Best Mac Video Editing Software For Beginners Rating: 6,9/10 623 reviews

Summary

  1. Video Editing Software For Mac
  2. Best Mac Video Editing Software For Beginners Pc
  3. Best Mac Video Editing Software For Beginners

When we say basic video editors, we simply refer to easy video editors for beginners. These easy video editors provide basic video editing functions like cut, trim, merge, crop, etc. People often choose these programs only for simple video editing and prefer their small sizes for installation and use quickly.

Shotcut is highly versatile free video editing software available on Mac and PC. Once you get past the somewhat steep learning curve, you’ll find you can do quite a lot with Shotcut. And, since it’s a free software, you have the option of seeing whether or not you like it without having to pay a cent.

Anyone can use the easy-to-use video editing software because their learning curve is pretty short. So, learning those functions won't take more than few minutes.

But the biggest problems with some free video editing software are that they aren't capable of processing large videos, they seriously lack performance, they don't have many advanced video editing tools except one or two, and they don't support in-demand video formats. So, if you are anything serious, you should look for an advanced video editing software. But if your video editing demand and environment are basic in nature, you can rely on these software and can save a fortune.

Below you can find a well maintained list of 10 best basic video editors in 2020 with their pros and cons. Majority of these software applications are available to download for both Mac and Windows 10. Let's get started.

1. OpenShot

Openshot is an open source and free video editor which packs several basic and advanced video editing features. It pretty looks like iMovie but is more versatile than it. You can use OpenShot to resize, crop, cut, trim, scale your videos. It also supports 3D animated subtitles and watermarks.

Pros

  • It is open source so it has a good scope of further developments in future.
  • Packs good video editing tools.

Cons

  • Beginners need to take a while for getting used to it.
  • Not much tutorials are there for learning.

2. VideoPad

VideoPad is a nice and free video editor for those people who look for visual and transition effect along with footages editing toolkits. It also featured with a sound effects library which you can utilize to apply professional sound effects to your recordings. VideoPad also supports 3D video editing.

Pros

  • Easy to use UI and beginner friendly.
  • Lets you export videos directly to social platforms.
  • Built-in transitions and sound effects library.

Cons

  • Advanced features are missing.

3. VideoProc

VideoProc is an all-in-one powerful video editing software from Digiarty. The most astonishing feature of this software is the killer level-3 GPU acceleration which processes 4K/HD videos at fast rates. You can access all kinds of basic video editing tools in VideoProc including the most advanced tools like multi trim, multi split, advanced crop, merge, rotate etc. VideoProc has several advanced tools like MKV maker, GIF maker etc. which can't be found in most free video editors. You can download VideoProc to Mac and Windows from the links given below.

Pros

  • Nice UI with powerful video editing tools.
  • The advantage of dealing with 4K and HEVC videos, big size videos, high frame rate videos.
  • Integrated with video audio DVD conversion, video resizing downloading, recording, etc.
  • Powerful performance and GPU acceleration powered by Intel, AMD , and Nvidia.
  • Short learning curve.
  • Highly reliable.

Cons

  • Linear video editing software.
  • Cannot add music to footages.

4. FreeMake

FreeMake is a professional video converter, but before the conversion, it allows video joining, cutting, and rotating. But it is also one of the most basic video editor for beginners. It comes with a straightforward UI which allows you to find most of the options in a single window. Freemake can be used by beginners for essential video editing projects like adding watermarks, adding subtitles, merging, and clipping footages.

Pros

  • Easy to use UI and doesn't have confusing options.
  • Powerful to convert and resize 4K videos.

Cons

  • Purchase required for several video editing features.

5. VSDC

VSDC is only available for Windows 10 users. With VSDC you can learn several cool video editing features like editing the audio, adding shapes, animations, images etc. It can export the edited video to your desired video format.

Best mac video editing software for beginners

Pros

Best
  • Provides option to download screen recorder.
  • Built-in wizard which helps in video editing.

Cons

  • Not so user friendly.
  • Advanced features are paid.

6. Windows Movie Maker

This was used to be the all time and the default video editor for Microsoft Windows users. Windows movie maker was the best free video editor for Windows until Microsoft pulled it off. You can use it for all types of basic video editing, apply watermarks, create intros and outros for your videos. It was very good for vlogger and tutorial makers. There is no official way left to download the Windows Movie Maker. But some trusted and reliable sources can provide you the installation files. But make sure not to download any kind of malicious software which may pretend to be Windows Movie Maker.

