11 Best Video Editing Software for YouTube Makers (2024)

What video editor do YouTubers use?

Video editors are like clothes, where finding the right fit depends on the person. YouTubers don’t all use the same video editor; there is a huge variety of editing software used by content creators. When looking for the best video editor for your own needs, it’s always best to consider your personal preferences.

With this in mind, there are some common popular choices. A lot of creators use iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and Adobe Premiere Pro to edit videos for YouTube. You can find more excellent editing software examples in our compiled list below.

Why is video editing software important for YouTube?

Video editing is essential to make your content the best it can be. Well-edited videos are more attention-grabbing, which can help you gain followers. Putting care and effort into your videos makes them more enjoyable to watch. A video's pacing allows it to tell a straightforward story or send a message, so it’s essential to get it right.

Video editing software provides the tools needed to enhance your video. Features like cutting, clipping, music libraries, and templates allow you to restructure your content into a final professional product. Good video editing software can be a base for you to edit and download content from. It improves workflow and gives you space to be creative with your content.

With the right editing software, you can develop the style and tone of your video. Small changes, from color grading to video transitions, can have huge effects on the atmosphere of your content. You can transform raw footage into cinematic, motivational, or comforting videos. Using editing tools is a great way to add flair and character to your content.  

How to choose YouTube video editing software

There are tons of options to choose from regarding video editing software. The downside of having so many choices is that knowing which software is best for you can feel impossible. There are a few factors to consider to help you make your decision. By understanding your personal preferences, you’ll be ready to choose the best YouTube video editing software for you. The most important factors to consider are: 

Ease of use

Are you a beginner when it comes to editing YouTube videos? If so, editing software with a simple set of essential tools and a user-friendly interface might be best for you. This way, you can develop your editing process without getting overwhelmed. For anyone looking to learn new skills, search for software that has plenty of instructions and video tutorials. On the other hand, if you’re an editing enthusiast, you’ll be better suited to advanced editing software.  

Features

Features can differ greatly between different types of editing software. Some software covers the basics with tools for clipping, cutting, and adding music and text. Extra features include voiceovers, green screens, AI software, and more.

Each software will have its own combination of editing tools. Consider the purpose of your video and your target audience. From there, you can decide which editing tools are essential for your needs.

Price

No matter your budget, there’s editing software out there for you. Some platforms are completely free to use, while others require purchases or paid subscriptions. While prices vary, a general rule is that more advanced software is more expensive. Because of this, you will need to balance your editing needs with your budget.

Luckily, a lot of paid editing software offers the chance for a free trial. This way, you can test out different editing tools before deciding which is the best value.

11 Best Editing Software for YouTube Creators in 2024 (Free and Paid)

We’ve narrowed down the best YouTube editing software so you don’t have to. Are you ready to try a new editing platform to streamline your workflow and improve your content? Then check out the list below. It features editing software to suit different budgets, needs, and experience levels. This way, you can find the best fit for your preferences.

Best Free Editing Software for YouTube        

1: Shotcut

Shotcut is a high-performance video editor compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux. Its interface is partially customizable by adding windows to suit your needs. The software offers a detailed toolkit as well as high-resolution capabilities. Shotcut includes more user-friendly features such as a recent file search option; however the platform could prove challenging for beginners. Shotcut would suit someone with editing experience who can use its many functions. 

Key Features:

• Supports many video and audio formats
• Frame accuracy seeking
• Screen, webcam, and audio capture
• Supports up to 4k resolution
• Easily add files through drag-n-drop   

 Best for: Advanced video editing

2: Riverside 

Riverside is a robust virtual studio specializing in remote recording but also offers powerful tools to edit and repurpose your videos on the same platform. The platform’s streamlined interface is easy to navigate and perfect for beginners and pros alike. 

While recording is top-notch, Riverside’s text-based editor makes editing as easy as reading through a transcript document. The editor uses Ai transcriptions, which are available in over 100 languages. Any time you delete text from your transcript, the corresponding video and audio deletes from your recording. This makes it super simple to get precise cuts, no matter your editing skills. After you finish cutting your video, you can burn these transcriptions into your video and style your captions as you need.

You can also:

• customize your background and layout
• automatically fine-tune your audio with background noise removal,
• Turn your long-form recording into multiple clips at the touch of a quick button

On the recording end, Riverside supports up to 4k resolution and offers local recording. With local recording, everything records directly on each person’s device instead of relying on internet connection. This allows you to create higher-quality recordings that are not susceptible to poor internet connectivity. Your high-quality recordings can be used in post-production to create eye-catching results. 

Simply head over to the Riverside website to get started with a free or paid plan.

