Video can be a powerful marketing tool and is one of the most effective ways to engage an audience. It has the potential to clearly convey a message much more clearly than text content. As people become more inclined to watch videos rather than read text, even websites have adjusted their designs to incorporate this medium. Strikingly, for instance, allows users to create video backgrounds and explore different layout options for video embeds. But just like any marketing strategy, producing videos can require a sizable amount of investment. For starters, you will need a decent camera and great video editing software for post-production work.

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What is the Best Free Video Editing Software for Beginners?

Most computers nowadays come with a form of free video editing software by default. Mac, for instance comes with iMovie while Windows computers have the Windows Movie Maker. Depending on your objectives and the type of videos you want to produce, these free video editing apps may be lacking in certain features. Luckily, you can find a great deal of options for good free video editing software on the internet. Here are some of the best ones that are worth a try.

1. Blender

Blender is a free video editing software no watermark that is available for Mac, Linux and Windows platforms. It is an open source program that is actually designed for 3D animation but also comes with nifty video editing features. It allows users to perform basic editing tasks such as cutting and splicing as well as complicated ones like video masking. This is why it is a crowd favorite for most beginners and advanced editors alike. If you’re a novice at video editing, however, you might find the sheer variety of features a bit intimidating but once you get past the steep learning curve, you’ll find this software to be quite useful.

2. Lightworks

Lightworks is another powerful free video editing software for Youtube. It is also compatible with Mac, Linux and Windows and allows you to export 720p videos to Youtube on its free account. It also has multicam support, precise video trimming features and supports a wide variety of formats. You will need to upgrade to the paid version if you want 4k video support for Vimeo and Youtube but 720p is a good start for beginners. Because it is feature-rich, some users may find Lightworks a bit too complicated to work with so it is more for users who have a bit of background in video editing.

3. DaVinci Resolve

For professional video editors who want to explore software beyond the popular paid platforms, there’s DaVinci Resolve to provide an interesting challenge for you. It has a lot of professional video editing features that are at par with the biggest brand names in the industry. This is a great option if you want to do more than trim your footage. DaVinci Resolve has multicam support, advanced trimming and audio mastering features. It also boasts of an intuitive user interface.

4. Shotcut

Like Blender, Shotcut is an open source software so users get access to all the features without the need to upgrade to a paid subscription. It is one of the best free video editing apps today because it supports a variety of video formats, 4K HD resolution and timeline editing. Another interesting feature of Shotcut is that you’re not required to import your footage into the editor so this saves a lot of time especially if you’re working with large files. Shotcut also has a comprehensive collection of video tutorials to help you navigate through its quirky interface.

5. Openshot

Finally, there’s Openshot, another open source free video editing app whose interface is reminiscent of Apple’s iMac with its drag and drop features. It is a bit better than iMovie, however, with its unlimited layers, audio mixing and other advanced features such as watermarks, compositing, and advanced timelines.