Included some free with paid for options for completeness
Updated: 20260723
- Manual research ! ;) and great comments below.
- https://www.fosshub.com/Video-Editors.html
- http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/the-best-free-video-editor-1330136
| Product | Filesize | License | Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| Openshot v3.5.1 | 209mb | Opensource 64 and 32bit versions | https://www.openshot.org/ GitHub |
| Shotcut v26.06.25 | 125mb | Opensource | https://shotcut.org/ GitHub |
| KdenLive v26.04.3 | 128mb | GNU General Public License | https://kdenlive.org/en/ Source Code (KDE Invent) |
| VN (a.k.a. VlogNow) | 200mb | Free? Made with Notion? not really sure. | https://www.vlognow.me/ |
| Olive Video Editor Beta | 74mb | Open Source (Only Beta version available) | https://www.olivevideoeditor.org/ GitHub |
| Flowblade 2.2 | 17.7mb (source code) | Open Source (LINUX only!) | https://jliljebl.github.io/flowblade/index.html GitHub |
| (NEW) OpenReel Video | 101mb | Opensource (web / Desktop / Mobile) | https://openreel.video/ https://github.com/Augani/openreel-video |
| (NEW) VLMC Video editor | Pre BETA | Open Source GPLv2 | From the guys from VLC Player - https://www.videolan.org/vlmc/ https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlmc |
| Feature | Shotcut (Recommended) | OpenShot (Alternative) |
|---|---|---|
| Interface Style | Minimalist & panel-based; completely customizable. | Traditional drag-and-drop; highly visual. |
| Audio Control | Excellent. Separate mixer panel, full EQ, noise reduction. | Basic. Simple volume fading, basic track separation. |
| Text Handling | Rich-text filters, dynamic subtitles, 3D/360 text options. | Title templates, standard overlays, 3D text (needs Blender integration). |
| Performance | High stability; utilizes GPU hardware acceleration on Windows. | Light on resources, but can lag on complex timelines. |
| Feature | Shotcut (Recommended) | Kdenlive | OpenShot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stability (Large Files) | Excellent. Native timeline engine prevents out-of-memory crashes. Proxy Editing: Shotcut features an automatic "Proxy" mode. When you drag a massive 4K or high-bitrate video file into the timeline, it instantly generates a lightweight, low-resolution copy to edit smoothly. When you export, it automatically swaps back to the full-quality original | Good. Reliable, but heavy effects on massive files can cause lag. | Poor. Infamous for freezing or crashing with long or high-bitrate files. |
| SRT Subtitle Handling | Excellent. Dedicated subtitle track with native file import. | Excellent. Built-in subtitle editor with SRT import/export support. | Basic / Workaround. Requires manual titles or external plugin tweaks. |
| Audio Capabilities | Strong. Multi-track mixing, graphic EQ, and noise reduction filters. | Advanced. Complete audio routing, master effects, and deep mixing tools. | Very Basic. Simple volume fading and basic track layout. |
| Learning Curve | Medium. Uncluttered UI that reveals advanced features as you click. | High. Feature-dense interface similar to Adobe Premiere. | Low. Drag-and-drop workflow built explicitly for beginners. |
1. Shotcut: The Reliable Workhorse
Shotcut is the ideal balance for your needs because its architecture is designed for stability.
- Why it wins: It does not use a complex project database. It reads your massive video files straight from your hard drive, keeping system RAM usage low and preventing crashes.
- Subtitles: It has a highly reliable, dedicated subtitle track engine that imports
.srtfiles cleanly and lets you style them globally in seconds. - Downside: The interface uses dockable panels. It can look a bit blank when you first open it until you turn on the Timeline, Playlist, and Filters panels.
2. Kdenlive: The Advanced Powerhouse
Kdenlive is a highly sophisticated editor preferred by advanced Linux and Windows users who need maximum control.
- Why it is great: It has the most advanced audio mixing and color-grading toolsets in the open-source world. Its subtitle tool is robust and handles SRT files perfectly.
- Why it might not fit: It is incredibly feature-dense. If you want something "simple," its overwhelming interface layout and steep learning curve can be frustrating. It also requires careful setup of proxy clips to handle massive files without stuttering.
3. OpenShot: The Beginner-Friendly Option
OpenShot is designed to be the easiest open-source video editor to learn, mimicking old-school software like Windows Movie Maker.
