Some video editors are complete suites

There are free video editors that hold your hand through the entire process, and there are more powerful apps that offer room to grow. At the very least, all of the apps on this list allow you to cut together clips and export a finished product at 1080p — with no watermark — in a format that’s suitable for YouTube.

As I was testing all the free video editing apps I could get my hands on, I used the following criteria to help pick the best one for the job:

Editing features. The ability to easily arrange clips on a timeline is the bread and butter of video editing. Some apps take care of this for you with automatic editing options, while others leave you to your own devices with tools for splitting clips and adding markers. I also looked at more advanced editing features like chroma keying (green screen), multi-camera editing, video stabilization, and effects.

Limitations for free users. Only some of the editors featured in my shortlist are completely free — the rest are free versions of premium apps. I only considered apps that satisfied my criteria of being able to export at 1080p or better with no watermark and without any limits on the number of exports performed. The more generous the free version beyond that, the better.

Efficiency. I looked for performant apps with good options for exporting video. (Publishing directly to YouTube was a nice bonus but not essential.) Playback should be smooth, and video preview windows should ideally include toggles for quality settings to accommodate less powerful hardware. Web-based video editors should feel as close to a desktop app as possible and handle the editing workflow accordingly.

Learning and support. Ample support documentation, tutorials, and an active community of users can be huge, especially for free tools. For simpler tools, intuitive design and in-app guidance might be all you need.

Extras. Some video editors are complete suites that can handle effects, audio mastering, and even subtitling. Others offer integration with stock footage services and cloud storage providers. Though not essential, extras like these helped some video editing apps stand out.

To test these video editors, I cut together a selection of 4K HDR videos shot on an iPhone 13 Pro. I did simple edits, like adding clips to a timeline, splitting clips, adjusting playback speed, and adding transitions between clips; and I also dabbled in the more advanced options (where available), including chroma keying, syncing video and audio, and color correction. Finally, I made sure the exported files met my standards for quality — and didn’t include a watermark.

In the end, I settled on the following free video editors that should satisfy a range of abilities across all three major desktop operating systems and the web.