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"Professional Video Edits at Zero Price - Discover These Tools"
Professional Video Edits at Zero Price - Discover These Tools
The Best Free Video Editing Software for YouTube (Top 8 Reviews)
Richard Bennett
Dec 02, 2022• Proven solutions
What makes a YouTube video good? The most important element is obviously you, the creator. Your personality, ideas, and unique viewpoint are what will make your content special and turn viewers into subscribers.
The next most important thing – even more important than the camera you use – is editing.
Editing a YouTube video doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, it should be simple. Your focus when you’re perfecting your video should be on that ‘most important thing’ we mentioned earlier – your creativity. Editing for a YouTube video should be art, not mechanical engineering.
Below is a list of the top free video editing software ranked according to how appropriate it is for YouTube videos.
| Rank | Editor | Make Cuts | Audio Features | Multiple Video Tracks | Video Effects | Intuitive Score (1-5) | Compatibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | OpenShot Video Editor | Yes | Fade In/Out, set volume levels | Yes | Transitions, text, ability to animate. Blur/Saturation/Brightness controls. | 5 | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 2. | Shotcut | Yes | Detailed audio editing | Yes | You can customize color presets and other effects. No animations. | 4 | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 3. | Hitfilm Express | Yes | Audio effects and transitioning. | Yes | Every imaginable picture customization. Some FX (more if you pay). Text tool. | 4 | Windows, Mac |
| 4. | VideoPad Video Editor | Yes | Noise removal, equalizer, audio effects. | Yes | Moving text, transitions, filters. | 5 | Windows |
| 5. | Lightworks | Yes | Detailed audio editing | Yes | No premade effects, but you can add text/color edit. | 3 | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 6. | VSDC Video Editor | Yes | Some audio features blocked in free version | Yes | Filters, transitions, text, and more. | 1 | Windows |
| 7. | Machete Video Editor Lite | Yes | None | No | None | 3 | Windows |
| 8. | Avidemux | Yes | Some audio features | No | Some picture adjustments | 2 | Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD |
Ready to upgrade to a simple, powerful, paid software that’s perfect for YouTube? Check out the free trial of Wondershare Filmora . It is an advanced tool that is focused more on newbie editors who are new to the videography world but want to compete with professionals!
1. OpenShot Video Editor – Open Source (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Pros
- Easy to use
- Includes transitions
- Keyframing
- Alpha Channel
- Unlimited video tracks
OpenShot Video Editor Review
OpenShot completely lives up to the claim that it was designed to be ‘easy to use, quick to learn, and surprisingly powerful’.
The first time you use OpenShot there will be helpful tutorial notes to guide you through the program. The interface is intuitive enough that you may not always need them, but having them should erase any confusion.
All of the basic editing features, like cutting clips up, are easy to access in the timeline. You have unlimited tracks, and it’s easy to drag your clips between them. There’s a helpful magnet feature that fits clips together if you slide them together, but which still allows for blank space if you choose to leave it.
Most other functions – setting volume levels, adjusting the speed, adding movement/zoom effect – are accessible simply by right-clicking on your clip in the timeline and choosing what you want from the menu that pops up.
Is OpenShot Video Editor good for YouTube?
OpenShot is a great, free, choice for YouTubers at any editing skill level.
Beyond simply ordering your clips, OpenShot includes text and transition options within the program. You can even animate the text, and access Animated Titles if you use OpenShot in tandem with a free animation program called Blender. Titles and transitions are vital to a lot of popular YouTube styles.
OpenShot does not provide the same level of detail as the runner up, Shotcut, when it comes to color correction or audio editing. However, the features it does have (volume levels, control of saturation) will satisfy most YouTubers.
2. Shotcut – Open Source (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Pros
- Detailed audio editing
- Color grading, ability to save presets
- Fairly intuitive timeline
Shotcut Review
Shotcut delivers a smooth, detailed, editing experience for free. It is not as easy to jump into as some of the other programs on this list, but it still only takes a half-hour or so of playing around to understand it well enough to make a video. There are also tutorials up on Shotcut’s site that can help you.
You can edit using multiple video tracks in Shotcut, making it easy to combine multiple clips, and basic functions like splitting or copying clips are as easy as clicking the right icon on the toolbar.
All of the video and audio effects, including things like chroma key, you might want to apply to your video are found under the Filters menu. It will look empty when you first open it, and you have to click the plus sign to see what your options are. If you want to create a color tint (like what you might think of as an Instagram filter) then you can do that through the Color Grading option. If you want to do something like invert your colors or add an ‘old film’ look, you’ll find that here as well along with all of the audio editing features (balance, bass and treble, and gain to name just a few).
Is Shotcut good for YouTube?
Shotcut is a great choice for YouTubers. It allows you to do some advanced editing, and it’s easy to learn compared to a program targeted at professional editors.
The only complication with Shotcut for entry-level editors who will primarily use the program for YouTube might be that animations – like moving text – are not available through the program (you can add and customize text, but it just sits there). You can get them from elsewhere and use them in the program (Shotcut has an alpha channel), but it’s a bit more involved a process than simply customizing something that’s already provided.
3. Hitfilm Express – Windows, Mac
Pros
- Compositing mode (2D and 3D)
- The Most effect customization
- Helpful User Guide & tutorials
Cons
- Can be overwhelming
- Its main strength is FX, but you only get a couple for free. Most have to be bought separately.
Hitfilm Express Review
Hitfilm Express is the best free editor if you want to add special effects to your projects. OpenShot’s alpha channel will be enough for most people, but if you think of yourself as an aspiring filmmaker then it’s hard to beat Hitfilm’s range of functions.
This is an editor designed for people who want to make movies, and it’s a lot more intuitive than most professional-grade software. Film-quality FX (lasers, explosions, etc.) are available through Hitfilm Express for a reasonable price ($10-$50, depending on what you want), and even without paying extra for the packs, there’s a lot you can do to give your video a ‘film look’ using compositing layers and the multitude of customizable effects provided through the program.
Another highlight of Hitfilm Express is the extensive selection of tutorials and helpful information they have available both through YouTube videos and their User Guide. You will need those because this program can be overwhelming. It has so many functions and areas you can customize that it is easy to get lost.
That said, basic editing in Hitfilm Express is not difficult to jump into. It’s only when you start getting fancy that things get dicey.
Is Hitfilm Express good for YouTube?
Yes. It will not be the best option for everyone, but it’s not a bad option for anyone either.
If what you want to make is a vlog where you have a series of clips, and intro, and maybe a couple of title effects, then Hitfilm express might be overkill. You don’t want to have to master compositing just to add some text.
If what you want to make is a vlog that’s interrupted by an alien invasion and turns into an action sequence with lasers and falling debris, it’d be hard to do better than Hitfilm Express.
4. VideoPad Video Editor – Windows
Pros
- Easy to jump into
- Moving text
- Huge audio waveforms
- Audio and visual effects
- Lossless exports
Cons
- No longer updated
VideoPad Video Editor Review
VideoPad Video Editor is an extremely easy to use program. It may be the easiest program on this list to jump into, which you could also realistically create your entire video inside (there are easier programs, but you can only do some of your work in them). Part of its simplicity comes from not being as feature-rich as the programs ranking higher than it on this list, however.
You do not get the same range of functions with VideoPad as you do from the top 3 free editors, but it has enough to satisfy people who are just starting out. Creating moving text effects is easy, you have huge audio waves to work with while you’re syncing, and effects like transitions and filters are easy to find.
VideoPad does suffer a bit from being dated. This program is no longer being worked on, and the interface doesn’t look particularly modern. This is a bit more than a cosmetic issue because some features, while not difficult to find, are placed a bit oddly compared to other editors.
One slightly annoying feature of VideoPad is that it will prompt you to buy the commercial version sometimes (the free version is only for non-commercial use). There have been reports of exports being blocked in the free version, but I exported several times for the sake of this review and the issue never came up.
Is VideoPad Video Editor good for YouTube?
VideoPad makes a decent YouTube editor. You can jump right in and start making cuts, adding filters, and ordering your clips. If you have the kind of channel where voiceovers are important (like in gaming or makeup), then you’ll be happy with the size of the audio waves you have to work with for syncing.
The thing about VideoPad is that you’re probably going to outgrow it quickly as you become a more capable editor.
5. Lightworks – Windows, Mac, Linux
Pros
- Detailed color and audio editing
- Multicam editing
Cons
- Exports limited to 720p for the free version
- Difficult to learn compared to other free software
Lightworks Review
On their website, Lightworks claims to have an ‘intuitive interface’ and ‘easy timeline editing’. This is true if you compare it to other professional-level editing suites. Compared to the other programs on this list, Lightworks is complicated.
The first thing I attempt when I review this program is to simply split a clip, and it took me a ridiculous amount of time to figure this feature out in Lightworks (a more advanced editor could have found it faster, but these reviews are meant to help people with less experience). Lightworks does have a whole tutorial series on using the software, so if you are interested in learning to use it there is ample material out there to help you.
Lightworks has a wide range of functions (i.e. detailed audio editing and color correction), and it has been used for big movies like ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. It is the most professional program on this list, and it’s a great free alternative to something like Adobe Premiere Pro.
Note: there is no time limit on the free version of Lightworks, but it will ask you to renew your free license every 7 days. When it says your license is ‘expired’ it isn’t kicking you off the free version, you just need to renew.
Is Lightworks good for YouTube?
Whether or not Lightworks is right for your YouTube channel depends on your goals as a video editor.
If what you want is to jump in and start making YouTube videos quickly, Lightworks might not be a great choice. It’s not an easy program to just jump into, you’ll have to either take time to learn it or accept that it’ll take some trial and error to get the hang of.
If what you want is to become a professional-level video editor, then Lightworks is a great program to start on (although, Hitfilm Express may still be better). Taking the time to learn it could certainly pay off in the long run.
However, if one of your priorities is for your YouTube channel to come across as professional, then the free version of Lightworks does have some disappointing limitations. You can only export videos in 720p, which is lower quality than viewers on YouTube expect (you probably want at least 1080p). Your output format is limited too. The royalty-free audio and video content Lightworks offers are also not free; you can just buy them through the program.
6. VSDC Video Editor – Windows
Pros
- Diagrams and charts
- How To Get Started Guide
- Lots of features
Cons
- Very confusing
- Paid features show up in the free version, but they’re blocked
Review of VSDC Video Editor
There’s a lot to like about VSDC Video Editor, but you have to do a lot of work to uncover any of it. Accessing even the most basic features is confusing.
One of the first things I tried to do as I tested the program was make a jump cut (where you cut out part of a video so the playback ‘jumps over’ the deleted segment) and, while I was able to do it, it was not an intuitive process. There is a multitude of toolbars and icons surrounding your preview window in VSDC, and none of those icons was for making cuts to your clips. To make any cuts you have to find the ‘cutting and splitting’ option under the Editor tab at the top of the page, which will open a second window in which you still cannot make any cuts. Instead what you can do is place markers, and when you click ‘apply changes’ to exit the window cuts will be made where you placed markers. There is nothing in the window to explain what the markers are for.
Other basic functions, like adding text, are just as complicated.
Is VSDC Video Editor good for YouTube?
I would not recommend VSDC for YouTube. It ranks higher than two other items on this list because they are, do to functional limitations, unable to create full YouTube videos without the support of other programs (at least realistically). You certainly could create your full YouTube video in VSDC, but it’d be a headache.
7. Machete Video Editor Lite – Windows
Pros
- Great for harvesting clips from longer footage
- Lossless exports
Cons
- Cannot swap or add audio
- Only supports two formats (AVI and WMV)
- Slightly awkward timeline
Machete Video Editor Lite Review
Machete Lite claims that you’ll be able to edit your videos “within a few minutes after downloading the program, even if you’ve never edited a video before”, and that is true. It might even be better if you haven’t edited a video before because the interface is slightly awkward if you’ve come from a program with a more traditional timeline setup. Machete Lite is easy to use for the most part, but it doesn’t work like most other editors and that can be awkward to navigate around.