- Why it is great: Extremely intuitive. If you just want to drop a video file, drop an audio file, and hit export, the interface makes it obvious how to do so.
- Why it fails: It struggles severely with large video files. It is known to lag, drop frames, or flat-out crash when processing high-resolution, long-form content. Furthermore, it lacks native, streamlined SRT subtitle track management
| Product | Filesize | License | Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapCut | Installer 2.2mb | Free with paid version | https://www.capcut.com/ |
| Lightworks | 86mb | Free with paid version | https://lwks.com/ |
| VideoPad | 52mb | Free with paid commercial version | https://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/ |
| VSDC | 37mb | Free with paid version | https://www.videosoftdev.com/ |
| AVIdemux | 20mb | Opensource | http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/ Source Code Info |
| Blender | 85mb | Opensource | https://www.blender.org/ GitHub (Mirror) |
| DaVinci Resolve | Free version available | https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/hk/products/davinciresolve |
VIDEO Tools
| Product | Filesize | License | Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| Handbrake | 10mb | Opensource | https://handbrake.fr/ GitHub |
| FFMPEG | Release builds Essentials 77mb | Opensource | https://www.ffmpeg.org/ GitHub (Mirror) |
| MP4 Joiner / MP4 Splitter | 18mb | Opensource | https://www.mp4joiner.org/en/ GitHub |
| VirtualDub | 2mb | Opensource | https://www.virtualdub.org/ Source Code (SourceForge) |
| LAV Filters | 7mb | Opensource | -na- GitHub |
| VLC Player | 30mb | Free (Open Source) | https://www.videolan.org/ GitHub (Mirror) |
| LightAlloy | 15mb | Free | https://light-alloy.com/ |
| VidCutter | 175mb | OpenSource (A modern yet simple multi-platform video cutter and joiner.) | https://sourceforge.net/projects/vidcutter/ GitHub |
| LossLess Cut | 139Mb Various | Free (Open Source) | https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut https://losslesscut.app/ |
| subtitleedit | 51Mb | The subtitle editor :) Opensource | https://github.com/SubtitleEdit/subtitleedit https://github.com/SubtitleEdit |
CAPCUT - https://www.capcut.com/
Various versions (Desktop, Online, Mobile, etc). Comprehensive editor with a suite of other software including AI features like the rest of them. PRO account is about £22 / month which is quite expensive. A good pro level editor. IMHO a very capable video editor let down by rampant commercialism. I subscribe to this, but serious thoughts about cancelling subscription due to the system taking too many resources now (running on i7 with 32Gb RAM).
OPENSHOT - http://www.openshot.org
We designed OpenShot Video Editor to be an easy to use, quick to learn, and surprisingly powerful video editor. Take a quick look at some of our most popular features and capabilities.
Features: https://www.openshot.org/features/
A truely cross platform, FREE, Opensource, full featured video editor. Free & open-source forever (GPL version 3.0).
- Opensource, multiplatform, Free.
- Filesize: 170mb download 64bit windows
SHOTCUT - https://www.shotcutapp.com/
Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor for Windows, Mac and Linux. Major features include support for a wide range of formats; no import required meaning native timeline editing; Blackmagic Design support for input and preview monitoring; and resolution support to 4k.
Features: https://shotcut.org/features/
- Free, multiplatform, OpenSource.
- Filesize: 76mb download 64bit windows
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Proxy Editing: Shotcut features an automatic "Proxy" mode. When you drag a massive 4K or high-bitrate video file into the timeline, it instantly generates a lightweight, low-resolution copy to edit smoothly. When you export, it automatically swaps back to the full-quality original.
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Low RAM Footprint: Because it reads files natively instead of caching giant uncompressed preview blocks to your system memory, your computer is significantly less likely to run out of RAM and force a hard crash.
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Windows Hardware Acceleration: It fully utilizes your Windows graphics card (NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel) to offload processing tasks from your CPU, keeping the interface fluid even under heavy editing loads.
