Introduction
Chromebooks are increasingly becoming a popular choice among many computer users. Both Mac and Windows laptop users are switching to Chromebooks these days, especially with the rising popularity of bloggers who make use of this affordable alternative.
According to Statista, Chromebook recorded about 98.5 million shipments to customers globally in the last three years.
However, for some long-time Windows or Mac users who have been accustomed to running high-end video editing and graphic software on their computers, Chromebooks may seem disappointing because of their limited processing power.
While it’s true that Chromebooks do not have the same functionality as Mac and Windows laptops, there are still several apps and video editing software that you can enjoy on your Chromebook. This article will explore 11 of the best free video editing software for Chromebooks in 2023.
We’ll review the best-rated free programs available today, highlighting their features and limitations to help you find the perfect tool for your next video project. So whether you’re a professional filmmaker or a student working on a school project, there’s sure to be a video editor on this list that meets your needs.
Free Video Editing Software for Chromebooks in 2023
When it comes to video editing apps, there are plenty of options available. But not all of them offer the same level of functionality. Some are better at creating animations while others excel at adding text overlays. Here is a list of top 11 free video editing software available today.
- InVideo
- WeVideo
- Lightworks
- Avidemux
- Kdenlive
- PowerDirector
- Veedio
- OpenShot Video Editor
- FlexClip
- Blender
1. InVideo
InVideo‘s intuitive user interface and vast array of features make it an excellent choice for professionals and novices. InVideo’s powerful timeline editor allows you to quickly and easily arrange your clips, adding special effects, transitions, and text overlays with ease.
You can also add music from their library of royalty-free songs or upload your audio files. Moreso, the cloud-based platform ensures that all your projects remain secure and backed up at all times.
InVideo also offers an expansive selection of features to take your videos to the next level. With its advanced chroma-keying tool, you can easily cut out the backgrounds of your clips for a seamless, professional-looking video.
InVideo’s AI-powered automation can help you further by automatically editing videos according to specific themes or topics. This feature can be an incredible time-saver if you’re creating videos in bulk. You can also use InVideo to create animated marketing videos with professional templates designed by leading industry experts.
2. WeVideo
WeVideo is an intuitive and easy-to-use video-editing software that is perfect for beginners. No doubt that video editing can be a very complex process, but WeVideo has simplified it by providing a drag-and-drop interface and a wide range of features to help new users create professional-looking videos.
One of the best things about WeVideo is that it is accessible from any device with an internet connection. Users can start editing their videos on one device and pick up where they left off on another. This feature is especially useful for teams collaborating on a video project from different locations.
Other exciting features of WeVideo are its:
- Extensive library of stock video footage
- Screen and webcam recording
- Music
- Sound effects
- Motion tiles.
Users can easily drag and drop these assets into a video project, making it easy to add production value to any video.
WeVideo also has basic editing functions like trimming and splitting video clips, as well as more advanced features like green screen effects and motion graphics. It also has various text and font options and the capacity to export in different resolutions and aspect ratios. However, you may experience lengthy import wait times.
3. Lightworks
Lightworks is a powerful and feature-rich free video editor available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and also ChromeOS. The user interface may take some time to get used to, but the workflow is very efficient once you’re familiar with it. The software is divided into multiple panels, which you can resize and rearrange to suit your needs.
One of the standout features of Lightworks is its support for multiple video formats, including 4K. The software also includes a robust set of color grading and correction tools and a range of visual effects and transitions. There are also options for audio editing and mixing, allowing you to adjust levels, add effects, and sync sound with the video.
Another advantage of Lightworks is its support for collaboration. It offers several features that allow multiple users to work on a project simultaneously, making it a great choice for teams. Some of its unique features are:
- VFX: This tool offers a variety of creative transitions and color corrections to help users design videos. You can add titles, use OpenFX plugins to add Hollywood-style visual effects to give your videos a professional look.
- Creative Control: LightWorks gives you complete control over creativity with its motion graphics and powerful timelines. Its timeline is designed to make video editing fast, simple and efficient. It comes with several preloaded graphic templates that streamline the process.
- Timeline Time Savers: LightWorks automatically saves your video editing progress, so you don’t have to worry about losing your ongoing edits in case of an unexpected shutdown.
