Premiere Pro Al­tern­at­ives

When it comes to modern video editing, digital editing pro­grammes are in­dis­pens­able. Among others Avid, Final Cut and Davinci Resolve, are all pro­fes­sion­ally-ori­ent­ated and fee-based pro­grammes. However, Adobe Premier Pro has es­tab­lished itself as the pro­fes­sion­al software for soph­ist­ic­ated, digital editing. Thanks to modern editing pro­grammes, footage no longer has to be phys­ic­ally edited by hand. Instead it can be digitally cut in a variable and un­chro­no­lo­gic­al, a.k.a. non-linear, fashion without having any effect on the quality.

Nowadays editing pro­grammes are taken for granted by many; unaware of the fact that the process of video editing was made so much easier by the di­git­al­isa­tion of photo and video. Up until recently, video editing involved tedious and manual labour. But these days anyone with a capable PC can easily and con­veni­ently edit films. Anyone who takes the time to immerse them­selves in the world of non-linear editing pro­grammes, will have limitless pos­sib­il­it­ies to turn in­di­vidu­al scenes into cinematic pieces of art.   Video editing software now also means you can edit almost every film, produce smart phone videos for social media, or create video content for your own homepage. It is also no longer necessary to pay for software, e.g. Premiere Pro, as free software is now widely available. We have compiled a list of the best free Premiere Pro al­tern­at­ives out there.

The VSDC Free Video Editor is a freeware programme with an extensive range of functions. It offers a very clear and ac­cess­ible user interface with ribbon nav­ig­a­tion; making it easy to both import and edit videos. It has a com­pre­hens­ive set of base functions like cross-fades, color ad­just­ment, adding sound effects or subtitles, and chroma keying for varying back­grounds like 3-D effects. These all mean the software offers limitless creative pos­sib­il­it­ies. The editor allows you to easily upload video clips from desktop folders onto the timeline, add music over them, and also simply drag & drop pictures or images into the project. Above all, VSDC Free Video Editor’s ad­di­tion­al functions make it par­tic­u­larly ac­cess­ible for social media users. It allows for the simple creation of slideshows and also offers a handy screen capture tool, with which you can easily take screen­shots intended for the likes of video tutorials and screen­casts. As regards to picture quality, the editor leads the way and even caters for the editing of fully HD videos in 16:9 ratio with 1920 x 1080 pixel solution and a frame rate of up 30 fps (frames per second). The authoring tool means that the end result can be burned directly onto DVD or can also be exported onto devices like smart phones and iPods. One catch is that the editor is un­for­tu­nately not suitable for Mac or Linux users. Con­clu­sion: the VSDC Free Video Editor offers Windows users all necessary features for editing.  It’s a handy tool for both beginners as well as amateur film­makers and is easy to use. With its many ad­di­tion­al functions it leaves little more to be desired.

The open source editing software Shotcut also offers users a com­pre­hens­ive free tool with very useful functions. It is as easy to use as the VSDC editor and allows you to simply drag & drop video clips into the timeline ready to edit. The clear and ac­cess­ible user interface allows users to create, format and stabilise their own videos. A diverse range of default filter functions, e.g. for frame trans­itions, make image editing even easier. Filter functions allow for the volume level of in­di­vidu­al sequences to be easily adjusted manually or even com­pletely muted - to cater for the addition of back­ground music. Colour wheels allow for easy and intuitive colour cor­rec­tion and sat­ur­a­tion. When it comes to exporting data, a diverse range of file formats like MP3, MP4, MPEG or MOV, makes life even easier for Shotcut users. Shotcut uses a ‘native’ cut meaning editing takes place directly within the original clip. This means that no ad­di­tion­al file import is necessary and there is no danger of the quality suffering. One thing which makes the programme par­tic­u­larly at­tract­ive is that it even supports videos with ultra-sharp 4K res­ol­u­tion (roughly 4 times as sharp as full HD) as well as offering in­form­at­ive video tutorials on its website. Shotcut’s capture tool is es­pe­cially useful for video bloggers and tutorial makers as it allows webcam videos to be recorded, streamed, and in­teg­rated into other pro­duc­tions. The programme’s FFmpeg also means Shotcut caters for every format of video, audio and image. Con­clu­sion: Shotcut offers everyone, from fans of high res­ol­u­tion clips to active video portal users, the op­por­tun­ity to produce high-quality video clips and tutorials. At the same time, the wide range of filters and op­tim­isa­tion options allow users to achieve their desired results without any loss of quality.

