If you're reading this blog post, chances are that you already know how important video content
is for a marketing strategies.
But like most new strategies, one might need to prove its ROI before one gets a budget. And that
can be tricky because to make a great video, one needs a few things -- like a camera and editing
software.
Nowadays everyone has a high-quality camera built into your smartphone, but editing raw footage
and preparing it for publication requires a third-party mobile app.
There are already pre-installed video editing software on your computer. For Windows, there is
Windows Movie Maker, and for Macs it is iMovie. But depending on the purpose your video is
serving one may find that these options aren't packed with enough features.
The following 28 video editing apps can help you make video magic -- whether your video is meant for
Instagram, YouTube, or a similar channel where your audience is hungry for content.
Designed with social sharing in mind, Magisto video maker uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to
pinpoint the best parts of the footage. Ideal for mobile video editors on the move Magisto
employs a wealth of video editing techniques – such as stabilization, facial recognition,
filters and effects, and auto-cropping – for you to create eye-catching videos. Premium and
Professional subscriptions enable one to develop longer movies and access a wider array of
editing styles. One can add his/her own audio or choose a backing track from Magisto’s library
of commercially licensed tracks. Magisto is one of the best apps for video editing.
Pros: AI-powered editing, 90 million users.
Cons: Users reported a high degree of in-app adverts and difficulties canceling their
subscriptions.
Hyperlapse is an app created by Instagram itself that condenses videos into brief, hyper-speed
videos that you can upload to Instagram or Facebook.
You can choose among various speeds options, and the app will show you how long the hyperlapsed
video will be for every speed in comparison to the length of the video in real-time. (So a
40-second video in real-time will become roughly a seven-second video in Hyperlapse at 6X
speed.) It's a really cool way to capture something that usually lasts a while -- like a sunset
or an event setup. Hyperlapse is one of the best movie making apps for Instagram and other
social media platforms.
FilmoraGo, a video editing app offers the broad spectrum of editing tools we’ve become
accustomed to on the desktop, including reverse play, trimming and cropping, classic
transitions, slow or fast motion editing, rotate, flip-over, voice-overs, audio mixing,
picture-in-picture (PIP) and color tuning. FilmoraGo’s main USP is its array of template themes,
which are designed to transform run-of-the-mill videos into stylized movies. The customization
doesn’t end there either, because FilmoraGo also lets you add music from their licensed library
and highly customizable titles.
Pros: Simple and quick to learn, a good range of themes.
Cons: Not as intuitive as other editing apps, unsuitable for complex editing.
There are the times when someone just wants to edit a video -- no fancy collages and no
splicing. For that, there's InShot, a handy app that lets you trim, speed up, or add music and
filters to video. It's pretty fundamental, but with that comes a high ease of use. You can also
add a background if you like, though we think it's pretty cool to have an overlap of images.
WeVideo, an editing videos app put full control in your hands over all the creative elements,
like text, transmissions and motion effects. You can even let your imagination run wild with
basic green screen special effects. Cloud storage lets you start your project on one device and
pick up where you left off on another. Plus, when you buy into one of their plans, you gain
access to a vast library of licensed and royalty-free video clips, images and music tracks to
add some extra gloss to your video.
Pros: Easy interface, multi-device cloud storage.
Cons: Free version includes a watermark and has limited functionality.
Price: Free, with in-app purchases (Upgrade plans start from $4.99 per month).
Splice
, GoPro’s mobile video editing app claims to give you desktop editing performance on your
iPhone or iPad. Boasting the usual array of editing tools – including trimming, cropping,
effects, titles, speed controls, animation, transitions, and music – this well-established video
editor has a cultish following of enthusiastic Splicers. One of Splice’s strong points is its
music offering. It has a wide range of free music and sound effects to layer over your video and
will even sync your video to the beat of your soundtrack.
Pros: Developed by GoPro, award-winning, highly regarded.
Premiere Clip (Adobe product) has plenty of neat features. Create a video quickly, either with
an automatic editing function or more advanced customized editing features that let you do
everything from trimming clips to ducking the music volume over dialogue. Users can sync their
video to the beat of their chosen soundtrack and add all the usual finishing touches, like
titles and transitions. Premier Clip integrates seamlessly with other Adobe products – such as
Premier Pro, Lightroom, and Capture CC – while their CreativeSync cloud software automatically
updates your project across all your devices.
Pros: Good suite of basic features, support, and Adobe integration.
Cons: No vertical editing, requires Premier Pro for anything other than basic videos.
PicPlayPost is the best app for making videos, slideshow, video collage maker, and live video
wallpaper app with over 15 million users. Celebrate any occasion like Mother's day, Father's
day, birthdays, anniversary, graduation, vacation, and etc with a memorable slideshow.
