What's the best FREE video editing s/w for 2024?

[David L]

I use the free version of DaVinci Resolve to assemble my 2-up and 4-up videos, and I like it a lot. It's not missing any features that I need, but YMMV.

I ran it on my old Intel-based MacBook Pro, with a discrete GPU, and it too awhile to render out, but editing was fine.

I now run it on my Apple Silicon-based MBP, and it renders out many times faster than real-time, at least for my relatively simple workflows.

Is there a Portable version for Windows? I try not to install programs if that have a standalone portable available...

 

[David L]

I have been using the Vmaker AI video editor for the past few months. It's working really well and saves a lot of time spent on editing.

Its advanced AI capabilities auto-edit my raw footage by intelligently adding B-rolls, background music, subtitles, intros, outros, transitions, animations, and more with just one click.

Along with AI, it comes with a feature-packed, full-fledged editing suite that lets the pros craft their videos to perfection. The highlight is that it has a free plan without a watermark.

Can you do side-by-side (Split Screen) videos with Vmaker? Like if you want to show footage from to camera views?

 

[David L]

So this is what I would like to do with video feeds. This Criminal has 3 cameras, I have just two in my vehicle...would like a simple Video Editor that can do Split-Screen...would be nice if it was free too...

 

[concord]

Check out KdeLive, it's open source and can run on all platforms (even a Win version that doesn't require installing), here is a couple old vids, the menus may have changed since then...

https://kdenlive.org/

 

[Ssayer]

Kdenlive works pretty darn well. I just tried it to crop a video so that the focus is only on the cat admonishing it's kitten. It was pretty intuitive...

 

[benmbarek123]

I’ve spent a lot of time trying free video editors because I only make basic videos from my phone or dashcam footage. Most of them like Shotcut and Openshot work okay for basic cutting and transitions, but always felt a bit clunky or had random crashes. I tried DaVinci Resolve too, but it was pretty overwhelming and slowed my older laptop to a crawl even on simple edits, which was frustrating since I just wanted to splice a few clips and add text. Honestly, if you don’t mind a watermark and just need an editor that’s easy with split screens, text, transitions, and doesn’t require a monster PC, movavi is worth a look. It’s mostly aimed at beginners and casual editors, and I found its interface really straightforward for quick projects like mine.

 

[TheWaterbug]

So this is what I would like to do with video feeds. This Criminal has 3 cameras, I have just two in my vehicle...would like a simple Video Editor that can do Split-Screen...would be nice if it was free too...

DaVinci Resolve can composite as many cameras as you like:



and it's free. But it has an installer, and a hefty one at that, and the learning curve is steep. But it's incredibly powerful.