Free Video Editing Software Master List

Quick Overview

Is there any free video editing software available for me to download and use? I am looking for good one to edit my home videos. I want to add some effects, transitions, titles and then burn it to DVD. Yes, there are many of them. In this master list, you will find out various free video editing programs for Windows, Mac or Linux operating system. The software ranges from simple editing tasks (including cutting, splitting, trimming, filtering, titling, and adding effects and transitions) to professional video editing works.

Windows Movie Maker and iMovie: a video editor for home movie editing. Kdenlive: a video editing tool for video amateurs as well as advanced users from basic video editing to semi-professionnal work. LiVES: a non-linear editing in one professional application which is used by both professional VJ’s and video editors. Avidemux: a cross platform video editing program including Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux and BSD. And etc.

There are both freeware and open source video editing programs. All of them are free of charge, there is no cost to download and use. You can choose based on your needs and preference. Feel free to share your experiences and make it useful, helpful for other users. You can contribute by doing rating, voting and commenting.

Freeware: is from the combination of two terms “free” and “software”. The freeware software refers to software program that is available to download and use for free of charge. It is normally fully functional for an unlimited time with no cost. But usually there are some restrictions from the author such as rights to copy, distribute and make derivative works of the software.

Open Source: refers to software application for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license. This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified forms.

Free Video Editing Software Comparison Table

The following is a fundamental comparison table focusing on supported platform:

Software Name	Platform			License	Developer
	Windows	Mac	Linux
Avidemux				Freeware	Mean
Cinelerra				GPL	Heroine Virtual
Cinefx				GPL	Silversoft
iMovie				Free on New Macs	Apple
Jashaka				GPL	Jahshaka.org
Kdenlive				GPL	Kdenlive.org
Kino				GPL	Kinodv.org
LiVES				GPL	Salsaman
MPEG Streamclip				Freeware	Squared 5
Pinnacle VideoSpin				Freeware	Avid Technology
PiTiVi				LGPL	PiTiVi Community
OpenShot Video Editor				GPL	Jonathan Thomas
VideoThang				Freeware	VideoThang
VirtualDub				GPL	Avery Lee
Wax				Freeware	Satish Kumar
Windows Movie Maker				Free on Windows XP	Microsoft
ZS4 Video Editor				Freeware	t@b

Open Source Video Editiing Software

The following is a list of open source video editor programs:

• Cinelerra (Linux, Mac)
• Cinefx (Linux, Windows, Mac)
• Jashaka (Linux, Windows, Mac)
• Kdenlive (Linux, Mac, FreeBSD)
• Kino (Linux)
• LiVES (Linux, Mac, BSD, IRIX, Darwin)
• PiTiVi (Linux)
• OpenShot Video Editor (Linux)
• VirtualDub (Windows)

Freeware Video Editiing Software

The following is a list of freeware video editor programs:

• Avidemux (Windows, Mac, Linux)
• MPEG Streamclip (Windows, Mac)
• Pinnacle VideoSpin (Windows)
• VideoThang (Windows)
• Wax (Windows)
• ZS4 Video Editor (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Free Video Editor Program by Platform

We classified all free video editing programs into three main categories based on three platforms: Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. There are rating and voting system on each specific platform where you can see what other people rating and voting for their favorite one. You can also participate.

• Free Video Editing Software for Windows (include Rating and Voting system)
• Free Video Editing Software for Mac OS X (include Rating and Voting system)
• Free Video Editing Software for Linux (include Rating and Voting system)

For Windows

Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker is a free video editing software application which is already installed in your computer if you are using Microsoft Windows XP. You can access it by selecting Start Menu > Programs > Windows Movie Maker. The program provides you all basic video editing features such as trimming, splitting, combining, titles and credits, effects, transitions, audio track, timeline narration. It also allows you to apply basic effects to audio tracks and video such as fade in or fade out.

Avidemux

Avidemux is a free open source video editing software program developed by Mean <fixounet at free dot fr>, released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The program is designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks on AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF. It provides basic video editing features.