After you create a slideshow or make a pic video collage you can personalize your video or photo
slideshow by adding music. You can also add animated text, voice over video, and transitions to
jazz up your video montage. Share your projects in HD as a 1080 or 4k video. You can also use it
as a gif slide show or funny meme maker by adding GIFs and GIF stickers from Giphy. PicPlayPost
is also a picture collage and a live collage photo maker where you can create amazing live
wallpapers for your device.
Blender is more than just a video editor: It's a full-blown 3D animation suite, which allows
for modeling, motion tracking, rendering, and many more.
On the video editing side, there are a ton of features, including transitions, filters, speed
control, adjustment layers, and many more. There are also different slots available for adding
video clips, audio clips, images, and effects, which means you can produce some incredibly
complex video.
Like Blender (Moviemaking app), Lightworks is definitely on the more advanced (and powerful)
end of the video editing software spectrum. In fact, it's a program that's been used to edit
some well-known and award-winning films, including Pulp Fiction, The Wolf of Wall Street, and
The King’s Speech.
There are two different licenses one can choose from with Lightworks: "Free" and "Pro." The main
difference between the two licenses is that the Pro version offers more features, including
stereoscopic output and advanced project sharing. But the free version is also quite powerful,
providing 100+ effects and supporting Multicam editing.
Shotcut is another open-source video software which is completely free. It is possible to use
Shotcut to create professional-looking videos, but the interface is a bit tricky to use. Perhaps
that is because it was originally developed for the Linux platform, which looks and feels a lot
different from the typical Windows or Mac UX.
The VSDC Free Video Editor is a video editing that can produce some seriously
professional-looking video. In addition, it is a software for editing videos to supporting
nearly every major video format, the program offers advanced video effects, including color
correction and object transformation, as well as advanced audio effects like sound normalization
and volume correction. VSDC Free Video Editor is truly free. One can use the program's full
feature set without having to deal with pesky watermarks.
Unfortunately, there is one catch. If you want technical support, one needs to pay. (And because
there is a bit of a learning curve, there's a good chance you'll need to.)
Machete is a convenient utility editing video app for editing and playing multimedia files.
Currently, Machete can edit video and audio files in AVI, MKV, MP4, FLV, WMV, 3GP, 3G2, MOV,
WMA, MP3 and WAV formats.
With an extremely user-friendly design, Machete is an ideal solution for quick and easy
"slicing" of multimedia files. One can delete unnecessary fragments (e.g. cut out commercials),
move, copy, mix and save individual pieces. This means that Machete combines the functionality
of both video joiner (for joining multimedia files with exactly the same formats), video
splitter (cutter, trimmer) and more.
Machete fully supports Windows Clipboard.
HitFilm Express is a free video editing app and visual effects software which means one can use
it to add more than 180 special effects to your videos, including 3D editing.
Upgrading to HitFilm Pro grants access to more visual effects, better audio syncing between
audio and video files and better high resolution and 3D rendering. It costs $300, but if you're
not ready to fully invest, HitFilm Express users can purchase lower-cost expansions to use more
tools in their software.
VideoShow (apps to make edits) allows you to edit video content in a number of creative ways
beyond cutting and pasting scenes together. VideoShow is an award-winning app, which has more
than 400 million users, allows you to include text overlays, stickers, music, filters, and sound
effects to your footage.
This strong & powerful video editor has a suite of creative design tools just for Android and
desktop users. This video editing app can help you create 4K-quality videos from footage taken
with numerous devices. It is developed by CyberLink. Special features include video collages,
which help you piece together numerous photos into a motion video; motion tracking, which helps
you focus on specific subjects in each frame; and video stabilization, allowing the user to
remove moments of "shaky camera" in your footage. PowerDirector can also help you add voiceovers
and creative sound effects using chroma key.
Quik is a video editing tool developed by GoPro, making it easy for people who are editing
footage from their GoPro camera. But yes, it can edit content from any source.
This video editing app can manage up to 75 photos and video clips in one project, and can even
comb through this content to help you make smart editing decisions based on what the app detects
in the footage. From time-lapses to panoramic pieces, Quik can manipulate your media in lots of
creative ways. It has more than 20 preset themes to choose from and supports eight common file
types.
KineMaster is a super-versatile video editing tool that allows the user to edit videos on
"multiple layers." In other words, content creators can add an unlimited amount of text
overlays, audio, images, and even free handwriting onto their footage for the artistic detail
they or their brand needs. Users can also blend multiple pieces of footage and use
double-exposures to customize the background in a load of creative ways.
VivaVideo
makes professional-level edits easy for content creators. Free for all mobile devices, this
audio-video editing app allows you to trim, merge, and speed up, slow down, and reverse clips
and images in a short amount of time. The app also comes with a simple slideshow and collage
maker and offers a variety of camera lenses to capture new, edit-ready footage directly in the
app.
