Throw in a wealth of titling options, readily connected ancillary apps (like Photoshop and After Effects), and a flexible, easy-to-use interface, and Premiere Pro is a no brainer.
We include Premiere Elements on the list mostly because it’s been an industry leader in the video editing game for some time. And .99 is not egregious, but we’re here to say that at that price, you’re mostly paying for the name. In the time since Premiere Elements’ inception, too many other products have surpassed it in speed and capability for us to place it among the cream of the crop. That’s to take nothing away from Premiere Elements’ usability, though—specifically for beginners.
One of the more dazzling of Premiere Pro’s tools is the Lumetri Color tool, which offers color adjustment and manipulation on par with that of a Photoshop. The multi-cam feature is also a winner—whereas most systems allow you to work with a limited number of camera angles, Premiere Pro’s latest iteration allows for an unlimited amount.
The editor is equally suited to both beginners and advanced users, as beginners can get a headstart by using any of the 4000+ templates on the platform, and advanced users can start from scratch. The 8Mn+ iStock catalogue also helps to spice up your creations.
The best video editing software for beginners in 2022
Are you a content or social media marketer looking to get in the video editing game for the sake of keeping up with the growing video trend? Don’t stress! Any of the above software apps would make a fine choice for a beginner.
Apple iMovie
Lumen5
Animaker
Nero Video
Corel VideoStudio
Filmora from Wondershare
CyberLink PowerDirector
InVideo
Adobe Premiere Elements
Pinnacle Studio
Adobe Premiere Pro
Apple Final Cut Pro
1. Apple iMovie
Apple iMovie. iMovie’s ten high-fidelity filters are some of the classiest in the video editing game; and if you’re shooting on your iPhone, or have been editing a project on your iPad, you can use AirDrop to wirelessly and seamlessly transfer your project over to your Mac.
Think about your budget, your current level of expertise, and how much time you’re willing to devote to learning a new skill. Whether you’re looking for the best video editing software for YouTube, or the responsibility has simply fallen on you to get your team’s video marketing strategy up to snuff—don’t wait around deliberating! Get invested in one of these video editing products, and make it yours.
Standout Features: Seamless Apple product integration; green-screen; audio and social platform integration
Pricing: Free with the purchase of a Mac
2. Lumen5
online video editor that enables anyone to easily create videos from their own videos, photos, text, and audio. Absolutely no video editing experience required. It’s a lightweight app that works in your web browser, so there’s no complex timeline, layers, or complexity. Just an intuitive drag-and-drop experience to tell your stories.
If video isn’t already an important part of your content marketing strategy, odds are it’s about to be. Web content is taking a turn toward video whether SEOs and content marketers like it or not. In fact, according to invideo, online videos make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic and 79% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy or download a piece of software by watching a video.
Nero Video holds its own on this list—it comes well-stocked with a lot of the tricks and effects you’ll find among other products vying for video editing supremacy, and as far as software for beginners, you can certainly do worse. If you’re going to spend money learning how to edit videos, however, you might want to steer clear. Nero just doesn’t have the speed and functionality of some of the other products listed here, and if its value proposition is its price, $50 is still not all that cheap.
Standout Features: Low pricing
Pricing: One-time payment of $39.95
5. Corel VideoStudio
Corel VideoStudio has all the characteristics of the other top-of-the-line products on this list, including 360-degree VR and 4k support, but it also has the distinction of being the first piece of consumer video editing software to offer motion tracking—which, if you’re not already familiar, is a feature that allows you to track specific objects throughout your cut (if you wanted, say, to point an arrow at one of your characters, blur out his face, or bestow him with a funny hat). Most of the products on this list come equipped with motion tracking, but VideoStudio still boasts one of the best motion tracking systems around.
Uniquely, InVideo has no watermark on its videos, even if you’re on the Free plan. If you’re starting out and not looking to spend a ton of money on software, InVideo is a great bet!
Standout Features: Motion tracking
Pricing: One-time payment of $99.99
6. Filmora from Wondershare
Filmora is about as multi-faceted as they come. Filmora is Wondershare’s standard, simple, high-quality video editing offering; but Wondershare also offers FilmoraGo (for mobile editing) and Filmora Scrn (for screen recording and editing). The design is intuitive and easy to use, and comes replete with filters, overlays, motion elements, transitions, and a small selection of royalty-free music. Here are a few more of the “basics” Filmora offers:
how to use music in your marketing here).
