Top Video Editing Software for First Choice |Free & Paid

Are you looking for top video editing software to make distinctive video clips for marketing promotion or personal entertainment? What is the best video editing software? This article will give you a clear clue to seeking the best professional video editing software to meet your diverse needs so that you can find a place in the era of video content marketing or better engage your audience via self-made amusing clips uploaded on social platforms.

PART 1: What is the Best Video Editing Software?

Before searching for the best video editing software, you need to figure out ‘what is the best video editing software?’, since there are countless so-called best video editing programs on the market. Knowing how to choose your desired one is a must before paying out of your own pockets. That being said, having your finger on the pulse of   the essential features of top video editing software contributes to making the right choice for the sake of good value for money.

Now go and have a quick glance over the requisite features that all best video editing software shall possess.

⚬ Compatible with Computer OS

Suppose your computer comes with Windows OS, you need to choose a Window-based professional video editor, or good video editing software available for Windows and macOS. Sometimes, you might choose open-source basic video editing software. However, what you need is its Windows-compatible video editing features. In most cases, top video editing software excels in one or two OS compatibility to maximize its potential. If you manage to achieve remarkable editing results, neglect open-source video editing programs for most of them are not feature-rich. 

⚬ Practical Editing Tools

Best professional video editing software abounds in packed editing tools that can cover all possible uses. Aside from basic editing features including trimming, cropping, rotating, reverse, brightness and volume adjustment, most top video editing software contains fantastic special effects, transitions, filters, elements, and other bells and whistles like 3D animations to meet special situations. On the one hand, some top video editing software can edit video clips beyond expectation, and can convert them to video or audio of various formats.

⚬ Intuitive User Interface

For good video editing software, simple and intuitive user interface leads to better user experience in the course of editing clips. In a sense, user experience shall be given top priority. Otherwise, complex interface will keep potential users away regardless of its practical tools. Moreover, most novices or beginners tend to choose basic video editing software with easy-to-use interface and features.

⚬ Good Value for Money

Last but not the least, everyone expects good value for money. Best professional video editing software always puts cost-performance at first. In other words, they offer packed and advanced features but comes at a price, followed by free trial for limited features. In this case, you need to make a choice as per your personal needs.

PART 2: Top Video Editing Software for First Choice

After gaining a better understanding of necessary features of top video editing software, it’s high time that we should offer some constructive suggestions before you make the final decision. Here are 5 best video editing programs for your option.

Video Editor | Windows

The reason why Video Editor shall be titled as the top video editing software is that it strikes a balance between cost-performance and user experience to the fullest. Thanks to its all-round and considerate features, users can create professional video content for marketing promotion, in-class teaching, and entertaining home videos for large-screen viewing or video sharing sites. Look at its trump card as below.

Basic tools: trim, crop, split, rotate, reverse, video speed and volume adjustment, color correction, mosaic, zooms, freeze frame, set duration, text and speech converter, record

Special effects: add text, audio, overlays & filters, transitions, elements

Powerful export: quality video (MP4/MKV/AVI/WMV/MOV/GIF) and audio (MP3/AAC), upload to video sharing platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo...

Import media: load files from PC hard drive, camcorders, DV cameras, vidicons, webcams, smartphones with various formats including MP4, AVI, WAV, 3GP, FLAC, MP3, JPG.

It’s always exhilarating and cost-efficient to kill two birds with one stone. This best professional video editing software enables you to get polished videos or audios as expected and convert them between different formats. 

The only downside is that it has updated Windows-compatible version so far. Anyway, macOS or online version is still in the works. One more word, you can try this best video editing software for free to export 720p video unless you are willing to pay for its advanced and full features to export HD/1080p video. 

Apple Final Cut Pro X | macOS

As the advanced successor of iMovie (the easiest way to make movies with easy-to-use editing tools and simple interface for novice users), Apple Final Cut Pro X, equipped with innovative features and an intuitive design, is a great challenge to video enthusiasts and those aspiring to professionalism. This top video editing software endows users with powerful features to fulfill post-production for all purposes. Magnetic timeline, multicam video editing, organizing tools, motion graphics and compressor, video noise reduction, advanced color grading, HDR support, ProRes RAW, 360°video graphics and effects, VR headset playback…All these tools are at your disposal on premise that you spare no expense (around $299) for them.

Nevertheless, this best video editing software is only available for macOS 10.14.6 or later. If you are on a tight budget, turn to iMovie for free and simple editing.

Adobe Premiere Pro | Win & Mac

Adobe Premiere Pro, as a no-brainer among Adobe families, is designed to edit and craft polished films and video with creative tools allowing you to polish your work without leaving your timeline. This industry-leading and best professional video editing software enables users to edit footage in any format, from 8k to virtual reality, supported by lightweight proxy work-flows and faster ProRes HDR. Above all, Premiere Pro works seamlessly with other apps and services including Photoshop, After Effects, Adobe Audition, and Adobe Stock (PS: this is a perfect one-stop solution for free switch for Adobe users). Plus, Premiere Pro comes with Premier Rush (spending US$9.99/mo to create and share online videos on mobile) which adds spice to user experience by working across all devices.

Anyway, you need to pay for this top video editing software at around US$ 20.99/month. But you can get one month free on condition that you are willing to add Adobe Stock. Due to its learning curve, this professional video editor is suitable for video lovers and professionals.

Lightworks | Win, Mac and Linux

As open source and good video editing software, Lightworks comes with creative features to make your polished video clips stand out in the crowd. For instance, it provides precise trimming tools, multicam editing with quick import, rendering, and export, preset effects including color correction, blurs, matters, masks, 2D & 3D animations,and transitions. Meanwhile, it supports NLE, MXF, Quicktime and AVI containers, with all operating systems at your fingertips.

However, this top video editing software can only export MP4 video format in 720p. Limited effect library is also a soft spot for it.

Wideo | Online

Wideo is an online video creating website designed to make animated footage, explanatory clips, presentation and marketing videos with an ocean of video templates (with 16:9. 1:1, and 9:16 aspect ratio for diverse needs) that enables you to finish your video within several minutes. This basic video editing software is perfect for those keen on making online animated videos (no limit on text, cartoons, drawings, and images) for marketing promotion. No extra video or editing skills are needed. When your video is done to perfection, you can share it directly on your social account or download it as MP4 for future use.

Although you can try it for free, you need to sign up first and pay some dollars to download your created videos. Just upgrade your subscription plan for more features.

Up to till now, we have collected and discussed 5 best professional video editing software that can be applied to create stunning videos for different situations. Each of these best video editing programs has its own strengths and weaknesses. Just follow your heart to take the best pick.