Shotcut features a native, standalone subtitle engine that makes working with external subtitle files incredibly efficient
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Prepare the Timeline: Place your timeline cursor at the exact timestamp where the subtitles should begin (usually the very start of the video). LINK
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Import the File: Click the menu icon (three horizontal lines) on the timeline panel, navigate to Subtitles, and select Import subtitles from file. Select your
.srtfile. LINK -
Automatic Track Generation: Shotcut will instantly generate a dedicated subtitle track right above your video clips, populating it with timed blocks matching your SRT timestamps. LINK
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Choose Your Style: You can choose to either "Burn subtitles on output" (permanently merge them into the video frames) or keep them editable. If you need to fix a typo, simply double-click any subtitle block on the timeline to type changes. LINK
KDENLIVE - https://kdenlive.org/features/
Kdenlive is the acronym for KDE Non-Linear Video Editor. It works on Linux, Windows, macOS, and BSD.
Getting started guide: https://docs.kdenlive.org/en/getting_started.html
OLIVE Video Editor (still in beta 20240915) - https://www.olivevideoeditor.org/
Still beta but last updated: Aug 24 2024 11:23:57 PM (GPL-3.0 license)
Olive is the most open video editor in the world. From its completely configurable render pipeline to its open source codebase, every aspect of it is designed to provide users with as much control as possible over both their work and their workflow.
In a world where most professional video editors lock their functionality behind paywalls, paid subscriptions, and platform exclusivity (or all of the above), Olive aims to provide complete and unconditional freedom without compromise.
- (negative) Still in Beta since 2018!
- Olive's key feature is its render pipeline - Every step can be modified, rearranged, or augmented to achieve whatever results the user desires
- node-based compositor - nodes can be written and distributed to other users as plugins
- GPU accelerated
- Tightly integrates OpenColorIO
- Automating certain actions through scripting
Flowblade is a multitrack non-linear video editor released under GPL3 license. From beginners to masters, Flowblade helps make your vision a reality of image and sound.
VideoLAN Movie Creator is a non-linear editing software for video creation based on libVLC and running on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X! It is free software distributed under the terms of the GPLv2.
Features
- Cross-platform - Runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
- Based on the proven VLC framework
- Reads everything and can export to most formats
- Simple to use, yet powerful
- Completely Free - no spyware, no ads and no user tracking.
LIGHTWORKS Video Editor - https://www.lwks.com/
For over 25 years Lightworks editor has been at the forefront of film editing, having been used on many of the finest films in cinema history: The Wolf of Wall Street, LA Confidential, Pulp Fiction, Heat, Road to Perdition, Hugo, The King’s Speech and many more! Now with the release of Lightworks v14.0 we have created the complete video creative package so everyone can make video that stands out from the crowd. Whether you need to make video for social media, YouTube or for a 4K film project, Lightworks makes it all possible!
- Mutliplatform
- Lightworks PRO is a paid system starting at £14.99 excl vat per month
- Web-compatible file (MPEG4/H.264 - max. resolution: 1280x720p pixels [opensource version]) with optional upload direct to Youtube
- Filesize: 86.7mb download 64bit windows / 79mb 32bit windows
VIDEOPAD - http://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/
Designed to be intuitive, VideoPad is a fully featured video editor for creating professional quality videos in minutes.
- Get it Free - A free video editor version is available for non-commercial use only. If you will be using it at home you can download the free version here. Windows and Mac.
- Filesize: 52mb windows
VSDC Free video editor - http://www.videosoftdev.com/
Free video software that allows you to edit video files and create videos of all types. It supports the most popular video/audio formats and codecs, including DVD, HD and GoPro videos. Preconfigured profiles make the creation of videos for various multimedia and mobile devices a snap.
Both solutions offer a complete multimedia editing suite. VSDC Pro Video Editor provides more options for professional video editing: advanced settings of spline parameters and resizing, higher subpixel resolution, multiple color Chroma key, hardware acceleration and prioritized technical support. VSDC Free Video Editor solution is intended for home and educational needs only. Commercial use is available by buying VSDC Pro Video Editor subscription.
Non-linear video editor - Our editor is a non-linear tool. This means that unlike in most other editors, where scenes come one after another in a linear sequence and certain order, our software allows objects to be placed in any position on the timeline and have any size. Besides, various parameters, shape and position of objects can change arbitrarily over time.
4K and HD export - VSDC is currently the only free video editor that allows you to export in a new H265/HEVC codec to maintain the highest quality at a minimum file size which is essential for those often processing 4K and HD files.
Desktop video capture - The video editor features a desktop video capture utility that saves captured footage to a video file for subsequent processing in the editor.
Video capturing - Another feature of the our editor is the ability to capture video from various video tuners, webcams, IP сameras and save the captured footage on your computer in an arbitrary format for subsequent editing.