Instead of seeing a timeline with all of your individual clips, Machete treats your entire video as one clip. You will only be able to see where you have inserted a separate video clip or cut out a portion of the video by watching the video back or jumping through it (Machete Lite does allow frame-by-frame scrolling). You won’t be able to see this information at a glance, and you won’t be able to adjust the lengths of clips you’ve added separately.
To take out any portion of your overall video you’ll need to find a keyframe at the beginning, set that as the beginning of your selection, then find a key frame at the end and set that as the end of your selection. You will then be able to delete that selection. This will not work if the frames you have set as the beginning and end are not considered keyframes by the program, so it can be difficult to be precise, but since the program allows you to jump through keyframes it’s not difficult to find a point that works.
Is Machete Video Editor Lite good for YouTube?
Machete Lite is not a good choice for YouTubers unless it is used in combination with another program.
It doesn’t work as a YouTube editor because you cannot edit or swap audio, the transition between clips, or create layers of videos and images.
However, the thing Machete Lite is really good at is cutting out clips from longer videos. You can create a selection of a part of your longer clip and then export it (with no quality loss) as its own video file.
This is what the Machete Lite toolbar looks like when you’ve created a selection. Tools like cut and copy which were greyed out before are now available, as is the save icon on the far right. If you click the save icon, you’ll be able to save that selection as its own video.
You can’t create a complete YouTube video in Machete Lite, but you can harvest clips to use in a different program.
8. Avidemux – Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD
Pros
- Can add subtitle files
Cons
- Not intuitive
- Doesn’t support MOV or WMV
- The website is not informative, no tutorials
Avidemux Review
Avidemux is not an easy program to jump into. I almost wrote that it couldn’t do anything besides make cuts to a clip before I saw a YouTube tutorial about how to find the contrast and brightness tools. If you decide to try it out, remember that you have to choose your output format before Avidemux will let you access tools like Hue/Saturation and Contrast (click Filters under Video Output to find them).
There are no official tutorials for Avidemux you can access from their site, so you’ll have to rely on the forums and tutorials from users if you want to learn it.
You can import multiple clips into Avidemux, but you have to import them in the order you want because you can’t drag them around the timeline after. Everything becomes one big clip.
Is Avidemux good for YouTube?
No. It has more functionality than Machete, which is ranked higher on this list, but the difference is that Machete is excellent at one thing. They both suffer from the same main weakness – you could not complete your full YouTube video either (at least not without a lot of trouble). Machete could still be useful to a YouTuber, though, because it allows for the lossless exporting of segments of clips. You can use it to harvest clips for your larger project in another program.
In theory, you could do some picture editing and snipping in Avidemux and then put your project together/add titles in another program, but your other program can probably do all that just as well if not better. Avidemux isn’t a bad program, but it doesn’t excel at anything. There are a lot of better options which are also free.
What has your experience with free video editors been like?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Dec 02, 2022• Proven solutions
What makes a YouTube video good? The most important element is obviously you, the creator. Your personality, ideas, and unique viewpoint are what will make your content special and turn viewers into subscribers.
The next most important thing – even more important than the camera you use – is editing.
Editing a YouTube video doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, it should be simple. Your focus when you’re perfecting your video should be on that ‘most important thing’ we mentioned earlier – your creativity. Editing for a YouTube video should be art, not mechanical engineering.
Below is a list of the top free video editing software ranked according to how appropriate it is for YouTube videos.
| Rank | Editor | Make Cuts | Audio Features | Multiple Video Tracks | Video Effects | Intuitive Score (1-5) | Compatibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | OpenShot Video Editor | Yes | Fade In/Out, set volume levels | Yes | Transitions, text, ability to animate. Blur/Saturation/Brightness controls. | 5 | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 2. | Shotcut | Yes | Detailed audio editing | Yes | You can customize color presets and other effects. No animations. | 4 | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 3. | Hitfilm Express | Yes | Audio effects and transitioning. | Yes | Every imaginable picture customization. Some FX (more if you pay). Text tool. | 4 | Windows, Mac |
| 4. | VideoPad Video Editor | Yes | Noise removal, equalizer, audio effects. | Yes | Moving text, transitions, filters. | 5 | Windows |
| 5. | Lightworks | Yes | Detailed audio editing | Yes | No premade effects, but you can add text/color edit. | 3 | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 6. | VSDC Video Editor | Yes | Some audio features blocked in free version | Yes | Filters, transitions, text, and more. | 1 | Windows |
| 7. | Machete Video Editor Lite | Yes | None | No | None | 3 | Windows |
| 8. | Avidemux | Yes | Some audio features | No | Some picture adjustments | 2 | Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD |
Ready to upgrade to a simple, powerful, paid software that’s perfect for YouTube? Check out the free trial of Wondershare Filmora . It is an advanced tool that is focused more on newbie editors who are new to the videography world but want to compete with professionals!
1. OpenShot Video Editor – Open Source (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Pros
- Easy to use
- Includes transitions
- Keyframing
- Alpha Channel
- Unlimited video tracks
OpenShot Video Editor Review
OpenShot completely lives up to the claim that it was designed to be ‘easy to use, quick to learn, and surprisingly powerful’.
The first time you use OpenShot there will be helpful tutorial notes to guide you through the program. The interface is intuitive enough that you may not always need them, but having them should erase any confusion.
All of the basic editing features, like cutting clips up, are easy to access in the timeline. You have unlimited tracks, and it’s easy to drag your clips between them. There’s a helpful magnet feature that fits clips together if you slide them together, but which still allows for blank space if you choose to leave it.
Most other functions – setting volume levels, adjusting the speed, adding movement/zoom effect – are accessible simply by right-clicking on your clip in the timeline and choosing what you want from the menu that pops up.
Is OpenShot Video Editor good for YouTube?
OpenShot is a great, free, choice for YouTubers at any editing skill level.
Beyond simply ordering your clips, OpenShot includes text and transition options within the program. You can even animate the text, and access Animated Titles if you use OpenShot in tandem with a free animation program called Blender. Titles and transitions are vital to a lot of popular YouTube styles.
OpenShot does not provide the same level of detail as the runner up, Shotcut, when it comes to color correction or audio editing. However, the features it does have (volume levels, control of saturation) will satisfy most YouTubers.
2. Shotcut – Open Source (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Pros
- Detailed audio editing
- Color grading, ability to save presets
- Fairly intuitive timeline
Shotcut Review
Shotcut delivers a smooth, detailed, editing experience for free. It is not as easy to jump into as some of the other programs on this list, but it still only takes a half-hour or so of playing around to understand it well enough to make a video. There are also tutorials up on Shotcut’s site that can help you.
You can edit using multiple video tracks in Shotcut, making it easy to combine multiple clips, and basic functions like splitting or copying clips are as easy as clicking the right icon on the toolbar.
All of the video and audio effects, including things like chroma key, you might want to apply to your video are found under the Filters menu. It will look empty when you first open it, and you have to click the plus sign to see what your options are. If you want to create a color tint (like what you might think of as an Instagram filter) then you can do that through the Color Grading option. If you want to do something like invert your colors or add an ‘old film’ look, you’ll find that here as well along with all of the audio editing features (balance, bass and treble, and gain to name just a few).
Is Shotcut good for YouTube?
Shotcut is a great choice for YouTubers. It allows you to do some advanced editing, and it’s easy to learn compared to a program targeted at professional editors.
The only complication with Shotcut for entry-level editors who will primarily use the program for YouTube might be that animations – like moving text – are not available through the program (you can add and customize text, but it just sits there). You can get them from elsewhere and use them in the program (Shotcut has an alpha channel), but it’s a bit more involved a process than simply customizing something that’s already provided.
3. Hitfilm Express – Windows, Mac
Pros
- Compositing mode (2D and 3D)
- The Most effect customization
- Helpful User Guide & tutorials
Cons
- Can be overwhelming
- Its main strength is FX, but you only get a couple for free. Most have to be bought separately.
Hitfilm Express Review
Hitfilm Express is the best free editor if you want to add special effects to your projects. OpenShot’s alpha channel will be enough for most people, but if you think of yourself as an aspiring filmmaker then it’s hard to beat Hitfilm’s range of functions.
This is an editor designed for people who want to make movies, and it’s a lot more intuitive than most professional-grade software. Film-quality FX (lasers, explosions, etc.) are available through Hitfilm Express for a reasonable price ($10-$50, depending on what you want), and even without paying extra for the packs, there’s a lot you can do to give your video a ‘film look’ using compositing layers and the multitude of customizable effects provided through the program.
Another highlight of Hitfilm Express is the extensive selection of tutorials and helpful information they have available both through YouTube videos and their User Guide. You will need those because this program can be overwhelming. It has so many functions and areas you can customize that it is easy to get lost.
That said, basic editing in Hitfilm Express is not difficult to jump into. It’s only when you start getting fancy that things get dicey.
Is Hitfilm Express good for YouTube?
Yes. It will not be the best option for everyone, but it’s not a bad option for anyone either.
If what you want to make is a vlog where you have a series of clips, and intro, and maybe a couple of title effects, then Hitfilm express might be overkill. You don’t want to have to master compositing just to add some text.
If what you want to make is a vlog that’s interrupted by an alien invasion and turns into an action sequence with lasers and falling debris, it’d be hard to do better than Hitfilm Express.
4. VideoPad Video Editor – Windows
Pros
- Easy to jump into
- Moving text
- Huge audio waveforms
- Audio and visual effects
- Lossless exports
Cons
- No longer updated
VideoPad Video Editor Review
VideoPad Video Editor is an extremely easy to use program. It may be the easiest program on this list to jump into, which you could also realistically create your entire video inside (there are easier programs, but you can only do some of your work in them). Part of its simplicity comes from not being as feature-rich as the programs ranking higher than it on this list, however.
You do not get the same range of functions with VideoPad as you do from the top 3 free editors, but it has enough to satisfy people who are just starting out. Creating moving text effects is easy, you have huge audio waves to work with while you’re syncing, and effects like transitions and filters are easy to find.
VideoPad does suffer a bit from being dated. This program is no longer being worked on, and the interface doesn’t look particularly modern. This is a bit more than a cosmetic issue because some features, while not difficult to find, are placed a bit oddly compared to other editors.
One slightly annoying feature of VideoPad is that it will prompt you to buy the commercial version sometimes (the free version is only for non-commercial use). There have been reports of exports being blocked in the free version, but I exported several times for the sake of this review and the issue never came up.
Is VideoPad Video Editor good for YouTube?
VideoPad makes a decent YouTube editor. You can jump right in and start making cuts, adding filters, and ordering your clips. If you have the kind of channel where voiceovers are important (like in gaming or makeup), then you’ll be happy with the size of the audio waves you have to work with for syncing.
The thing about VideoPad is that you’re probably going to outgrow it quickly as you become a more capable editor.
5. Lightworks – Windows, Mac, Linux
Pros
- Detailed color and audio editing
- Multicam editing
Cons
- Exports limited to 720p for the free version
- Difficult to learn compared to other free software
Lightworks Review
On their website, Lightworks claims to have an ‘intuitive interface’ and ‘easy timeline editing’. This is true if you compare it to other professional-level editing suites. Compared to the other programs on this list, Lightworks is complicated.
The first thing I attempt when I review this program is to simply split a clip, and it took me a ridiculous amount of time to figure this feature out in Lightworks (a more advanced editor could have found it faster, but these reviews are meant to help people with less experience). Lightworks does have a whole tutorial series on using the software, so if you are interested in learning to use it there is ample material out there to help you.
Lightworks has a wide range of functions (i.e. detailed audio editing and color correction), and it has been used for big movies like ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. It is the most professional program on this list, and it’s a great free alternative to something like Adobe Premiere Pro.
