5 Video Editing Software for Beginners

So, you are in the market for Video editing software that suits beginners.

Ideal, because in this article we have our compilation list for our top picks, and we compare the features and pricing for you. 

If you just want the best choice, we’ve added that right at the top of the article as this was what is most requested by our customers. So, that’ll be the “can’t go wrong” option. 

Otherwise, feel free to explore all the options we’ve reviewed on the market to find something that might fit you a little better.

Enjoy the list!

The best video editing software for beginners specifically.

Video editing tools offer several functionalities to help you create the final edits for your videos. However, they are not generally easy to learn and require considerable effort and time. As a beginner, you should consider opting for a tool that provides core functionalities and an intuitive interface. Have a look at the products below to choose the best video editing software for beginners specifically:

1. HitFilm Express

HitFilm Express, a video editing tool from FXhome, specializes in content creation tools. HitFilm Express allows you to edit studio-quality movies, trim clips, assemble your shots, add visual effects and motion tracking and import 3d models. It’s an all-in-one video editor tool for professionals who require advanced functionalities.

HitFilm Express Features

Get Started with HitFilm Express🔥

Here are some exclusive features of HitFilm Express:

Colour Grading Scopes: Colour Grading scopes help you identify the alien elements in your video and customize their colouration to bring subjects to attention or merge them with the background. HitFilm Express offers viewer scopes and layer scopes to help you design perfectly aligned edits for your footage. Moreover, you can render the scopes into your videos for exporting.

Export Queue: HitFilm Express allows you to add composites and editor timelines into a queue, where you can add codecs and export them. It’s a real time saver and saves you the trouble of individually exporting your video elements. Moreover, HitFilm Express allows you to render all elements or effects to ensure there is no data loss.

Visual effects Library: HitFilm Express’ most promising feature is its massive visual effects library. HitFilm constantly adds new animations, motion graphics and media files to its library, providing you with the latest presets for your video edits.

LightSabers: HitFilm Express has recently updated its LightSabers, and now you can draw them onto paths and shapes or texts to make quality styling logos. LightSabers add a neon tint style to your shapes or texts, enhancing their outlook.

Distortion effects: HitFilm Express offers quality distortion effects to help you create VHS style edits on your footage. VHS video styles have recently started gaining prominence again; due to their aesthetic and old-school look. With HitFilm Express, you can control the distortion amount on your video and create pleasing footage.

HitFilm Express Pricing

Fxhome offers 2 Editing products; HitFilm Pro and Imerge Pro.

HitFilm Pro is the complete video editing package with professional VFX and composition features, while Imerge Pro enables you to build Hollywood quality composites plus professional filters. Fxhome products include free updates for 12 months.

The “HitFilm Pro” is priced: at $349 for a one-time license fee.

The “Imerge Pro” is priced: at $199 for a one-time license fee.

The “Pro Creator” bundle is priced at $493.20 and offers both HitFilm Pro and Imerge Pro.

2. Magisto

Magisto, unlike other video editing software, offers a simplistic interface. It analyzes your uploaded videos and pulls out the most exciting moments to make them look interesting. Magisto has an AI-powered video editor that literally takes charge of all strenuous editing tasks.

Magisto Features

Get Started with Magisto🔥

Here are some exclusive features of Magisto:

Visual Analysis: Magisto conducts an in-depth analysis of every frame. Its innovative technology detects important objects, recognizes the surrounding environment, tracks salient motions in clips, separates foreground objects from the background and monitors essential speech with its sound attributes. Magisto’s highly optimized cloud-based platform analyzes all media simultaneously.

Storytelling: As part of its storytelling techniques, Magisto identifies the main character in the images and clips. It then reorders those images and clips by context and omits any poor or irrelevant footage. Moreover, Magisto also determines important audio portions within your media files. Magisto automatically selects the best part of your video to include in the story and implements suitable comprehension methods.

Post Production: Magisto utilizes smart colour correction, inserts graphic elements based on content analysis, implements background effects to bring primary objects to the forefront and applies several enhancements to make your story come alive.

