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- The Best Editor For Videos Free
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Chances are, there are hundreds of videos languishing on your smartphone, DSLR or compact camera. Instead of letting it collect dust, why not polish it up to share with family and friends? That's where a good video editing program comes in.
What is the best text editor for C programming on MacOS? Update Cancel. Ad by Jira Software, Atlassian. Jira official site. One tool to track issues & release great software. Try Jira for free. What is the best text editor for Mac? What is the best text editor for JavaScript? What is the best text editor for Java? The C++ editor included in EditRocket includes many tools to make C++ programming and source code creation easier. Listed below is information on the C++ specific tools offered by EditRocket. See the General Highlights section at the bottom of the page for more of what EditRocket has to offer. If your text editor is any good then you can do most things with the keyboard (eg. Opening files is Cmd-T plus a few letters of the file rather than using a tree UI) Even when coding on my MBP 15' I run my code editor in full screen mode with my browser in the adjacent virtual desktop. This IDE is the best choice for Mac users. Probably there are so many programmers who prefer to use a Mac. And again this IDE like the previous one (Visual Studio) is not only for C/C++ developers, there are many other popular languages supported.
Among the paid software, only one — Adobe Premiere Elements 2019— is truly cross-platform, and it emerged as our top pick. Despite its lack of emerging popular technologies, like 360-degree video handling and multicam editing features, it's the easiest video editor to learn and use, and offers plenty of advanced functions, such as guided edits and a revised home screen.
CyberLink PowerDirector 16 is the best video editing software for Windows, featuring a dazzling array of tricks and treats; plus, it's great for editing 360-degree videos, too.
Ed. note: PowerDirector 17 is now available; stay tuned for our review.
Ed. note: PowerDirector 17 is now available; stay tuned for our review.
Apple’s iMovie, which competes only with cross-platform free apps and Adobe Elements, is the obvious choice for the best Mac video editing software, thanks to its outstanding output, themes and trailers, macOS integration, and features that encourage good moviemaking skills.
For the best free software, HitFilm Express gets the nod for its abundant cinematic capabilities and stylish interface. If you often share your videos on YouTube and other social media platforms, the free, cross-platform VideoPad is your best option.
Best OverallAdobe Premiere Elements 2019
Adobe Premiere Elements continues its long reign as the overall best consumer video-editing app, with new automated features and simplified workflows for quick video editing.
Best for WindowsCyberLink PowerDirector 16
PowerDirector 16 makes it easy to edit 360-degree videos, but there are a lot of other great features in this program, too.
Best for MacApple iMovie 10.1.8
iMovie gives Mac users an easy way to get started creating high-quality movies from videos shot on all kinds of devices.
Our Top Picks
Best Overall
Reasons to Buy
Supports new HEVC and HEIF file formats for images and videos
New home screen provides continuous access to all functions and apps
Auto-generated slideshows and photo/video collages make social media sharing quick and easy
Intriguing new guided edits
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Reasons to Avoid
Some aspects of automated video trimming seem counterintuitive
No support for HEVC and HEIF file formats on Windows
No support for 360-degree video
No support for multicam editing
When it comes to user-friendliness, sophisticated features and ways to output your video, nothing beats the cross-platform Adobe Premiere Elements. For 2019, Adobe streamlined the Quick Edits interface, making it all the more easy for novices to jump in. The company's AI now creates collages and slideshows automatically, and can also trim the fat off your videos.
Read our full Adobe Premiere Elements review.
Best for Windows
CyberLink PowerDirector 16
Reasons to Buy
Advanced editing control over 360-degree footage
Professional color matching, toning and effects
Reasons to Avoid
Needed to reinstall the app following a Windows 10 update
Certain color lookup tables are not compatible with the program
Motion-tracking techniques felt a bit awkward at the outset
CyberLink PowerDirector offers a dazzling array of fun, advanced video editing features wrapped in a stunning, easy-to-use package. For this version, Cyberlink has beefed up its 360-degree capabilities, making it far easier to edit 360 videos.
Ed. Note: CyberLink PowerDirector 17 is now available, and features such improvements as better green-screen editing, nested video editing, and multi-cam editing. PowerDirector 17 Ultra is $99, while PowerDirector Ultimate, which includes 360-degree video editing, is $129.
Best for Mac
Apple iMovie 10.1.8
Reasons to Buy
Professional-looking themes and trailers
Theater feature shares movies to all Apple devices
Reasons to Avoid
Lacks multicam, motion tracking and 360-degree features
Apple iMovie is the ultimate Mac video app for novice filmmakers, combining professional trailers and themes,abundant special effects and an easy-to-learn interface. Version 10.1 added 4K editing and sharing, as well as extended handling to video shot at 1080p and 60 fps. Recent updates tweaked the interface and added Touch Bar support for the latest MacBooks.