Key Features:

• Text-based editing so you to easily alter your video by making changes to a transcript
• Separate audio and video track recordings to give you greater flexibility in post production
• Automatic background noise remover to increase audio quality
• Customized backgrounds and logos to professionally display your brand 
• Automatic video transcript generator with unmatched accuracy, ideal for creating subtitles and captions to boost your content reach
• Magic Clips creator to effortlessly repurpose your long-form recordings into short shareable clips
• Easily repurpose content for social media by making shareable clips from your video in just a few quick clicks
• Top-quality recordings with up to 4K video and 48kHz audio
• Media board for adding sound effects live
• Export recordings directly to Premiere Pro and Descript for a streamlined workflow

Best for: Seamlessly recording and editing on one platform

Start recording with Riverside

Easily record high-quality podcasts & videos remotely

Get Started

3: DaVinci Resolve

DaVinci Resolve impressively offers many of the features of paid editing software. This free platform brings together tools for visual effects, audio, and motion graphics among others. This software offers many of the same features used by filmmaking professionals. It’s a great training ground for editors looking to advance their postproduction abilities. 

Key Features: 

• Color correction
• Stabilization of shaky video
• Picture-in-picture effects
• Facial recognition software
• Automatic trim cursor

Best for: Professionals

4: iMovie      

iMovie is a practical way to edit videos from any Apple device. You can find the iMovie app on your iPhone and access editing tools when you’re out and about. iMovie is a great starting point for beginners. Its uncomplicated interface and tutorial videos make it accessible to anyone wanting to polish their video. You’ll find all the postproduction essentials to tweak your footage and make it ready to upload to social media.

Key Features:

• Cropping and rotation tools
• Video transitions
• Change speed and audio levels
• Video stabilization
• Video color settings

Best for: Editing on the go

5: HitFilm Express 16                

HitFilm editing software is available with a free plan. Clear, in-depth tutorials are available to help you get to grips with the variety of tools on offer. You can also get access to a limited number of songs, sound effects and templates to enhance your video. If you find yourself needing additional features like VFX, you can buy these in add-on bundles. The interface gives easy access to all your video files, as well as a viewing window and menus to access special effects.

Key Features: 

• Voiceover tool
• Color grading
• Audio adjustment
• Motion tracker
• Animation options
• Visual effects such as gradients and light flares                

Best for: Artistic filmmakers

6: YouTube Studio

Did you know you can make simple edits to your video from the YouTube website itself? If you head over to the YouTube Studio and upload a video, you’ll find some basic editing tools to tweak your content. It can be very useful to edit and upload a video on the same site, saving you time and streamlining your workflow. While not the most advanced editing platform, you can use YouTube Studio to make simple, fast changes to your recordings.

Key Features:

• Trimming tool to cut or create clips from your video
• Preview option for checking your edits
• Face blur tool where faces are automatically detected 
• Custom blur for selecting any area of your video to blur                    

Best for: Video editing directly in one software on YouTube

Read more: How to Edit YouTube Videos Easily: Complete Beginner Guide

Best Paid Editing Software for YouTube

1: Final Cut Pro

Price: $299.99

Final Cut Pro is a trendy YouTube video editing software. This advanced editing equipment is available on Mac devices only and offers industry-level tools for professional videographers. The slick interface prioritizes streamlining your workflow, with plenty of options for organizing your media. You can export multiple videos at a time, and optimize videos for viewing on Apple devices. Both automatic and manual editing tools are available to help you work at a pace that suits you.            

Key Features:

• Magnetic Timeline to remove gaps between clips
• Trimming tools and an inline precision editor
• Automatic syncing of multicamera footage
• People and shots can be automatically detected
• Adjust clip speed
• Captioning software

Best for: Mac editing software

2: Adobe Premiere Pro

Price: From $20.99/mo    

If you want to go beyond basic video editing and produce more cinematic or creative videos, check out Premiere Pro. This highly-rated software is popular for a reason. It offers an extensive array of tools and strong customer support services. You get plenty for your money with the benefits, including cutting-edge technology like VR video and audio editing.

Key Features:

• Templates for motion graphics
• VR audio and video editing
• Transitions and special effects
• Closed captions
• Video and music libraries

Best for: Special effects 

3: CyberLink PowerDirector 365           

Price: $51.99/year       

CyberLink PowerDirector 365 is a favorite among video editors. The variety of available tools and a slick, visually pleasing interface makes this software enjoyable to use. Even those with minimal video editing experience can use CyberLink. Templates are available to help you structure your videos and make quick edits. There are plenty of effects to try out and a library with millions of images, videos, and music tracks. These can be used effectively in marketing videos to catch viewers’ attention.