Note: there is no time limit on the free version of Lightworks, but it will ask you to renew your free license every 7 days. When it says your license is ‘expired’ it isn’t kicking you off the free version, you just need to renew.
Is Lightworks good for YouTube?
Whether or not Lightworks is right for your YouTube channel depends on your goals as a video editor.
If what you want is to jump in and start making YouTube videos quickly, Lightworks might not be a great choice. It’s not an easy program to just jump into, you’ll have to either take time to learn it or accept that it’ll take some trial and error to get the hang of.
If what you want is to become a professional-level video editor, then Lightworks is a great program to start on (although, Hitfilm Express may still be better). Taking the time to learn it could certainly pay off in the long run.
However, if one of your priorities is for your YouTube channel to come across as professional, then the free version of Lightworks does have some disappointing limitations. You can only export videos in 720p, which is lower quality than viewers on YouTube expect (you probably want at least 1080p). Your output format is limited too. The royalty-free audio and video content Lightworks offers are also not free; you can just buy them through the program.
6. VSDC Video Editor – Windows
Pros
- Diagrams and charts
- How To Get Started Guide
- Lots of features
Cons
- Very confusing
- Paid features show up in the free version, but they’re blocked
Review of VSDC Video Editor
There’s a lot to like about VSDC Video Editor, but you have to do a lot of work to uncover any of it. Accessing even the most basic features is confusing.
One of the first things I tried to do as I tested the program was make a jump cut (where you cut out part of a video so the playback ‘jumps over’ the deleted segment) and, while I was able to do it, it was not an intuitive process. There is a multitude of toolbars and icons surrounding your preview window in VSDC, and none of those icons was for making cuts to your clips. To make any cuts you have to find the ‘cutting and splitting’ option under the Editor tab at the top of the page, which will open a second window in which you still cannot make any cuts. Instead what you can do is place markers, and when you click ‘apply changes’ to exit the window cuts will be made where you placed markers. There is nothing in the window to explain what the markers are for.
Other basic functions, like adding text, are just as complicated.
Is VSDC Video Editor good for YouTube?
I would not recommend VSDC for YouTube. It ranks higher than two other items on this list because they are, do to functional limitations, unable to create full YouTube videos without the support of other programs (at least realistically). You certainly could create your full YouTube video in VSDC, but it’d be a headache.
7. Machete Video Editor Lite – Windows
Pros
- Great for harvesting clips from longer footage
- Lossless exports
Cons
- Cannot swap or add audio
- Only supports two formats (AVI and WMV)
- Slightly awkward timeline
Machete Video Editor Lite Review
Machete Lite claims that you’ll be able to edit your videos “within a few minutes after downloading the program, even if you’ve never edited a video before”, and that is true. It might even be better if you haven’t edited a video before because the interface is slightly awkward if you’ve come from a program with a more traditional timeline setup. Machete Lite is easy to use for the most part, but it doesn’t work like most other editors and that can be awkward to navigate around.
Instead of seeing a timeline with all of your individual clips, Machete treats your entire video as one clip. You will only be able to see where you have inserted a separate video clip or cut out a portion of the video by watching the video back or jumping through it (Machete Lite does allow frame-by-frame scrolling). You won’t be able to see this information at a glance, and you won’t be able to adjust the lengths of clips you’ve added separately.
To take out any portion of your overall video you’ll need to find a keyframe at the beginning, set that as the beginning of your selection, then find a key frame at the end and set that as the end of your selection. You will then be able to delete that selection. This will not work if the frames you have set as the beginning and end are not considered keyframes by the program, so it can be difficult to be precise, but since the program allows you to jump through keyframes it’s not difficult to find a point that works.
Is Machete Video Editor Lite good for YouTube?
Machete Lite is not a good choice for YouTubers unless it is used in combination with another program.
It doesn’t work as a YouTube editor because you cannot edit or swap audio, the transition between clips, or create layers of videos and images.
However, the thing Machete Lite is really good at is cutting out clips from longer videos. You can create a selection of a part of your longer clip and then export it (with no quality loss) as its own video file.
This is what the Machete Lite toolbar looks like when you’ve created a selection. Tools like cut and copy which were greyed out before are now available, as is the save icon on the far right. If you click the save icon, you’ll be able to save that selection as its own video.
You can’t create a complete YouTube video in Machete Lite, but you can harvest clips to use in a different program.
8. Avidemux – Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD
Pros
- Can add subtitle files
Cons
- Not intuitive
- Doesn’t support MOV or WMV
- The website is not informative, no tutorials
Avidemux Review
Avidemux is not an easy program to jump into. I almost wrote that it couldn’t do anything besides make cuts to a clip before I saw a YouTube tutorial about how to find the contrast and brightness tools. If you decide to try it out, remember that you have to choose your output format before Avidemux will let you access tools like Hue/Saturation and Contrast (click Filters under Video Output to find them).
There are no official tutorials for Avidemux you can access from their site, so you’ll have to rely on the forums and tutorials from users if you want to learn it.
You can import multiple clips into Avidemux, but you have to import them in the order you want because you can’t drag them around the timeline after. Everything becomes one big clip.
Is Avidemux good for YouTube?
No. It has more functionality than Machete, which is ranked higher on this list, but the difference is that Machete is excellent at one thing. They both suffer from the same main weakness – you could not complete your full YouTube video either (at least not without a lot of trouble). Machete could still be useful to a YouTuber, though, because it allows for the lossless exporting of segments of clips. You can use it to harvest clips for your larger project in another program.
In theory, you could do some picture editing and snipping in Avidemux and then put your project together/add titles in another program, but your other program can probably do all that just as well if not better. Avidemux isn’t a bad program, but it doesn’t excel at anything. There are a lot of better options which are also free.
What has your experience with free video editors been like?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Dec 02, 2022• Proven solutions
What makes a YouTube video good? The most important element is obviously you, the creator. Your personality, ideas, and unique viewpoint are what will make your content special and turn viewers into subscribers.
The next most important thing – even more important than the camera you use – is editing.
Editing a YouTube video doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, it should be simple. Your focus when you’re perfecting your video should be on that ‘most important thing’ we mentioned earlier – your creativity. Editing for a YouTube video should be art, not mechanical engineering.
Below is a list of the top free video editing software ranked according to how appropriate it is for YouTube videos.
| Rank | Editor | Make Cuts | Audio Features | Multiple Video Tracks | Video Effects | Intuitive Score (1-5) | Compatibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | OpenShot Video Editor | Yes | Fade In/Out, set volume levels | Yes | Transitions, text, ability to animate. Blur/Saturation/Brightness controls. | 5 | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 2. | Shotcut | Yes | Detailed audio editing | Yes | You can customize color presets and other effects. No animations. | 4 | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 3. | Hitfilm Express | Yes | Audio effects and transitioning. | Yes | Every imaginable picture customization. Some FX (more if you pay). Text tool. | 4 | Windows, Mac |
| 4. | VideoPad Video Editor | Yes | Noise removal, equalizer, audio effects. | Yes | Moving text, transitions, filters. | 5 | Windows |
| 5. | Lightworks | Yes | Detailed audio editing | Yes | No premade effects, but you can add text/color edit. | 3 | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 6. | VSDC Video Editor | Yes | Some audio features blocked in free version | Yes | Filters, transitions, text, and more. | 1 | Windows |
| 7. | Machete Video Editor Lite | Yes | None | No | None | 3 | Windows |
| 8. | Avidemux | Yes | Some audio features | No | Some picture adjustments | 2 | Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD |
Ready to upgrade to a simple, powerful, paid software that’s perfect for YouTube? Check out the free trial of Wondershare Filmora . It is an advanced tool that is focused more on newbie editors who are new to the videography world but want to compete with professionals!
1. OpenShot Video Editor – Open Source (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Pros
- Easy to use
- Includes transitions
- Keyframing
- Alpha Channel
- Unlimited video tracks
OpenShot Video Editor Review
OpenShot completely lives up to the claim that it was designed to be ‘easy to use, quick to learn, and surprisingly powerful’.
The first time you use OpenShot there will be helpful tutorial notes to guide you through the program. The interface is intuitive enough that you may not always need them, but having them should erase any confusion.
All of the basic editing features, like cutting clips up, are easy to access in the timeline. You have unlimited tracks, and it’s easy to drag your clips between them. There’s a helpful magnet feature that fits clips together if you slide them together, but which still allows for blank space if you choose to leave it.
Most other functions – setting volume levels, adjusting the speed, adding movement/zoom effect – are accessible simply by right-clicking on your clip in the timeline and choosing what you want from the menu that pops up.
Is OpenShot Video Editor good for YouTube?
OpenShot is a great, free, choice for YouTubers at any editing skill level.
Beyond simply ordering your clips, OpenShot includes text and transition options within the program. You can even animate the text, and access Animated Titles if you use OpenShot in tandem with a free animation program called Blender. Titles and transitions are vital to a lot of popular YouTube styles.
OpenShot does not provide the same level of detail as the runner up, Shotcut, when it comes to color correction or audio editing. However, the features it does have (volume levels, control of saturation) will satisfy most YouTubers.
2. Shotcut – Open Source (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Pros
- Detailed audio editing
- Color grading, ability to save presets
- Fairly intuitive timeline
Shotcut Review
Shotcut delivers a smooth, detailed, editing experience for free. It is not as easy to jump into as some of the other programs on this list, but it still only takes a half-hour or so of playing around to understand it well enough to make a video. There are also tutorials up on Shotcut’s site that can help you.
You can edit using multiple video tracks in Shotcut, making it easy to combine multiple clips, and basic functions like splitting or copying clips are as easy as clicking the right icon on the toolbar.
All of the video and audio effects, including things like chroma key, you might want to apply to your video are found under the Filters menu. It will look empty when you first open it, and you have to click the plus sign to see what your options are. If you want to create a color tint (like what you might think of as an Instagram filter) then you can do that through the Color Grading option. If you want to do something like invert your colors or add an ‘old film’ look, you’ll find that here as well along with all of the audio editing features (balance, bass and treble, and gain to name just a few).
Is Shotcut good for YouTube?
Shotcut is a great choice for YouTubers. It allows you to do some advanced editing, and it’s easy to learn compared to a program targeted at professional editors.
The only complication with Shotcut for entry-level editors who will primarily use the program for YouTube might be that animations – like moving text – are not available through the program (you can add and customize text, but it just sits there). You can get them from elsewhere and use them in the program (Shotcut has an alpha channel), but it’s a bit more involved a process than simply customizing something that’s already provided.
3. Hitfilm Express – Windows, Mac
Pros
- Compositing mode (2D and 3D)
- The Most effect customization
- Helpful User Guide & tutorials
Cons
- Can be overwhelming
- Its main strength is FX, but you only get a couple for free. Most have to be bought separately.
Hitfilm Express Review
Hitfilm Express is the best free editor if you want to add special effects to your projects. OpenShot’s alpha channel will be enough for most people, but if you think of yourself as an aspiring filmmaker then it’s hard to beat Hitfilm’s range of functions.
This is an editor designed for people who want to make movies, and it’s a lot more intuitive than most professional-grade software. Film-quality FX (lasers, explosions, etc.) are available through Hitfilm Express for a reasonable price ($10-$50, depending on what you want), and even without paying extra for the packs, there’s a lot you can do to give your video a ‘film look’ using compositing layers and the multitude of customizable effects provided through the program.
Another highlight of Hitfilm Express is the extensive selection of tutorials and helpful information they have available both through YouTube videos and their User Guide. You will need those because this program can be overwhelming. It has so many functions and areas you can customize that it is easy to get lost.
That said, basic editing in Hitfilm Express is not difficult to jump into. It’s only when you start getting fancy that things get dicey.
Is Hitfilm Express good for YouTube?
Yes. It will not be the best option for everyone, but it’s not a bad option for anyone either.
If what you want to make is a vlog where you have a series of clips, and intro, and maybe a couple of title effects, then Hitfilm express might be overkill. You don’t want to have to master compositing just to add some text.
