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By now, you must have realized the importance of videos, be it social or for your business. They’re everywhere and have proven to be a great way to grab and retain attention.
According to Cisco, 82% of all internet traffic is going to be made up of video content by 2022.
As of right now alone, 87% of businesses use videos as a marketing tool.
This should be enough to stress the importance of videos in today’s world.
Making a great video can be a little difficult and tricky, especially with the lack of a camera or good software.
That’s where you’ll find this article helpful. Compiled below is a list of free to near inexpensive apps that you can use on your mobile and desktop to come out with some breathtaking video content, be it long or short videos.
The best part is you don’t have to be James Cameron or have a budget like him. You just need a good eye, and the dedication and interest to learn and use them.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the best video editing apps.
Best Mobile Video Editing Apps
The given apps are great for mobile use if at all you want to edit on-the-go. While some may have desktop versions, their ease of access and use are more prominent on mobiles.
1. Quik
Developed by GoPro, this app is a free video editing app best for editing on-the-go. Let’s face it, GoPro has never failed to deliver and this app is yet another proof of that.
The app lets you create great video content from personal footage and imported GoPro footage.
It offers a wide variety of effects and filters that give your video a professional feel. You can sync music to your video and attach multiple photos and clips together. You can add transitions, music and customize your video with text and subtitles.
It supports eight common file types and has more than 20 preset themes to choose from.
Quik has a smooth interface and allows you to create some professional clips in a jiffy, saving you time and the need for a desktop - although there is a desktop version too. Because, why not?
Some may find the app a little too simple, but that’s because it was intended to be so. It’s a great video editing app for Instagram because it’s quick and easy.
Platform: Android, iOS, Desktop
Price: Free
2. InShot
Want an all-round video editing app? InShot might be it.
Users can trim clips and increase video speed. They can also add music, text, and filters among other things. A unique feature about this app is that you can rotate and flip videos, something that is absent in other apps.
While all this is great, there is a catch. To remove watermarks and in-app ads, you need to pay $2.99. Another thing to note is that InShot Pro costs $3.99 per month and $14.99 per year.
Price: Free with in-app purchases
3. VivaVideo
VivaVideo is a great app that allows you to do all the basics - trim, merge, speed up, slow down, etc - in a short span of time. It also offers various camera lenses to capture beautiful, edit-ready videos directly within the app.
Want more? It comes with a video collage maker and reverse motion support. It fits all your basic editing needs.
It’s a powerful video editing app with an interface that’s very easy to work with.
Price: Free
4. VideoShow
The app has received numerous honors in app markets and is one of the best video editing apps for Android, available in the Play Store for free.
With over 400 million users, VideoShow lets you edit videos beyond simply cutting and pasting scenes together. The app lets you add text, music, stickers, filters and sound effects to your video.
This makes the app great for vloggers and is a preferred choice for many.
Price: Free
5. Kinemaster
This app is a versatile tool packed with powerful features and a well-designed interface. It provides incredible levels of control over the editing process to make some professional-looking videos.
It makes importing files an easy task with its drag-n-drop feature. You can add transitions between scenes or insert text and subtitles.
The most remarkable feature that Kinemaster has is its ability to edit videos on multiple layers. You can add unlimited amounts of text overlays, images and audio for the artistic detail you desire.
While most of the functions are free, the removal of the watermark and access to premium features requires you to purchase the pro version of this app.
Price: Free
6. Magisto
This is one smart tool!
Why? Because of its sophisticated AI-enabled editing.
The app recognizes faces, landscapes, flora and fauna, and even action sequences! It also has the ability to analyze speech and audio, and intelligently applies editing features like stabilization and video filters. It even auto-crops the video to fit the frame.
While this may sound over the top, the app is super easy to navigate and use. It adds a very professional appeal to your video.
Magisto provides a free one-week trial. If you’re really serious about video editing, especially for a business, you can upgrade to either Premium ($4.99 per month and $19.99 per year) or Professional ($19.99 to $29.99).
Price: Free one-week trial
7. WeVideo
WeVideo is a cloud-based video editing software.