VideoThang

VideoThang is a freeware video editing software program developed and provided by VideoThang LLC. The program provides solution for video creation, editing and sharing. It allows user to import various video, music and photo such as WMV, AVI, MOV, MPG, MP3 and JPG. Simple editing control including cut, trim, build. Sharing video with friend or upload it to YouTube.

ZS4 Video Editor

ZS4 Video Editor is a free video editing application (the new incarnation of Zwei-Stein Video Editor), developed by t@b. The program is advanced video editing and compositing software with a large number of built-in video effects. There are various features you can found in the program such as unlimited number of video and audio effects for every track, cropping, zooming, panning, volume, rotation, opacity, key-color and manipulate the flow of time, forward, backward, speed up and slow down smoothly.

VirtualDub

VirtualDub is a free video editing software program developed by Avery Lee, licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). You can download and use it for free. It provides user the video capture and processing utility. VirtualDub is a small program which available for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows platforms. The program is designed for fast linear operations over video, but not focus on general-purpose video editor.

Wax – Video Editor

Wax is a free video editing software program developed by Satish Kumar. It is a freeware video editor for business or personal use which is designed for video compositing and special effects. Wax allows user to create 2D and 3D special effects and can work in two modes (standalone application or plug-in to video editors). The program can work as a plug-in with Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere and Pure Motion EditStudio. Wax has simple interface.

Pinnacle VideoSpin

VideoSpin is a free video editing program developed by Avid Technology, Inc. It is a brand new tool that allows you to create your own movie clips in minutes using your own videos and pictures. The program is similar to Pinnacle Studio (a paid video editing version), but there are some missing features such as storyboard, video and audio toolboxes, capture digital and analogue video feature, SmartSound and Scorefitter music generator.

MPEG Streamclip

MPEG Streamclip is a free video editor, converter and player for MPEG, QuickTime, transport streams, iPod developed by Squared 5. The program is available for both Windows and Mac platform. With the software, you can play, edit (basic editing feature cut, copy, paste, and trim) various video file formats including QuickTime, DV, AVI, MPEG-4, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or VOB files and then export all these formats to QuickTime, DV, AVI / DivX and MPEG-4.

Cinefx – Jahshaka Reinvented

Jahshaka developer is pleased to announce that the jahshaka project has been reinvented as Cinefx on February 2009. Jahshaka is a free video editing software program developed by Jahshaka Project, it provides solution for film compositing, editing and special fx system that uses OpenGL and OpenML hardware rendering to give operators real time interactivity, is now Cinefx, released under the GNU General Public License.

Avid Free DV

(Discontinued Product)

Avid Free DV is no longer available. The product is discontinued. Avid Free DV is a free video editing program developed by Avid Technology, Inc. It used to be the popular free video editing software available to download and use for free, and available for both platforms Windows and Mac OS X. Providing all basic video and audio editing capabilities.

For Mac OS X

iMovie

iMovie is a simple and easy to use video editing program for Mac users. The software is only free if you buy a new Mac system (it is included on all new Macs). iMovie provides you all essential tools to work with your home video. It allows you import your video and organize it just like your photo and provides you basic video and audio editing tools. You can add more detail to your video by adding titles, transitions and effects.

Avidemux

Looking for free video making application for Mac platform, Avidemux is one of them. Avidemux is a free open source video editing software program developed by Mean. It is a simple and easy to use video editor, has clean and straightforward user interface, and available for multiple platforms including Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux and BSD. The program released under the GNU General Public License.

ZS4 Video Editor

Free video editing program for Mac users. ZS4 Video Editor is a free video editing application developed by t@b. The program is an advanced video editing and compositing software with a large number of built-in video effects. There are various features you can found in the program such as unlimited number of video and audio effects for every track, cropping, zooming, panning, volume, rotation, opacity, key-color and manipulate the flow of time, forward, backward, speed up and slow down smoothly.