Adobe Premiere Pro is a video editing app developed by Adobe Systems. Premiere Pro supports
high-resolution video editing at up to 10,240 × 8,192[10] resolution, at up to 32-bits per
channel color, in both YUV and RGB.
Premiere Pro can be used for all common video editing tasks necessary for producing
high-definition video, broadcast-quality. It can be used to import audio, video, and graphics,
and is used to create new, edited versions of video which can be exported to the medium and
format necessary for the distribution. When creating videos using Premiere Pro, many videos and
still images can be edited together. Also, titles can be added to videos, and filters can be
applied along with other effects.
22
Adobe AfterEffects
Adobe AfterEffects helps create cinematic movie intros, titles, and transitions. It also helps
remove an object from a clip, start a fire or make it rain, animate a logo or character. After
Effects can be used for compositing, keying, tracking, and animation. It also functions as a
very basic audio editor, media transcoder, and non-linear editor.
23
Cyberlink PowerDirector 17 Ultra
Easy editing - Power Director helps in making a movie. One-click color correction
is the unique new feature that can help your video clips to be the true-to-life
appearance.
Precision video editing features - Power Director 17 has 8 customizable design
tools, frame-by-frame motion tracking, Plus Chroma Key editing, and video collages &
multi-car editing.
Professional-grade performance & features - Power Director 17 Ultra has held the
title of world's fastest video editing software for several versions and supports 2K and
4K Ultra video formats.
True360 video editing - import equirectangular footage, create a True360 project,
edit with a full range of design tools, then export in 360º format.
Step-by-step tutorials - novice and experienced users alike can find step-by-step
guides, videos, and tutorials explaining how to get the most from the power director's
wide array of features.
24
Sony Vegas Pro
Sony Vegas Pro is a video editing app/suite aimed to produce high-quality HD videos. This
Professional version includes few features which are missing from other versions such as support
for multilayer Adobe Photoshop files, gigapixel images, and wider support of capture cards.
Users may struggle at first but Sony Vegas Pro is well documented with a very detailed manual.
Vegas Pro offers support for everything which includes importing media from multiple devices
(including HD video), specific tools to work with text layers and subtitles, use more than 300
filters and special effects, and easily optimize image quality.
PROS
Covers all professional needs
Thoroughly documented
Support for lots of formats, including HD
Tons of audio and video effects and filters
Great for producing professional audio and sound
CONS
Complex to begin with
Modular workflow compared to Premiere and Final Cut
25
Corel VideoStudio 2019
Corel VideoStudio 2019 is one of the best video editing app for videos, which provides a
simplistic editing interface for all types of users. The application comes with plenty of
customization options, high performance, and additional bonus features.
KEY FEATURES INCLUDE:
Corel VideoStudio Pro X7 gives users faster render times for 4K and HD multi-track
projects.
FastFlick: This simple tool allows users to create template-based videos and screen
capture for recording demonstrations and tutorials.
Corel Video Studio Pro X7 provides users with a faster and easier way to make
great-looking videos and slideshows.
Video Editing Apps for Mac
26
Final Cut Pro X
Final Cut Pro
combines video editing with incredible performance and a powerful media organization to let
you create at the speed of thought.
It Includes:
The Magnetic Timeline uses advanced metadata for easier, faster editing.
Advanced Timeline Index lets users drag and drop audio roles to rearrange the layout of
your timeline.
Helps Reduce clutter by grouping clips into a Compound Clip.
Cycle through different graphics, effects, or shots at one place in the timeline with
Auditions.
Create, deliver, and edit closed captions from within Final Cut Pro.
27
iMovie
There’s a reason why Apple’s free apps pepper this list; they have a knack of creating
brilliantly functional and easy-to-use apps that are loaded with original features. iMovie video
editing app does everything a video editor should do. All you have to do is drop in your clips,
trim them to size and add in built-in music, effects, and animated titles. Nice extras include
split-screen effects, 10 high-fidelity filters, green-screen effects and the ability to make
Hollywood-style trailers. As its Apple, you can switch between your devices with impunity, using
AirDrop and iCloud Drive, to create your final cut.
Pros: Intuitive and easy to pick up, save videos in 4K or 1080p60 and multi-device
functionality.
Cons: Only available on Apple devices.
Price: Free
Available for: iPhone, iPad, and Desktop.
28
DaVinci Resolve 16
DaVinci Resolve 16 claims that it’s the world’s only solution that combines professional 8K
editing, visual effects, colour correction and audio post-production all in one software
tool.
User can move between editing, effects, colour and audio pretty much with a single click. It’s
said that it is the only solution designed for multiple user collaboration. This means that
editors, assistants, colourists, sound designers and VFX artists can all simultaneously work on
the same project in real-time.
Online video content isn't just watched more -- it's expected more. Luckily, you have a long
list of video editing tools above to help you. And the sooner you download one, the sooner you
can sharpen your audio/video skills.