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Free, multiplatform. ($19.99 for commercial version)
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Filesize: 36.7mb download 64bit windows
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Also supply a Free video converter tool, http://www.videosoftdev.com/free-video-converter.
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Screen Recorder Free - http://www.videosoftdev.com/free-screen-recorder (18mb)
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Audio converter Free - http://www.videosoftdev.com/free-audio-converter (18mb)
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Video Capture Free - http://www.videosoftdev.com/free-video-capture - Not available yet.
AVIdemux - http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities.
Avidemux is available for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows under the GNU GPL license. The program was written from scratch by Mean, but code from other people and projects has been used as well. Patches, translations and even bug reports are always welcome.
- Opensource, multiplatform.
- Filesize: 20mb download 64bit windows
- 25mb for 32bit windows
Blender - https://www.blender.org/
Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation.
Video Editing - Blender even comes with a built-in Video Editor.
The Video Editor allows you to perform basic actions like video cuts and splicing, as well as more complex tasks like video masking.
The Video Editor includes:
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Live preview, luma waveform, chroma vectorscope and histogram displays
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Audio mixing, syncing, scrubbing and waveform visualization
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Up to 32 slots for adding video, images, audio, scenes, masks and effects
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Speed control, adjustment layers, transitions, keyframes, filters and more.
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Open Source
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Filesize: 85mb
https://github.com/Augani/openreel-video
OpenReel Video is a fully-featured browser-based video editor that runs entirely client-side. Built with React, TypeScript, WebCodecs, and WebGPU for professional-grade video editing without the need for expensive software or cloud processing.
The open source CapCut alternative. Professional video editing with AI-powered subtitles, color grading, 3D transforms, and multi-track audio mixing.
Why OpenReel?
- 100% Client-Side - Your videos never leave your device. No uploads, no cloud processing, complete privacy.
- No Installation - Works in Chrome/Edge. Just open and start editing.
- Professional Features - Multi-track timeline, keyframe animations, color grading, audio effects, and more.
- GPU Accelerated - WebGPU and WebCodecs for smooth 4K editing and fast exports.
- Free Forever - MIT licensed, no subscriptions, no watermarks.
Handbrake - Video Converter - https://handbrake.fr/
HandBrake is a free, open source, cross-platform multithreaded video transcoder software. You can use it to convert various videos from one format to another. Although it can process most popular multimedia files it won't work with protected DVD or BluRay disks. As a multi-platform tool, HandBrake runs on several OS such as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Full features: https://handbrake.fr/features.php
- Filesize: 10mb
- Free and Open Source
- Multi Platform.
FFMPEG - https://ffmpeg.org/ (Command line interface to convert different formats)
FFmpeg is the leading multimedia framework, able to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter and play pretty much anything that humans and machines have created. It supports the most obscure ancient formats up to the cutting edge. No matter if they were designed by some standards committee, the community or a corporation. It is also highly portable: FFmpeg compiles, runs, and passes our testing infrastructure FATE across Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, the BSDs, Solaris, etc. under a wide variety of build environments, machine architectures, and configurations.
Basically a command line tool to convert between different formats.
- Essentials Filesize: 77Mb (https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/)
- Quick guide to using: https://opensource.com/article/17/6/ffmpeg-convert-media-file-formats
- Documentation: https://ffmpeg.org/documentation.html
MP4 Joiner (MP4 tools) - http://www.mp4joiner.org/en/
MP4Joiner also known as MP4Tools is a cross-platform collection of tools that allows you to manipulate MP4 files. It is created and maintained by Alex Thuring the author of the well-known DVDStyler software. The package contains two apps that can be run separately and perform a different task. MP4Splitter will allow you to split a single MP4 file in multiple files. MP4Joiner will allow you to merge (join) a single MP4 file in multiple files. The tools are free, open source and they run on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
- Filesize: 18mb windows
- Free Open Source
- Multi Platform
VirtualDub - http://virtualdub.org/
Only works with AVI Files
VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows platforms (98/ME/NT4/2000/XP/Vista/7), licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video. It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is mainly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and also handle sets of BMP images.
A lot of function has been squeezed into a relatively streamlined program with an intuitive interface. Its primarily used to splice multiple videos together. The videos are edited frame by frame, making this ideal to edit anime and flash videos. Those who want a little more out of VirtualDub can download third party add-ons and explore the program's collection of filters.
