I get this questions occasionally from people who follow me on my YouTube channel or who found me from the Shotcut video editor website.

I hope this short article can help you decide.

Some even ask me what I use. Don’t be too concern about what I use.

Think about what is suitable for you!

On my YouTube channel, I review various video editors including Shotcut, HitFilm Express, Filmora 9 and Cyberlink PowerDirector so naturally I test drive all of them.

I test and create a review with the good, the bad and the ugly. When I create a review, I use the actual software to create that particular video.

In the tech world, they call that “eating your own dog food”.

Good news. Bad news.

The good news is video editors today are so much better than just 3 to 5 years ago when your options are very limited unless you shell out hundred of dollars.

The problem you have today is there are so many out there it you don’t know which to choose.

To help you narrow down your choices based of software I have use this table below should help you out.

If you want free software, then choose Shotcut or HitFilm Express.

Don’t mind paying a bit? Then Filmora 9, PowerDirector or HitFilm Express (which has some paid add-ons) in that order.

All have free versions you can try. The free version of Filmora 13 leaves a huge watermark while for PowerDirector some features are available for trial 30 days.

Still curious?

I use all of them because I teach.

In the past, I’ve used software like Vegas, Openshot, Camtasia, Lightworks and several others. Here’s the story.

A few years ago when I decided to create videos for my business, the only free video editor that was of decent quality was Shotcut.

That’s how I got started with Shotcut. After using the software I noticed that there weren’t many detailed tutorials so I decided to create a course. That’s how the Shotcut course began.

Fast forward a bit more and having created maybe around 100 plus videos, I wanted to try something more powerful.

That when I came across HitFilm Express which is able to do more sophisticated things like motion tracking, 3D text and the ability to queue my project to export several projects at one go.

More capable means that it takes a bit longer to learn though.

Once you get past some that, HitFilm Express is more capable than Shotcut, Filmora 9 or PowerDirector. I use it because it does what I want. Here’s a short tutorial on HitFilm Express.

Shotcut and Filmora 9 is the easiest to learn in my opinion. I tried Filmora 9 because one of my customers ask me to try it and to create a course for him. Here’s a short review for Filmora 9.

My suggestion

If you are new to making videos or find software hard to learn then try out Shotcut or Filmora 9. If you don’t mind struggling a bit at the beginning and have a slower start to get a more sophisticated tool then try HitFilm Express.

You can upgrade to more advance video editor later. Otherwise you may find creating a single video a frustrating experience.

The concepts of editing a video can transfer over to other video editor although the features, user interface etc is usually quite different.

Here are the courses for Shotcut, Filmora 9 and HitFilm Express. Each course was edited with the respective software.

p.s. Whichever software you want to try, make sure you check the minimum specifications for hardware before you even download. Ciao