This app has some advanced features including audio-editing capabilities and sharing 4K resolution videos.
While the free version offers a good set of features, it has its catch. You are only given 10GB of cloud space in the free version which is fine if you’re only editing one video. You’re definitely going to need more for full-scale video editing.
The free version also adds a watermark on your videos.
Price: Free
8. Horizon
While Instagram is slowly promoting the use of vertical videos with their IGTV and stories, there’s a certain sense of professionalism with horizontal videos.
This app does just that. It has the unique feature of converting a vertical video into a horizontal one. You can try all sorts of camera angles - the video is eventually going to be a horizontal one.
There are other advantages, like 60 and 120 FPS slow motion setting, in-app filters and a very simple export option for quick sharing.
Price: Free
9. Adobe Premiere Clip
Adobe’s Premiere app family has yet another app - and this is absolutely free! Like all other Premiere apps, Premiere Clip is linked to Premiere Pro but it works equally well as a standalone app.
There’s one particular feature that makes this app stand-out. It has two editing modes - Freeform and Automatic. With Freeform, you can take control of the editing process according to your editing style while in Automatic, the app automatically creates videos for you with the photos and video clips you choose. It also picks transitions and trims videos automatically.
Moreover, the app is free and you can directly share your videos to other platforms.
Price: Free
10. Anchor Video Maker
If you have a podcast, you might want to take a look at this video editing app.
Anchor Video Maker is the latest addition to the Anchor app family, allowing you to transform audio content into animated videos.
It’s a simple process of uploading an audio file into the app after which it transcribes the content into an Insta-friendly video.
This means that if you have a great podcast, audio from an interview, or a speaking event you want to showcase on social media, this app will create a simple and engaging video with your text.
It’s a great editing tool for marketers looking for a way to enhance their podcasts.
Price: Free
11. PicPlayPost
Photo collages are great, but what if you could make a video collage? That’s exactly what PicPlayPost is for.
This video editing app lets you add up to 365 pieces of media to create beautiful 1080p quality videos. Designed squarely for mobiles, this app includes custom watermarks and branded logos, and a 9:16 frame ratio for Instagram stories. You can also speed up or slow down your videos.
The app is very easy to use and is known for its high customizability.
Price: Free
12. Boomerang
Boomerang is a looping app created by Instagram, and everybody loves it. It lets you create engaging content in the form of your own GIFs and short videos.
It’s very simple. How it works is- the app shoots bursts of 10 photos and then reverses it. The video is then looped forever, meaning it plays back and forth and back and forth and ba…..you get the idea.
Boomerang comes standard with Instagram, so you can directly take and post the video. However, you can also download the app to use on other platforms as well.
Price: Free
13. Life Lapse
The popularity of stop-motion videos is slowly picking up. The good news, there is a video editing app that lets you create these even if you have zero experience with them.
You don’t need to waste time learning Photoshop now. Life Lapse lets you choose either photos or videos and aligns them clip to clip with the help of a ‘ghost’ image.
Once you’ve selected your clips, the app stitches all of them to form a seamless stop-motion video. All that’s left is to then select a preferred filter and song.
Price: Free
14. Splice
Splice, as the name suggests, is an app that lets you splice (join) together with different video clips.
Once again, developed by GoPro, this app is super easy to use due to its simple interface. Editing and cutting of videos are done in a few taps after which, you just need to add your transitions and sound. Your video is then ready to be shared.
Simple.
Platform: iOS
Price: Free
15. PowerDirector Video Editor
PowerDirector Video Editor is a full-fledged Android video editing app that might take some time getting used to. However, when you do familiarize yourself with it, you can create very professional videos that are rich in effect.
The features include motion tracking, video collages, and video stabilization. You can also add voiceovers and creative sound effects.
Most of the features come with the free version. Upgrading to the full version, however, removes watermarks and ads.
Price: Free
16. Hyperlapse
When you’re shooting a time-lapse video, the most important factor is image stabilization. This requires the use of a tripod or a camera with in-built stabilization.
If you don’t have those or you simply don’t want to spend on those, there’s a perfect app for you.
