Comparison of video editing software
This is a comparison of non-linear video editing software applications. See also a more complete list of video editing software.
General information
This table gives basic general information about the different editors:Active
Discontinued / Inactive
Definition
- professional: used for full length Hollywood movies;
- professional : mainly used for paid commercials, short films or podcasts/YouTube channels;
- prosumer: Mainly targeting private use, anything that can do more than just trimming a film;
- basic: trimming a film;
System requirements
This table lists the operating systems that different editors can run on without emulation, as well as other system requirements. Note that minimum system requirements are listed; some features may be unavailable with these specifications.| Windows | macOS | Unix-like | Processor | RAM | VRAM | HDD | |
| Adobe Premiere Pro CC | Skylake or later | 8 GB | 2 GB | 8 GB | |||
| Adobe Premiere Elements | 2 GHz+ with SSE2 support | 2 GB | 4.5 GB | ||||
| Avid Media Composer | SSE 4.1 support | 16 GB | |||||
| Avidemux | |||||||
| AVS Video Editor | Intel / AMD compatible at 2500 MHz or higher | 1 GB | 1 GB | ||||
| Blender | 2 GHz+ with SSE2 support | 2 GB | 512 MB | ||||
| Cinelerra | x86-64 compatible processor | 256 MB | 0.25 GB | ||||
| Cinelerra-GG Infinity | x86-64 compatible processor, recommended minimum: 2 GHz, 4 cores | 8 GB recommended for HD editing | 0.25 GB | ||||
| Corel VideoStudio | 3.0 GHz | 4 GB | 256 MB | 8 GB | |||
| DaVinci Resolve | Modern Intel/AMD/Apple silicon processor | 16 GB DDR4, 32 GB DDR4 when using Fusion | 2 GB GDDR6 | 3.5 GB | |||
| EDIUS | Intel Core 2 or later with SSSE3 support | 1 GB | 512 MB | 6 GB | |||
| Final Cut Pro X | 4 GB | 256 MB | 3.8 GB | ||||
| Flowblade | x86-64 compatible processor | 2.7 GB | |||||
| Blackbird | 256 MB | Any | |||||
| iMovie | Intel based Macs or iPhone 4 or later | 1 GB | 5 GB | ||||
| Kdenlive | 600 MHz | 256 MB | 1 GB | ||||
| Lightworks | Intel Core Duo, Intel Xeon or AMD processor | 2 GB | 200 MB | ||||
| LiVES | 800 MHz | 128 MB | 10 GB | ||||
| Magix Movie Edit Pro | Dual core processor with 2.0 GHz | 1 GB | 2 GB | ||||
| MPEG Video Wizard DVD | 233 MHz | 32 MB | 20 MB | ||||
| Nero Multimedia Suite | 2 GHz AMD or Intel processor | 512 MB 2 GB when editing HD | 5 GB | ||||
| OpenShot Video Editor | 4 GB | 1 GB | |||||
| Pinnacle Studio | 1.8 GHz | 1 GB | 1.7 GB | ||||
| Pitivi | ? | ? | 2 MB | ||||
| Shotcut | 2 GHz AMD or Intel processor | 2GB / 4 GB when editing HD | 1 GB | ||||
| Vegas Pro | 2.0 GHz | 1.0 GB | 400 MB | ||||
| VideoPad | multicore x86 compatible processor | 1GB | Any | ||||
| VirtualDubMod | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
| VSDC Free Video Editor | 1.5 GHz or higher, Intel or AMD or compatible processor | 512 Mb for the program | |||||
| Windows | macOS | Unix | Processor | RAM | VRAM | HDD |
''"Unix" includes the similar Linux, BSD and Unix-like operating systems.''
