Best Video Editing Software in 2026 (I Tested Them All)

0:00If you're wanting to learn how to edit videos, there are a lot of different softwares that you can choose from and some are going to be a better fit than others. So, in this video, I'm going to break down the five most popular video editing softwares and show you their actual interfaces and walk you through their pros and cons of each software so you can figure out which one is right for you. So, the first software on our list is iMovie. So, this is Apple's free

0:23built-in editor for Mac and iOS devices. It's really the simplest on-ramp for most people getting into video editing who were already on Mac. So, when you open up iMovie, this is what it looks like. You can create some new projects. I've actually started a tutorial for this video where I imported some clips about this microphone and this is how the layout looks. And one of the biggest benefits to iMovie is it really is a very simple, user-friendly layout. You essentially just have your project media and your libraries over here on this left side as well as your media pool where you can pull all of your

0:55individual clips from. Then on this right side of the screen is your program window. So, whatever is playing right here is actually what you're going to see in your final edit. And then down below is a timeline. So, this is where you would put all of your video clips and edit them in to their final form. Now, iMovie uses an interesting technology for the timeline called the magnetic timeline. So, I'll show you what this looks like as I drag clips into the timeline. No matter what the clip is, if it's a video clip, it's going to magnetically snap to the end of the timeline sequence so nothing gets

1:27messed up and it's not floating around in all different locations. We can just play through the video in sequential order. So, everything is playing one clip right after another and I can move clips around just by reordering things just like this on the timeline. Now, if you did want to bring in some audio assets like sound effects or music or voiceovers, those would always be below your main video timeline. So, if you started stacking audio effects and clips, they would actually be below the timeline and we can zoom out and see what that's looking like. We can see audio is now being stacked in layers below my main A-roll. So, this is my

2:00A-roll section and this is my main audio timeline. And then, if I wanted to cover some of this footage, like let's say over here, this is me just talking to the camera, I wanted to cover this up with this clip of these microphones, I could stack video on top of my A-roll layer to cover some cuts. And just like any editing software, you can still make a bunch of cuts and adjustments to your video. If I wanted to come in here and make cuts right here, I can hit command B on my keyboard and it'll start making cuts just like that. I can delete any portions that I want and you can see the

2:29benefit of the magnetic timeline is everything just snaps right into place and I don't have to move and rearrange things around after I delete items. I actually started my editing career inside of iMovie, but very quickly I realized a lot of the limitations of the software, specifically around post-processing and effects and transitions. It really just is very limited here. Like you can see there are some transitions built in to iMovie, but they're pretty got a weird looking. Like you can see this wipe right or a wipe up or a circle open. Like these are all very strange transitions that I wouldn't really encourage people to actually use

3:04for their videos. Additionally, if I wanted to come in here and start color correcting some of my media, like a lot of the color correction tools are just really not very good. Yeah, you can do some basic saturation, contrast and warmth, but there's really not a lot of robust adjustments that you can create to your clips inside of iMovie. Another thing I don't love about iMovie is it uses this library system to manage your files and your projects. And so, what will happen is if you have files on maybe an external hard drive and you go ahead and want to edit some of those video clips inside of iMovie, what

3:37iMovie will do is actually copy those files into a brand new iMovie library event and then all of a sudden you have duplicate files and your system memory and storage capacities are filling up very quickly because iMovie's creating this duplicate library system to manage all of your data. Now, the reason they do this is for beginners to make sure it's easier for them to access their files, but a lot of time what ends up happening is a bunch of storage space is taken up on their computer, and they don't even realize that their iMovie library has hundreds of gigs of data inside of it, and there's not really an

4:08easy way to get that all cleaned up. So, even though there are quite a few limitations to iMovie, it still probably is the best beginner solution for somebody who is on a Mac system because you don't have to go out and try to download other softwares, it actually just comes pre-installed on your Mac. You can open it up, start importing video clips, and start editing your first videos. Now, the second editing software we'll talk about today is CapCut, and CapCut is one of the most popular video editing softwares in the world, and it's free to get started, and it's also cross-platform. So, whether you're on Mac or Windows devices, you