Hyperlapse is a super handy time-lapse app that automatically stabilizes your video to give a smooth touch to it. That’s its key feature.
This feature makes the app perfect even for videos shot in motion, so you don’t have to worry about not having steady-hands - the app does it for you.
Once shot, you can edit the video speed, so you can either slow it down or speed it up. You can then save your footage to your camera roll and import it directly to Instagram or any other social media app.
Platform: iOS
Price: Free
17. iMovie
For users fairly new to video editing, this app is great because of its simplicity.
Designed for iOS, this app allows you to edit videos and add music, text, titles, and other enhancement tools. You can also stabilize your videos, crop them to the required frame size, and add filters.
Some useful extras include split-screen effects, green-screen effects and the ability to create Hollywood style trailers.
Being an Apple product, you can easily switch between your devices using AirDrop or the iCloud Drive for final touches if at all.
It’s a great app, recommended for beginners using iOS devices.
Price: Free
Best Video Editing Apps For Desktop
While the above apps are great for mobile use, there are more powerful and professional apps that you can use on your desktop for both, basic and advanced projects. The following list explores some of the best video editing apps for desktop use.
1. Adobe Premiere Pro
Let’s face it, you can’t go through video editing apps without mentioning Premiere Pro.
It’s one of the best video editing app for more than one reason.
For one, it’s constantly evolving. Adobe does a great job of incorporating user feedback to make the app better and better. This offers power, versatility, and depth to any form of video editing, be it basic or highly professional.
You don’t have to go through the process of converting your video format because it supports multiple formats. This makes it very convenient to directly import your video from your camera or any other device for that matter.
You can also work on multiple projects without having to constantly save and close previous projects. You can work on all of them simultaneously.
Being an Adobe product, you can easily integrate it with other Adobe apps, which makes moving data and assets easier between software as and when you need it.
To keep using it, however, you need to buy the product. They do give you a one-month free trial after which you’ll have to pay for a monthly subscription. For individual use, it costs $20.99 per month and for business use, it costs $33.99 per month.
All said and done, it’s an app that includes everything you need in the most convenient way. If Hollywood uses it, it’s got to be great!
Platform: Windows, MacOS
Price: Free trial
2. Lightworks
Lightworks is another professional video editing software that’s made a name for itself. It might not have a brand status like other pro apps, but it’s just as good as any of them.
For starters, this app is available for all desktop platforms, including Linux.
Although it makes an amazing editing software, it’s fairly small in size and that’s good news. A full installation only requires 200MB of storage space and you only need 3GB of RAM to operate it effectively!
The drag-n-drop feature allows users to easily import their video files to the app for editing. It lets you enhance images in videos using color grading and blending. It also creates a seamless flow between clips by letting you apply effects using keyframes.
Unlike other pro apps, Lightworks offers a completely free version with all the features the pro version comes with. However, with the free version, you’re limited to exporting only MP4 files to YouTube with a maximum resolution of 720p.
You also miss out on advanced options like project sharing, stereoscopic output, and timeline rendering.
If you think this is a mediocre app because of its size and free version, you’d be greatly mistaken. In fact, the app has established a reputation in the cinema industry, being used for first-class Hollywood films like Pulp Fiction, The Wolf of Wall Street and Hugo.
Platform: Windows, MacOS, Linux
Price: Free
3. Shotcut
Shotcut is an open-source video editing app. This means you have full access to all its features without needing a paid upgrade, once downloaded.
The app may be tricky to use at first, possibly because it was designed for Linux. With some dedication and time, however, you can use this app to create some brilliant video effects. The app’s appearance can seem rough, but hidden beneath is a very powerful software.
Shotcut supports a very wide variety of video, audio and image formats and has a huge collection of tutorial videos. It also provides a plethora of audio and video filters, and every one of them is fully customizable.
The best feature of this software is 4K HD resolution support, especially being a free app. It also uses the native timeline editing which eliminates the need for importing media files.
The quirky interface may be a put-off to users, but it’s definitely worth it once you get used to it.
Platform: Windows, MacOS, Linux
Price: Free
4. VSDC Free Video Editor
This is an intuitive and powerful video editing app, especially when working with complex visual and audio effects, and files of different formats.