Key Features: 

• AI body effects and AI object detection
• Green screen
• Video collage
• Motion tracking
• Video and title masks 

Best for: Marketing videos

4: Premiere Elements        

Price: $99.99

Premiere Elements is known as a beginner-friendly version of Premiere Pro. This software packages powerful editing tools in an easy-to-learn interface. Premiere Elements is an excellent option for editing videos for social media. With the auto-reframe feature, this software will automatically edit videos to keep the main subject of the video in the frame even when you alter the aspect ratio.           

Key Features: 

• Quick, Expert and Guided Edit modes
• Animated overlays
• Auto-reframe videos while resizing them
• Precise clip selection
• Reduce Noise effect    

Best for: Social Media editing 

5: Corel VideoStudio Ultimate                  

Price: $99.99     

Corel VideoStudio Ultimate offers premium tools and effects ideal for users wanting to improve their editing skills. You can use this cutting-edge, frequently updated software to create movies, documentaries, marketing material and more. Many of the features are customizable to fit your needs. You can get started by uploading your own clips, using this software to record your screen or capture multi-camera videos.

Key Features:

• Crop, trim, rotate and resize tools
• Templates, transitions and title presets
• Color correction
• Screen recorder
• Filters and effects

Best for: Improving editing skills

What’s the best video editing software to use?

Choosing video editing software comes down to personal preference. There is no one size fits all. However, we’ve done the research to uncover the best selection of video editing software. What’s even better is that you can find all the information right here in this article. Read on to discover the most impressive editing software for different uses and skill levels. Don’t forget your preferences when choosing editing software! 

Best YouTube video editing software for beginners

iMovie is a strong contender in this department due to ease of use. If you own an Apple product, learning the basics of iMovie is simple and can even be done on the go. However, if you have the time to seek your teeth into more powerful software, we recommend Adobe Premiere Elements.

There may be a slight learning curve for this software, but the features on offer are seriously impressive. Adobe Premiere Elements also offers a ‘Guided Edit’ mode. This gives clear guidance throughout the editing process, perfect for beginners to get to know the software.

Best free video editing software

There are great options for free video editing software for YouTube out there. If you’re on a tighter budget, what’s the best option? 

One of our top recommendations is DaVinci Resolve. It contains many features you would typically expect to pay for, like color correction and facial recognition software. Incredibly, you can access these tools with a free download. Once you’ve learned the ropes, you might choose to upgrade to the paid Studio version for additional tools.

Best video editing software for YouTube shorts

The introduction of short-form videos has seen a boom in viewers for many YouTube channels. Shorts are a great way to quickly capture someone’s attention and give them a glimpse into your channel. But you don’t need to go out of your way to create impressive shorts in addition to your long-form content.

With Riverside, you can create sharable YouTube shorts at the click of a button. Our clips creator automatically turns your long-form video into shareable snippets ideal for Shorts, reels and other social media content. 

 You can mark important moments while you record, and our editor will create clips from these points. After recording, you’ll find these automated clips in the editor where you can adjust them or create new ones completely. 

Riverside allows you to reformat your clip to the right aspect ratio for different social media sites. It’s quick and easy to do. Riverside’s automatic Editor tool will even take care of other tasks, like generating highly accurate SRT transcripts, so you can add captions to your Shorts in no time.

Tips for editing YouTube videos effectively

It can be hard to know the best way to edit your YouTube video to maximize quality and viewer count. There are a few tips used by many successful content creators that can benefit anyone. When you reach the postproduction stage, try the following to increase your success:

• Make an editing schedule to help you organize your workload and upload regularly.
• Use the rule of thirds to create scenes pleasing to the eye.
• Color correct your footage so that your shots appear realistic and natural.
• Add background music to create an atmosphere to your video.
• Repurpose clips for social media platforms to advertise your video or make new content from your footage.
• Regularly check your analytics to see what you can improve in editing, such as cropping your video length to keep viewers interested. 

FAQs on Best Video Editing Software for YouTube

What video editing software do most YouTubers use?

The editing software a YouTuber uses varies from creator to creator. While not every YouTuber has revealed which software they use, there are some popular choices. They include iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and Adobe Premiere Pro.

When looking for software for yourself, you should check the many available options. What’s best for one YouTuber may not fit your needs. Check out our list above to find the best video editing software for you.

What do famous YouTubers use to edit their videos?

Not all famous YouTubers use the same software to edit their videos. However, many YouTubers pay for advanced editing software to create the highest quality, most engaging content. 

For example, famous Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie uses Adobe Premiere Pro CC. This software is popular among content creators, however, each YouTuber has different needs. Because of this, a variety of video editing software is used by famous YouTubers. What works best for one person may not be ideal for you. Take a look at our software recommendations to find the best software to suit your preferences.