4. Shotcut
Shotcut is a free and open-source video editor offering multiple tools and features for basic and advanced video editing. The software’s balanced mix of features makes it a great choice for users of all skill levels.
One unique feature of this tool is its highly customizable user interface. Users can choose which panels they want to display and how they want them arranged.
Shotcut offers a broad range of basic video editing tools, such as trimming, cutting, and splicing, as well as more advanced features like color grading and correction, audio mixing, and visual effects. It also supports multiple video and audio formats, making it easy to work with footage from various sources.
Shotcut is also very stable and reliable, with regular updates and bug fixes released by the developer. So users can feel confident using it for their video editing needs without worrying about crashes or other issues.
5. Avidemux
Avidemux is a free, open-source video editor available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. While it is not available as a native app for Chromebook, you can still access it on the device by installing the Linux version through a Linux container.
Avidemux offers a straightforward interface. It is a lightweight software ideal for basic video editing tasks such as cutting, trimming and merging videos. The video editing app is not as advanced as other professional-grade software but offers several useful tools such as filters, video effects, and encoding options.
Avidemux offers a batch-processing feature that allows users to edit multiple files at once. Hence, it’s ideal for people working with large video collections. Overall, Avidemux is an excellent choice for users who need basic video editing functionality and don’t want to spend money on professional-grade software.
6. Kdenlive
Kdenlive is a great open-source video editor available for Chromebooks. It has a professional user interface and many amazing video editing features.
These features include:
- Color correction
- Audio editing
- Multi-track timeline editing.
You can also add effects to your videos with Kdenlive, like text effects, image overlays, and transitions.
Additionally, there’s a library of over 200 effects that you can use to customize your video editing experience. Users can trim, cut, splice, and add transitions to video clips. It also provides features for keyframe animation and video effects like glow, blur, and noise reduction.
Kdenlive is incredibly intuitive and easy to use thanks to its drag-and-drop system for adding video clips, audio tracks, and effects. With this tool, you can import footage from any device into Kdenlive, so it doesn’t matter if you’re using an iPhone or Chromebook.
Finally, you can export your projects in multiple formats to be compatible with wherever they need to go.
7. PowerDirector
PowerDirector offers a user-friendly interface. Its intuitive storyboard mode is excellent for quickly assembling videos. And its many export options make it easy to share videos online, burn to DVD or Blu-ray, or save to a file. It offers several video editing features, including:
- Timeline-based editing
- Customizable effects
- Color grading
The software includes a broad range of tools for creating animations, titles, and transitions. It offers a library of built-in effects and templates to help users get started quickly.
PowerDirector also offers advanced features such as multicam editing, 360-degree video editing, and motion tracking, making it a powerful tool for professional video editors. The software supports multiple formats and resolutions, including 4K and 8K videos.
8. Veed.io
Veed.io is a free video editing software that allows users to edit their videos easily and quickly. It is an online video editor, so you can access it from any device with an internet connection without downloading any software or application.
One of the key features of Veed.io is its simple and intuitive user interface, which makes it easy for beginners to start editing videos without any prior experience.
Like WeVideo, the platform has a drag-and-drop functionality that allows users to upload and arrange their video clips, images, and audio files in a straightforward way.
Veed.io also has a broad range of editing tools that allow users to trim and cut their videos, add text and captions, apply filters and effects, and adjust the color and brightness of their videos. Additionally, the video editing software has a library of royalty-free music tracks and sound effects users can add to their videos.
9. OpenShot Video Editor
OpenShot Video Editor is one of the most popular open-source video editing software providing a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and understand. The interface is customizable and can be adjusted to fit the user’s preferences.
The software supports various video and audio formats, including HD and 4K videos, AAC, AVCHD, LAME, and WebM.
One of the key features of OpenShot is its ability to support multiple tracks for video, audio, and images. This means that users can layer different media on top of each other and create complex video projects. The software has various built-in video and audio effects, including transitions, color correction, and audio filters.
OpenShot’s features can be listed thus:
- Drag and drop functionality
- Pro animation effects
- Supports many audio and video formats
- Scaling, snapping, trimming, and resizing features
In addition to the built-in features, OpenShot supports plug-ins, allowing users to customize and expand the software’s functionality. The software also has an active and supportive community of users and developers who contribute to its ongoing development and improvement.
