Video is everywhere, and it's only getting bigger. The global video streaming market is projected to reach a staggering $416.8 billion by 2030, meaning there has never been a better time to start creating.
However, editing is where most beginners get stuck.
Here’s the good news: you don’t need years of experience or expensive tools to create videos that look clean, polished, and ready for YouTube, TikTok, or your next product launch.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the best video editing software for beginners, both free and paid, and the specific features you need to get started.
✨ Bonus: We’ll also show you how Trupeer can help you generate training videos, technical writing, and even talking avatars, all from a screen recording. Yes, it’s that simple.

Top Video Editing Software for Beginners at a Glance

Here are the best video editing software for beginners compared.

What Makes a Video Editor Beginner-Friendly?
The best video editing software for beginners are designed to simplify the creative process without overwhelming you with complexity. Here are the key criteria to look for:

• Intuitive interface: Eliminate visual clutter with a distinct media library, timeline, and preview window

• Drag-and-drop timeline: Move clips, music, and images directly onto your timeline without dealing with hidden menus

• Built-in templates or presets: Apply ready-made transitions, effects, and layout formats to save time and avoid creative blocks

• Formats and resolutions: Choose standard file export formats (MP4, WebM, 720p, 1080p), adjust quality settings, and share marketing videos directly to YouTube or Instagram

• AI-powered tools: Use features like auto-captioning, background removal, or text-to-speech to simplify your workflow and produce content faster

🧠 Fun Fact: The first-ever motion picture was a photography experiment. In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge shot 24 still photos of a horse in motion to settle a bet. When played in sequence, it became one of the earliest motion pictures. And why did he do this? To answer: do all four hooves ever leave the ground? 

Best Free and Paid Video Editing Software for Beginners

Let’s look at our top picks for the best video editing software for beginners that strike the right balance between simplicity and capability. 

1. Trupeer (Windows or Mac) (Best for beginners creating any kind of video with AI-powered tools)

Generate Polished Videos With Trupeer 

If you're new to video editing, Trupeer's AI Screen Recorder takes away the pressure of getting everything perfect on the first try. Just hit record using its Chrome extension and walk through your demo, tutorial, video, or product walkthrough. 
It also turns your rough walkthrough into a polished video with auto-edited visuals, AI-generated voiceovers, and dynamic zoom effects that follow your clicks.

Let’s say you’re recording a how-to video on setting up your CRM. After recording, Trupeer automatically analyzes your screen actions and speech. The screen recording software generates a full transcript, detects clicks and pauses, and even identifies mistakes you corrected while talking. You can trim out the pauses and tighten your demo without scrubbing through timelines.

Trupeer’s AI Video editor perfects your script by removing filler words like ‘uh’ and ‘so basically…’ and fixes grammar issues. For example, if you said, ‘Now I’m just gonna click… oh wait, that’s the wrong tab,’ the AI rewrites it into a smooth explanation and syncs it with your video.
Don’t want to re-record your voice? You don’t have to. Trupeer lets you choose from over 100 natural-sounding AI voiceovers, including different accents, styles, and tones to match your brand's vibe.

And if you want to make it look like your video came from a pro team, Trupeer adds zoom effects where you click, overlays HD wallpapers, or branded slides. 
With its advanced AI avatar generator, you can insert an AI avatar using its HeyGen integration, perfect if you want an on-screen presence without actually being on camera.
Shubham Sadavat, GM - Product Strategy & Operations, shares how Trupeer makes a difference at Zetwerk: “At Zetwerk, we have distributed teams across geographies and functions. Knowledge transfer across hundreds of tools is a hassle. Trupeer helps us fix that at scale—with rich videos and guides that live forever.”

