“Is there any free and open source video editor that could help me edit videos for uploading to YouTube for sharing? I have quite a few video clips shot during my vacation to Thailand, and would like to cut some of these video files and at the same time make some editing work upon them before uploading to my YouTube channel. Please recommend me some free and open source video editors. Any advice will be highly appreciated.”

With the right free video editing software, you can edit your video clips for uploading to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or anywhere else for sharing. Free video editing software tools won’t add watermarks nor limit the video length.

You could get quite a big number of free and open source video editors to do basic video editing and more powerful video customizations. If you are looking for a best free and open source video editor to edit video files, this guide would be helpful for you. Here we have collected 10 best free video editor tools for you. You could freely choose one according to your needs.

Part 1: 10 best free and open source video editors 2020

In the below content, we list the 10 best free and open source video editors for 2020 to edit video files for totally free. You could view them below and choose any one of them to edit your video clips for sharing on YouTube, Facebook, or other sites.

Shotut

Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor. It is actually a robust non-linear video editor with enough tools to satisfy most levels of video editing skill. The free cross-platform program—available on Windows, Mac, and Linux—opens up to a clean, minimal interface, ideal for new or casual editors who want to keep things simple. Shotcut can work with a wide range of video and image formats, including 4K-resolution content. You can still open and preview files in Shotcut just like in other editors, create a “playlist” of the media you’re using for the project, and drag clips into your timeline. The timeline has a full range of editing capabilities, including adding tracks, splitting and trimming clips, and shortcut keys for these functions. There is also a strong selection of video/audio transitions and stackable filters, from stabilization to chroma key (green-screen effects).

OpenShot

OpenShot is a quite popular video editor and it is open source as well. Unlike others, OpenShot offers a DMG installer for Mac OSX. So, you don’t have to compile and install it manually. This free open source video editor boasts an array of transitions with a real-time preview, slow motion and speed modifications, time effects and 3D animation, keyframe-based animation, and three-dimensional animated titles. OpenShot incorporates a title editor and file manager. Besides, users can visualize audio files via audio signals, mix and edit audio.

Blender

Blender is unique in that video editing is only a fraction of what it can do. The free open-source software, available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, is actually an entire suite of professional-grade 3D-creation tools. You can use it for 3D modeling, sculpting, painting, animation, and much more. It includes powerful tools for visual compositing and even 3D game development.

Some key features include live preview, chroma vectorscope, luma waveform, audio mixing, syncing, scrubbing, waveform visualization, and histogram displays. It does not have unlimited layers like OpenShot but has 32 slots for adding videos, images, audio, and effects. It also has a 3D animation suite for professional users.

Lightworks

Lightworks is the best free option for anyone who wants to create professional-quality movies and videos without paying a penny. It supports multitrack video and is a non-linear editor, so the quality of your footage won’t be reduced while being processed. With Lightworks, you’ll find all sorts of high-end features that are normally only available with expensive packages such as Final Cut Pro. These include the ability to import and render footage in the background, and to preview video effects in real-time.

You can drag various editing windows around to create an almost infinite number of layout variations and set custom keyboard shortcuts to speed up your editing jobs. Lightworks is totally free on Windows, Mac, and Linux devices. You can upgrade to Lightworks Pro for improved video editing experience. With this upgraded version, you’ll be able to export your projects in different formats, create 3D masterpieces and upload straight to YoutTube.

Kdenlive

Even though an older version can be downloaded for Mac and a beta version is available for Windows, Kdenlive, like much open-source software, was made to run on Linux operating systems. Built on the MLT media framework, it’s an excellent and popular Linux video editing solution and a top open-source editor in general. Kdenlive’s timeline is fully functional, supporting unlimited video/audio tracks, visible audio waveforms, preview rendering, and “JKL” playback shortcuts. It comes with a strong set of transitions, effects, and filters, and it’s simple to drag them onto clips, modify their settings, and see a live preview. When you’re ready to export your finished video, you can choose from a large number of mainstream file types and presets.

VidCutter

VidCutter is the best open source video editor for standard operations, such as cropping or slicing. If you wish to make a quick and effortless edit, VidCutter does a great job of cutting videos. This cross-platform program is capable of importing and exporting the most widespread formats.