High definition/High resolution import
The table below indicates the ability of each program to import various High Definition video or High resolution video formats for editing.Feature set
| High Definition support | Non-destructive editing | Multitrack editing | Full-screen playback | Storyboard mode | Video tracks | Audio tracks / max channels | Linear timecode display | GPGPU with OpenCL acceleration | |
| Adobe Premiere Pro | , By hitting ctrl+~ | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||||||
| Adobe Premiere Elements | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
| Avid Media Composer | 24 tracks, unlimited layers | 24 tracks, unlimited layers | |||||||
| Avidemux | 1 | 2 / ? | |||||||
| AVS Video Editor | 1 | 1+ | |||||||
| Blender | 128 channels | 128 channels | |||||||
| Cinelerra | | Unlimited | Unlimited / 16 | ||||||
| Cinelerra-GG Infinity | max 8K | Unlimited | Unlimited / 16 | Some formats, using VAAPI/VDPAU/CUDA for decoding/encoding | |||||
| DaVinci Resolve | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
| EDIUS | , on both PC & TV monitors in realtime | unlimited realtime layers | unlimited realtime layers | ||||||
| Final Cut Pro X | |||||||||
| Blackbird | Input only | 18 | 36 | ||||||
| iMovie | 2 | 6 | |||||||
| Kdenlive | Unlimited | Unlimited | through MLT | ||||||
| Lightworks | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
| LiVES | | | | Unlimited | audio per video track + backing audio / 2 channels | ||||
| Magix Movie Edit Pro | 32/99 | each track may contain audio and video | |||||||
| MPEG Video Wizard DVD | 1 | 3 | |||||||
| Nero Video | Unlimited | ||||||||
| OpenShot Video Editor | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
| Pinnacle Studio | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
| Pitivi | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
| Shotcut | |||||||||
| Corel VideoStudio | 7 | 9 | |||||||
| Vegas Pro | Unlimited | Unlimited/Max Channel 16 | |||||||
| VideoPad | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
| VirtualDub | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| VSDC Free Video Editor | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
| WeVideo | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
| Windows Live Movie Maker | 1 | 2 | |||||||
| High Definition support | Non-destructive editing | Multitrack editing | Full-screen playback | Storyboard mode | Video tracks | Audio tracks | Linear timecode display | GPGPU with OpenCL acceleration |
Output options
Please note that recording to Blu-ray does not imply 1080@50p/60p. Most only support up to 1080i 25/30 frames per second recording. Also not all formats can be output.| DVD | High Definition | Smartphone | QuickTime | Windows Media | MPEG-4 | XML/EDL | Print to tape | Web, not hosted | Web, hosted | Podcasting | |
| Adobe Premiere Pro | |||||||||||
| Adobe Premiere Elements | |||||||||||
| Avid Media Composer | |||||||||||
| Avidemux | |||||||||||
| AVS Video Editor | |||||||||||
| Blender | |||||||||||
| Cinelerra | |||||||||||
| Cinelerra-GG Infinity | max 8K | CMX3600 | |||||||||
| EDIUS | |||||||||||
| Final Cut Pro X | |||||||||||
| Flowblade | |||||||||||
| Blackbird | |||||||||||
| iMovie | |||||||||||
| Kdenlive | |||||||||||
| Lightworks | |||||||||||
| LiVES | |||||||||||
| Magix Movie Edit Pro | |||||||||||
| MPEG Video Wizard DVD | |||||||||||
| Nero Video | |||||||||||
| OpenShot Video Editor | |||||||||||
| Pinnacle Studio | |||||||||||
| Pitivi | |||||||||||
| Shotcut | |||||||||||
| Corel VideoStudio | |||||||||||
| Vegas Pro | |||||||||||
| VideoPad | |||||||||||
| VirtualDub | |||||||||||
| VSDC Free Video Editor | |||||||||||
| WeVideo | |||||||||||
| Windows Live Movie Maker | |||||||||||
| DVD | High Definition | Smartphone | QuickTime | Windows Media | MPEG-4 | XML/EDL | Print to tape | Web, not hosted | Web, hosted | Podcasting |