Trupeer best features

• AI voiceovers: Choose from 100+ natural-sounding voices powered by ElevenLabs, no need to record your own audio

• Extensive export options: Upload your edited video to your device as an MP4 or share a link directly

• Create documentation: Let Trupeer AI create step-by-step written documentation from your video, complete with screenshots, summaries, and instructions

• Custom branding: Keep videos consistent with your brand by adding logos, colors, and fonts, all without needing a designer or editor

• Instant translation for global reach: Convert your video script into 30+ languages using AI voiceovers with regional accents 

Trupeer pricing

• Free trial

• Pro: $40/month (billed annually)

• Scale: $199/month (billed annually)

• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Trupeer ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.8/5 (35+ reviews)

What are real-life users saying about Trupeer?

This G2 review really says it all:
“I create onboarding videos for my customers and send them instantly. It has cut down the time I spend explaining things over and over again”
📽️ Trupeer Insight: If you’re recording videos for internal knowledge dissemination, Trupeer's Training Video Generator can turn a screen recording into a structured training session. You can upload your footage or generate one with an avatar that lip-syncs to your script. It’s one of the best video editing software for beginners, especially if you’re making user guides, internal process videos, or onboarding courses.

Create Structured Training Videos With Trupeer

2. CyberLink PowerDirector (Best for fast editing with advanced effects on any device)

PowerDirector 365 for Mac brings professional-grade editing to your desktop, with a beginner-friendly interface.
Got a YouTube video or a cinematic idea in mind? PowerDirector makes it easier to bring it to life with tools like AI voice cleanup, one-click color correction, object tracking, and green screen effects. 

CyberLink PowerDirector best features

• Access a built-in media library, including stock videos, music, and motion graphics

• Use customizable templates and animations to produce polished content

• Edit with drag-and-drop features, multi-track timeline, and speed adjustment tools

CyberLink PowerDirector limitations

• Exporting high-resolution videos can be slow on older devices

• Full access to premium effects, stock assets, and AI tools requires a paid subscription

CyberLink PowerDirector pricing

• PowerDirector 2025 Ultimate: $139.99/month 

• PowerDirector 365: $59.99/year

• Director Suite 365: $139.99/year

CyberLink PowerDirector ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.3/5 (40+ reviews)

• Capterra: 4.3/5 (100+ reviews)

💡 Pro Tip: Use the And-But-Therefore (ABT) framework to keep viewers engaged. The A sets up the story (This happened…), B introduces conflict or contrast (But then…), and the T offers a resolution (Therefore…). Use visual transitions and sound cues to emphasize the shifts in story phases within your pick of the best video editing software for beginners. 

3. Adobe Premiere Pro (Best for professional-grade editing with full creative control)

Adobe Premiere Pro is designed for video editors who want to work efficiently without compromising quality. From trimming footage and mixing audio to crafting titles, its tools enable precision editing.
For added convenience, the Adobe Express Chrome extension can be used alongside Premiere Pro to quickly generate and repurpose assets directly from your browser. Instantly balance color across mixed footage without LUTs, great for multi-camera projects. 

Adobe Premier Pro best features

• Edit clips directly through transcribed text using the Text-Based Editing

• Use Generative Extend to stretch your clips or fill in missing moments, including ambient sound

• Find specific shots in seconds using everyday language with its AI-powered Media Intelligence

Adobe Premier Pro limitations

• Performance can lag or crash during larger projects, especially on computers without high-end specifications

• Several users report sluggish app startups and slow installation speeds, which makes it inefficient in comparison to the other best video editing software for beginners 

Adobe Premier Pro pricing

• Premier Pro: $22.99/month

• Creative Cloud Pro: $69.99/month 

Adobe Premier Pro ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.5/5 (1,600+ reviews)

• Capterra: 4.7/5 (500+ reviews)

What are real-life users saying about Adobe Premier Pro?

One reviewer puts it this way:
Whats helpful in Adobe Premiere Pro is the tools that are best and the shortcuts to use the tools make it more ease to use so. We use it frequently for our editing projects. The UI is friendly after the long use. ….The thing I dislike about Adobe Premiere Pro is that, the UI is a bit confusing but yeah over time we can use it properly.
🔍 Did You Know? YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. It was originally pitched as a video dating site before becoming the world’s largest video-sharing platform. Just over a year after launch, Google saw the platform’s potential and acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in October 2006.

