Best video editing software

Once in a blue moon you point your device, be it a smartphone, camera or even camcorder, at something and press record and you capture a perfect moment on video. Most of the time, though, you’re left waiting for it to start, you record too long, the audio isn’t up to scratch or is distracting from the actual subject, or you simply can’t make it work in a single shot.

Capturing a pratfall in a single take is then possible, but capturing a children’s party, or even a wedding, that requires editing. And to edit video well you’ll need of these best video editing software packages.

Properly edited video gives you huge control over the message you want to put across. However, it’s not always the simplest of tasks. The apparently effortless editing you see on TV and in films is a result of some serious expertise and getting the same results at home takes more than a little practice.

It’s worth the effort though, letting you make anything from home movies that people are actually happy to watch, to your own mini cinematic masterpiece to submit to short film competitions or post online for others to marvel at. Now we can’t teach you what to shoot, or how to shoot it best, but we can recommend the best video editing software around and there’s something here for everyone.

Adobe Premiere Elements 14

Adobe’s consumer-grade video editing software has been a perennial favourite for more years than we can remember. It’s not completely without competition but it is the first package to consider as it will suit a broad range of potential users.

It does this by having an interface that is both simple to use for novices but which is also capable of some pretty sophisticated stuff as well. For the former group Adobe has added more Guided Edits to this version, interactive tutorials that overlay the editor and let you learn and apply advanced techniques to your videos, without cluttering the interface for those who already know.

Adobe has also updated the Export tool, so you’ve now got better and easier to understand settings. The timeline editing is easy to grasp and performance is excellent, leaving you with more time to think and edit and less time waiting for the software to catch up. Sony’s solution, below, is quicker still but at the expense of a steeper learning curve. And that’s why Premiere Elements remains our top pick for editing novices.

OS Support: Window 7 (SP1), 8, 10, Mac OS X 10.9 or 10.10,Minimum CPU: 2GHz with SSE2,Minimum GPU: DirectX 9 or 10,Minimum RAM: 2GB, Hard disk space: 10GB. Read our full Adobe Premiere Elements 14 review.

Sony Movie Studio 13 Platinum

Sony hasn’t made a major update to its consumer video editor for a couple of years now, but then there’s no need to when it’s so refined and efficient anyway. Premiere may be more approachable but Sony’s effort is our personal favourite. This is down to timeline editing that is second-to-none at this price. It’s not immediately obvious but once you get the hang of it you’ll be making precise edits quicker than with Premiere.

This current edition has support for 4K movies, so there’s no worries about it being out of date. In addition it has a handful of great effects from Hitfilm (below) integrated into it too, so it’s not only Premiere that has some fancy tricks up its sleeve. Still it’s the no nonsense approach to editing that wins through here and if you’ve already got some editing experience, this will service you better than Premiere.

OS Support: Window 7 (SP1), 8, 10 Minimum CPU: 2GHz Minimum GPU: 512MB memory Minimum RAM: 2GB Hard disk space: 500MB. Read our full Sony Movie Studio 13 Platinum review.

Hitfilm 4 Pro

If you’re looking to get a little more adventurous than simple editing then Hitfilm Pro is the place to go for all your special effect needs. Developed out of Norwich this plucky underdog is a wonder of technology and design, allowing you to add realistic smoke, fire, snow and other particle effects to your footage. Hitfilm is capable of video editing but we’d recommend one of the two packages above to work alongside it, editing together the magic that Hitfilm produces.

You shouldn't expect to get amazing results straight off, it takes a bit of fiddling about and a lot of staring at mind-boggling menus of options to get underway but the results really are first class. You set up a scene so the software understands the way space is orientated, add effects, and then it automatically adjusts their appearance as the camera moves, it’s almost magical. FX Home just doesn’t seem to understand that expensive-looking effects are supposed to be expensive, bringing Hollywood trickery to the masses.

OS Support: Windows 7/8/10, Mac OS X 10.10 or 10.11,Minimum CPU: Core Core i3,Minimum GPU: OpenGL 2.0, 512MB (GeForce 9 series, Radeon HD 5000 series, Intel HD 4000), Minimum RAM: 4GB,Hard disk space: 1.2GB. Read our full Hitfilm 4 Pro review.