Unlike other apps, VSDC uses a non-linear video editing technique, wherein you can access and edit any frame or scene at any given time. You can also replace original clips with a new one without worrying about size differences between the two clips.
The app offers a large number of video filters, all of which are accessible in the free version and can be fully customized. They are divided into categories for easy navigation - color correction, object transformation, filters, transitions, and special fx.
It also allows multi-track editing wherein you can enhance audio file from various sources with sound normalization, volume correction, echo, reverberation, and many other sound effects. Like video filters, they have multiple audio filters to choose from too.
The app is especially known for its ease of exporting the video files on other social platforms like YouTube without having to worry about whether it meets the specific requirements (file size and format).
While all this is great, there is one catch. The technical support for this app isn’t free. It costs $9.99 for a month and $14.99 for a year. There is a bit of a learning curve to the app, so there’s a high chance you might need it.
Platform: Windows
Price: Free
5. HitFilm Express
HitFilm Express is an all-round app, used for both basic or professional video editing. It may as well be called a visual effects app because it allows you to add more than 180 different special effects to your video, including 3D editing.
HitFilm Express has an advanced tracking and screen simulation feature where you can track the motion of moving objects and add new objects to follow the same path. It also has a sky replacement tool, where you can easily change the background to any setting you want.
Other features include masking and layering technique, 3D model editing and sci-fi visual effects.
The most prominent part about this app is its wealth of tutorial videos, where you can practice applying special effects in movie tutorials based on Star Wars, Westworld and more.
The free version has everything you need for basic or slightly professional video editing. However, if you want more features, HitFilm has its own store where you can purchase a bunch of add-ons to use in the app.
Platform: Windows, MacOS
Price: Free with add-ons
6. DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve is one of the most powerful video editing apps on this list, best known for its full-fledged color grading program.
It handles multiple file sizes regardless of whether it’s a 4K video or anything less. There’s a multi-cam editing feature that is very handy when working with multiple cameras at once.
Perhaps the best part of this app is its trimming feature which is not present in other apps. You don’t need to memorize shortcuts or access the tool window to use them. Instead, based on the position of your cursor on the timeline, the app automatically changes the tools. Damn!
It also has something called Fairlight audio functionality, which is a professional feature designed for quality audio production. It utilizes multiple capabilities like sound editing, recording, sweetening and mixing, and sound effects.
The free version has all the features that you need. However, if you want more features, there is a DaVinci Resolve Studio version that costs $299.
Its wide array of features may make it a little overwhelming to use. It’s best for more advanced projects because that’s what the app was made for.
Platform: Windows, MacOS, Linux
Price: Free
7. Avidemux
Avidemux is a free video editing app that is great for beginners to get acquainted with. It supports several video formats and does the basic video editing tasks such as cutting, encoding, and filtering.
It comes with many filters that allow you to perform tasks like rotating clips, adding subtitles, and adjusting color and brightness levels.
Being a very simple app, there is no need for additional docs for learning how to use it. However, compared to the other video editing apps mentioned, Avidemux doesn’t have as many features.
That being said, it’s a great app for beginners so if you’re completely new to video editing, this is an app you can start with.
Platform: Windows, MacOS, Linux
Price: Free
8. Machete Video Editor Lite
Like Avidemux, Machete Video Editor Lite is an app that lies on the simple end of the video editing spectrum.
The app was "designed for quick and simple 'slicing' of your video files," as its website puts it.
Unlike all the other professional video editing apps, this app doesn’t require you to know a lot, so you can use it even with very little experience. What’s more, you don’t lose any video quality after slicing.
There are a few downsides to this simple app though. It only supports AMI and WMV video formats and doesn’t allow audio editing.
This app is a great option if you’re just getting into video editing and want to do very simple edits.
Platform: Windows
Price: Free
Where do you go from here?
Videos are not just watched more. They’re expected more.
With the given list, you have a range of apps to make that easy. So jump right in, choose the right one and create some breathtaking video content.
As always, if you have any doubts, you can contact us. You can count on us for help.