MPEG Streamclip

Free video editing for Mac. MPEG Streamclip is a free video editor, converter and player for MPEG, QuickTime, transport streams, iPod developed by Squared 5. The program is available for both Mac OS X and Windows platform. It supports various input formats including MPEG, VOB, PS, M2P, MOD, VRO, DAT, MOV, DV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AUD, AVR, VDR, PVR, TP0, TOD, M2V, M1V, MPV, AIFF, M1A, MP2, MPA, AC3.

Cinefx

Cinefx is a brand new free video editing for Mac. On February 2009 Jahshaka developer announced that the jahshaka project has been reinvented as Cinefx. Jahshaka is now Cinefx, released under the GNU General Public License. Cinefx is integrated new features and it is a suite of cross platform media playback, encoding, visual effects and editing digital content creation tools.

For Linux

Avidemux

Avidemux is a free open source video editing software program developed by Mean, released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The program is designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks on AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF. It provides basic video editing features.

Kdenlive

Kdenlive is a free and open-source video editor for GNU/Linux and FreeBSD. The developer considers that Kdenlive should be used by video amateurs as well as advanced users from basic video editing to semi-professional work. It offers a complete solution from capturing, editing to publishing videos. The program allows you to capture video from any source including DV, HDV or AVCHD camera.

Cinelerra

Cinelerra is a free video editing software for Linux system. It is developed by Heroine Virtual and released under the GNU General Public License. The program is designed to help user in doing three things: capturing, compositing, and editing audio and video. There are some key features which you can found in Cinelerra such as support for very high-fidelity audio and video, it processes audio using 64 bits of precision, and can work in both RGBA and YUVA color spaces, using floating-point and 16-bit integer representations, respectively.

LiVES

LiVES is a simple video editing program which is formerly Linux video editing system, but now it supports more other operating systems. LiVES is a free software licensed under the GNU GPL. It mixes realtime video performance and non-linear editing in one professional application which is used by both professional VJ’s and video editors. It allows user to apply many effects including random/targeted zooming, panning of video, color cycling and colorization/color filtering; compositing of frames is possible such as frame-in-frame, fade in, fade out and transparency.

Kino

Kino is a free video editor program for Linux operating system. It is a non-linear DV editor released under GNU General Public License. It allows user to capture video to disk in Raw DV and AVI format, in both type-1 DV and type-2 DV; loading multiple video clips, cut and paste portions of video / audio, and save it to an edit decision list. Kino can export the composite movie in various file formats including DV over IEEE 1394, Raw DV, DV AVI, still frames, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4.

PiTiVi

PiTiVi is an open source video editor for Linux system, written in Python and based on GStreamer and GTK+. PiTiVi is licensed under the Lesser General Public License. It is free to download and use. PiTiVi is written in Python for the high-level logic and user interfaces. This enables fast development time, as well as easy extension of any PiTiVi component through native python plugins.

OpenShot Video Editor

OpenShot Video Editor is a non-linear video editor for Linux, built with Python, GTK, and the MLT Framework. It is a free and open-source software program which you can download and use for free of charge. You can also redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The developer goal is to create an easy-to-use, powerful, non-linear video editor, with a focus on three things: User Interface, Work flow and Stability.

ZS4 Video Editor

ZS4 Video Editor is a free video editing application developed by t@b. The program is advanced video editing and compositing software with a large number of built-in video effects. There are various features you can found in the program such as unlimited number of video and audio effects for every track, cropping, zooming, panning, volume, rotation, opacity, key-color and manipulate the flow of time, forward, backward, speed up and slow down smoothly.

Link to This Page

If you find this article useful, please feel free to link to this page from your website or blog. You can simply copy and paste the following code into your page to create a link.

<a href="http://www.isoftwarereviews.com/free-video-editing-software-master-list/">Free Video Editing Software Master List</a> from <a href="http://www.isoftwarereviews.com/">iSoftwareReviews</a>