4:39can use CapCut to get started with editing. They also have a mobile editor that's very popular, and you can actually edit through a web-based experience, or if you want to download the desktop version, which is what I'm using for this video, you can do that as well. When you open up CapCut, this is how the interface looks, and you can create new projects or open recent projects. I actually just started one for this tutorial, so we can see how the interface looks. And so, over here on this left side, again, is your media pool, as well as some different effects and transitions. In the middle is your

5:09preview window for your timeline. So, if I were to import content to this bottom, which is actually my video timeline, it'll show the video clip there in the center of the screen, and then we have some additional effects and adjustments that we can do to our video over here on this right side. One of the things you'll notice right away with CapCut are you get access to a lot more professional features and presets and effects and transitions right here natively to the platform. If you look up here at this left side, here is some of the transitions you have access to. Now, if you see a purple diamond right here,

5:40this is part of the pro plan, so you would need to pay a fee to get access to these premium features, but there are a lot of native effects that work without paying any money at all. There's also automatic captioning if you want to add captions to your videos, whether they're long-form videos or short-form videos. People love using CapCut to edit shorts and TikToks and Instagram Reels. So, that's one of the main use cases you'll see with CapCut editors. Some of the cons though with the platform are first, there are some premium features that are behind a paywall. So, as soon as you start using CapCut, you'll realize,

6:10"Hey, I want to try out this feature or that feature." And all of a sudden, they're asking you to pay money or subscribe to a plan or log in. It's not as simple as just downloading the software and being able to start using it in whatever way you want. Also, there was some drama last year where TikTok was maybe going to be banned in the United States, and it was banned for like a day or two. And with that, since TikTok owns CapCut, everybody lost access to CapCut, as well. So, they couldn't edit their videos inside of CapCut, which is really strange. Now, this was resolved in about a day or two,

6:39but who knows in the future if there are other legal battles happening between TikTok and the United States government. It's not a US-based company currently, so there could be some issues down the road. Overall though, I think CapCut is a pretty major step up from iMovie in terms of feature and performance. So, if you are somebody just dipping your toes into the world of video editing, I think CapCut is a really strong starter option. Now, this next editing software on our list is Final Cut Pro. And this is Apple's professional video editing software, and it's kind of the natural next step for people who started on

7:10iMovie, but are ready to advance to something more professional. But in the last couple of years, they've really revamped the software to add professional features. So, when you open up Final Cut Pro, this is how the interface looks. And it honestly looks like kind of a hybrid between iMovie and CapCut in terms of the layout. On the left side, you have your library options, and then your media pool. In the middle is your preview window of

7:31whatever your video files are playing. And then on this right side is like an inspector window where you can make some adjustments to clips. And here's what that timeline looks like there at the bottom of the screen. But again, here with Final Cut, we also have that magnetic timeline where everything's going to snap into place. There are some ways that you can work around this. You can add like black videos to be able to stretch things out if you want some black space in between. So, there is more flexibility with Final Cut than there is iMovie. But to some people, you might still not love the idea of the

7:59magnetic timeline. Or alternatively, you might love the magnetic timeline and think it saves you a bunch of time. And I know a lot of people that swear by the magnetic timeline experience. So, it just kind of depends on your personal preference here. With the latest improvements, they've added automatic captioning, which saves you a lot of time if you want to add captions to your videos. They also added auto masking, which can isolate objects using intelligent AI to color correct things

8:22without having to do manual tracking. This is a crazy feature and really great for masking different subjects. And probably the biggest benefit for anybody choosing Final Cut Pro as their main editor of choice, you obviously have a Mac if you're choosing Final Cut Pro. And if you're editing on Macs, this is by far the fastest editing experience in terms of software and flow and editing

8:43high-quality 4K or 8K or 6K footage. Final Cut Pro has been optimized to work with these Mac systems, and you will just notice that right away. All of the editing inside of Final Cut feels blazing fast. Now, just like iMovie, it uses the library system to manage your files. But what's nice about Final Cut is if you go up here to the settings, you can enable an import setting right here called leave files in place. So, this means it's not going to copy all of your data to that library storage location, which is super annoying where it starts to duplicating files, and you got to remember to like go delete your