Learning Engine: Magisto offers over 200,000 sessions per day. With each session, Magisto’s AI is learning and improving based on user feedback and interaction. With AI-powered capabilities, Magisto offers you a perfect final edit for your video and short clips.

Multi-Select: With Magisto’s Multi-Select feature, you can select multiple clips and photos in your storyboard for swifter and more efficient editing. Moreover, you can choose the editing style or add soundtracks to your clips to create a captivating viewer experience.

Magisto Pricing

Magisto offers 3 Pricing options for its AI-powered video editing software.

The “Premium” plan is priced at $9.99/month and offers premium editing styles plus full access to Magisto’s video editor.

The “Professional” plan is priced at $19.99/month and offers advanced editing features with a free Vimeo Pro plan.

The “Business” plan is priced at $69.99/month and offers email marketing tools plus video analytics with a free Vimeo Business plan.

3. DaVinci Resolve

DaVinci Resolve offers post-production and video editing tools to enhance your clips. It helps you make your edits appear true to life with animation effects and colour correction. DaVinci Resolve is an all-round tool for all your editing requirements and enables you to offer your viewers immersive clips that capture their attention.

DaVinci Resolve Features

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Here are some exclusive features of DaVinci Resolve:

Node-Based Workflow: DaVinci offers a node-based workflow, enabling you to do colour grading without creating multiple instances. You can move the nodes around or copy one specific node from one workflow to another. It enables you to see the order of your image processing.

Moreover, DaVinci Resolve offers multiple types of nodes. You can add serial nodes, parallel nodes, mixers, layer nodes and outside nodes. DaVinci Resolve allows you to pass alpha channels through different nodes, giving rise to immeasurable possibilities.

Power Grades: DaVinci Resolve provides multiple ways to copy one grade on a clip to another. When you capture a still in DaVinci Resolve, you can access all nodes attached to that still. You can drag and drop these stills into your power grades. Your power grades remain consistent throughout all projects in your DaVinci Resolve database.

Contrast and Pivot Sliders: Contrast slider in DaVinci Resolve works differently compared to its competitors. It has another slider attached called the pivot. The contrast and pivot sliders are insanely powerful tools. DaVinci’s sliders create an s-curve in your contrast. Moreover, you can adjust and intensify the curve. It compresses your highlights and shadows to avoid clipping.

Primaries/Offset wheels: In DaVinci Resolve, the primaries wheels and the offset function are efficiently hinged to help you grade and balance your images. The lifts, gain, offset, and primaries wheels correlate to shadows, mid-tones and highlights.

DaVinci Resolve Pricing

DaVinci Resolve offers 2 Subscription plans for its video editing software.

The Free plan is priced at $0 and offers core editing features to help you create clip edits.

The DaVinci Resolve Studio plan is priced: at $295 for a one-time license fee. It offers a 32K resolution, advanced HDR delivery and 120 frames per second. Moreover, you get advanced noise reduction and lens distortion.

4. PowerDirector

PowerDirector is quality video editing software from Cyberlink that lets you create exceptional edits and leave lasting impressions on your viewers. Its advanced editing features give you the control to design effect-rich videos with ease. You can work with multiple cameras, apply slick chroma key special effects or create immersive 360-degree videos.

PowerDirector Features

Get Started with PowerDirector🔥

Here are some exclusive features of PowerDirector:

Automated Projects: PowerDirector offers automated project builders built into the program as plugins. It helps newbies start their video editing journey. Slideshow creator provides you with a selection of still images and arranges them into a SlideShare presentation. Moreover, you’ll get several slideshow styles automatically once you upload the graphics. So you can choose the one that fits your project requirements.

Easy Basic Editing: PowerDirector is a capable video editor for users who want to work with clips on the timeline and intermingle stills or music. You can drag and drop your video clips to the video editor and trim them in the timeline section. Moreover, you can overlap 2 Video clips to create a crossfade effect for your final edit.

