As a frequent contributor on Reddit, I often get asked "What's video editing program should I use?". The answer to that question is "Well, it depends.".

What tool you use depends on your budget, your system specs, the type of editing you want to do, the ammount of effort you are willing to put forward to learn the craft ..."

The main considerations for choosing a program

There are a LOT of Non-Linear Editors (NLE) out there ranging from free to thousands per year so the question we have here to start is are you looking for something free or are you looking to get a paid program and if you are lookin get a paid program, what's your budget.

Now, not all FREE video editing programs are bad, some of them are quite decent but most of them don't have the financial backing needed for constant developement and innovation so TYPICALLY the paid programs are better, typically.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of them and I've personally only ever used maybe 1/3 of the editors on that list myself.

Many of the free options above are actually quite good. I'll cover some of the editors I have personally used in the past in a bit more detail.

HitFilm

fxhome.com

I'm starting with the video editor that I used for several years for actual client work. I used the FREE version for about a year before purchasing a pro license and was a loyal customer until FXHome was purchased by Artlist in 2021 but before we get to discussing that aquisition, let's talk about the program itself.

HitFilm is a non-linear editor combined with a compositor. It feels very similar to Premiere and After Effects but with a fair bit less functionality. That's not to say that it isn't a capable program, on the contrary it is amazingly versatile and powerful but it lacks some of capabilities of Premiere and After Effects such as expressions for example.

HitFilm is VERY similar in function to Premiere and After Effects with it's layer based approach and the interface would feel very familiar to a Premiere user. Right out of th ebox it is capable of amazing compositing that could easily be used to create great VFX shots or motion graphics.

On the downside? It lacks the ability to add third party addons limiting it seriously as even Premiere has a thriving third party eco system (but the paid version does come with a toned down version of Mocha from BorisFX lacking the Power Mesh Warp tool). The main downside was it's aquisiton by Artlist during the COVID Pandemic. Since it's aquisition, development, as far as we users can tell, has stopped, the product is now subscription only, Artlist fired the FXHome team that used to manage the dynamic and fun FXHome YouTube, they shuttered the messageboards, are absent from the official discord ... basically it feels like the product has been shot in the back and left to die in a ditch. The last update (July 2023) gave users minor bug fixes and a new color picker, a far cry from past updates.

To quote one of my favourite Monthy Python Sketches:

'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!!

The program is still available and still amazing. Some people have identified some severe issues but I still run the last permanent version I had purchased from time to time and it's still great but, as far as I can tell, this is it. It's the end of the road for HtiFilm so use it at your own risk.

Davinci Resolve

www.blackmagicdesign.com

DaVinci Resolve, by Black Magic Design, is probably one of the best known editing suites out there. It is a full service program offering editing, compositing and audio. There is a ridiculously powerfull free version and a even more powerfull paid version.

Davinci's started it's existance as a colour grading tool that was used by major productions and, over time, Black Magic Design purchased other applications and merged then into the application creating a powerfull, all in one, video editing program.

The components that were added are Fusion, a node based compositing and vfx program and a Digital Audio Workstation by the name of Fairlight.

DaVinci offers all the tools needed to take a film through the entire post production process.

The Fusion tab is used to create motion grasphics or vfx shots and unlike HitFilm or premiere, it uses a node based approach for the compositing similar to the industry standard VFX tool: NUKE.

On the CON side of the program is that it requires a pretty powerful computer to use and even then the use of proxies isn't optional if you are going to do anything in Fusion.

Capcut

www.capcut.com/

Capcut is a bit of a strange beast, on it's website it says that it is a "Free all-in-one video editor for everyone to create anything anywhere" and for once, there is some truth in the advertising.

Capcut functions on both mobile and desktop and projects synch between both using the users account making this an interesting tool for someone who needs to edit on the go.

Now you would asusme that the tool is limited considering that it function on mobile and while, yes, it is limited it isn;t as limited as I originally tought it would be and it actually is a fairly competent editing program with a surprising number of powerful tools such as single point tracking, the ability to keyframe properties, AI powered tools such as background removal / AI powered rotoscoping tools, AI powered voice to text and more.

I personally don't use it very often but I still have it installed on my Samsung Galaxy S22 for the odd time I need to do a quick or not so quick edit and I don't find the experience too frustrating. If I had to, I could easily edit a corporate talking head on this, on my phone, with no problem, something that drove me insane a few years ago when a client contacted me in a panic while I was camping.

The desktop version is just as powerfull but easier to use due to better controls and larger screen space.

Would I edit a feature film or music video on this? NO! But a corporate talking head video would be very easy to do in this program.

Vegas

www.vegascreativesoftware.com/

Like DaVinci, Vegas originally started it's life as a specific program ... in this case it started off as a DAW or a Digital Audio Workstation along the lines of programs like Reaper, Audacity, Audition, Fairlight ... and evolved into a video editor.

Originally owned by Sony, it was sold in 2016 to Magix.

My own experience with Vegas is VERY dated. Pre 2016 and so I can't really talk much about it's current itteration. What also doesn't help is that Magix releases a new version of the program what feels like every 6 months and every new version has something like 4 editions confusing things even more.

There are essentially 3 version of Vegas currently with Vegas Pro Edit, Vegas Pro Suite and Vegas Pro Post as seen here: https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/ca/product-comparison/.

For people interested in Vegas they often put up older versions (2 or 3 version behind) up for sale on bundles on either Fanatical or Humble Bundle about once or twice a year for dirt cheap along with some of their music software.

For example, as of the writting of this article, there is a Vegas bundle on Humble Bundle currently offering Vegas Pro 19 Edit, Sound Forge Pro 15 and Magix Music Maker 2022 Premium with some music making assets for 34$ Canadian. On their site the current version of Vegas is version 21.

Oddly enough Fanatical also has a similar bundle without Sound Forge for 28$ Canadian here: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/content-creator-bundle-vegas-pro-19-edition

I did enjoy how the layers worked in the old Version of Sony Vegas I used (I think it was Sony Vegas 12 or 13) but I remember that masking was terribly tedious. Of course that information is very outdated at this point.