Update (June 2019): iMovie is now on version 10.1.12. Recent updates have disabled sharing videos to iMovie Theater and Facebook; you have to save your movies to iCloud Photos to watch them on other devices including Apple TV.
Update (June 2019): iMovie is now on version 10.1.12. Recent updates have disabled sharing videos to iMovie Theater and Facebook; you have to save your movies to iCloud Photos to watch them on other devices including Apple TV.
Read our full Apple iMove review.
Best Free Video Editor
HitFilm Express 9
Reasons to Buy
Reusable templates
Reasons to Avoid
Publishing features are not intuitive
For version 12, the free HitFilm Express has a redesigned, more intuitive interface and plenty of powerful features. While meant for prosumers—there is a bit of a learning curve—beginners shouldn't have too much trouble creating YouTube projects.
Read our full Hitfilm Express review.
Best for Beginners
Corel VideoStudio Ultimate 2018
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Reasons to Buy
Split-screen video facilitates elaborate video collages
Broad 3D-text support
Reasons to Avoid
Certain advanced features got really dense
Corel VideoStudio, an outstanding editing package for beginners on the Windows platform, is a powerful but easy-to-learn app for anyone who wants to make simple videos quickly without fussing around with complex controls. Its spare but inviting interface offers 360-degree video editing, enhanced lens-correction tools, and 3D text editing.
Read our full Corel VideoStudio review.
Best for YouTube
VideoPad
Reasons to Buy
Supports 360-degree camera editing and output
Reasons to Avoid
Lacks some advanced features like multi-cam editing and motion tracking
Certain features time out of the free non-commercial program
Difficult to tell whether you have downloaded the free or trial version, especially in Windows.
VideoPad Home Edition
VideoPad Masters Edition
VideoPad is a comprehensive cross-platform software package for the YouTube social media crowd. While this app lacks the flashy, whiz-bang appeal of some commercial apps, it’s still a rock-solid choice for simple video editing. From the main menu, you can choose which social network you want to upload to. The app offers a number of YouTube choices ranging from 480p to 4K, as well as Facebook, Flickr, Dropbox and Google Drive, and is free for non-commercial use.
Read our full VideoPad review.
Best for advanced enthusiasts
DaVinci Resolve 15
Reasons to Buy
Free with no limits or watermarks
Exquisitely deep app for color grading, compositing and audio production
Reasons to Avoid
A powerful computer is needed for high-end graphics functions
No direct export to social media
DaVinci Resolve 15
A powerful pro-level app, cross platform you’ll want to use a system with discrete graphics to get the most out of this editor. The latest version of DaVinci incorporates Fusion, previously a stand-alone application, which brings with it four high-end video-production modules for editing, color correction, audio production, and video effects and motion graphics. This video editor is quite powerful, but has a bit of a learning curve. If its 256-page manual doesn't intimidate you, high-level enthusiasts will find a lot of tools at their disposal.
Read our full DaVinci Resolve review.
How We Tested
We tested more than a dozen programs — paid and free — on consumer Mac and Windows laptops for more than 100 hours, to see which are the best for editing, as well as sharing your videos with friends and family.
We evaluated all of the software based on functionality, ease of use, performance, sharing options and new features in the latest versions. We also judged the packages based on real-life uses for a number of categories, including best overall, best free app, best for beginners, best for YouTube maestros, best for Mac users and best for Windows platforms.
Free or Fee?
There’s no reason for the occasional video jockey to fork over any cash, as there are plenty of free apps available for both Windows and Mac. But while the deciding factors for free and paid software may appear to be based on cold hard cash, that’s not the whole story.
People who are looking for a more powerful editor with a variety of built-in resources, responsive technical support and more would be better off dropping some cash on a video editing program.
However, there’s a third option: You can download software such as VideoPad or HitFilm (which offer all of the basics) for free, and then purchase additional features à la carte as your experience and needs grow.
Speed
Performance results are important, but they’re not critical components of software evaluations, because depending on your hardware setup, your mileage will vary. By comparison, ease of use, interface and features carry more weight than export clock speed. Nonetheless, as a single measure among many, speed testing provides valuable comparative information.
As several of the programs on this page have been updated with newer versions since their initial review, we are currently in the process of re-testing them. At the same time, we are upgrading our testing platforms, from laptops with integrated graphics to those with discrete GPUs. This will better reflect the improvement in performance from apps that can take advantage of discrete graphics cards. Stay tuned for the results.
How do you choose the best photo editing software? We’ve picked the best paid-for mainstream photo editing programs that will work on both Mac and PC, and we’re looking for ease of use, quality of results, versatility or pixel-crunching power. There are also free, mobile or online photo editors out there but we’ll keep those for another guide.