Media Trimmer: PowerDirector offers a media trimmer, enabling you to perform single trim or multi trim on your video clips. You can determine the starting and ending time frames of your videos. You can do all this by scrolling your mouse pointer over the media trimmer.

Titles and Transitions: PowerDirector’s titling and transitions add a great production value to your videos. You can use motion graphics for titling, adjust the font colours and group graphics to create quality titles for your videos. Moreover, you can use several templated transitions for your video clips and create better crossfades.

Powerful Masking Tool: PowerDirector’s Masking Tool allows you to selectively choose a portion of your image to be displayed: on your editor screen. You can use several shapes to slice your pictures or do custom masking and draw over the greyed out image to pick what you want to have shown in your media file.

PowerDirector Pricing

PowerDirector offers 3 Pricing subscriptions and 2 Lifetime licenses for its video editing tools.

The “PowerDirector 20 Ultra” is priced at $106.99 and offers intuitive editing tools. Additionally, you get 25GB of cloud storage per year.

The “PowerDirector 20 Ultimate” is priced at $147.99 and offers AI-powered tools, a selection mask and a shape designer. Additionally, you get 25GB of cloud storage per year.

The “PowerDirector 365” subscription is priced at $19.99/month and offers 50GB of cloud storage.

The “Director Suite” subscription is priced at $29.99/month and offers 100GB of cloud storage.

The “PowerDirector 365 Business” plan is priced at $72.99/month and offers an Ad designer plus 50GB of cloud storage.

5. Pinnacle Studio

Pinnacle Studio brings you closer to pro-level editing magic. You can take fine control of masking with smart object tracking, making it quicker than ever to create high precision masks. Pinnacle Studio reduces the need for frame by frame mask adjustments. Moreover, it enhances your creativity by providing several tools that handle tedious editing tasks.

Pinnacle Studio Features

Get Started with Pinnacle Studio🔥

Here are some exclusive features of Pinnacle Studio:

Artificial intelligence: Pinnacle Studio uses artificial intelligence to match your objects against its smart database. You can then functions to the masks and get the effect you want swiftly and more accurately for stunningly creative results. Object tracking works on all identifiable subjects like animals or vehicles. Moreover, you can cut out objects from the background and colour correct them separately.

Blending Modes: Pinnacle Studio allows you to add blend modes for constructive and creative ways to blend clips together. Pinnacle Studio blending modes do all the heavy-lifting from simple removal of black backgrounds to embedding classy overlays and textures for added emotion and drama. Moreover, you can simulate a video game with a blur effect and the darken blend mode, making it perfect for gameplay walkthroughs or YouTube videos.

Audio editing tools: Pinnacle Studio offers several audio editing tools, including fast and effective noise suppression to clean up the hiss from a noisy voice-over or live mic. Just select a region where only the unwanted noise is present, generate a noise profile and then reduce it and refine your sound.

Surround Sound Controls: Pinnacle Studio’s surround sound controls act as supports for angle, spread and centre. You can use keyframe options to manipulate multi-speaker panning over time.

8K Imports: Pinnacle Studio supports upto 8K footage for the latest shooting devices, allowing you to increase the size of large clips without losing quality in a standard project dimension. It enables you to perform creative reframing or panning of your shots in post-production.

Pinnacle Studio Pricing

Pinnacle Studio offers 3 Pricing options for its video editing software.

The “Standard” plan is priced: at $49.95 for a one-time license fee. It offers HD video resolution plus 6 Video and audio tracks.

The “Plus” plan is priced: at $79.95 for a one-time licence fee. It offers 24 Video and Audio tracks plus basic colour grading.

The “Ultimate” plan is priced: at $99.95 for a one-time license fee. It offers unlimited video and audio tracks plus 4K resolution.

Choosing the Right Software for Your Needs

When it comes to selecting video editing software, understanding your unique requirements and skill level is crucial. The landscape of video editing tools is vast, and while some software is designed for absolute beginners, others cater to more advanced users seeking extensive features. Here’s a guide to help you navigate this choice effectively.

