The Best Professional Video Editing Software. Be it between cats or dogs, Coke or Pepsi, Mac or PC… life always presents us with choices. Some of them are quite simple: we just pick what we like the most or what we’re used to and that’s that. End of story. But when it comes to choosing among the best software for professional video editing, there are many factors to consider. The type of content we’re going to edit, the tools we’ll need, our hardware’s performance, technical specs, availability, requirements and, of course, the price.
Here at DVO, we want to help you make this complex decision. That’s why we’re analyzing what, in our opinion, are the top 5 professional video editing software. You know: DVO proposes… and YOU dispose. We hope you find this small guide useful!
1. Avid Media Composer.
It should be noted that all the software we’re going to present to you are solidly designed integral systems that cover all (or almost all) editing and post-production needs. However, each software has its strengths. And what’s Avid Media Composer strong point? Editing, pure and simple. Its practical and powerful interface, along with its well-thought-out tools, allow you to trim, overlap, insert, move, lift, or cut the clips with the utmost precision.
It’s true that, being one of the pioneering software in the transition from linear editing systems to non-linear digital editing, many of us who started with it are so used to its mechanics that, when we work with any other software, miss some of its unique tools and how simple they make re-editing sequences. In the words of Vanessa Marimbert, Goya Award winner for Best Editing in 2022 for El Buen Patrón: “Avid’s trim is unbeatable, I couldn’t live without it”. And let’s not forget that many other digital editing systems have been inspired by Media Composer and have copied some of its tools. It’s for a reason that it has been the most used editing software for many years, especially in the field of fiction, and some of its features, like the “Match Frame” and “Lift” tools have become industry icons.
Also worth mentioning is its multicamera editing mode. Besides, over time Avid has made significant improvements to some initially rough tools, such as its color corrector and its 3D animation mode, and has incorporated other highly useful ones like ScryptSync and Phrase Find. Its weak point may lie in its still unimpressive audio editing mode, but then there’s always Pro Tools to rely on.
Franchise series: “Game of Thrones”.
Available for macOS and Windows. Downloads, specifications, requirements and prices.
2. Adobe Premiere Pro.
The key here lies in the first word: Adobe. When you sign up for the Creative Cloud service, in addition to Premiere Pro, you get access to the entire suite of software from this brand, some of which are absolute powerhouses like Photoshop, Ilustrator, Audition, Media Encoder, InDesign… Chief among them, After Effects, with its powerful sets of tools for motion graphics, keys, filters, composite, color correction, among others. And we all know how necessary can be to integrate all processes into a continuous workflow. So here’s your orchestra for achieving it, with all its elements perfectly coordinated thanks to Dynamic Link, which allows that changes made in one software are immediately updated across the board.
Other advantages include its robustness and the ability to work seamlessly in the same sequence with a wide range of files, codecs and formats. I mentioned earlier that I started editing on Avid. Which software do I primarily work with today? Adobe Premiere Pro. Sometimes I may miss some of Media Composer’s editing tools, yes, but the gap between the two is already narrow, and the Adobe suite provides an essential versatility boost these days.
Franchise series: “Breaking Bad”.
Available for macOS and Windows. Downloads, specifications, requirements and prices.
3. Da Vinci Resolve.
The great revelation of recent years. Developed by Blackmagic Design and originally conceived in 2004 as a color corrector, it has continuously expanded its features and capabilities ever since, which has allowed it to grow exponentially and become a major player in the industry. Undoubtedly, one of the contributing factors to its success is its free license version, which includes as many features (or even more!) than some payware out there, including 7 modules that cover all the essentials for editing and post-producing: Media, Edit, Cut, Color, Fusion, Fairlight and Delivery.
Its key strengths are its powerful color corrector and the high performance it extracts from both processor and graphics card, resulting in minimal downtime and exceptional reliability. On the flip side, it does require a dedicated graphics card (AMD or nVIDIA) and ample memory capacity, which excludes many laptops and some desktop computers. Moreover, its learning curve doesn’t make it the most beginner-friendly option, and its Fusion module has a more limited range of plugins then other software, such as After Effects (although this has been somewhat improved in the latest versions).
Franchise series: “Westworld”.
Available for macOS, Windows and Linux. Downloads, specifications, requirements, and prices.
4. Final Cut Pro X.
There was a time when it seemed like Final Cut was going to dominate the video editing market, and many of us hurried to take a course to learn it. However, strong competition and some controversial decisions —such as the radical shift from Final Cut Pro 7 to Final Cut Pro X, despite it being a significant improvement in resource optimization— came to deflate those expectations. Nevertheless, we mustn’t forget that it’s still a highly comprehensive, competent, and reliable software.
Interestingly, what some consider its Achilles’ heel, others perceive as its greatest strength. Being a software developed by Apple, Final Cut Pro only works on Mac platforms. This limitation in terms of market reach, however, provides it with greater stability and performance than its competitors, enabling it to handle high-resolution sequences and execute complex tasks, like object tracking, in real-time without the need of pre-render. Another potential drawback lies in its peculiar editing interface, with deviates from the traditional timeline model with separate video and audio tracks, something that some users find confusing and unintuitive. Although opinions on editing forums regarding this matter vary widely.
Franchise series: “Stranger Things”.
Only available for macOS. Downloads, specifications, requirements, and prices.
5. Lightworks.
The last software of the list hasn’t been an easy choice. Grass Valley Edius, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate, Sony Vegas Pro, Movavi Video Suite, Cyberlink Power Director… Not few people out there might get upset with our leaving out any of these options, and they probably have a point. But I let nostalgia guide me and I’ve chosen the one I first started working on my early short films.
Lightworks was one of the pioneering systems of the trasition from traditional to digital editing video, and for a while it held its ground against Avid. But eventually it lost the battle. The company went through its own wilderness journey, with its share of ups and downs and changes of ownership. Nevertheless, it always maintained a loyal and dedicated bunch of followers, including notable supporters like Thelma Shoonmaker, the editor of Martin Scorsese’s films and a three-time Oscar winner. In recent years, Lightworks has experienced a renewed resurgence, expanded its availability to Mac and Lynux platforms and incorporated a significant number of tools and functions, giving it a significant competitive boost in the industry. Noteworthy features include its GPU-acceleration architecture, with allows for real-time handling of sequences with effects, compositions, and color corrections, as well as its multicamera editing module, enabling working without file limits and mixing resolutions and formats within the same group.
Franchise films: “Pulp Fiction” and “The Wolf of Wall Street”.
Available for macOS, Windows and Lynux. Downloads, specifications, requirements and prices
We are aware of the controversy this topic generates, and it’s possible that our preferences and personal opinions may have influenced us. Please, feel free to let us know in the comments if you disagree with our selection or if you believe we have made a mistake at some point. We’re open to learning from you as well. What are your Best Professional Video Editing Software? Thank you.