VirtualDub runs directly from an .exe in the download folder; it doesn't need to be fully installed on your system, taking up your computer's resources.
This lightweight program has a small file size to download and runs on older and current versions of Windows.
The software saves and converts files into a variety of formats and runs faster than many other similar programs.
In addition to stitching video clips together, VirtualDub also applies subtitles, adjusts colors, and sharpens images with a third party add-on, the Warpsharp filter. Users can also resize, flip the image, adjust the video's brightness and contrast, and add a variety of transitions between video segments.
Finally, VirtualDub can convert a series of still images into a movie for projects like a time-lapse video or a cartoon.
Note: VirtualDub was added on FossHub because several users requested this. Since other websites flagged this application as being discontinued, we hesitated to add it. However, since the latest stable version 1.10.4 works on both 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows version, even if this is true, the program should work for the time being.
List of features: http://virtualdub.org/features.html
- Open Source, multiplatform
- Filesize: approx 2mb
LAV Filters - https://github.com/Nevcairiel/LAVFilters/releases
LAV Filters is an Open Source set DirectShow filters that allows you to play all popular video and audio formats without having to install any other codec pack or additional codec or filter. LAV Filters are based on FFmpeg multimedia libraries (which is a multi-platform solution to convert, stream and record audio and video content). As a set of DirectShow filters it contains LAV Splitter (used as a source filter/splitter to demux files in separated elementary streams) and LAV Audio and Video Decoder (an audio and video decoder focused on quality and high performance). The current version is available as a setup file and also as a ZIP archive for both 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows versions.
- Open Source
- Filesize: 7mb
VLC Player - http://www.videolan.org/
VLC Media Player (also known as VLC) is a free, open source multimedia player developed by VideoLAN Organization. It is one of the oldest (released for the first time in February 2001) free, portable, cross-platform multimedia player. You can use it to play all popular multimedia files and also DVDs, CDs, VCDs and other streaming protocols. Unlike other players, it does not require a codec pack to be installed, it can play multimedia files without them. This media player is currently listed under GNU licenses and is available in more than 40 languages. Although there are many releases available for Android, iOS, Linux, BSD, Solaris, and even QNX, Haiku, Syllable, OS/2 we currently list only the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X versions.
- Filesize: 30mb
- Open Source, windows and mac
LightAlloy - http://light-alloy.verona.im/
Light Alloy is a free, highly customizable multimedia player for Windows. It was optimized to start as fast as possible and pre-tuned for minimum system resource usage. Besides of his support for all popular multimedia formats, it also has its advanced settings such as:
- fast video rewind, load subtitles, bookmarks in the list or timeline, preview window on the timeline
- selection of audio tracks and subtitles in multilingual films, minimize to tray, infrared remote control
- adjust the brightness/contrast/saturation of the image, supports multimedia keyboards and has full support for DVD/Blu-ray (except for BD menus) and MKV/OGM/MP4 formats.
It has an extensive list of features; those are just a few of them:
- built-in video/audio codecs (although you can choose to use other system codecs and you can configure audio and video filters)
- custom codecs, full support for subtitles
- WinLIRC support (remote control), configurable playback speed, aspect ratio alignment, make and save screenshots (including WebP/WebP-LL formats)
- independent video settings for each file (brightness, contrast, saturation, subtitle, volume) keep current playing position and resume later, etc.
- Filesize: 15mb
- Free - windows ONLY
https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut
LosslessCut aims to be the ultimate cross platform FFmpeg GUI for extremely fast and lossless operations on video, audio, subtitle and other related media files. The main feature is lossless trimming and cutting of video and audio files, which is great for saving space by rough-cutting your large video files taken from a video camera, GoPro, drone, etc. It lets you quickly extract the good parts from your videos and discard many gigabytes of data without doing a slow re-encode and thereby losing quality. There are also many more use cases. Everything is extremely fast because it does an almost direct data copy, fueled by the awesome FFmpeg which does all the grunt work.
https://github.com/SubtitleEdit/subtitleedit
https://subtitleedit.github.io/subtitleedit/
Subtitle Edit is a free, open-source editor for video subtitles. This is the documentation for the Avalonia-based cross-platform version (Subtitle Edit 5).
Thanks for sharing!