1. Identify Your Skill Level

The first step in choosing the right software is to assess your current skill level. Are you a complete novice looking to edit short home videos, or are you a budding content creator ready to dive into more complex projects? Identifying your skill level will help you decide between user-friendly options and those that offer advanced capabilities.

2. Consider Your Editing Goals

What do you intend to create? Your editing goals will significantly influence your choice of software. For instance:

• Casual Users: If you only want to compile a few photos or clips for a family gathering, a simpler editor like Windows Photos or iMovie will suffice. These tools allow for quick edits and are often free or very affordable.
• Content Creators: If you’re planning to create content for platforms like YouTube, you’ll need software that supports more complex editing tasks. Look for editors that offer features such as transitions, filters, effects, and easy export options for various formats.

3. Evaluate System Compatibility and Performance

Not all software is optimized for every hardware setup. When selecting a video editor, consider your computer’s specifications. Many entry-level editors can run on lower-end machines, while advanced software like DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro typically require more robust systems to function smoothly.

4. Look for Trial Versions or Free Alternatives

Before committing to a purchase, take advantage of trial versions or free alternatives. Many top-tier software options, including Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro, offer free trials that allow you to explore their features without financial risk.

5. Balance Simplicity and Value

Ultimately, the best video editing software for you will strike a balance between usability and functionality. Look for programs that are easy to navigate while still providing the tools necessary to create high-quality content. The right software should empower you to express your creativity without overwhelming you with complexity.

Why use video editing software at all?

Videos are generally prepared to offer creative, professional or descriptive content. Having video editing software allows you to enhance your creativity with several advanced features. Moreover, you can optimize your videos for better frame rates, aspect ratios and high resolution.

Video editing software enables you to create studio-quality edits for your movies or clips. You don’t have to pay a professional editor to enhance your footage’s quality. You can do all the editing by yourself with a video editing tool. Video editing tools give you complete freedom over your edits, ensuring your final cuts are as per your imagination.

Why should beginners use video editing software?

Video editing is often painted: as a strenuous process that requires lots of learning and time to improve. However, that’s just false conjunction built-up over the years. Nowadays, several video editing tools offer a user-friendly interface and innovative functionalities.

Every professional video editor or creator was once a beginner. You can only avoid video editing tools for so long, especially if you’re a content creator. Designing captivating videos for YouTube or other channels requires good quality editing.

Video editing tools offer several templates and animations, helping you as a beginner to edit your clips. It enhances the overall quality of your video and makes you more familiar with the intrinsic features and terms.

Video editing software helps you build your viewer base and do better numbers on your videos. A professional quality video is more likely to get viral on media channels than simple generic footage. So unless you’re offering trendy content with no competition, it’s best to use editing tools to elevate your video quality.

Video editing software for Beginners, A Summary

Video editing software have been in the market for several years now. Earlier, they were only available for professional video editors because there were no real vlog-hosting channels. However, with YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, even the regular folks need video editing tools to create quality content.

HitFilm Express offers free video editing tools with no export limitations, a user-friendly interface and several advanced features. It is our suggested pick for a video editing software that suits beginners. Visit the website to get started.

What Video Editing Software would you recommend?

In short, It’s Filmora.wondershare.net Software

Filmora is an intuitive video editing software, offering creative tools for everyone. From beginners to professionals, it enables users to craft stunning videos with ease. With a vast library of effects and features, Filmora transforms raw footage into compelling, cinematic stories effortlessly.

“🚀Try Filmora.wondershare.com For Free, It’s my favorite Video Editing software to use and recommend.” -Scott Max

It’s your gateway to cinematic storytelling. Empowering creators with user-friendly editing tools, it transforms videos into captivating narratives. Effortlessly add effects, transitions, and music, ensuring professional-grade results for beginners and experts alike. Craft your vision with Filmora’s intuitive interface.

For more details, read our Filmora.wondershare.com Review.