The Best 5 Video Editing Software in 2022
By Webismart Team
Give your footage a professional look by using the best video editing software available today.
The best video editing software will help you create great-looking videos, whether you’re a YouTuber or a professional video editor working in movies and TV. Plus, if you just want to edit together your holiday clips or family footage for fun, there’s some great software for that, too.
To help you out, we’ve rounded up the very best video editing software available today in the article below. And we explain, in a way that’s as free from technical jargon as possible, what each has to offer and what the main differences are between them.
01. Adobe Premiere Pro
SPECIFICATIONS
Platform: Windows, Mac
Key features: Multi-cam editing, 3D editing
free trial: 7 days Best for Video editing professionals, video editing students
REASONS TO BUY
+Industry standard
+Powerful features
+Constantly updated
REASONS TO AVOID
-Requires subscription
Adobe Premiere Pro is one of two industry-standard tools for video editing today. The other is Final Cut Pro (number 5 on our list), which is Mac only. As Premiere Pro works on both Windows and Mac, that makes it our number one pick for video editing professionals in 2022.
Premiere Pro is routinely used by professional video editors to create everything from YouTube videos to Hollywood movies, such as 2021 Oscar nominee Mank. It’s also commonly used in the workflow of designers, animators, and VFX artists. The interface enhances your productivity by dividing everything into different workspaces, such as editing, effects, and audio. Each workspace helps you to manage a specific task and minimizes distraction.
02. CyberLink PowerDirector 365
The best video editing software for experienced non-pros.
SPECIFICATIONS
Platform: Windows, Mac
Key features: Multi-cam editing, 360-degree video, motion tracking,
AI tools free trial: 30 days
Best for: Experienced non-professionals
REASONS TO BUY
+Powerful tool
+Stacks of features
+Choice of payment models
REASONS TO AVOID
-Tough for newbies
If you’re not working as a full-time video editor, Premiere Pro may be overkill. You’d be better off with a middleweight tool. And in our view, CyberLink PowerDirector 365, which is available for Windows and Mac, is the best video editing software for non-pros who have some experience in editing video.
While PowerDirector 365 isn’t as powerful and feature-rich as Premiere Pro, it’s not far off. And its cost, either as a one-off purchase or a monthly or annual subscription, is much more affordable.
Get cracking on the 100-track timeline and you’ll soon find yourself making the most of lots of stabilization and video correction tools, professional effects, multi-cam editing, motion tracking, and surprisingly easy trimming. There’s 360-degree video editing as well, together with support for all the file standards and formats you can imagine. Then there are slideshows, screen recording, DVD menus, object design tools, and more.
03. Adobe Premiere Elements
The best video editing software for beginners.
SPECIFICATIONS
Platform: Windows and Mac
Key features: Video stabilization, face detection, automatic motion tracking
Free trial: 30 days
Best for Video editing beginners and enthusiasts
REASONS TO BUY
+Easy to use
+Loads of features
REASONS TO AVOID
-Not as powerful as some tools
-Not the fastest
If you don’t need to edit video for work, but just want to play around with some family or holiday footage for fun, then the two tools listed above are far more complex than you need. Similarly, if you’d like to get into video editing, but have never done any before, their learning curve will be a bit intimidating. Instead, we recommend Adobe’s Premiere Elements, which is the best video editing software for beginners and casual users.
The latest version, Premiere Elements 2022, was released last October and includes a number of cool new features. You can now edit and export videos in social-friendly formats.
Its interface is very simple and visual, and you get all the video effects you need, including transitions, chroma-keying, and opacity. You can develop a fast workflow by harnessing smart search functionality, video stabilization options, and automated functions, such as motion tracking and smart toning.
04. Pinnacle Studio
Good video editing software for beginners using Windows.
SPECIFICATIONS
Platform: Windows
Key features: Multi-camera capture and editing, color controls, stop motion animation
Free trial: No, but the 30-day money-back guarantee
Best for: Beginners
REASONS TO BUY
+Super-simple to use
+Varied features
+Free effects, titles & templates
REASONS TO AVOID
-May be too basic for some
Never edited video before, and using a Windows computer? Pinnacle Studio is another good choice for getting started with video editing. Like Premiere Elements, it sits somewhere between the more basic free tools and professional-level video editing tools, both in terms of price and capability.
For a one-off payment, you get more than 1,500 effects, titles, and templates, six-track HD video editing, color correction tools, a dedicated stop motion feature, time remapping, and more. It’s very easy to use too.
The latest edition, version 25, was launched in August 2021 and brought everything nicely up to date. Highlights included the introduction of smart object tracking, 8K import, keyframe groups, new blend modes, and new audio features.
05. Final Cut Pro
The best video editing software for Mac.
SPECIFICATIONS
Platform: Mac
Key features: Multi-cam editing, intelligent color balancing
Free trial: 90-day
Best for: Video editing professionals, video editing students
REASONS TO BUY
+Versatile and powerful
+Optimised for Mac
+Generous free trial
REASONS TO AVOID
-No Windows version
Along with Premiere Pro, Apple’s Final Cut Pro is used today throughout the TV and movie professions. One of the main reasons to choose it is that, unlike Premiere Pro, it’s subscription-free: you pay once, and once only. Note, though, that it’s only available for Mac, not Windows.
Professional video editors love the Magnetic Timeline, grouping tools, a wide range of effects, good organizational features, and simple ways to add and edit audio. Other features include 360° video, HDR, and advanced tools for color correction. However, despite being so powerful and feature-rich, Final Cut Pro (which was known as Final Cut Pro X until that last letter was dropped in 2020), is surprisingly easy to use. And there are lots of resources to help newbies get up to speed: see our guide to the best Final Cut Pro tutorials for more on that.
As Apple software, Final Cut Pro is optimized to get the most out of your Mac. And as you’d expect, integrates nicely with other parts of Apple’s ecosystem, such as your Photos or iTunes collections. Every update to Final Cut Pro since its release has been made free. For instance, the latest release in November (10.6.1) improved performance when opening large libraries and introduced fixes for multiple file handling issues.
Which software is best for video editing?
Right now, Premiere Pro from Adobe tops our list of the best video editing software. This industry-standard, subscription-based tool is aimed at professionals and comes packed with sophisticated and powerful tools. And the latest features, released in October 2021, show just how committed Adobe is to continually update and improve it.
Thank you For Reading.
Team The Webismart.