If what you want to make is a vlog that’s interrupted by an alien invasion and turns into an action sequence with lasers and falling debris, it’d be hard to do better than Hitfilm Express.
4. VideoPad Video Editor – Windows
Pros
- Easy to jump into
- Moving text
- Huge audio waveforms
- Audio and visual effects
- Lossless exports
Cons
- No longer updated
VideoPad Video Editor Review
VideoPad Video Editor is an extremely easy to use program. It may be the easiest program on this list to jump into, which you could also realistically create your entire video inside (there are easier programs, but you can only do some of your work in them). Part of its simplicity comes from not being as feature-rich as the programs ranking higher than it on this list, however.
You do not get the same range of functions with VideoPad as you do from the top 3 free editors, but it has enough to satisfy people who are just starting out. Creating moving text effects is easy, you have huge audio waves to work with while you’re syncing, and effects like transitions and filters are easy to find.
VideoPad does suffer a bit from being dated. This program is no longer being worked on, and the interface doesn’t look particularly modern. This is a bit more than a cosmetic issue because some features, while not difficult to find, are placed a bit oddly compared to other editors.
One slightly annoying feature of VideoPad is that it will prompt you to buy the commercial version sometimes (the free version is only for non-commercial use). There have been reports of exports being blocked in the free version, but I exported several times for the sake of this review and the issue never came up.
Is VideoPad Video Editor good for YouTube?
VideoPad makes a decent YouTube editor. You can jump right in and start making cuts, adding filters, and ordering your clips. If you have the kind of channel where voiceovers are important (like in gaming or makeup), then you’ll be happy with the size of the audio waves you have to work with for syncing.
The thing about VideoPad is that you’re probably going to outgrow it quickly as you become a more capable editor.
5. Lightworks – Windows, Mac, Linux
Pros
- Detailed color and audio editing
- Multicam editing
Cons
- Exports limited to 720p for the free version
- Difficult to learn compared to other free software
Lightworks Review
On their website, Lightworks claims to have an ‘intuitive interface’ and ‘easy timeline editing’. This is true if you compare it to other professional-level editing suites. Compared to the other programs on this list, Lightworks is complicated.
The first thing I attempt when I review this program is to simply split a clip, and it took me a ridiculous amount of time to figure this feature out in Lightworks (a more advanced editor could have found it faster, but these reviews are meant to help people with less experience). Lightworks does have a whole tutorial series on using the software, so if you are interested in learning to use it there is ample material out there to help you.
Lightworks has a wide range of functions (i.e. detailed audio editing and color correction), and it has been used for big movies like ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. It is the most professional program on this list, and it’s a great free alternative to something like Adobe Premiere Pro.
Note: there is no time limit on the free version of Lightworks, but it will ask you to renew your free license every 7 days. When it says your license is ‘expired’ it isn’t kicking you off the free version, you just need to renew.
Is Lightworks good for YouTube?
Whether or not Lightworks is right for your YouTube channel depends on your goals as a video editor.
If what you want is to jump in and start making YouTube videos quickly, Lightworks might not be a great choice. It’s not an easy program to just jump into, you’ll have to either take time to learn it or accept that it’ll take some trial and error to get the hang of.
If what you want is to become a professional-level video editor, then Lightworks is a great program to start on (although, Hitfilm Express may still be better). Taking the time to learn it could certainly pay off in the long run.
However, if one of your priorities is for your YouTube channel to come across as professional, then the free version of Lightworks does have some disappointing limitations. You can only export videos in 720p, which is lower quality than viewers on YouTube expect (you probably want at least 1080p). Your output format is limited too. The royalty-free audio and video content Lightworks offers are also not free; you can just buy them through the program.
6. VSDC Video Editor – Windows
Pros
- Diagrams and charts
- How To Get Started Guide
- Lots of features
Cons
- Very confusing
- Paid features show up in the free version, but they’re blocked
Review of VSDC Video Editor
There’s a lot to like about VSDC Video Editor, but you have to do a lot of work to uncover any of it. Accessing even the most basic features is confusing.
One of the first things I tried to do as I tested the program was make a jump cut (where you cut out part of a video so the playback ‘jumps over’ the deleted segment) and, while I was able to do it, it was not an intuitive process. There is a multitude of toolbars and icons surrounding your preview window in VSDC, and none of those icons was for making cuts to your clips. To make any cuts you have to find the ‘cutting and splitting’ option under the Editor tab at the top of the page, which will open a second window in which you still cannot make any cuts. Instead what you can do is place markers, and when you click ‘apply changes’ to exit the window cuts will be made where you placed markers. There is nothing in the window to explain what the markers are for.
Other basic functions, like adding text, are just as complicated.
Is VSDC Video Editor good for YouTube?
I would not recommend VSDC for YouTube. It ranks higher than two other items on this list because they are, do to functional limitations, unable to create full YouTube videos without the support of other programs (at least realistically). You certainly could create your full YouTube video in VSDC, but it’d be a headache.
7. Machete Video Editor Lite – Windows
Pros
- Great for harvesting clips from longer footage
- Lossless exports
Cons
- Cannot swap or add audio
- Only supports two formats (AVI and WMV)
- Slightly awkward timeline
Machete Video Editor Lite Review
Machete Lite claims that you’ll be able to edit your videos “within a few minutes after downloading the program, even if you’ve never edited a video before”, and that is true. It might even be better if you haven’t edited a video before because the interface is slightly awkward if you’ve come from a program with a more traditional timeline setup. Machete Lite is easy to use for the most part, but it doesn’t work like most other editors and that can be awkward to navigate around.
Instead of seeing a timeline with all of your individual clips, Machete treats your entire video as one clip. You will only be able to see where you have inserted a separate video clip or cut out a portion of the video by watching the video back or jumping through it (Machete Lite does allow frame-by-frame scrolling). You won’t be able to see this information at a glance, and you won’t be able to adjust the lengths of clips you’ve added separately.
To take out any portion of your overall video you’ll need to find a keyframe at the beginning, set that as the beginning of your selection, then find a key frame at the end and set that as the end of your selection. You will then be able to delete that selection. This will not work if the frames you have set as the beginning and end are not considered keyframes by the program, so it can be difficult to be precise, but since the program allows you to jump through keyframes it’s not difficult to find a point that works.
Is Machete Video Editor Lite good for YouTube?
Machete Lite is not a good choice for YouTubers unless it is used in combination with another program.
It doesn’t work as a YouTube editor because you cannot edit or swap audio, the transition between clips, or create layers of videos and images.
However, the thing Machete Lite is really good at is cutting out clips from longer videos. You can create a selection of a part of your longer clip and then export it (with no quality loss) as its own video file.
This is what the Machete Lite toolbar looks like when you’ve created a selection. Tools like cut and copy which were greyed out before are now available, as is the save icon on the far right. If you click the save icon, you’ll be able to save that selection as its own video.
You can’t create a complete YouTube video in Machete Lite, but you can harvest clips to use in a different program.
8. Avidemux – Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD
Pros
- Can add subtitle files
Cons
- Not intuitive
- Doesn’t support MOV or WMV
- The website is not informative, no tutorials
Avidemux Review
Avidemux is not an easy program to jump into. I almost wrote that it couldn’t do anything besides make cuts to a clip before I saw a YouTube tutorial about how to find the contrast and brightness tools. If you decide to try it out, remember that you have to choose your output format before Avidemux will let you access tools like Hue/Saturation and Contrast (click Filters under Video Output to find them).
There are no official tutorials for Avidemux you can access from their site, so you’ll have to rely on the forums and tutorials from users if you want to learn it.
You can import multiple clips into Avidemux, but you have to import them in the order you want because you can’t drag them around the timeline after. Everything becomes one big clip.
Is Avidemux good for YouTube?
No. It has more functionality than Machete, which is ranked higher on this list, but the difference is that Machete is excellent at one thing. They both suffer from the same main weakness – you could not complete your full YouTube video either (at least not without a lot of trouble). Machete could still be useful to a YouTuber, though, because it allows for the lossless exporting of segments of clips. You can use it to harvest clips for your larger project in another program.
In theory, you could do some picture editing and snipping in Avidemux and then put your project together/add titles in another program, but your other program can probably do all that just as well if not better. Avidemux isn’t a bad program, but it doesn’t excel at anything. There are a lot of better options which are also free.
What has your experience with free video editors been like?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Dec 02, 2022• Proven solutions
What makes a YouTube video good? The most important element is obviously you, the creator. Your personality, ideas, and unique viewpoint are what will make your content special and turn viewers into subscribers.
The next most important thing – even more important than the camera you use – is editing.
Editing a YouTube video doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, it should be simple. Your focus when you’re perfecting your video should be on that ‘most important thing’ we mentioned earlier – your creativity. Editing for a YouTube video should be art, not mechanical engineering.
Below is a list of the top free video editing software ranked according to how appropriate it is for YouTube videos.
| Rank | Editor | Make Cuts | Audio Features | Multiple Video Tracks | Video Effects | Intuitive Score (1-5) | Compatibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | OpenShot Video Editor | Yes | Fade In/Out, set volume levels | Yes | Transitions, text, ability to animate. Blur/Saturation/Brightness controls. | 5 | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 2. | Shotcut | Yes | Detailed audio editing | Yes | You can customize color presets and other effects. No animations. | 4 | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 3. | Hitfilm Express | Yes | Audio effects and transitioning. | Yes | Every imaginable picture customization. Some FX (more if you pay). Text tool. | 4 | Windows, Mac |
| 4. | VideoPad Video Editor | Yes | Noise removal, equalizer, audio effects. | Yes | Moving text, transitions, filters. | 5 | Windows |
| 5. | Lightworks | Yes | Detailed audio editing | Yes | No premade effects, but you can add text/color edit. | 3 | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 6. | VSDC Video Editor | Yes | Some audio features blocked in free version | Yes | Filters, transitions, text, and more. | 1 | Windows |
| 7. | Machete Video Editor Lite | Yes | None | No | None | 3 | Windows |
| 8. | Avidemux | Yes | Some audio features | No | Some picture adjustments | 2 | Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD |
Ready to upgrade to a simple, powerful, paid software that’s perfect for YouTube? Check out the free trial of Wondershare Filmora . It is an advanced tool that is focused more on newbie editors who are new to the videography world but want to compete with professionals!
1. OpenShot Video Editor – Open Source (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Pros
- Easy to use
- Includes transitions
- Keyframing
- Alpha Channel
- Unlimited video tracks
OpenShot Video Editor Review
OpenShot completely lives up to the claim that it was designed to be ‘easy to use, quick to learn, and surprisingly powerful’.
The first time you use OpenShot there will be helpful tutorial notes to guide you through the program. The interface is intuitive enough that you may not always need them, but having them should erase any confusion.
All of the basic editing features, like cutting clips up, are easy to access in the timeline. You have unlimited tracks, and it’s easy to drag your clips between them. There’s a helpful magnet feature that fits clips together if you slide them together, but which still allows for blank space if you choose to leave it.
Most other functions – setting volume levels, adjusting the speed, adding movement/zoom effect – are accessible simply by right-clicking on your clip in the timeline and choosing what you want from the menu that pops up.
Is OpenShot Video Editor good for YouTube?
OpenShot is a great, free, choice for YouTubers at any editing skill level.
Beyond simply ordering your clips, OpenShot includes text and transition options within the program. You can even animate the text, and access Animated Titles if you use OpenShot in tandem with a free animation program called Blender. Titles and transitions are vital to a lot of popular YouTube styles.
OpenShot does not provide the same level of detail as the runner up, Shotcut, when it comes to color correction or audio editing. However, the features it does have (volume levels, control of saturation) will satisfy most YouTubers.