Among the al­tern­at­ives to Premiere Pro is also the free and beginner-friendly open source tool OpenShot Video Editor. Ori­gin­ally just available for Linux users, the most recent beta version of OpenShot is now also com­pat­ible with Windows and macOS, meaning that most users can get started straight away on their PC or laptop. OpenShot is notable for its par­tic­u­larly clear and ac­cess­ible user interface. Simple drag & drop tools allow you to edit pictures, video, as well as audio files in the timeline itself. Within the programme are all the necessary functions for effective editing: filter effects, colour and bright­ness corrector, trans­itions with preview, a chroma key tool for the use of a blue/green screen, as well as many other features. Along with this it also offers a range of useful ad­di­tion­al features, e.g. user-defined keyboard shortcuts, in­teg­rated tutorials, and easily modified effect filters; all of which can be applied with the help of the drag & drop feature. On top of this, the free 3D design software Blender even allows for the creation of three-di­men­sion­al animation, e.g. for a title caption, within the editor. FFmpeg ensures that all popular file formats are supported. Con­clu­sion: With its clear overview and easy usability, OpenShot is the optimal video editing software for beginners looking to start creating right away.

When it comes to free al­tern­at­ives to Premiere Pro, the freemium programme HitFilm 4 Express un­doubtedly leads the way. The user interface shares many sim­il­ar­it­ies with the Premiere Pro model, with its effects panel, trimmer and preview window, as well as how the timeline and imported clips all neatly and ef­fi­ciently arranged. User-defined special effects and filters provide ad­ven­tur­ous users with a wide range of pos­sib­il­it­ies for ex­per­i­ment­a­tion. With HitFilm 4 Express, default 3D effects can be seam­lessly inserted and modified. Besides this, the com­pos­it­ing function allows for sep­ar­ately recorded 2D and 3D effects to be flexibly combined. To access HitFilm 4 Express you must first register and set up a free account on the HitFilm website. This will not just give you access to the free tool, it will also give you the pos­sib­il­ity to purchase ad­di­tion­al functions; for those wishing to get even more out of their re­spect­ive projects. The website offers many free video tutorials with input from software functions and in­ter­est­ing in­form­a­tion regarding topics like visual effects. The only downside of the programme is its in­com­pat­ib­il­ity with Linux. Con­clu­sion: Visually and func­tion­ally, HitFilm4Express has everything that a soph­ist­ic­ated video editing programme should have and is certainly up there with the best pro­fes­sion­al free Adobe Premiere Pro al­tern­at­ives available.

Adobe Premiere Pro is one of the most com­pre­hens­ive and capable video editors on the market, providing a standard on par with that of the pro­fes­sion­als. However the freeware pro­grammes outlined above mean that anyone working in a semi-pro­fes­sion­al or hobby capacity has many al­tern­at­ive choices when it comes to producing eye-catching videos. These pro­grammes provide limitless creative pos­sib­il­it­ies - be it for your private archives, tomorrow’s present­a­tion, or your own YouTube channel. The internet also offers many more free video editors and freemium tools available for download. Unlike most other free pro­grammes, these editors are both suitable for ambitious beginners as well as for keen amateur film­makers, who require a lot more than the mere ar­range­ment of clips. Below you will find a short overview regarding which video formats are supported by the various pro­grammes, as well as their com­pat­ib­il­ity with the different operating systems.