A cross-platform, free and open-source video editor for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Shotcut in a nutshell
Shotcut was started in 2004 and completely rewritten in 2011. After more than a decade of steady updates the current release delivers professional features and performance that rival many paid editors—without the price tag.
Key features
- Wide format support – import almost any audio/video file without transcoding
- Dual-monitor editing, live preview, webcam & microphone capture
- Full-featured timeline with professional-grade filters and colour tools
- Clean, intuitive interface with GPU acceleration, Chinese localisation and 4 K support
Editing experience
Short-form content is essential for creators. I recently needed to cut tutorials and vlogs; phone apps are fine for quick clips, but anything with multiple assets is faster on a desktop. Adobe Premiere is powerful—and expensive. Rather than risk piracy I looked for a free alternative and found Shotcut.
The web site is English-only and loads at a moderate speed, but the installer offers Chinese (and many other languages) on first run. Anyone who has used a timeline editor will be productive immediately: drag-and-drop works smoothly, shortcuts are familiar and the layout is logical. For day-to-day editing it feels as capable as most paid suites.
Room for improvement
New users may struggle: official tutorials are English and hosted on YouTube (blocked in some regions). Fortunately Chinese guides exist on Zhihu and Baidu. The UI won’t win beauty awards, yet from a functional standpoint it covers every requirement—and it’s free.
License
Shotcut is released under GPL v3. Download, use and redistribute it freely in any setting—personal or commercial.