2. Shotcut – Open Source (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Pros
- Detailed audio editing
- Color grading, ability to save presets
- Fairly intuitive timeline
Shotcut Review
Shotcut delivers a smooth, detailed, editing experience for free. It is not as easy to jump into as some of the other programs on this list, but it still only takes a half-hour or so of playing around to understand it well enough to make a video. There are also tutorials up on Shotcut’s site that can help you.
You can edit using multiple video tracks in Shotcut, making it easy to combine multiple clips, and basic functions like splitting or copying clips are as easy as clicking the right icon on the toolbar.
All of the video and audio effects, including things like chroma key, you might want to apply to your video are found under the Filters menu. It will look empty when you first open it, and you have to click the plus sign to see what your options are. If you want to create a color tint (like what you might think of as an Instagram filter) then you can do that through the Color Grading option. If you want to do something like invert your colors or add an ‘old film’ look, you’ll find that here as well along with all of the audio editing features (balance, bass and treble, and gain to name just a few).
Is Shotcut good for YouTube?
Shotcut is a great choice for YouTubers. It allows you to do some advanced editing, and it’s easy to learn compared to a program targeted at professional editors.
The only complication with Shotcut for entry-level editors who will primarily use the program for YouTube might be that animations – like moving text – are not available through the program (you can add and customize text, but it just sits there). You can get them from elsewhere and use them in the program (Shotcut has an alpha channel), but it’s a bit more involved a process than simply customizing something that’s already provided.
3. Hitfilm Express – Windows, Mac
Pros
- Compositing mode (2D and 3D)
- The Most effect customization
- Helpful User Guide & tutorials
Cons
- Can be overwhelming
- Its main strength is FX, but you only get a couple for free. Most have to be bought separately.
Hitfilm Express Review
Hitfilm Express is the best free editor if you want to add special effects to your projects. OpenShot’s alpha channel will be enough for most people, but if you think of yourself as an aspiring filmmaker then it’s hard to beat Hitfilm’s range of functions.
This is an editor designed for people who want to make movies, and it’s a lot more intuitive than most professional-grade software. Film-quality FX (lasers, explosions, etc.) are available through Hitfilm Express for a reasonable price ($10-$50, depending on what you want), and even without paying extra for the packs, there’s a lot you can do to give your video a ‘film look’ using compositing layers and the multitude of customizable effects provided through the program.
Another highlight of Hitfilm Express is the extensive selection of tutorials and helpful information they have available both through YouTube videos and their User Guide. You will need those because this program can be overwhelming. It has so many functions and areas you can customize that it is easy to get lost.
That said, basic editing in Hitfilm Express is not difficult to jump into. It’s only when you start getting fancy that things get dicey.
Is Hitfilm Express good for YouTube?
Yes. It will not be the best option for everyone, but it’s not a bad option for anyone either.
If what you want to make is a vlog where you have a series of clips, and intro, and maybe a couple of title effects, then Hitfilm express might be overkill. You don’t want to have to master compositing just to add some text.
If what you want to make is a vlog that’s interrupted by an alien invasion and turns into an action sequence with lasers and falling debris, it’d be hard to do better than Hitfilm Express.
4. VideoPad Video Editor – Windows
Pros
- Easy to jump into
- Moving text
- Huge audio waveforms
- Audio and visual effects
- Lossless exports
Cons
- No longer updated
VideoPad Video Editor Review
VideoPad Video Editor is an extremely easy to use program. It may be the easiest program on this list to jump into, which you could also realistically create your entire video inside (there are easier programs, but you can only do some of your work in them). Part of its simplicity comes from not being as feature-rich as the programs ranking higher than it on this list, however.
You do not get the same range of functions with VideoPad as you do from the top 3 free editors, but it has enough to satisfy people who are just starting out. Creating moving text effects is easy, you have huge audio waves to work with while you’re syncing, and effects like transitions and filters are easy to find.
VideoPad does suffer a bit from being dated. This program is no longer being worked on, and the interface doesn’t look particularly modern. This is a bit more than a cosmetic issue because some features, while not difficult to find, are placed a bit oddly compared to other editors.
One slightly annoying feature of VideoPad is that it will prompt you to buy the commercial version sometimes (the free version is only for non-commercial use). There have been reports of exports being blocked in the free version, but I exported several times for the sake of this review and the issue never came up.
Is VideoPad Video Editor good for YouTube?
VideoPad makes a decent YouTube editor. You can jump right in and start making cuts, adding filters, and ordering your clips. If you have the kind of channel where voiceovers are important (like in gaming or makeup), then you’ll be happy with the size of the audio waves you have to work with for syncing.
The thing about VideoPad is that you’re probably going to outgrow it quickly as you become a more capable editor.
5. Lightworks – Windows, Mac, Linux
Pros
- Detailed color and audio editing
- Multicam editing
Cons
- Exports limited to 720p for the free version
- Difficult to learn compared to other free software
Lightworks Review
On their website, Lightworks claims to have an ‘intuitive interface’ and ‘easy timeline editing’. This is true if you compare it to other professional-level editing suites. Compared to the other programs on this list, Lightworks is complicated.
The first thing I attempt when I review this program is to simply split a clip, and it took me a ridiculous amount of time to figure this feature out in Lightworks (a more advanced editor could have found it faster, but these reviews are meant to help people with less experience). Lightworks does have a whole tutorial series on using the software, so if you are interested in learning to use it there is ample material out there to help you.
Lightworks has a wide range of functions (i.e. detailed audio editing and color correction), and it has been used for big movies like ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. It is the most professional program on this list, and it’s a great free alternative to something like Adobe Premiere Pro.
Note: there is no time limit on the free version of Lightworks, but it will ask you to renew your free license every 7 days. When it says your license is ‘expired’ it isn’t kicking you off the free version, you just need to renew.
Is Lightworks good for YouTube?
Whether or not Lightworks is right for your YouTube channel depends on your goals as a video editor.
If what you want is to jump in and start making YouTube videos quickly, Lightworks might not be a great choice. It’s not an easy program to just jump into, you’ll have to either take time to learn it or accept that it’ll take some trial and error to get the hang of.
If what you want is to become a professional-level video editor, then Lightworks is a great program to start on (although, Hitfilm Express may still be better). Taking the time to learn it could certainly pay off in the long run.
However, if one of your priorities is for your YouTube channel to come across as professional, then the free version of Lightworks does have some disappointing limitations. You can only export videos in 720p, which is lower quality than viewers on YouTube expect (you probably want at least 1080p). Your output format is limited too. The royalty-free audio and video content Lightworks offers are also not free; you can just buy them through the program.
6. VSDC Video Editor – Windows
Pros
- Diagrams and charts
- How To Get Started Guide
- Lots of features
Cons
- Very confusing
- Paid features show up in the free version, but they’re blocked
Review of VSDC Video Editor
There’s a lot to like about VSDC Video Editor, but you have to do a lot of work to uncover any of it. Accessing even the most basic features is confusing.
One of the first things I tried to do as I tested the program was make a jump cut (where you cut out part of a video so the playback ‘jumps over’ the deleted segment) and, while I was able to do it, it was not an intuitive process. There is a multitude of toolbars and icons surrounding your preview window in VSDC, and none of those icons was for making cuts to your clips. To make any cuts you have to find the ‘cutting and splitting’ option under the Editor tab at the top of the page, which will open a second window in which you still cannot make any cuts. Instead what you can do is place markers, and when you click ‘apply changes’ to exit the window cuts will be made where you placed markers. There is nothing in the window to explain what the markers are for.
Other basic functions, like adding text, are just as complicated.
Is VSDC Video Editor good for YouTube?
I would not recommend VSDC for YouTube. It ranks higher than two other items on this list because they are, do to functional limitations, unable to create full YouTube videos without the support of other programs (at least realistically). You certainly could create your full YouTube video in VSDC, but it’d be a headache.
7. Machete Video Editor Lite – Windows
Pros
- Great for harvesting clips from longer footage
- Lossless exports
Cons
- Cannot swap or add audio
- Only supports two formats (AVI and WMV)
- Slightly awkward timeline
Machete Video Editor Lite Review
Machete Lite claims that you’ll be able to edit your videos “within a few minutes after downloading the program, even if you’ve never edited a video before”, and that is true. It might even be better if you haven’t edited a video before because the interface is slightly awkward if you’ve come from a program with a more traditional timeline setup. Machete Lite is easy to use for the most part, but it doesn’t work like most other editors and that can be awkward to navigate around.
Instead of seeing a timeline with all of your individual clips, Machete treats your entire video as one clip. You will only be able to see where you have inserted a separate video clip or cut out a portion of the video by watching the video back or jumping through it (Machete Lite does allow frame-by-frame scrolling). You won’t be able to see this information at a glance, and you won’t be able to adjust the lengths of clips you’ve added separately.
To take out any portion of your overall video you’ll need to find a keyframe at the beginning, set that as the beginning of your selection, then find a key frame at the end and set that as the end of your selection. You will then be able to delete that selection. This will not work if the frames you have set as the beginning and end are not considered keyframes by the program, so it can be difficult to be precise, but since the program allows you to jump through keyframes it’s not difficult to find a point that works.
Is Machete Video Editor Lite good for YouTube?
Machete Lite is not a good choice for YouTubers unless it is used in combination with another program.
It doesn’t work as a YouTube editor because you cannot edit or swap audio, the transition between clips, or create layers of videos and images.
However, the thing Machete Lite is really good at is cutting out clips from longer videos. You can create a selection of a part of your longer clip and then export it (with no quality loss) as its own video file.
This is what the Machete Lite toolbar looks like when you’ve created a selection. Tools like cut and copy which were greyed out before are now available, as is the save icon on the far right. If you click the save icon, you’ll be able to save that selection as its own video.
You can’t create a complete YouTube video in Machete Lite, but you can harvest clips to use in a different program.
8. Avidemux – Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD
Pros
- Can add subtitle files
Cons
- Not intuitive
- Doesn’t support MOV or WMV
- The website is not informative, no tutorials
Avidemux Review
Avidemux is not an easy program to jump into. I almost wrote that it couldn’t do anything besides make cuts to a clip before I saw a YouTube tutorial about how to find the contrast and brightness tools. If you decide to try it out, remember that you have to choose your output format before Avidemux will let you access tools like Hue/Saturation and Contrast (click Filters under Video Output to find them).
There are no official tutorials for Avidemux you can access from their site, so you’ll have to rely on the forums and tutorials from users if you want to learn it.
You can import multiple clips into Avidemux, but you have to import them in the order you want because you can’t drag them around the timeline after. Everything becomes one big clip.
Is Avidemux good for YouTube?
No. It has more functionality than Machete, which is ranked higher on this list, but the difference is that Machete is excellent at one thing. They both suffer from the same main weakness – you could not complete your full YouTube video either (at least not without a lot of trouble). Machete could still be useful to a YouTuber, though, because it allows for the lossless exporting of segments of clips. You can use it to harvest clips for your larger project in another program.
In theory, you could do some picture editing and snipping in Avidemux and then put your project together/add titles in another program, but your other program can probably do all that just as well if not better. Avidemux isn’t a bad program, but it doesn’t excel at anything. There are a lot of better options which are also free.
What has your experience with free video editors been like?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Youtube Banners Makers: 10+ Online Tools to Create Channel Art
Youtube Banners Makers: 10+ Online Tools to Create Channel Art
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
If you want to have more fans on your YouTube channel, it becomes really important to make your channel more attractive and fresh. YouTube banner is one of the important factors which represents the style, quality, and taste of your channel. Fortunately, there are many tools on the market that can help you make attractive banners. Therefore, we have brought you 10+ best-known YouTube banner makers that can enhance the beauty of your channel with their exceptionally amazing features. We will also let you know how to make a YouTube banner. Let’s explore.
