Buy Chillblast Fusion Ryzen 2700X Custom Video / Photo Editing PC for £1,499.99; AMD's newest Ryzen 2700X processor features eight independent CPU cores, which really speeds up video encoding times, and comes at a fantastic affordable price. The Best Video Editing Software of 2018 Whether you're a weekend GoPro shooter or a full-time video professional, you need editing software that's powerful but easy to use. Here's how the best.

Chances are, there are hundreds of videos languishing on your smartphone, DSLR or compact camera. Instead of letting it collect dust, why not polish it up to share with family and friends? That's where a good video editing program comes in.

Among the paid software, only one — Adobe Premiere Elements 2019— is truly cross-platform, and it emerged as our top pick. Despite its lack of emerging popular technologies, like 360-degree video handling and multicam editing features, it's the easiest video editor to learn and use, and offers plenty of advanced functions, such as guided edits and a revised home screen.

CyberLink PowerDirector 16 is the best video editing software for Windows, featuring a dazzling array of tricks and treats; plus, it's great for editing 360-degree videos, too.
Ed. note: PowerDirector 17 is now available; stay tuned for our review.

Apple’s iMovie, which competes only with cross-platform free apps and Adobe Elements, is the obvious choice for the best Mac video editing software, thanks to its outstanding output, themes and trailers, macOS integration, and features that encourage good moviemaking skills.

For the best free software, HitFilm Express gets the nod for its abundant cinematic capabilities and stylish interface. If you often share your videos on YouTube and other social media platforms, the free, cross-platform VideoPad is your best option.

Best Overall

Adobe Premiere Elements 2019

Adobe Premiere Elements continues its long reign as the overall best consumer video-editing app, with new automated features and simplified workflows for quick video editing.

Best for Windows

CyberLink PowerDirector 16

PowerDirector 16 makes it easy to edit 360-degree videos, but there are a lot of other great features in this program, too.

Best for Mac

Apple iMovie 10.1.8

iMovie gives Mac users an easy way to get started creating high-quality movies from videos shot on all kinds of devices.

Our Top Picks

Best Overall

Reasons to Buy

Supports new HEVC and HEIF file formats for images and videos

New home screen provides continuous access to all functions and apps

Auto-generated slideshows and photo/video collages make social media sharing quick and easy

Mac For Video Editing Computer

Intriguing new guided edits

Reasons to Avoid

Some aspects of automated video trimming seem counterintuitive

No support for HEVC and HEIF file formats on Windows

No support for 360-degree video

No support for multicam editing

When it comes to user-friendliness, sophisticated features and ways to output your video, nothing beats the cross-platform Adobe Premiere Elements. For 2019, Adobe streamlined the Quick Edits interface, making it all the more easy for novices to jump in. The company's AI now creates collages and slideshows automatically, and can also trim the fat off your videos.

Read our full Adobe Premiere Elements review.

Best for Windows

CyberLink PowerDirector 16

Reasons to Buy

Advanced editing control over 360-degree footage

Professional color matching, toning and effects

Reasons to Avoid

Needed to reinstall the app following a Windows 10 update

Certain color lookup tables are not compatible with the program

Motion-tracking techniques felt a bit awkward at the outset

CyberLink PowerDirector offers a dazzling array of fun, advanced video editing features wrapped in a stunning, easy-to-use package. For this version, Cyberlink has beefed up its 360-degree capabilities, making it far easier to edit 360 videos.

Ed. Note: CyberLink PowerDirector 17 is now available, and features such improvements as better green-screen editing, nested video editing, and multi-cam editing. PowerDirector 17 Ultra is $99, while PowerDirector Ultimate, which includes 360-degree video editing, is $129.

Best for Mac

Apple iMovie 10.1.8

Reasons to Buy

Professional-looking themes and trailers

Theater feature shares movies to all Apple devices

Reasons to Avoid

Lacks multicam, motion tracking and 360-degree features

Apple iMovie is the ultimate Mac video app for novice filmmakers, combining professional trailers and themes,abundant special effects and an easy-to-learn interface. Version 10.1 added 4K editing and sharing, as well as extended handling to video shot at 1080p and 60 fps. Recent updates tweaked the interface and added Touch Bar support for the latest MacBooks.
Update (June 2019): iMovie is now on version 10.1.12. Recent updates have disabled sharing videos to iMovie Theater and Facebook; you have to save your movies to iCloud Photos to watch them on other devices including Apple TV.

Read our full Apple iMove review.

Best Free Video Editor

HitFilm Express 9

Reasons to Buy

Reusable templates

Reasons to Avoid

Publishing features are not intuitive

For version 12, the free HitFilm Express has a redesigned, more intuitive interface and plenty of powerful features. While meant for prosumers—there is a bit of a learning curve—beginners shouldn't have too much trouble creating YouTube projects.

Read our full Hitfilm Express review.

Best for Beginners

Corel VideoStudio Ultimate 2018

Reasons to Buy

Split-screen video facilitates elaborate video collages

Broad 3D-text support

Reasons to Avoid

Certain advanced features got really dense

Corel VideoStudio, an outstanding editing package for beginners on the Windows platform, is a powerful but easy-to-learn app for anyone who wants to make simple videos quickly without fussing around with complex controls. Its spare but inviting interface offers 360-degree video editing, enhanced lens-correction tools, and 3D text editing.

Read our full Corel VideoStudio review.

Best for YouTube

VideoPad

Reasons to Buy

Supports 360-degree camera editing and output

Reasons to Avoid

Lacks some advanced features like multi-cam editing and motion tracking

Certain features time out of the free non-commercial program

Difficult to tell whether you have downloaded the free or trial version, especially in Windows.

VideoPad Home Edition

VideoPad Masters Edition

VideoPad is a comprehensive cross-platform software package for the YouTube social media crowd. While this app lacks the flashy, whiz-bang appeal of some commercial apps, it’s still a rock-solid choice for simple video editing. From the main menu, you can choose which social network you want to upload to. The app offers a number of YouTube choices ranging from 480p to 4K, as well as Facebook, Flickr, Dropbox and Google Drive, and is free for non-commercial use.

Read our full VideoPad review.

Best for advanced enthusiasts

DaVinci Resolve 15

Reasons to Buy

Free with no limits or watermarks

Exquisitely deep app for color grading, compositing and audio production

Reasons to Avoid

A powerful computer is needed for high-end graphics functions

No direct export to social media

DaVinci Resolve 15

A powerful pro-level app, cross platform you’ll want to use a system with discrete graphics to get the most out of this editor. The latest version of DaVinci incorporates Fusion, previously a stand-alone application, which brings with it four high-end video-production modules for editing, color correction, audio production, and video effects and motion graphics. This video editor is quite powerful, but has a bit of a learning curve. If its 256-page manual doesn't intimidate you, high-level enthusiasts will find a lot of tools at their disposal.

Read our full DaVinci Resolve review.

Best Processor For Video Editing On Mac