing. When I upgraded my set up, the one and only editing software I installed was DaVinci Resolve.

Firstly, it's "one and only" because I'm nowhere near advanced enough with this field to require or understand any additional softwares.

Secondly, Resolve can do EVERYTHING (except put the kettle on for you!). There are different tabs for different functions. In everything I've needed it for I've pretty much exclusively used ONE tab. I've dabbled in two others for specific things but thats about it. The page in question here is the "cut" page. I literally don't use anything else, which, to anyone more proficient than me, probably sounds insulting. I have this amazing software that can do reallg advanced things and here I am, cutting and pasting things all over the timeline when I could likely do the most amazing things like animating!

There is a paid for version, but I just couldn't imagine needing more features.

One of my goals this year will rely heavily on me actually learning how to edit and as a consequence, I'm excited to learn DaVinci Resolve fully.

Wadd Enderas's avatar
Wadd Enderas

I did a little bit of research when I started out, picked one free software to try out and have never looked back. So in the interest of transparency I have no comparison, but nor have I yet found a reason to try anything else.

DaVinci Resolve by Blackmagicdesign

That this software is available for free is just madness. It has everything I've needed for video editing so far, nothing short of my own incompetence has stopped me. From simple tools like clipping and stitching, through transitions, titles and colour editing, into a full sound editing studio, you really can't go wrong.

There is a paid version at $295 but I can't imagine what that would include that the free doesn't.

FirestormGamingTeam's avatar
FirestormGamingTeam

My Submissions: Each software has a monthly subscription cost.

Free: Adobe - The free version of this software is somewhat limited, but effective, it also in a sense can be used as a starting point for video editors, sound, splits, cuts, etc. But it quickly becomes apparent when using this software a lot that a paid version is needed to get what you need out of it, but for starters, it's a go!Cost for paid version: £13.14/mo

Paid: Vegas - This is the software is use to render & edit my videos, I am also able to change audio tracks, add tracks in, split/cut/scene, speed it up, and slow it down. For me when my friend got a free copy of Vegas and gave it to me, I felt this stepped up my videos. Cost for paid version: £19.99/ month

Video editing is a huge part of content creation and being able to drop videos nowadays in 1080p and 4k can be a huge asset to any channel.

Dave's avatar
Dave

Not going to enter but very interested in the responses.

FUN INC's avatar
FUN INC

I have used something call NCH videopad. There is a free edition, and it is super simple to use. Drag and drop, has basic audio functionality, transitions, scripting, and text edit and animate and so on. A real entry level super basic piece of software, that even the most IT challenged of a person like me can operate! 10/10 would recommend it as a low entry level piece of software.

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