Best Video Editing Software of 2024: Edit Videos Like a Pro

| | March 21, 2024

Are you looking for the best video editing software? This article has got you covered.

Below I have compared and reviewed some of the best tools in the video editing software industry.

Studies suggests that video marketing is one of the top marketing strategies today. Half of the time, people want to see videos from their favorite brand or their favorite YouTube channel. 

Marketers recognize this, so also software developers that lead to the development of video editing software. This software is one of the many breakthroughs of technology to make video creation easier. With it, video editing is no longer restricted only to professionals. 

You also don’t need to have expensive tools to create and edit your videos like a pro. With the right video editing software, you can do that at your convenient place and time.

So, how do you choose the best video editing software?

This guide contains tips to do that and top video editing software that meet the selecting criteria. Keep reading to discover more!

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How to Choose the Best Video Editing Software?

Video editing software can used to create eye-catching promotional videos to boost marketing campaigns for your business. Or if you're good at video editing, you can use your skill to work as a freelancer on micro jobs sites such as Fiverr, Upwork and more. 

But choosing the software that is right for your online business or freelancing career is crucial. Below are some important tips that can help you to select the right video editing software to suit your needs.

Pricing

Most video editing software is available for free but has a downside to that. Like watermarks, poor editing performance, and sponsored advert playing in the background. That is why there is the premium option, where you get to pay monthly or annual fees to enjoy certain features not available on the free trial.

However, it all comes down to your budget and the kind of features you want. You may need only one feature from the paid options; others you may not need at all or in a very long time. So when choosing software, you should consider the price as well as the features you need.

Simplicity

Simplicity is another criteria for selecting the best video editing software. Software with simple user interfaces is easier to use, understand and is beginner-friendly. Sometimes, even professional editors may have difficulty when they use software with a complicated interface. When selecting a video editing software go for those with simplified features, built-in templates, and offers some kind of tutorials or documentation.

Editing Tools

Video Editing Tools

The most important part of any video editing software is the editing tools it features. You need software with features to help you edit like a pro. Some of the features to consider are; Multicam, motion tracking, 360o video editing, color correction, and Chroma key. 

Special Effects

In addition to the important editing tools, video editing software should also have other interesting perks like sound effects, stock photos, and plug-ins to mention a few. These specials features add more "sauce" to your videos.

Supported Video Formats

Before choosing a video editor, find out the kind of video import and export format it supports. With technological advancements, video formats and quality are also constantly changing, and video software has to keep advancing to keep up the pace. It is also possible for two versions of the same software to have different support formats. So make your findings before you make your pick.

Downloaded vs Online Editing

Most video editing software is available for download, while some can only be accessed through the browser; each of them having its pros and cons.

For downloadable software, you don’t need internet access to edit videos and videos are save directly to your device memory. Also, you will need to download the software again in case you change your device.

On the other hand, online editing software uploads the videos to clouds and needs internet access. However, they can be accessed with any device through the browser. When choosing a video editing software, you should go for the one that offers both the options.

Without further ado, let's get started with the top video software that you can use for your business, blog or even YouTube channel. You can use these software as a YouTube video editor to edit your videos like a pro.

Top 5 Video Editing Software of 2023

Below are our selected video editors software based on the mention criteria. In addition to the common video editing features, each of them has its unique features that make them stand out.

overview

Adobe Premiere Pro is one of our top picks. It works for both professional and amateur editing. So, if you want to move your video editing skills to the top level, adobe premiere pro is your best bet with its advanced editing options.

key features

Creative cloud.

Adobe premiere pro is an online video editor software. It uses a creative cloud to store videos and update the video library.

Customizable In-built Templates

This feature lets you customize your video to suit your need. It includes options such as adding text, adding media, adding graphics, etc. The templates are gotten from adobe stock (in-built store in the software). The templates are also easy to use.