Its interface with theme parameters comprises several elements. Imported media files are displayed in the preview area. Thumbnails may be displayed on a timeline from a single track at the bottom. For Linux, it is available on Flathub as well. And, for Windows and Mac OS, you do get EXE and DMG file packages in the latest releases.

Avidemux

Avidemux is the best open source video editor for making simple modifications (cutting, saving, adding titles) and uploading the resulting file. Moreover, it is possible to apply filters, color effects and borders that enhance the clip by increasing sharpness or reducing noise; add audio streams or extra clips to the end of the current clip.

If you have plenty of clips to encode, you may queue them for mass processing. As part of export, Avidemux is capable of encoding video and audio into an impressive range of file types with many detailed options, as well as a vast array of codecs.

iMovie

Apple’s iMovie has long been one of the most consumer-oriented video editors out there. It’s bundled with all new Macs and touts some serious practicality for the everyday user. The latest version of the software allows you to import and edit 4K video clips from a variety of external devices, such as smartphones and GoPro cameras, and sports a clean interface that is attractive and easy to navigate. The ability to start editing on iPhone or iPad and finish on a Mac renders it even more convenient.

VideoPad

VideoPad is a video editor and movie maker that works only on Windows PCs and is not available for Mac and Linux. However, if you are a Windows user, this is an amazing tool for you to check out. This is good for a starter tool that you can use to learn the basics of video editing, without too much hassle. It comes with a whole library of pre-made transitions and sound effects that you can play around with.

It also supports 3D video editing, which is a feature that not all video editors provide for free. And, you can directly export your edited videos to YouTube and other social media platforms.

Hitfilm Express

Like Lightworks, Hitfilm Express is free-to-use video editing sofware that aims to make a professional editing experience available to everyone. With this software package, it’s easy to adjust color balance, trim clips, and export your projects in different video formats.

But the Hitfilm Express feature set goes way beyond that. You can also use this free video editor to set green screen chroma keys, create custom video masks, and take your footage to the next level with a range of 3D compositional tools. Although first-time users may find it a little confusing, the HitFilm Express user-interface will be familiar to anyone who’s worked with an advanced video editor before.

Part 2: Edit video/DVD/Blu-ray in easiest way - Leawo Prof. Media

You could use the above-mentioned free video editor software tools to edit video files. However, you need to know that all these free and open source video editors mentioned above only works on video, images and/or audios. What if you want to edit Blu-ray or DVD movies? Is there any media editor tool that could edit Blu-ray, DVD and video files all in one? Of course yes. Leawo Prof. Media is the choice for you, which could edit video, DVD and Blu-ray movie files in the easiest way.

Featuring an all-inclusive media editor that is able to edit Blu-ray, DVD and video files, Leawo Prof. Media enables you to edit your source media files in various ways, like trimming, cropping, adding watermark, adjusting effect, applying 3D movie effect, rotating, merging, etc. You could even edit encrypted Blu-ray/DVD movies with it.


Actually, as a professional multimedia converter suite, Leawo Prof. Media offers you more functions other than simple video editing. With it, you could:

  1. Burn video/photos to Blu-ray/DVD disc, folder and/or ISO image file.
  2. Download online videos from 1000+ video sharing sites like YouTube, Facebook, Veoh, VEVO, etc.
  3. Convert Blu-ray, DVD, video and audio files easily for various ends.
  4. Copy and back up Blu-ray/DVD movies to computer hard drive or blank disc, with high quality disc compression feature.
  5. Turn photos into photo slideshow video to save in 200+ file formats for various media players and devices.
  6. Offer one-click operation to help you directly burn ISO image file to blank disc.
  7. Remove CInavia protection upon Blu-ray discs for unlimited Blu-ray movie watching.

You could not only edit Blu-ray, DVD and video files within Leawo Prof. Media, but also handle format incompatibility issues between Blu-ray, DVD, video, audio, image and ISO files.

Part 3: Conclusion

You could get the best free and open source video editor software tools mentioned above to freely edit video files on Windows, Mac and Linux. Just choose one according to your needs. Currently, there are no free media editor tools for you to edit Blu-ray and DVD movie files. You could turn to Leawo Prof. Media to edit Blu-ray and DVD movie files so that you could not only edit Blu-ray/DVD movies, but also upload your Blu-ray/DVD movie files onto Facebook, YouTube or other video sharing sites.