Pros

  • Best free video editor on windows for beginners.
  • Easy to use and learn.
  • Good options to add voice-over, external audios.

Cons

  • May be risky to download from unofficial source as the file may contain malicious codes.

7. GoPro Quik

You might know that GoPro has developed a series of video editing app for mobiles, but do you notice they also stretch it to desktops? GoPro Quik has a desktop version for users who need to edit videos with templates, transitions and filters. You can also import photos and music to your video. For basic video editing, it is quite well-designed.

Pros

  • It is quite easy to learn.
  • Mobile and desktop versions satisfy all your basic editing needs.
  • It is free.

Cons

  • Users report that it quits randomly when you’re editing large files.

8. Shotcut

Shotcut is another open source basic video editing software for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It is quite a good option for the beginners. Shotcut supports a lot of output video formats, lots of filtre effects and chroma keys. The interface is also very good and not a confusing one. You can use Shotcut if you don't want to spend a single penny on paid video editors. Tutorial - how to use Shotcut

Pros

  • Multiple video format support.
  • Video filter effects.
  • Supports 3D titles and texts.

Cons

  • Less intuitive as compared to paid video editors.
  • No 3D video support.
  • Transition effects are only a few.

Video Editing Software For Mac

9. Avidemux

Another free and open source basic video editing software for beginners is Avidemux. It is also available for multiple platforms. Avidemux doesn't have any difficulty to work with popular video formats like AVI, MP4, MPEG etc. It fully support non-linear video editing, and multiple visual effects. Can be used to resize, deinterlace a video along with chroma shifts and addition of black borders.

Pros

  • Has many video editing features.
  • Automatically estimates the output file size.
  • Clean user interface.
  • Most trusted free video editor.

Cons

  • Unprofessional user interface.
  • Extra codecs required for non-common video formats.

10. iMovie

iMovie is only available for Mac users. Good thing about iMovie is that it can process 4K videos with ease. Apart from editing videos you can edit audio too with iMovie. iMovie is pretty porttable as you can start editing a video on your iDevice and can choose to finish on your Mac computer.

Pros

  • Easy to use interface.
  • Has a nice set of audio and video editing tools.

Cons

  • Not available for Windows users.
  • Lacks performance and advanced features and tools.

Tips for Choosing the Right Basic Video Editor

Want to know how we wrap up such a list for top basic video editing software? Mac app reduce eye strain. And desire to pick out a video editor that suits You most? Now, at the end of this article, we decide to release the hints of how to choose the right video editor for your basic video editing needs.

1. Choose the one that is lightweight and safe.

Searching on the Internet, you'll get millions of results for basic video editors. But among these results, some are not safe to download, and some are downloaded with virus plug-ins. So be cautious when downloading software. And basic video editors come without too many functions, so it is not worth too much computer space.

2. It should be easy to learn.

Basic video editor users tend to simply organize videos by trimming and cutting and then add some filters and texts. If a video editor makes these operations too complicated, why not turn to an advanced editing software in which you can get more features after a long term learning. So choose the basic video editor with an intuitive interface and easy learning curve.

3. Don't invest too much money in a basic video editor.

Obviously, basic video editors are not as robust as professional video editing software like Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas, or DaVinci Resolve. They are created for quick editing and instant SNS sharing, so packed with fewer features. It is not a wise move to spend much money buying a basic video editor. There are many cheap or even totally free open-source video editors responding to your calls.

4. Take into account your extra editing needs.

Best Mac Video Editing Software For Beginners Pc

Besides basic video editing, like cutting, merging, and rotating, different users have different extra needs. For example, most vloggers prefer video editors with numerous templates and themes so that they can arrange their daily video materials accordingly. For traveling video creators, they want UHD 4K videos to present stunning scenery to their audiences. Now they need a basic video editor that is capable of 4K video processing, like say VideoProc. A special video editing feature is also a crucial standard for basic video editor picking.

Best Mac Video Editing Software For Beginners

Conclusion

We hope that this article has saved your time which you might have invested in doing further reasearch about basic video editing software. But now you have got a compiled list of 10 such software therefore you should not need to continue your research further. Out of these 10 free video editing software tools for beginners, you can choose the one which best suits your needs. We recommend you VideoProc which is an all-in-one video editor with many other features like video conversion and downloading. However, as per your requirements you can also make a choice between shotcut, iMovie, and the other video editors listed above.