You may also like: How to add custom thumbnails to YouTube videos >>
- Part 1: YouTube Banner Dimensions You Should Know
- Part 2: How to Make a YouTube Banner with Canva for Free
- Part 3: 10+ Best YouTube Banner Makers
Part 1: YouTube Banner Dimensions You Should Know
YouTube banner dimensions varied on different platforms, so you need to make the YouTube banner look great on desktop, tablet, and phone. According to Google , the recommended dimension is 2560 x 1440 px as the YouTube banner will be cropped if its size is too large. Minimum dimension is 2048 x 1152 px for uploading. The maximum width is 2560 x 423 px. The largest file size is 6MB. You can also add links to your own social media on YouTube banner, so it is a great place to recommend your other social media.
Part 2: How to Make a YouTube Banner with Canva for Free
There are so many tools that you can make a YouTube banner in the market, but it is not easy to find the right tool to make a banner if you can’t find the right tools. We have listed one way to make a YouTube banner below. You can use Wondershare Filmora to edit YouTube videos as it is designed to be a YouTube editor. Besides the basic editing including cropping/trimming and adding transitions, you can use it to add various text, more than 300 effects/filters, free audio, and more. It is also easy to make a YouTube intro. Download it to have a try!
Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )
Step 1: Choose your template and layout
Canva is an online tool to make YouTube banner, so first you need to open it up . You are asked to log in.
After you’ve signed up for Canva you will see a variety of different templates. Scroll through them until you find YouTube Channel Art under Social Media & Email Headers.
This template will be the right size for a YouTube banner, but it will not show you the ‘safe zones’. Your banner will show up differently depending on the screen a viewer is watching on. Click here to download YouTube’s official template, which displays safe zones. You will be able to use it as a reference.
And Canva also provides you with sample layouts that you can build off of. They will include stock photos and text. Most are free, but some might cost a dollar.
If the one you happen to like isn’t free, don’t worry. It’s actually just the specific stock images being used in the example that cost money, and you’re probably planning on replacing those anyways.
Step 2: Import your image
Canva provides a selection of stock images you can use for free. You can find them by clicking on Elements in the menu on the far left, and then clicking on Free Photos.
If you’d rather use your own images, click on Upload at the bottom of that same menu on the left. You’ll have the option of uploading images from your computer or importing them from Facebook.
After you have found the image you want to use or loaded it into Canva, click on it and it will appear in your layout.
Step 3: Add text to YouTube banner
You can add various text after it is imported. There are lots of text templates in Canva, so just pick the one you like. You can also change text color and transparency to make it look great. Now to place it in the right position.
Step 4: Edit other elements
The layout you chose might include things like borders or backgrounds behind the text. You can change the colors of any of these just by clicking on them, then clicking on the color swatch in the top left corner of your design area.
Step 5: Download YouTube banner
Once you finish the editing, there is a download button in the top right corner of your screen. Click on it when you are finished to save your new channel art to your computer. It supports JPEG, PNG, and PDF. Now upload it to YouTube. So simple. Isn’t it?
Part 3: 10+ Best YouTube Banner Makers
1. Canva:
Canva is probably the most popular site for making channel art, for good reason. It has over 8000 templates for different kinds of graphics, including YouTube channel art, and there’s a huge variety of stock photos available either for free or $1. On Canva, creating your perfect banner is as easy as dragging and dropping images into a pre-built layout. Resizing is automatic, and you can flip/rotate or apply filters in just a few clicks
Pros: It contains millions of stock images, about 100 professional layouts, and lots of stunning filters.
Cons: Some high-quality images can be accessed only after payment of $1.
Price: The best thing to know is that this tool is available for free.
2. Wondershare PixStudio
Wondershare PixStudio is an all-in-one and powerful online graphic design maker for everyone. It has various types of templates for YouTube Thumbnails, Logos, Posters, etc. You can create a beautiful design by simply dragging and dropping the elements and photos. The online platform is free to use all templates, just One-Click to download your creations, and share to your Facebook, Instagram Story, and YouTube Thumbnails, etc. immediately.
Pros:
- Various types of templates
- Simple and Fast Design
- Background remover
Cons: The features of removing background be used after payment of $7.99 per month.
Price: The best thing to know is that this tool is available for free.
3. Fotor:
The makers of Fotor describe it as a ‘revolutionary photo editor and graphic designer’, and it is certainly a powerful tool. Fotor allows you to do a lot of fine editing on your photos – brightness, saturation, and color temperature are just a few of the things you can adjust – and its design feature is perfect for YouTube channel art.
Fotor has templates for YouTube channel art and a lot of fun sticker-like graphics. The Design interface is very similar to Canva, if slightly more complicated.
Pros: Complete art can be created within a few minutes and contains dozens of templates.
Cons: Little difficult to use for beginners.
Price: Free
4. Photovisi:
It is a great source of inspiration for your YouTube channel where you can easily design, save and share your customized banner.
Pros: It automatically adjusts the size of the banner to the required format and is loaded with unlimited themes. Works on Android, Windows, Mac, and iOS.
Cons: Demand some special skills for usage.
Price: It is available for free at the official website
5. iKomee:
It is possible to have customized results for your YouTube banner designing using the iKomee platform where few minutes are enough to create wonders. It is one of the most loved tools of all professionals.
Pros: Contains lots of cool templates for channel art.
Cons: Limited themes and layouts.
Price: Available for free.
6. Banners Nack:
Here is one of the most wonderful YouTube banner maker for you that can be accessed online with easy to use interface where one can design animated, static HTML5 with interactive banner ads.
Pros: Professional, easy to use platform with rich quality fonts, stock images, and animated effects.
Cons: Little costly.
Price: Users can go ahead with premium plans where the basic plan is worth $12/month and a professional plan is $18/month with a business plan offer of $24 per month.
7. BeFunky:
BeFunky allows users to create meaningful banners for YouTube business building. The platform consists of numerous effortless options for banner designs and the drag and drops features make everything much easier. It is possible to boost traffic on your YouTube channel with this highly ranked banner maker.
Pros: Four-step banner-making process that can be followed by beginners too.
Cons: The uploading and downloading process takes more time due to heavy projects.
Price: Get started for free.
8. Picmonkey:
With PicMonkey.com you will be able to get customized, readymade banners with a perfect look. It is much easier to make selections for fonts, colors, and graphics with advanced templates here.
Pros: The best platform to enhance your creativity; users will be able to get perfect sharpness of quality.
Cons: File size is more for output banner and special features can be accessed only after payment.
Price: Free trial.
9. iPiccy:
The number of steps to be followed for designing a YouTube banner here completely depends upon your demand of end banner design type. Generally, four-step method is capable enough to provide you professional output with proper cropping dimensions and small file size for download
Pros: Various additional features are available like adding text etc so that highly customized designs can be created for YouTube Banners.
Cons: Demands more time of the user for making quality banner.
Price: Get started for free within a few seconds.
10. Adobe Spark:
Adobe Spark is one of the amazing online YouTube banner makers that helps you create the desired banner for your YouTube channel with ease. All that you need to do is browse to the site and pick the ‘YouTube channel art’ option to get the YouTube banner of the right size, though there are other options as well. Due to its easily customizable features, you can alter or change the background completely and try different color combinations to match your brand’s logo.
Pros:
- The drag-n-drop feature of Adobe Spark enables you to craft eye-catching and engaging banners effortlessly.
- Adobe Spark offers you the freedom to experiment with unlimited alterations in alignments, text, layouts, and themes like a trusted YouTube banner creator.
Cons: Though Adobe Spark is free, it annoys the users when it automatically adds Adobe Spark’s watermark logo to your creation. To get it removed, you must be an active subscriber of Adobe products.
11. Fotojet:
FotoJet being a reliable YouTube banner maker assists you in creating personalized banners using numerous free templates. You get hold of interesting YouTube banner without toiling with the intricacies of graphic designing. Impressing your visitors with your unique and brand new banner from FotoJet YouTube banner creator is class apart.
Pros: It offers you the flexibility to add anything and everything on your channel art and upload it on YouTube right away.
Cons: Similar to Adobe Spark, FotoJet too adds a watermark logo of its name to your creation which is again a bit of nuisance.
Conclusion
Want to make your YouTube video more attractive and beautiful? Wondershare Filmora is such video editing software designed for YouTube creators. It not only allows you to cut, trim, crop, zoom, reverse, rotate the video clips, but also makes the advanced features like green screen, PIP, tilt-shift, and mosaic easy like a piece of cake. With Wondershare Filmora, you can ignite your YouTube videos with over 300 effects like Fashion, Beauty, BlockBuster, Travel, etc.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
If you want to have more fans on your YouTube channel, it becomes really important to make your channel more attractive and fresh. YouTube banner is one of the important factors which represents the style, quality, and taste of your channel. Fortunately, there are many tools on the market that can help you make attractive banners. Therefore, we have brought you 10+ best-known YouTube banner makers that can enhance the beauty of your channel with their exceptionally amazing features. We will also let you know how to make a YouTube banner. Let’s explore.
You may also like: How to add custom thumbnails to YouTube videos >>
- Part 1: YouTube Banner Dimensions You Should Know
- Part 2: How to Make a YouTube Banner with Canva for Free
- Part 3: 10+ Best YouTube Banner Makers
Part 1: YouTube Banner Dimensions You Should Know
YouTube banner dimensions varied on different platforms, so you need to make the YouTube banner look great on desktop, tablet, and phone. According to Google , the recommended dimension is 2560 x 1440 px as the YouTube banner will be cropped if its size is too large. Minimum dimension is 2048 x 1152 px for uploading. The maximum width is 2560 x 423 px. The largest file size is 6MB. You can also add links to your own social media on YouTube banner, so it is a great place to recommend your other social media.
Part 2: How to Make a YouTube Banner with Canva for Free
There are so many tools that you can make a YouTube banner in the market, but it is not easy to find the right tool to make a banner if you can’t find the right tools. We have listed one way to make a YouTube banner below. You can use Wondershare Filmora to edit YouTube videos as it is designed to be a YouTube editor. Besides the basic editing including cropping/trimming and adding transitions, you can use it to add various text, more than 300 effects/filters, free audio, and more. It is also easy to make a YouTube intro. Download it to have a try!
Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )
Step 1: Choose your template and layout
Canva is an online tool to make YouTube banner, so first you need to open it up . You are asked to log in.
After you’ve signed up for Canva you will see a variety of different templates. Scroll through them until you find YouTube Channel Art under Social Media & Email Headers.
This template will be the right size for a YouTube banner, but it will not show you the ‘safe zones’. Your banner will show up differently depending on the screen a viewer is watching on. Click here to download YouTube’s official template, which displays safe zones. You will be able to use it as a reference.
And Canva also provides you with sample layouts that you can build off of. They will include stock photos and text. Most are free, but some might cost a dollar.
If the one you happen to like isn’t free, don’t worry. It’s actually just the specific stock images being used in the example that cost money, and you’re probably planning on replacing those anyways.
Step 2: Import your image
Canva provides a selection of stock images you can use for free. You can find them by clicking on Elements in the menu on the far left, and then clicking on Free Photos.
If you’d rather use your own images, click on Upload at the bottom of that same menu on the left. You’ll have the option of uploading images from your computer or importing them from Facebook.
After you have found the image you want to use or loaded it into Canva, click on it and it will appear in your layout.
Step 3: Add text to YouTube banner
You can add various text after it is imported. There are lots of text templates in Canva, so just pick the one you like. You can also change text color and transparency to make it look great. Now to place it in the right position.
Step 4: Edit other elements
The layout you chose might include things like borders or backgrounds behind the text. You can change the colors of any of these just by clicking on them, then clicking on the color swatch in the top left corner of your design area.
Step 5: Download YouTube banner
Once you finish the editing, there is a download button in the top right corner of your screen. Click on it when you are finished to save your new channel art to your computer. It supports JPEG, PNG, and PDF. Now upload it to YouTube. So simple. Isn’t it?