Plugin 

Adobe Premiere Pro has plugins to compensate for its missing features. These plugins extend the functionality of the software. Examples of these plug-in include atomic stretch to change the video orientation, feathered crop to crop images, and also blend out the edges. It also has a pure contrast plug-in to change the contrast of the video without changing the saturation of the video.

360 VR Video Editing

360 VR Video Editing

This software supports 360 VR videos and also allows changes to be made on it. It changes the view of the footage and also the angle of the field.

Color Effect

Adobe premiere pro has color adjusting tools (Lumetri color tool) that offer color adjustment, contrast, white balance, shadow effect, fade, and sharpness. It also offers film and HDR looks. It also allows color customization to be made, like applying color changes to only a selected part of the video.

Audio Editing

Adobe premiere pro allows audio added to a video to be edited. The audio editing feature includes audio mixing, fading, motion functions, and sound mixing.

Multicam

This feature allows simultaneous video editing. With this tool, you can switch between scenes and move between clips in the same timeline.

Free Stock Video

Adobe premiere pro has a wide collection of royalty-free videos. It has these videos in high quality and also in 4K formats.

Auto Reframe
Adobe Auto Reframe

Instead of cropping your videos or setting the ratio manually, auto reframes intuitively shapes videos into different aspect ratios rather than the standard portrait or landscape display. This tool crops videos into a new view, either vertical or horizontally.

pros and cons

Pros

  • Flexible interface
  • Supports several video formats like like MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPE, and MPG
  • Top-notch video editing with added audio editing
  • Unlimited  editing angles
  • It integrates seamlessly with other adobe versions like the adobe premiere RUSH
  • Works on both Windows and Mac operating system

Cons

  • No motion tracking feature
  • The interface may be complicating for amateurs
  • It requires added applications for some features

PRICING & PLANS

Adobe Premiere Pro Price

Adobe Premiere Pro offers two main payment plans:

  • Individuals - $29.99 per month or $239.88 per year
  • Business - $359.88 per year

It also has separate pricing plans for students, teachers, and also for schools and universities.

FREE TRIALS

It offers free trials, after which you need to pay before using it. Get the 7 day free trial by visiting the link given below. Under the free trial, you get access to all the premium features. Make use of the free trial period to see whether Adobe Premiere Pro is the right video editing software for your needs.

overview

CyberLink PowerDirector is a downloadable video editor that works on both Windows and Mac operating systems. It is a professional and user-friendly software for beginners.

It has lots of features for making impressive videos. Some of the important features are highlighted below.

key features

Interface

Cyberlink Power Director Interface

Cyberlink PowerDirector offers four options - full mode, auto mode, storyboard mode, and slideshow. It also offers the learning center, all of which have excellent editing effects. It also has an option for choosing aspect ratio. During editing, the interface offers two preview windows; the source window and the movie window.

ShutterStock Library

ShutterStock Library

This library is an in-built library similar to the effect shop present in other video editing software. It gives you access to numerous license-free images, audios, and stock videos.

AI Object Segmentation

This feature works like the green screen effect if not better. It allows you to separate elements from a background and place them in another background.

Video Editing Features

This feature has interesting tools, like the one that allows you to join or trim footage in the timeline. Each new video added joins seamlessly with the end of the preceding clip without a glitch. You can also drop a clip in another one with four options. You can either overwrite, insert, crossfade or replace it.

Cyberlink Power Director Video Editing

The trim tool allows you to remove unwanted parts of a clip in the timeline. In other words, you can mark the in and out points of a video.

The precut tool allows you to trim the source video before adding it to a timeline.

Assisted Video Making Feature

This feature is called express project. It offers templates you can use for your video. It also features audios attached to each template you choose. It requires dragging clips to the timeline and filling each track with media.

360-Degree VR Editing

Cyberlink PowerDirector 365 has the best 360 video editing features. Tt edits 360 videos in either two-dimension or 360. One of the 360 effects is creating a "rabbit hole", a reverse effect of the 360 (ball) video when dragged down.