10. FlexClip
FlexClip provides a wide range of pre-made templates you can choose from. These templates are organized into different categories, such as business, education, travel, and social media, among others. The online video editor offers a vast library of royalty-free media, including stock footage, images, and music. And users can integrate these media into their videos without any additional cost.
FlexClip also allows you to add and customize the text in your videos. You can choose from various fonts, colors, and sizes and animate the text in different ways. It also provides various transitions you can customize to fit your video’s theme and style.
Once you have finished editing your video, you can export it in various formats, including MP4, MOV, and GIF. You can also choose the video resolution and quality. Overall, FlexClip is a user-friendly and versatile video editor suitable for many video creation needs, from social media videos to business presentations.
11. Blender
Blender is a free, open-source 3D creation suite with a video editing component. The Blender video editor allows users to edit and manipulate video footage and create complex animations and visual effects.
One amazing feature of the Blender video editor is the multi-track timeline. Blender’s video editor allows users to work with multiple tracks of video and audio, making it easy to layer footage and create complex compositions.
Users can see a real-time preview of their edits in the video editor, so it’s easy to see how changes to the footage will affect the final product.
Overall, Blender video editor is a powerful and flexible tool, but it has a steeper learning curve than some other video editing software, but its extensive documentation and community support make it a great choice for users who are willing to invest the time to learn its features.
To capture the best footage possible, read our comprehensive guide on video capture tricks you should know to improve the quality of your presentations and short clips.
How to Select the Best Free Video Editing Software
When selecting a free video editor for Chromebook, there are several factors to consider. Here are some key things to keep in mind:
1. Features
The first thing to consider is what features the software offers. Some free video editing software may only offer basic editing capabilities, while others may have advanced features such as special effects, color correction, and audio editing.
Before selecting a free video editor, identify the features that are necessary to achieve your desired effects. For example, if you’re creating a promotional video, you may need features like text overlays, animations, and transitions. On the other hand, if you’re creating a vlog, you may need features like color correction and audio editing.
Once you have identified the necessary features for your project, look for reviews, tutorials, and demos of the software to understand how the software works.
2. User Interface
The user interface of a video editor can have a big impact on how easy or difficult it is to use the software and, ultimately, how successful you are in achieving your editing goals.
Ideally, the interface should be visually clear and uncluttered. Icons and text should be large enough to see and easy to read. The timeline and other elements should be clearly labeled and easily identifiable.
A good video editor should allow for customization of the interface. This means you can adjust the layout, move or resize panels, and customize keyboard shortcuts to better suit your editing style and workflow.
3. Compatibility
Check the system requirements for the video editor you are interested in. The system requirements should indicate if the software is compatible with Chrome OS.
Also, search for the video editor you are interested in on the Chrome Web Store to see if it is available for download and installation. The Chrome Web Store is the primary source for downloading apps and extensions on Chromebooks.
Finally, check the manufacturer’s website to see if they provide specific instructions for installing and using their software on a Chromebook. Some manufacturers may provide installation guides or tutorials for running their software on Chrome OS.
4. Support
While most free video editing software won’t offer the same level of customer support as paid software, it’s still important to make sure that there are resources available to help you if you run into any issues.
Check if the video editor provides multiple channels for support, such as email, phone, chat, or an online forum. The more channels available, the better the chance that you’ll be able to get help quickly and efficiently.
Many video editors provide a knowledge base, user guides, or tutorials to help users learn how to use the software. Check if the video editor provides such resources and if they are up-to-date and comprehensive.
5. Reputation
Check for online reviews of the software from trusted sources. Look for reviews from reputable technology websites, blogs, and forums. Pay attention to the overall rating and specific feedback from users regarding ease of use, features, and support.
Social media platforms are another reliable source to learn more about video editors. Search for hashtags or keywords related to the software, and read comments from users who have tried it.
Finally, look for awards and recognition that the software has received. Some software may have been recognized by industry organizations or publications, which is an excellent indicator of a good reputation.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the best free video editing software for you will depend on your individual needs and preferences. Consider these factors and try out a few different options to find the one that works best for you. Besides the video tools, creating professional videos require exceptional skill too.