Part 3: 10+ Best YouTube Banner Makers
1. Canva:
Canva is probably the most popular site for making channel art, for good reason. It has over 8000 templates for different kinds of graphics, including YouTube channel art, and there’s a huge variety of stock photos available either for free or $1. On Canva, creating your perfect banner is as easy as dragging and dropping images into a pre-built layout. Resizing is automatic, and you can flip/rotate or apply filters in just a few clicks
Pros: It contains millions of stock images, about 100 professional layouts, and lots of stunning filters.
Cons: Some high-quality images can be accessed only after payment of $1.
Price: The best thing to know is that this tool is available for free.
2. Wondershare PixStudio
Wondershare PixStudio is an all-in-one and powerful online graphic design maker for everyone. It has various types of templates for YouTube Thumbnails, Logos, Posters, etc. You can create a beautiful design by simply dragging and dropping the elements and photos. The online platform is free to use all templates, just One-Click to download your creations, and share to your Facebook, Instagram Story, and YouTube Thumbnails, etc. immediately.
Pros:
- Various types of templates
- Simple and Fast Design
- Background remover
Cons: The features of removing background be used after payment of $7.99 per month.
Price: The best thing to know is that this tool is available for free.
3. Fotor:
The makers of Fotor describe it as a ‘revolutionary photo editor and graphic designer’, and it is certainly a powerful tool. Fotor allows you to do a lot of fine editing on your photos – brightness, saturation, and color temperature are just a few of the things you can adjust – and its design feature is perfect for YouTube channel art.
Fotor has templates for YouTube channel art and a lot of fun sticker-like graphics. The Design interface is very similar to Canva, if slightly more complicated.
Pros: Complete art can be created within a few minutes and contains dozens of templates.
Cons: Little difficult to use for beginners.
Price: Free
4. Photovisi:
It is a great source of inspiration for your YouTube channel where you can easily design, save and share your customized banner.
Pros: It automatically adjusts the size of the banner to the required format and is loaded with unlimited themes. Works on Android, Windows, Mac, and iOS.
Cons: Demand some special skills for usage.
Price: It is available for free at the official website
5. iKomee:
It is possible to have customized results for your YouTube banner designing using the iKomee platform where few minutes are enough to create wonders. It is one of the most loved tools of all professionals.
Pros: Contains lots of cool templates for channel art.
Cons: Limited themes and layouts.
Price: Available for free.
6. Banners Nack:
Here is one of the most wonderful YouTube banner maker for you that can be accessed online with easy to use interface where one can design animated, static HTML5 with interactive banner ads.
Pros: Professional, easy to use platform with rich quality fonts, stock images, and animated effects.
Cons: Little costly.
Price: Users can go ahead with premium plans where the basic plan is worth $12/month and a professional plan is $18/month with a business plan offer of $24 per month.
7. BeFunky:
BeFunky allows users to create meaningful banners for YouTube business building. The platform consists of numerous effortless options for banner designs and the drag and drops features make everything much easier. It is possible to boost traffic on your YouTube channel with this highly ranked banner maker.
Pros: Four-step banner-making process that can be followed by beginners too.
Cons: The uploading and downloading process takes more time due to heavy projects.
Price: Get started for free.
8. Picmonkey:
With PicMonkey.com you will be able to get customized, readymade banners with a perfect look. It is much easier to make selections for fonts, colors, and graphics with advanced templates here.
Pros: The best platform to enhance your creativity; users will be able to get perfect sharpness of quality.
Cons: File size is more for output banner and special features can be accessed only after payment.
Price: Free trial.
9. iPiccy:
The number of steps to be followed for designing a YouTube banner here completely depends upon your demand of end banner design type. Generally, four-step method is capable enough to provide you professional output with proper cropping dimensions and small file size for download
Pros: Various additional features are available like adding text etc so that highly customized designs can be created for YouTube Banners.
Cons: Demands more time of the user for making quality banner.
Price: Get started for free within a few seconds.
10. Adobe Spark:
Adobe Spark is one of the amazing online YouTube banner makers that helps you create the desired banner for your YouTube channel with ease. All that you need to do is browse to the site and pick the ‘YouTube channel art’ option to get the YouTube banner of the right size, though there are other options as well. Due to its easily customizable features, you can alter or change the background completely and try different color combinations to match your brand’s logo.
Pros:
- The drag-n-drop feature of Adobe Spark enables you to craft eye-catching and engaging banners effortlessly.
- Adobe Spark offers you the freedom to experiment with unlimited alterations in alignments, text, layouts, and themes like a trusted YouTube banner creator.
Cons: Though Adobe Spark is free, it annoys the users when it automatically adds Adobe Spark’s watermark logo to your creation. To get it removed, you must be an active subscriber of Adobe products.
11. Fotojet:
FotoJet being a reliable YouTube banner maker assists you in creating personalized banners using numerous free templates. You get hold of interesting YouTube banner without toiling with the intricacies of graphic designing. Impressing your visitors with your unique and brand new banner from FotoJet YouTube banner creator is class apart.
Pros: It offers you the flexibility to add anything and everything on your channel art and upload it on YouTube right away.
Cons: Similar to Adobe Spark, FotoJet too adds a watermark logo of its name to your creation which is again a bit of nuisance.
Conclusion
Want to make your YouTube video more attractive and beautiful? Wondershare Filmora is such video editing software designed for YouTube creators. It not only allows you to cut, trim, crop, zoom, reverse, rotate the video clips, but also makes the advanced features like green screen, PIP, tilt-shift, and mosaic easy like a piece of cake. With Wondershare Filmora, you can ignite your YouTube videos with over 300 effects like Fashion, Beauty, BlockBuster, Travel, etc.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
If you want to have more fans on your YouTube channel, it becomes really important to make your channel more attractive and fresh. YouTube banner is one of the important factors which represents the style, quality, and taste of your channel. Fortunately, there are many tools on the market that can help you make attractive banners. Therefore, we have brought you 10+ best-known YouTube banner makers that can enhance the beauty of your channel with their exceptionally amazing features. We will also let you know how to make a YouTube banner. Let’s explore.
You may also like: How to add custom thumbnails to YouTube videos >>
- Part 1: YouTube Banner Dimensions You Should Know
- Part 2: How to Make a YouTube Banner with Canva for Free
- Part 3: 10+ Best YouTube Banner Makers
Part 1: YouTube Banner Dimensions You Should Know
YouTube banner dimensions varied on different platforms, so you need to make the YouTube banner look great on desktop, tablet, and phone. According to Google , the recommended dimension is 2560 x 1440 px as the YouTube banner will be cropped if its size is too large. Minimum dimension is 2048 x 1152 px for uploading. The maximum width is 2560 x 423 px. The largest file size is 6MB. You can also add links to your own social media on YouTube banner, so it is a great place to recommend your other social media.
Part 2: How to Make a YouTube Banner with Canva for Free
There are so many tools that you can make a YouTube banner in the market, but it is not easy to find the right tool to make a banner if you can’t find the right tools. We have listed one way to make a YouTube banner below. You can use Wondershare Filmora to edit YouTube videos as it is designed to be a YouTube editor. Besides the basic editing including cropping/trimming and adding transitions, you can use it to add various text, more than 300 effects/filters, free audio, and more. It is also easy to make a YouTube intro. Download it to have a try!
Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )
Step 1: Choose your template and layout
Canva is an online tool to make YouTube banner, so first you need to open it up . You are asked to log in.
After you’ve signed up for Canva you will see a variety of different templates. Scroll through them until you find YouTube Channel Art under Social Media & Email Headers.
This template will be the right size for a YouTube banner, but it will not show you the ‘safe zones’. Your banner will show up differently depending on the screen a viewer is watching on. Click here to download YouTube’s official template, which displays safe zones. You will be able to use it as a reference.
And Canva also provides you with sample layouts that you can build off of. They will include stock photos and text. Most are free, but some might cost a dollar.
If the one you happen to like isn’t free, don’t worry. It’s actually just the specific stock images being used in the example that cost money, and you’re probably planning on replacing those anyways.
Step 2: Import your image
Canva provides a selection of stock images you can use for free. You can find them by clicking on Elements in the menu on the far left, and then clicking on Free Photos.
If you’d rather use your own images, click on Upload at the bottom of that same menu on the left. You’ll have the option of uploading images from your computer or importing them from Facebook.
After you have found the image you want to use or loaded it into Canva, click on it and it will appear in your layout.
Step 3: Add text to YouTube banner
You can add various text after it is imported. There are lots of text templates in Canva, so just pick the one you like. You can also change text color and transparency to make it look great. Now to place it in the right position.
Step 4: Edit other elements
The layout you chose might include things like borders or backgrounds behind the text. You can change the colors of any of these just by clicking on them, then clicking on the color swatch in the top left corner of your design area.
Step 5: Download YouTube banner
Once you finish the editing, there is a download button in the top right corner of your screen. Click on it when you are finished to save your new channel art to your computer. It supports JPEG, PNG, and PDF. Now upload it to YouTube. So simple. Isn’t it?
Part 3: 10+ Best YouTube Banner Makers
1. Canva:
Canva is probably the most popular site for making channel art, for good reason. It has over 8000 templates for different kinds of graphics, including YouTube channel art, and there’s a huge variety of stock photos available either for free or $1. On Canva, creating your perfect banner is as easy as dragging and dropping images into a pre-built layout. Resizing is automatic, and you can flip/rotate or apply filters in just a few clicks
Pros: It contains millions of stock images, about 100 professional layouts, and lots of stunning filters.
Cons: Some high-quality images can be accessed only after payment of $1.
Price: The best thing to know is that this tool is available for free.
2. Wondershare PixStudio
Wondershare PixStudio is an all-in-one and powerful online graphic design maker for everyone. It has various types of templates for YouTube Thumbnails, Logos, Posters, etc. You can create a beautiful design by simply dragging and dropping the elements and photos. The online platform is free to use all templates, just One-Click to download your creations, and share to your Facebook, Instagram Story, and YouTube Thumbnails, etc. immediately.
Pros:
- Various types of templates
- Simple and Fast Design
- Background remover
Cons: The features of removing background be used after payment of $7.99 per month.
Price: The best thing to know is that this tool is available for free.
3. Fotor:
The makers of Fotor describe it as a ‘revolutionary photo editor and graphic designer’, and it is certainly a powerful tool. Fotor allows you to do a lot of fine editing on your photos – brightness, saturation, and color temperature are just a few of the things you can adjust – and its design feature is perfect for YouTube channel art.
Fotor has templates for YouTube channel art and a lot of fun sticker-like graphics. The Design interface is very similar to Canva, if slightly more complicated.
Pros: Complete art can be created within a few minutes and contains dozens of templates.
Cons: Little difficult to use for beginners.
Price: Free
4. Photovisi:
It is a great source of inspiration for your YouTube channel where you can easily design, save and share your customized banner.
Pros: It automatically adjusts the size of the banner to the required format and is loaded with unlimited themes. Works on Android, Windows, Mac, and iOS.
Cons: Demand some special skills for usage.
Price: It is available for free at the official website
5. iKomee:
It is possible to have customized results for your YouTube banner designing using the iKomee platform where few minutes are enough to create wonders. It is one of the most loved tools of all professionals.
Pros: Contains lots of cool templates for channel art.
Cons: Limited themes and layouts.
Price: Available for free.
6. Banners Nack:
Here is one of the most wonderful YouTube banner maker for you that can be accessed online with easy to use interface where one can design animated, static HTML5 with interactive banner ads.
Pros: Professional, easy to use platform with rich quality fonts, stock images, and animated effects.
Cons: Little costly.
Price: Users can go ahead with premium plans where the basic plan is worth $12/month and a professional plan is $18/month with a business plan offer of $24 per month.
7. BeFunky:
BeFunky allows users to create meaningful banners for YouTube business building. The platform consists of numerous effortless options for banner designs and the drag and drops features make everything much easier. It is possible to boost traffic on your YouTube channel with this highly ranked banner maker.
Pros: Four-step banner-making process that can be followed by beginners too.