The answer to the best photo editor question used to be easy – get Photoshop. It’s become clear, though, that photographers and enthusiasts want more than Photoshop can offer. It doesn’t catalog your growing photo library and it doesn’t give you ideas and inspiration to feed your creative vision. Basically it’s just a big box of spanners.
So we’ll kick off with the complex little ecosystem that is Adobe’s subscription-based Photography Plan, then look at alternatives that deliver better quality, better organisation, better inspiration or just better value.
These are not in any particular order since each program has its own particular strengths, so make sure you keep going to the end of the list, because there’s something here for everyone.
Best photo editors in 2019
1. Adobe Photoshop CC
It’s the most powerful photo editing application in the world and there may be times when nothing else will do
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: No | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: No | Image layers: Yes | Plug-in version: No
Photography plan (20GB)$9.99
Photography plan (1TB)$19.99
Complex layers-based editing
No cataloging
Photoshop is still the go-to image-editing tool for artists, illustrators and designers, but photographers have a different bunch of needs that might be better met these days by a cataloguing/enhancement tool like Lightroom or an effects tool like Alien Skin Exposure X3. Photoshop’s layering, masking and retouching tools are still the standard by which all others are judged, but it’s designed for painstaking work on single images, or multi-layer composites, rather than quick day-to-day editing. The only way to get Photoshop now is via an Adobe subscription. The regular Photography Plan is best value and also gets you Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic as well.
2. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC
Things just got confusing. The ‘new’ Lightroom is a stripped-down tool based around cloud storage
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: No | Plug-in version: No
Photography plan (20GB)$9.99
Photography plan (1TB)$19.99
Streamlined interface
Missing some tools
Where Photoshop is for detailed manipulation, Lightroom concentrates on image organisation and regular photo enhancements. Now, though, there are two versions. The ‘old’ one has been rebranded Lightroom Classic (see below) while the ‘new’ Lightroom CC offers a streamlined interface and integrated cloud storage. You can get Lightroom CC and 1GB storage for the same price as the regular Photography Plan, but you don’t get Photoshop, which is a significant drawback. Lightroom CC is super-slick to use, but it’s missing a couple of tools in Lightroom Classic and it doesn’t support plug-ins and external image-editors except for Photoshop. If you want Lightroom and Photoshop AND 1GB storage the plan costs twice as much… ouch.
3. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC
It’s the ‘old’ Lightroom with a new name, and sticks to regular desktop-based image storage
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: No | Plug-in version: No
Photography plan (20GB)$9.99
Photography plan (1TB)$19.99
Powerful image adjustment
Interface could be better
Lightroom and Photoshop are the perfect double-act. One takes care of organising and enhancing your photos while the other handles any more complex layers-based image manipulation. Lightroom Classic is the old ‘full fat’ version of Lightroom. It feels a bit more ponderous and complicated than the cloud-based Lightroom CC, but it is more powerful and does support plug-ins. You get both Photoshop and Lightroom CC/Classic as part of Adobe’s subscription-based Photography Plan and, to be honest, this combination is good value and takes some beating. For many, though, the idea of paying a subscription to use software is just too much to swallow, which is why we’re going to move swiftly on to the rest of our list.
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4. Phase One Capture One Pro 12
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Expensive but beautiful, Capture One is a direct rival to Lightroom and pitched firmly at professionals
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: No | Plug-in version: No
Pro-grade tethering
No mobile version
Capture One covers almost exactly the same territory as Adobe Lightroom Classic, offering cataloguing tools, seamless raw processing, manual image enhancement tools alongside preset effects and a non-destructive workflow that means you can revisit your adjustments at any time. Its raw conversions are sharper and less noisy than Adobe’s, but it doesn’t support such a wide range of camera raw formats or as large a number of lens correction profiles. It doesn’t have Adobe’s mobile apps and online synchronisation options either, but it does offer professional-grade ‘tethering’ tools for studio photographers capturing images via a computer. It also has a better system for applying local adjustments, using adjustment layers and masks. It’s expensive, but very, very good.
5. Serif Affinity Photo 1.6
If you want Photoshop but don’t want Adobe’s subscription plan, this is the answer!
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: No | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: No | Image layers: Yes | Plug-in version: No
Great HDR tone mapping
No cataloguing
Serif built its reputation off the back of low-cost Windows versions of professional graphics tools, but with its new Affinity line it’s shaken off its budget past for good. Affinity Photo might have a budget price, but it’s a full-on, full-powered Photoshop rival for professionals, that can even teach its Adobe equivalent a trick or two. Its layering, masking and retouching tools are as powerful as Photoshop’s, its filter effects can be applied ‘live’ and its HDR tone mapping and workspace tools are excellent. Like Photoshop, though, it’s focused solely on in-depth, technical image manipulation. It doesn’t have its own browsing and cataloguing tools and it doesn’t do instant preset effects. Affinity Photo will bring the tools, but you have to bring the vision.
6. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2019
Aimed squarely at beginners, Elements 2018 does a decent job but is starting to look dated
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: Yes | Plug-in version: No
Novice friendly interface
Looking a bit dated
On paper, Elements 19 ticks all the boxes, just like previous annual releases. It offers quite a lot of the photo-editing power of Photoshop wrapped up in a novice friendly interface with quick fixes, guided edits and an Expert mode for more experienced users. It also comes with its own Organizer application for storing, organising and searching your photos. But while it’s fine for beginners who want to stay beginners, its family-friendly interface could become annoying, and while the Elements Editor will give you a head start if you upgrade to Photoshop, the Organizer is a bit of a dead end that’s nothing like Lightroom, so if you do move on up to Adobe’s Photography Plan you’ll have to learn Lightroom from scratch. The 2019 version adds Adobe Sensei AI tech to suggest new ways to use your pictures, and there are some more Guided Edits too.
7. Alien Skin Exposure X4
Trying to recapture the romance of analog images? Exposure X3 combines retro looks and regular editing
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: No | Plug-in version: Yes
Good image adjustment controls
No thumbnail preview importing
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Exposure X4 offers blends old analog 'looks' with contemporary photo enhancement tools. It has a large catalog of antique and modern film effects that simulate fading, cross processing, grain, light leaks, vignetting, borders and a whole range of traditional films and processing techniques. These are all built using tools that can also be used for regular image enhancements, including curves, colour adjustments and more. But while it offers adjustment layers for ’stacking’ and blending corrections, you can’t combine images. What you do get, though, is a fast and effective folder-browsing system for organising your photos with all the power of filtering and keyword searches without the fuss of importing them into a catalog. Version 4 adds smart albums, transform tools, movable light effects and improved raw processing.
8. Skylum Luminar 3
Now with Libraries for image organisation, Luminar is developing fast
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: Yes | Plug-in version: Yes
Quick instant 'looks'
Now with Libraries
Luminar takes an interesting approach to photo editing, offering a collection of preset effects organised into categories for those who just want to apply an instant ‘look’. These are made using a collection of filters which you can combine at will to create presets of your own. It also introduces the idea of custom workspaces which you can set up for specific image types, like Black and White or Portraits. The raw conversions don’t quite match the quality of the big three – Adobe Capture One, DxO – but they do the job and they’re backed up by some great editing tools. Luminar supports both adjustment layers and image layers, so you can create Photoshop-style composite images. The big news is that Luminar 3 – a free update for Luminar 2018 users – adds image cataloguing tools via Libraries and fully non-destructive editing so that you can go back and change any edit, any time.
9. ON1 Photo RAW 2019
An all-in-one tool that does just about everything. Like Luminar and Exposure X3, it’s come a long way, very fast
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: Yes | Plug-in version: Yes
Great value
Raw processing could be better
ON1 Photo RAW started out as ON1 Perfect Suite and has quickly evolved into a more modern, integrated program rather than a collection of plug-ins. It can still work as a plug-in for Lightroom and Photoshop, where you can browse the huge library of preset effects and manual adjustment filters to create ‘looks’ that the host programs can’t, but ON1 Photo RAW also works as a standalone program, complete with its own image browsing/cataloguing tools. In fact, this could be the only photo editing tool you’ll ever need – though the interface text is quite small and the raw conversions don’t match the quality you get from Capture One and DxO PhotoLab. For power, value and spectacle, though, ON1 Photo RAW 2019 is terrific, and version 2019.2 adds AI-powered image masking and cutouts.
10. DxO PhotoLab 2
The name has changed, the software has moved on, and PhotoLab is now a very serious contender indeed
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: No | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: No | Plug-in version: No
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Brilliant lens correction
Some tools cost extra
DxO Optics Pro, famous for its lab-derived lens correction profiles and awesome raw conversions, has evolved. Last year DxO bought the Google Nik Collection (which it intends to develop separately) and integrated the control point adjustment tools to bring out PhotoLab. The big difference between PhotoLab and Optics Pro is that you can now apply powerful localised adjustments to your images. PhotoLab doesn’t have its own cataloguing tools, though it does have a basic folder browser, and to get the full benefit of its raw tools, perspective corrections (DxO ViewPoint) and film ‘looks’ (DxO FilmPack) you need to pay extra. It doesn’t support Fujifilm X-Trans files, either. PhotoLab’s raw conversions and lens corrections are, however, quite sublime. Version 2 adds a 'PhotoLibrary' feature with an autofill search tool, but this feature still feels fairly limited.