4. Filmora (Best for quick edits with a modern interface and creative flair)

Filmora 14 combines powerful automation with a clean, beginner-friendly interface. From basic cuts to advanced tricks like motion tracking, video masking, and color grading, it keeps things simple but powerful.
What makes it stand out? A vast library of effects, transitions, stickers, and AR elements you can just drag and drop. It even comes with AI tools to clean up audio, blur faces, or remove video backgrounds in seconds. Filmora is a great option for editing YouTube videos, social media clips, tutorials, or just cool personal projects. 

Filmora best features

• Identify scene changes and cut longer videos into cleaner, more structured segments

• Separate people or products from backgrounds without a green screen

• Sync multiple camera angles on a single timeline and switch between views smoothly

• Sharpen blurry footage and upscale frame rates using cloud-powered tools

Filmora limitations

• Lacks advanced features for color correction and LUT manipulation as compared to other best video editing software for beginners

• Features like AI captions, background removal, and voice matching may require manual adjustments

Filmora pricing

• Basic: $9.99/month

• Advanced: $34.99/year

• Perpetual (Mac): $49.99 (One-time payment)

Filmora ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.5/5 (500+ reviews)

• Capterra: 4.5/5 (700+ reviews)

📽️ Trupeer Insight: Trupeer instantly converts screen recordings into structured technical writing. It’s a simple way to document workflows, create user manuals, or build internal SOPs. Export your content in the format you prefer and share it across teams in just a few clicks.

Turn Your Videos Into Documentation With Trupeer 

5. Movavi (Best for beginner-friendly editing with guided workflows)

Movavi Video Editor makes video creation approachable for beginners with its drag-and-drop interface, one-click AI features, and pre-built templates. All you have to do is cut, crop, and color-correct with tools designed to feel useful from day one.
With a collection of built-in effects, transitions, and overlays, Movavi lets you produce polished content for YouTube, social media, or professional use, like employee onboarding videos.

Movavi best features

• Hover over filters, transitions, and overlays to see them in action before applying

• Mix video layers with cinematic effects like lightning, fire, and double exposure to create stylized vlogs and highlight reels

• Attach graphics, emojis, or images to moving objects in your video with AI Motion Tracking 

Movavi limitations

• It may feel restrictive to users who want deep control over keyframes, audio mixing, or multi-cam editing

• Free trial exports include a Movavi watermark, making them less usable for public or client-facing content

Movavi pricing

• Video Suite: $29.95/month

• Video Suite Plus: $99.95/year

• Video Suite + Photo Editor: $104.95/year

Movavi ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.7/5 (400+ reviews)

• Capterra: 5/5 (50+ reviews)

What are real-life users saying about Movavi?

According to one G2 review:
Movavi Video Editor continues to impress with its balance of user-friendliness and powerful features, making it an excellent choice for both beginners and intermediate video editors….Sometimes it hangs meaning feels heavy in rendering. If there is a trial version free for 7 days, then it must include those features which the paid version has.

6. iMovie (Mac & iOS) (Best for simple video creation for Apple users)

If you're in the Apple ecosystem and want an easy way to start editing videos, iMovie is your go-to tool. You can turn spontaneous footage into cinematic clips using Magic Movie, edit on the go, and access pro-like features without the intimidating interface of high-end editors.
Magic Movie instantly assembles your clips into styled edits, complete with music and transitions. While Storyboards offer structured templates that teach visual storytelling step-by-step.

iMovie best features

• Create interactive videos with genre-specific shot lists and examples

• Add immersive backdrops and adjust focus points for a professional touch 

• Start a project on your iPhone and pick it up on your Mac or iPad with iCloud or AirDrop without re-importing files

• Add split screens, picture-in-picture, fade-ins, and ProRes support with a tap or swipe

iMovie limitations

• Only works on iOS or macOS; there’s no version for Windows or Android users

• Lacks advanced features like custom transitions, motion graphics, or keyframe animations for precise editing, unlike other best video editing software for beginners

iMovie pricing

• Free

iMovie ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.3/5 (540+ reviews)

• Capterra: 4.5/5 (420+ reviews)

🧠 Fun Fact: Louis Le Prince’s Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) runs for a mere 2.11 seconds, but it holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest surviving film. It features his family members in a garden, and one brother casually playing the accordion. 