Cons: The uploading and downloading process takes more time due to heavy projects.
Price: Get started for free.
8. Picmonkey:
With PicMonkey.com you will be able to get customized, readymade banners with a perfect look. It is much easier to make selections for fonts, colors, and graphics with advanced templates here.
Pros: The best platform to enhance your creativity; users will be able to get perfect sharpness of quality.
Cons: File size is more for output banner and special features can be accessed only after payment.
Price: Free trial.
9. iPiccy:
The number of steps to be followed for designing a YouTube banner here completely depends upon your demand of end banner design type. Generally, four-step method is capable enough to provide you professional output with proper cropping dimensions and small file size for download
Pros: Various additional features are available like adding text etc so that highly customized designs can be created for YouTube Banners.
Cons: Demands more time of the user for making quality banner.
Price: Get started for free within a few seconds.
10. Adobe Spark:
Adobe Spark is one of the amazing online YouTube banner makers that helps you create the desired banner for your YouTube channel with ease. All that you need to do is browse to the site and pick the ‘YouTube channel art’ option to get the YouTube banner of the right size, though there are other options as well. Due to its easily customizable features, you can alter or change the background completely and try different color combinations to match your brand’s logo.
Pros:
- The drag-n-drop feature of Adobe Spark enables you to craft eye-catching and engaging banners effortlessly.
- Adobe Spark offers you the freedom to experiment with unlimited alterations in alignments, text, layouts, and themes like a trusted YouTube banner creator.
Cons: Though Adobe Spark is free, it annoys the users when it automatically adds Adobe Spark’s watermark logo to your creation. To get it removed, you must be an active subscriber of Adobe products.
11. Fotojet:
FotoJet being a reliable YouTube banner maker assists you in creating personalized banners using numerous free templates. You get hold of interesting YouTube banner without toiling with the intricacies of graphic designing. Impressing your visitors with your unique and brand new banner from FotoJet YouTube banner creator is class apart.
Pros: It offers you the flexibility to add anything and everything on your channel art and upload it on YouTube right away.
Cons: Similar to Adobe Spark, FotoJet too adds a watermark logo of its name to your creation which is again a bit of nuisance.
Conclusion
Want to make your YouTube video more attractive and beautiful? Wondershare Filmora is such video editing software designed for YouTube creators. It not only allows you to cut, trim, crop, zoom, reverse, rotate the video clips, but also makes the advanced features like green screen, PIP, tilt-shift, and mosaic easy like a piece of cake. With Wondershare Filmora, you can ignite your YouTube videos with over 300 effects like Fashion, Beauty, BlockBuster, Travel, etc.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
If you want to have more fans on your YouTube channel, it becomes really important to make your channel more attractive and fresh. YouTube banner is one of the important factors which represents the style, quality, and taste of your channel. Fortunately, there are many tools on the market that can help you make attractive banners. Therefore, we have brought you 10+ best-known YouTube banner makers that can enhance the beauty of your channel with their exceptionally amazing features. We will also let you know how to make a YouTube banner. Let’s explore.
You may also like: How to add custom thumbnails to YouTube videos >>
- Part 1: YouTube Banner Dimensions You Should Know
- Part 2: How to Make a YouTube Banner with Canva for Free
- Part 3: 10+ Best YouTube Banner Makers
Part 1: YouTube Banner Dimensions You Should Know
YouTube banner dimensions varied on different platforms, so you need to make the YouTube banner look great on desktop, tablet, and phone. According to Google , the recommended dimension is 2560 x 1440 px as the YouTube banner will be cropped if its size is too large. Minimum dimension is 2048 x 1152 px for uploading. The maximum width is 2560 x 423 px. The largest file size is 6MB. You can also add links to your own social media on YouTube banner, so it is a great place to recommend your other social media.
Part 2: How to Make a YouTube Banner with Canva for Free
There are so many tools that you can make a YouTube banner in the market, but it is not easy to find the right tool to make a banner if you can’t find the right tools. We have listed one way to make a YouTube banner below. You can use Wondershare Filmora to edit YouTube videos as it is designed to be a YouTube editor. Besides the basic editing including cropping/trimming and adding transitions, you can use it to add various text, more than 300 effects/filters, free audio, and more. It is also easy to make a YouTube intro. Download it to have a try!
Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )
Step 1: Choose your template and layout
Canva is an online tool to make YouTube banner, so first you need to open it up . You are asked to log in.
After you’ve signed up for Canva you will see a variety of different templates. Scroll through them until you find YouTube Channel Art under Social Media & Email Headers.
This template will be the right size for a YouTube banner, but it will not show you the ‘safe zones’. Your banner will show up differently depending on the screen a viewer is watching on. Click here to download YouTube’s official template, which displays safe zones. You will be able to use it as a reference.
And Canva also provides you with sample layouts that you can build off of. They will include stock photos and text. Most are free, but some might cost a dollar.
If the one you happen to like isn’t free, don’t worry. It’s actually just the specific stock images being used in the example that cost money, and you’re probably planning on replacing those anyways.
Step 2: Import your image
Canva provides a selection of stock images you can use for free. You can find them by clicking on Elements in the menu on the far left, and then clicking on Free Photos.
If you’d rather use your own images, click on Upload at the bottom of that same menu on the left. You’ll have the option of uploading images from your computer or importing them from Facebook.
After you have found the image you want to use or loaded it into Canva, click on it and it will appear in your layout.
Step 3: Add text to YouTube banner
You can add various text after it is imported. There are lots of text templates in Canva, so just pick the one you like. You can also change text color and transparency to make it look great. Now to place it in the right position.
Step 4: Edit other elements
The layout you chose might include things like borders or backgrounds behind the text. You can change the colors of any of these just by clicking on them, then clicking on the color swatch in the top left corner of your design area.
Step 5: Download YouTube banner
Once you finish the editing, there is a download button in the top right corner of your screen. Click on it when you are finished to save your new channel art to your computer. It supports JPEG, PNG, and PDF. Now upload it to YouTube. So simple. Isn’t it?
Part 3: 10+ Best YouTube Banner Makers
1. Canva:
Canva is probably the most popular site for making channel art, for good reason. It has over 8000 templates for different kinds of graphics, including YouTube channel art, and there’s a huge variety of stock photos available either for free or $1. On Canva, creating your perfect banner is as easy as dragging and dropping images into a pre-built layout. Resizing is automatic, and you can flip/rotate or apply filters in just a few clicks
Pros: It contains millions of stock images, about 100 professional layouts, and lots of stunning filters.
Cons: Some high-quality images can be accessed only after payment of $1.
Price: The best thing to know is that this tool is available for free.
2. Wondershare PixStudio
Wondershare PixStudio is an all-in-one and powerful online graphic design maker for everyone. It has various types of templates for YouTube Thumbnails, Logos, Posters, etc. You can create a beautiful design by simply dragging and dropping the elements and photos. The online platform is free to use all templates, just One-Click to download your creations, and share to your Facebook, Instagram Story, and YouTube Thumbnails, etc. immediately.
Pros:
- Various types of templates
- Simple and Fast Design
- Background remover
Cons: The features of removing background be used after payment of $7.99 per month.
Price: The best thing to know is that this tool is available for free.
3. Fotor:
The makers of Fotor describe it as a ‘revolutionary photo editor and graphic designer’, and it is certainly a powerful tool. Fotor allows you to do a lot of fine editing on your photos – brightness, saturation, and color temperature are just a few of the things you can adjust – and its design feature is perfect for YouTube channel art.
Fotor has templates for YouTube channel art and a lot of fun sticker-like graphics. The Design interface is very similar to Canva, if slightly more complicated.
Pros: Complete art can be created within a few minutes and contains dozens of templates.
Cons: Little difficult to use for beginners.
Price: Free
4. Photovisi:
It is a great source of inspiration for your YouTube channel where you can easily design, save and share your customized banner.
Pros: It automatically adjusts the size of the banner to the required format and is loaded with unlimited themes. Works on Android, Windows, Mac, and iOS.
Cons: Demand some special skills for usage.
Price: It is available for free at the official website
5. iKomee:
It is possible to have customized results for your YouTube banner designing using the iKomee platform where few minutes are enough to create wonders. It is one of the most loved tools of all professionals.
Pros: Contains lots of cool templates for channel art.
Cons: Limited themes and layouts.
Price: Available for free.
6. Banners Nack:
Here is one of the most wonderful YouTube banner maker for you that can be accessed online with easy to use interface where one can design animated, static HTML5 with interactive banner ads.
Pros: Professional, easy to use platform with rich quality fonts, stock images, and animated effects.
Cons: Little costly.
Price: Users can go ahead with premium plans where the basic plan is worth $12/month and a professional plan is $18/month with a business plan offer of $24 per month.
7. BeFunky:
BeFunky allows users to create meaningful banners for YouTube business building. The platform consists of numerous effortless options for banner designs and the drag and drops features make everything much easier. It is possible to boost traffic on your YouTube channel with this highly ranked banner maker.
Pros: Four-step banner-making process that can be followed by beginners too.
Cons: The uploading and downloading process takes more time due to heavy projects.
Price: Get started for free.
8. Picmonkey:
With PicMonkey.com you will be able to get customized, readymade banners with a perfect look. It is much easier to make selections for fonts, colors, and graphics with advanced templates here.
Pros: The best platform to enhance your creativity; users will be able to get perfect sharpness of quality.
Cons: File size is more for output banner and special features can be accessed only after payment.
Price: Free trial.
9. iPiccy:
The number of steps to be followed for designing a YouTube banner here completely depends upon your demand of end banner design type. Generally, four-step method is capable enough to provide you professional output with proper cropping dimensions and small file size for download
Pros: Various additional features are available like adding text etc so that highly customized designs can be created for YouTube Banners.
Cons: Demands more time of the user for making quality banner.
Price: Get started for free within a few seconds.
10. Adobe Spark:
Adobe Spark is one of the amazing online YouTube banner makers that helps you create the desired banner for your YouTube channel with ease. All that you need to do is browse to the site and pick the ‘YouTube channel art’ option to get the YouTube banner of the right size, though there are other options as well. Due to its easily customizable features, you can alter or change the background completely and try different color combinations to match your brand’s logo.
Pros:
- The drag-n-drop feature of Adobe Spark enables you to craft eye-catching and engaging banners effortlessly.
- Adobe Spark offers you the freedom to experiment with unlimited alterations in alignments, text, layouts, and themes like a trusted YouTube banner creator.
Cons: Though Adobe Spark is free, it annoys the users when it automatically adds Adobe Spark’s watermark logo to your creation. To get it removed, you must be an active subscriber of Adobe products.
11. Fotojet:
FotoJet being a reliable YouTube banner maker assists you in creating personalized banners using numerous free templates. You get hold of interesting YouTube banner without toiling with the intricacies of graphic designing. Impressing your visitors with your unique and brand new banner from FotoJet YouTube banner creator is class apart.
Pros: It offers you the flexibility to add anything and everything on your channel art and upload it on YouTube right away.
Cons: Similar to Adobe Spark, FotoJet too adds a watermark logo of its name to your creation which is again a bit of nuisance.
Conclusion
Want to make your YouTube video more attractive and beautiful? Wondershare Filmora is such video editing software designed for YouTube creators. It not only allows you to cut, trim, crop, zoom, reverse, rotate the video clips, but also makes the advanced features like green screen, PIP, tilt-shift, and mosaic easy like a piece of cake. With Wondershare Filmora, you can ignite your YouTube videos with over 300 effects like Fashion, Beauty, BlockBuster, Travel, etc.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
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- Title: "Professional Video Edits at Zero Price - Discover These Tools"
- Author: Brian
- Created at : 2024-05-25 12:45:59
- Updated at : 2024-05-26 12:45:59
- Link: https://youtube-video-recordings.techidaily.com/professional-video-edits-at-zero-price-discover-these-tools/
- License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
