Best Video Editing Software (Windows & Mac)

Best Video Editing Software (Windows & Mac)

No matter you’re going just to make a nice-looking home-made movie clip or create a professional video for your YouTube subscribers, video editing software applications could play a big role in helping you achieve your goals regarding editing and making high-quality video clips.

Every day many people search for applications more advanced than Apple iMovie app or Windows Movie Maker to edit their camera videos or create professional looking videos to upload on web. On the other hand many users want to improve their editing skills and work with programs with more detailed controls and options.

It’s important to remember that these days there are online tools for video editing which allows you to edit your videos and movies online.

The list we prepared in this article contains video editors for Mac and Windows systems, for both beginner and advanced users.

Top programs

– Adobe Premiere Elements (Windows, Mac)

adobe-premiere-elements-13Premiere Elements is the made-for-beginners version of the professional video editor Premiere Pro, which is produced by the pronounced software maker Adobe company. While bringing many powerful features and tools of the Pro software through an easy-to-use interface, Premiere Elements makes it very easy to create and edit professional looking videos and movie clips, especially using Guided and Quick modes, and with helpful features such as Favorite Moments and Video Stories.

The program offers a wide range of options for sharing and exporting. These include saving on your computer, online cloud-based private album, mobile devices, or social services and networks such as Vimeo, YouTube, or Facebook.

Since the software installer file size is very big (more than 4GB), the download process might take a long time even on faster internet connections.

Adobe Premiere Elements is also more expensive (costing around $88 at Amazon for the version 13) compared to most competing products.

– Pinnacle Studio (Windows)

pinnacle-studio-18Pinnacle Studio provides effective performance and accurate control through an interface organized professionally with a wide set of advanced tools, effects, and options. The application support most video, audio, and image file formats including: AVI, DivX, DV, QuickTime, MP3, MP4, WMV, 3GP, Flash, DVD, Blu-ray, WAV, JPG, GIF, PNG, and TIF.

The software complicated interface may be frightening for novice users with no previous experience in editing videos. So it’s mostly designed for more skilled editors who feel comfortable working in such program environments.

To run the latest version of Pinnacle Studio software (version 18 priced at $44.99), Windows 7 or later is required. Unfortunately, no version for Mac OS X is available yet.

– Corel VideoStudio (Windows)

corel-videostudio-ultimate-x8With a simple and clean layout and interface, Corel VideoStudio offers basic functionalities plus most of the same features provided by higher priced competitors, making it one of the top choices for beginners who try to work on video projects like professionals.

The latest available application release for Corel VideoStudio is X8 at the current time, which is released in two editions: Ultimate and Pro, which respectively cost around $83 and $69. Both are the same in essence, but the Ultimate offers more add-ons, animations and effects. This video editor application supports only Windows systems (XP or higher).

– AVS Video Editor (Windows)

avs-video-editor-packageThis free video editor contains a full-feature and easy-to-learn-and-use interface, most suitable for beginners who want to enhance and edit their video clips, while being able to take advantage of professional transitions and effects to be implemented in their projects.

In addition to supporting most video file formats, users could also capture videos through various devices such as DV, web, and VHS. The program comes with a multi-language option as well.

This software could be installed and run at no cost on your Windows based computer (currently no Mac support). But for users who don’t want the application watermark on their saved videos, AVS Video Editor could be purchased for a price of $39 (one-year subscription) or $59 (life-time access).

[To download and read the full review: AVS Video Editor]

– Filmora Wondershare Video Editor (Windows, Mac)

filmora-wondershare-packageFilmora Wondershare is perhaps the first choice for users who want to take the most out of the least work done on a video software.

All basic editing features for audio and video could be found in this application like rotate, crop, trim, speed options, merge, split, etc. Plus, users are able to select from among hundreds of transitions, effects, filters, overlays, and elements to use for their video projects.

If you want to buy the Filmora Wondershare software there are two options for a single-user access: lifetime or 1 year license. While the prices are the same for the life-time license for Mac and Windows ($49.99), it is slightly different for the 1 year license which is $34.99 per year for Mac OS X version and $29.99 for Windows version.

[To download and read the full review: Filmora Wondershare]

Furthermore, there are other great similar video editing products on the Internet as well such as CyberLink PowerDirector, Apple Final Cut, or Sony Movie Studio. Also, from the open-source applications in this category we could recommend VirtualDub, Shotcut, and VideoLan Movie Creator.

Just make sure that the application you choose contains the options and features required by your project or at least most of them. For instance, for editing an HD video, check out the official website or software overview to see if it supports that. Or maybe some people need certain file formats for import or export.

Another good method to find answer for any question before buy or download is asking for help from the customer support of the publisher company, which is a great way to see how well their support center do their job as well.