Standout features: Title tool; mobile and screen editing; “Easy Mode”
Pricing: Starts at $68.98 for a lifetime license
7. CyberLink PowerDirector
CyberLink PowerDirector on this list because its interface is, at the end of the day, pretty straightforward. Head to the product page, run through the tutorials, and you’ll be alright. There is within the interface, however, an embarrassment of options and effects. If you’re not willing to invest the time in learning all of them, it can get a bit overwhelming.
InVideo apart is that it’s completely hosted on the cloud. You never have to download software or worry about losing your progress. It’s completely browser-based and the editor holds up well even after being stocked with transitions, stickers, frames, and other tricks and features.
For all of its features, Pinnacle’s interface is still as user-friendly and intuitive as anything on this list. Thus, is you have the need for speed, and you don’t mind shelling out a few extra bucks for it, Pinnacle might be the product for you.
Here is a list of the best video editing software for beginners in 2022:
Standout Features: No Watermark, 4000+ templates, and 8Mn+ iStock Images & Videos
Pricing: $15/Month for the Business plan, and $30/Month for the Unlimited Plan.
9. Adobe Premiere Elements
Free download: Up your game with our free all-star online advertising playbook.
Pinnacle Studio—which, at $129.95 (the amount you’ll need to pay to edit 360-degree and 4k content with the “Ultimate” version), costs more than twice as much as VideoStudio. What do you get for the extra money? Well, not only does Pinnacle come readily equipped with all the features you’d expect from an upper-echelon product—motion tracking, 360-degree VR support, 4k support, multi-cam, etc.—but you’d be hard-pressed to find a faster product on the market in terms of rendering.
Let’s dive in! Here are our recs for the top best pieces of video editing software or video editing apps for beginners—from cheapest (i.e. free!) to most expensive.
Standout Features: Top-of-the-line rendering speeds; full range of features and support
Pricing: One-time payment of $129.95
11. Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is perhaps the most complete piece of video editing software around. Here’s a recent video promo for our free AdWords account structure guide we cut using Premiere Pro.
One of iMovie’s most coveted features is its green-screen, or “chroma-key” tool, which allows you to place your characters in exotic locations—Hawaii, say—at a moment’s notice. Want to overlay the scene with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”? iMovie ties directly in with iTunes and GarageBand, so you can easily implement custom tracks and sounds. When your movie’s finally ready to ship, release it into the wild using iMessage, Facebook, YouTube, or any other of iMovie’s succinctly connected platforms. To finish off, here is our list of the best video editing software for beginners:
Standout Features: Multi-cam and coloring options; title tool; easy integration with Adobe Products; straightforward interface
Pricing: $19.99/month
12. Apple Final Cut Pro X
Apple Final Cut Pro X. $299.99 might be a little steep for a product you may well have a difficult time understanding; but for those among you who enjoy a challenge, and who aspire to some level of professionalism in video editing, why not go for it? Apple has made the transition from iMovie to Final Cut Pro more painless than ever—so if you’re the kind of guy or gal who enjoys him/herself an Apple product, and has worked with iMovie to the point of mastery, it might be time to splurge on Final Cut Pro. The power is still daunting; the interface, significantly less so.
Standout Features: Magnetic Timeline; Touch Bar support
Pricing: One-time payment of $299.99
The best video editing software for beginners [recap]
P.S. If you’re not looking to edit and want to go with live, un-cut footage, learn how to go live on YouTube to share your stories, demos, how-tos, and more. You can also try Facebook Live or Instagram Live.
Not an expert? Don’t know how to edit videos, have a video studio, or have a bona fide video specialist to shoot and cut your features? That’s alright! The goal of today’s blog is to show you that with the right video editing software, you too can churn out sleek, professional video content—regardless of experience—and keep your content strategy ahead of the curve.
One of the knocks on VideoStudio is its speed, which lags notably behind some of the faster systems on this list, like CyberLink PowerDirector and Pinnacle Studio. Still: for a one-time payment of .99? You can do much worse.
The Guided Edits feature makes Adobe Premiere a particularly attractive option for beginners, as it allows them to take on both quick edits and advanced projects with substantial assistance from the software.
Apple iMovie: Seamless Apple product integration; green-screen; audio and social platform integration