Multicam

Cyberlink allows multiple video editing of up to 100 tracks in a single timeline, unlike the usual four videos.

There is also the mask designer tool to increase the transparency of masked objects or texts.

pros and cons

Pros

  • It is fast to work with and has a clear interface
  • Offers numerous editing effects
  • Has the most efficient 360 video editing feature
  • Supports screen recording
  • Supports up to 100 video tracks in a timeline

Cons

  • The numerous editing effect can be overwhelming
  • It has poor color matching
  • It requires a lot of computer resources
  • Not a lot of support for vector graphics

PRICING & PLANS

Cyberlink PowerDirector has pricing starting from $4.33 monthly.

overview

FinalCut Pro X is a pro-level video editor for professional video editing. It runs only on Mac operating system (New silicon M1 OS) with 4-8 GB RAM. It has smart features to crop videos to fit into any screen to make editing worthwhile.

key features

Media Organization

FinalCut Pro Media Organization

These features let you keep the media to be used together and it is backed up automatically. To use media organization, you need to import your file. It accepts files in HEVC, 4K, and 360 degrees.

Interface

FinalCut Pro X offers four interface options; color & effect, default, organize, and dual display. It has a magnetic timeline with no track limit. Clips are added to the timeline by dragging. The interface offers two preview windows; one for the source clips the other for the timeline.

360-degree Virtual Reality Editing

This feature has tools such as 360-degree title, 360o patches, and headset support. The effect under this feature includes blur, glow, and sharpen among others. Video edited with the 360-degree tool can be exported directly to YouTube and Vimeo.

Timeline Editing Features

This feature has options such as;

  • Precision editor tool to trim out part of the clips
  • Blade tool to split the footage into two
  • Region select tool to trace the in and out point of a clip
  • The compound clip tool allows you to group audio and effect in a clip together, to move them as a whole

Color Correction Feature

FinalCut Pro Color Correction

This feature lets you do two things. It can automatically adjust the color or manually adjust it from the panel. It has color correction tools options such as the color curve to add different control points to adjust primary colors for a specific brightness.

pros and cons

Pros

  • It has a magnetic timeline
  • Features media organizing tool
  • Very fast editing experience
  • Has touch bar support for MacBook

Cons

  • Does not support conventional timeline editing
  • Its 360-degree video editing has no motion tracking or stabilization

PRICING & PLANS

FinalCut Pro X has a 90-day free trial when you have an apple store account, after which pricing of $299 is required. It does not require a version upgrade.

4. Pinnacle Studio

overview

Pinnacle is a better version of Corel Video studio ultimate. It runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, and windows X with Intel core i3 or i7 and 4-8GB RAM. It also sends out the video in 360-1080p quality, in MKV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, HEVC, 4K, and 8K formats.

key features

Video Transition Tool

This feature has a lot of tools under it such as:

  1. Magnetic timeline. Pinnacle studio uses magnetic timeline transition that enables clips to be drag-and-drop inside another clip. This feature splits the clips in the timeline.
  2. Trim mode. The trim mode removes parts of the video by dragging the pointer along the part you wish to trim. When this tool is selected, it opens a preview window to preview the clips while adjustments are made to it.
  3. Point editing. Pinnacle studio has 3-point and 4-point editing to provide precision. 3-point editing specifies the in and out point of either the timeline clip or the source clip. The 4-point editing specifies the in and out point of both the timeline clip and the source clip.
  4. Morph transition. This transition tool allows you to trace out paths in the first and second footage in the timeline for transition.
  5. Mask Feature. Pinnacle studio offers two masking options. The shape mask and the panel mask. The shape mask offers two dimensional (2-D) effect while the panel mask tweaks and creates 3-D motion. Pinnacle Studio allows you to add one mask per clip rather than the conventional one mask per timeline. The masking tool creates opacity, blur, oil painting, detail enhancing, etc.