9:17main footage off of your hard drive if you don't want it to be copied over there. So, it's nice that you can just tell the software, "Don't be copying my files all around. Just leave the files in place." This is a really nice setting to turn on. If there are some cons to this software, of course, first, it's Mac only. So, if you're on a PC, you can't use it. Also, there is a bit of a learning curve versus iMovie. If you're a total beginner, this will feel a little bit more robust, like there are more things you can move around and mistakes you can make if you don't

9:42exactly know what you're doing. Versus iMovie feels kind of foolproof, like you really can't mess up a whole lot. Now, Final Cut Pro is not free. You do have a one-time purchase price of about $300, or it's also available with the Apple Creator Studio subscription, which is about 13 bucks a month, and that gets you access to all of Apple's creator applications like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Motion, etc. And if you're a student or educator and you have a .edu email address, you can actually purchase the entire creator bundle for I think $200 total. So, that gets you everything for $200, which is a really great price. So,

10:19if you're a student, you should definitely check that out. So, Final Cut Pro is a really capable software. There are professional creators like MKBHD who uses this software for editing all of his videos. Also, an editor I love, Daniel Schiffer, he's been editing on Final Cut Pro for years. So, totally this is a software that you'll be able to use for years to come. Now, our fourth software is Adobe Premiere Pro, and this is currently the software I use on a daily basis to edit all of my videos. Actually, the video you're watching right now was literally edited inside of Adobe Premiere Pro. So, here's the Premiere interface. This is what it

10:50looks like if you're editing inside of Premiere. In this bottom left, you have your assets and your media bin. So, if I go here and look at some footage, I can pull up maybe one of these clips and you'll see this load up in the top left window, which is your source window. So, this is where you're going to adjust all of your effects and see a lot of your settings like your audio mixers and

11:07everything is over here in this source. Now, if I drop footage into this timeline over here, this is my editing sequence timeline. So, this is where I could edit all of my A-roll and my B-roll and create my actual edit inside of Premiere. In this top right is my program windows. This is actually what's live and this will be the final output that I export. Now, over the years the layouts of Premiere have changed quite a bit and they've actually simplified things quite a lot, and I know maybe at first glance it seems like there's a lot going on with this software. But, what's nice is this new accordion-style

11:38workspaces. So, depending on which part of the production process you're in, in post if you are editing, you can click this editing workspace. Maybe if you are now are on the color correction phase, you can open up the color correction interface and start working on your color, adjusting your white balance or your exposure. You can do all of that right here with this color correction tab. And the color correcting inside of Premiere feels a lot like editing photos inside of Adobe Lightroom. So, that's a very familiar, world-class photo editing software that a lot of people use,

12:09photographers use to edit their photos. Well, color correcting footage in Premiere feels very similar to editing raw files inside of Lightroom. Now, one of the biggest reasons I actually love Premiere is that the timeline is not magnetic. So, if I wanted to come in here, zoom in on the timeline with me here, let's make a bunch of cuts in this video. So, imagine these are all different little clips of my video. And I wanted to work on like [music] the ending of the video over here, and then maybe this is the middle section, and this is the hook or the introduction. I can actually work on

12:39different parts of my edit at different times without everything automatically trying to like snap to these positions because the magnetic editors really want you to sort of edit your video more sequentially and keep everything refined. The way my brain works in particular is I like to spread out my puzzle pieces and work on different sections at one time. And maybe at different times I'll actually have two different videos on the same timeline. I would have like variation one over here on this left side, and then a second variation over at a different part of the timeline, which is kind of nice. It

13:08just gives you maximum flexibility. However you want to use your timeline, it's completely free form. Now, to others that might actually overwhelm them, and they love the magnetic nature of something like Final Cut. I totally understand that. It's just personal preference. Premiere also has a ton of world-class effects and audio processing built into the software, and they're updating the software always with new features. Currently right now in beta is a new color correction interface that actually moves a little bit closer to what DaVinci Resolve is doing. The