7. CapCut (Mobile & Desktop) (Best for mobile-first editing with viral-ready effects)

CapCut offers an intuitive interface across mobile and desktop, allowing you to trim, merge, add music, apply filters, and adjust video speed. Built by ByteDance (yes, the same company behind TikTok), CapCut combines beginner-friendliness with a toolkit deep enough for serious creators. 
The platform offers advanced tools, including green screen editing, keyframe animations, and buttery-smooth slow motion, powered by optical flow. It’s free to use with optional pro upgrades and works across mobile, desktop, and browser. 

CapCut best features

• Access a rich media library filled with royalty-free music, stickers, filters, and visual effects to boost creativity without external downloads

• Automate editing tasks with AI-powered tools like auto-captioning, text-to-speech, motion tracking, and background removal

• Export polished videos without watermarks, even in the free version

CapCut limitations

• Exported files may not integrate smoothly with pro-grade software like Adobe Premiere Pro or Avid

• Doesn’t allow third-party plug-ins, limiting customization for experienced users

CapCut pricing

• Free trial 

• Standard: $5.99/month

• Pro: $19.99/month

• Team: $24.99/month

CapCut ratings and reviews

• G2: Not enough reviews

• Capterra: Not enough reviews

📽️ Trupeer Insight: Record your screen with Trupeer to create quick, high-quality product demo videos that show value. Highlight key actions, add voiceovers to explain benefits, and trim unnecessary steps to keep viewers engaged. Perfect for onboarding, landing pages, or quick sales pitches.

Screen-record walkthroughs with Trupeer

8. Clipchamp (Windows) (Best for browser-based editing with Microsoft 365 access)

Next up on our list for the best video editing software for beginners, we have Clipchamp, Microsoft’s built-in video editor for Windows. You can access it through the Start Menu, Microsoft Photos, Media Player, and even OneDrive. This makes it convenient to start editing right where your content lives.
With Clipchamp, you can build videos using a combination of your own media, ready-to-go templates, and a stock library of royalty-free music, images, and clips. The platform features essential tools such as trimming, cropping, filters, and animated text, while also introducing AI-assisted features that enhance editing speed and accuracy.

Clipchamp features

• Record directly from your screen, webcam, or both, great for tutorials, presentations, and game content

• Enhance footage with AI tools like silence removal, automatic subtitles, background cleanup, and voiceovers in 400+ voices

• Use ready-made templates for social media, work, or school to cut down on time and effort

Clipchamp limitations

• Browser-based editing can lag with large files or slower internet connections

• Lacks timeline precision and layer complexity found in professional-grade tools

Clipchamp pricing

• Free

• Premium: $11.99/month

Clipchamp ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.2/5 (30+ reviews)

• Capterra: 4.3/5 (80+ reviews)

What are real-life users saying about Clipchamp?

As one user put it: 
Clipchamp is very dynamic with AI inside for easy video creation and a lot of features that you can use in video editing manipulations. It is incomparable….Business account or school account is not allowed in Clipchamp, very odd. I think it is more of the necessity of organizations to create or edit videos.
🔍 Did You Know? The 18-second video ‘Me at the Zoo’ was uploaded on April 23, 2005, by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim. It’s simple: Karim stands in front of an elephant enclosure and talks about trunks. That’s it. Over 45 million views later, it’s now a legendary digital relic.
Start Your Video Journey with Trupeer
You don’t need complicated software to make a great video. The best video editing software for beginners are those that keep things simple, helps you stay focused, and provide room for growth.
If your goal is to create how-to videos, walkthroughs, or product demos, Trupeer offers everything in one place. You can screen record, edit, add voiceovers, and more, without any learning curve. 

So, what are you waiting for? Try Trupeer today! ✅