Motion Tracking

Pinnacle Studio Motion Tracking

Motion tracking is a tool that allows you to add custom animation to your video. This tool tracks the direction of an element in the video and applies that direction to another element.

360o Virtual Reality (VR) Video Editing Feature

Pinnacle Studio 360 Virtual Reality

Pinnacle studio supports this kind of video from all cameras including Kodak pix pro and Samsung gear 360.  With this feature, you can either edit your video in 360 formats or convert it to a two-dimension view. However, to use this feature, the footage has to be added to the timeline.

Multicam Editing Feature

This feature allows you to simultaneously edit clips from the same footage with different viewing angles.

Stop Motion

This feature allows you to take shots from the video at a pre-selected time. These shots are added back to the timeline for further editing and adjustments.

Advanced Effect

Pinnacle studio has numerous effects. Some of which includes;

  • Color grading to add color and color adjustments like white balance, contrast, saturation, color wheel, and tone.
  • Filters to make the video more impressive. Examples of these filters are dream glow, old film, photon blast, etc.
  • Transparency tool to adjust the transparency level of each footage in the timeline.
  • Chroma key for green screen effects
  • Screen cam for live capturing of the screen

Audio editing feature

Pinnacle Studio has options for adding audio to video in the timeline. It also has an option for editing the audio. One of such features is the audio ducking tool. This tool reduces the audio volume for a voice-over to play.

pros and cons

Pros

  • Simple and understandable user interface
  • Edits VR videos
  • Has Multicam editing
  • Has masking tool

Cons

  • Its motion tracking tool is limited
  • VR editing is uneven

PRICING & PLANS

It has 3 pricing options offering different editing features

  • The standard value-packed video editor is offered at $59.95
  • The plus powerful video editor is sold for $99.95
  • The ultimate advanced pro-level video editor is sold for $129.95

overview

Corel Video Studio Ultimate video editor software is so easy to use and is created for beginner and semi-professional level users. It has interesting features like the drag-and-drop interface, color grading tools, video masking to optimize its performance and make using it fun.

key features

AR Sticker

Corel VideoStudio Ultimate AR Stickers

This feature lets you add more fun to your video. It adds stickers similar to Snapchat and Facebook stickers to your video.

Plugin

Corel Video Studio Ultimate has plugins such as NewBlueFX to add lens correction, color-enhancing, reflection creation, and color calibrating.

Multipoint Motion Tracking

This video editor has the best motion tracking feature, unlike other editors. Corel Visual studio ultimate allows you to track an element in the video at multiple points. It traces out the path of each tracked element for other elements (texts) to follow.

Customize Motion Tracking

This feature is called the auto motion blur. It allows you to move elements in a clip around the screen. This motion is controlled by a keyframe to create fewer shaking effects.

pros and cons

Pros

  • Has a simple interface
  • Imports video as 360, 4k, HD media
  • Has multiple point motion tracking
  • Has good color grading

Cons

  • It does not offer keyword tags for the media organization
  • Has poor audio editing features
  • Runs only on Windows OS
  • Limited options for customizing timelines

PRICING & PLANS

Corel VideoStudio Ultimate has full pricing of $99.99 and $79.99 for upgraded versions of the software. It also has a money-back guarantee after 30 days of buying the software if you are not fully satisfied.

free trial

You can try Corel Video Studio Ultimate for 30 days by joining its free trial. During the trial period, you get access to all the premium features to see if it is the right video editing software for you or not.

Wrapping Up

In case you are in a haze about what video editing software to choose, we’ve given you our top picks from among the best. These are the best video editing software that are used by beginners and professionals alike. Feel free to try them out.

You can also test-run our selection criteria and apply them to make comparisons between other video editing software. Just give it a try!

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Deepak Choudhary

Deepak Choudhary is the founder of Technicalwall.com. He is a Blogger and an Affiliate Marketing Expert. He publishes useful articles for newbie bloggers related to the following topics - Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, Software Reviews, Software Tutorials, Blogging, WordPress, SEO, Passive Income, and more.