13:35interface looks completely different. There's a whole new array of color correction tools to make this a more serious program for people who want to do professional color grades. Now there are some cons with the software. It used to be way more buggy, but they've really updated that a lot, but sometimes the program might still crash on you from time to time because there really is a lot going on with the software. It gets a little complex for complete beginners to try to learn a program like Adobe Premiere. But of all of the cons I can think of, by far the biggest con to me

14:03is the subscription based pricing model. This program is super expensive. Now if you wanted to get only Premiere Pro, it's going to be about $23 a month. So you can't actually just buy the software standalone and use it forever. You have to pay a subscription based model and what most people actually do is pay closer to $55 to $70 per month for the entire Creative Cloud program, which gets you access to things like After Effects and Lightroom and Illustrator and Photoshop. So yeah, you're getting a bunch of professional softwares, but

14:34that price tag is super expensive. You're paying upwards of like 800 something dollars a year just to have access to all of those applications. And you multiply that over 10 to 20 years of using a software like this, you're giving thousands of dollars to Adobe to use their software. Now honestly, Premiere still is kind of the industry standard choice if you're working in teams or you're working with video production agencies and crews. I still do freelance editing from time to time and all of these production teams that I work with use Adobe products. So it can be really smart as a professional to just get to know this software and you

15:07might end up finding that that's your software of choice and you love it and you want to keep using it. I just know for a lot of people the price is definitely going to be a deterrent. Now that brings me to the fifth editing software on our list, which is DaVinci Resolve. And Resolve has picked up a lot of steam over the last couple years and dare I say this might actually be the number one software that we at Think Media would recommend for beginners and pros alike. In the past when people have thought of DaVinci Resolve for editing, the number one thing that people would

15:35think of is color grading inside of Resolve. The color grading features inside of Resolve are second to none. This is industry standard for color grading and it's easily the best color grading platform on the market. So, I just opened up the Resolve interface so you can check out how the interface looks and it looks very similar again to the rest of the programs. On the left side you have some of your media bin and all of these different clips that I've uploaded for this project. On the right side of the screen we see up here is the source window so you can see my timeline, any clips that are playing up

16:03in the source window is my real-time video feed. Down at the bottom of the interface they've added these tabs that are very similar to Premiere's workspaces. So, if you're working on cutting your video you could go to this cut tab. If you wanted to work on color, you could come to the color correction tab where you create different nodes and color grades up here in this corner which that would need a completely dedicated tutorial. We won't cover that in this video today, but this is where you would do your color grading inside of Resolve. Now, brand new tab they recently added in the last year is this

16:32photo editing tab and now you can actually upload photo albums and do your editing of your photos inside of Resolve. So, people back in the day you'd have to have DaVinci Resolve as your main primary video editor, but a lot of people still use Lightroom for all of their photo processing. But, with this new addition of the photo editing feature built into Resolve you can just open up one program to do all of your photo and video editing. And mind you, the biggest pro of all of this is that this software is completely free. The software that I'm currently navigating

17:02right now is actually the free version. So, everything you're seeing is available with the free version of DaVinci Resolve. It's by far the most powerful video editing and now photo editing software on the market. And if you do want to pay for the pro version and unlock a few additional features, It is only a one-time payment of $300. So, no subscription like Adobe Premiere. You can just pay a one-time fee and get

17:24access to all of those pro features. There's really not a whole lot of cons with DaVinci Resolve. The biggest thing you'll encounter as a beginner is there just is a pretty big learning curve. If you're opening the software for the first time, you might feel pretty overwhelmed at first, but it's kind of like with anything in life, the more time you spend practicing and spending time in the software, the easier it's going to be to start editing your videos with Resolve. Now, even still, CapCut seems to be where people like to begin if you've never edited a video before, and I have a full video breaking down

17:53how to edit your first YouTube video inside of CapCut. So, you can click or tap the screen to watch that right here, and I'll see you in the next video.