8 Best Video Editing Software Tools for 2024

Post-production is the final, and the most important stage of the video production process. Having the right editing software can make all the difference in turning raw footage into a polished final media. For video production companies in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and beyond, investing in video editing and color grading tools is the number one priority. Here are 8 Best video editing apps for 2024:

1. Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro is the industry-standard video editing software. Its widely used and approved by video production studios and editors worldwide. It’s a core component of Adobe’s creative suite, tightly integrated with other apps like After Effects and Photoshop. For production companies building post production workstations, Premiere Pro optimizes performance on systems with high-end GPUs like RTX2080Ti and lots of RAM (64GB in our workstations).

Premiere offers a set of tools for multi-cam footage editing, essential for professional live event coverage or podcast editing. The customizable user interface (UI) allows to set up panels for effects, audio, graphics, and more the way you want it. Premiere’s timeline supports up to 256 tracks, with flexible tools for quick trimming, rippling, rolling, extending edits.

For color, Premiere is built and programmed to work smoothly with other Creative Cloud apps. But it also offers powerful color grading tools like Lumetri Color. Features like color wheels, curves, hue vs saturation, and trackable masks make editing a smooth process without needing to leave Premiere.

Premiere Pro is the most widely used standard for professional video editing and visual effects applications in Adobe After Effects. It’s the #1 choice of editors across the media and entertainment spectrum, from Hollywood blockbusters to YouTubers. For video production studios handling diverse client work, it’s hard to find a more flexible, full-featured video editing app than Premiere Pro. But there is the app that we at IT STARTS! media find a better option:

2. DaVinci Resolve Studio

Originally focused only on professional color grading, DaVinci Resolve by Blackmagic Design has evolved into a full scope content editing system combined with a complete audio and visual effects post-production studio. This makes it an incredibly appealing video editing software option for full service video production companies looking for an all-in-one solution.

For colorists, Resolve includes legendary tools like wheels, curves, primaries, secondaries, power windows, and more for Hollywood-grade color correction. As well as the node tree system, which is more popular in the professional seven figure production budget world. The new DaVinci Neural Engine enables features like facial recognition and isolation for fast, automated beauty retouching, and it works amazingly to get rid of light reflections on the faces.

The Fairlight page offers a full digital audio workstation suitable for dialog and podcast editing, sound design, ADR, Foley, scoring, and audio mixing. Features like real-time ADR tools and Fairlight FX plugins provide everything needed for professional sound post. REcently added Voice Isolation feature is pure Magic, and will refine your audio voice recordings with lots of environment sounds in the background, like working ACs, fans, traffic, and more.

On the visual effects side, the Fusion app is built right in to Resolve. This provides integrated motion graphics, paint, rotoscoping, particles, keys, 3D text, tracking and more. VFX artists can composite shots and add motion design without ever leaving Resolve. However, worth mentioning that Adobe After Effects has more capabilities and a better user interface in terms of visual effects.

Combining professional-level color grading, editing, VFX and audio post tools into a single application, DaVinci Resolve offers video production companies an attractive all-in-one post-production solution, for one time flat rate.  For video production studios looking for an integrated editorial, color, audio and VFX environment, Resolve is hard to beat. All these factors make us the true believers that DaVinci Resolve Studio is the best video production software in 2023-2024, and is even getting better than the competition.

DaVinci Resolve even has the free version with minor limitations, which is still a great option as a video editing app for most video production and video marketing companies and agencies.

Post production software

3. Final Cut Pro

Apple’s Final Cut Pro video editing software is quite popular among video editors on Mac. Leveraging native Apple Metal performance and optimization, it’s a top choice for production companies building content creation and post production workstations around Mac Pro or Mac Studio hardware. For quick turnaround client projects, Final Cut Pro’s organizational features like Smart Collections and Keyword Ranges enable smooth post production process. Still, we should say it cannot be compared with more professional applications like DaVinci Resolve and Adobe Premiere in terms of capabilities, and not adopted by the professional video production studios.

4. Adobe Premiere Rush

Adobe’s mobile-first editing app Premiere Rush makes on-the-go video editing and post production a breeze. For video field production crews shooting B-roll and interviews, having basic capabilities on a phone or tablet speeds up the process. Rush’s ability to hand off edits to desktop Premiere makes it a versatile mobile companion.

Post production app

5. Corel VideoStudio

With its suite of creative editing tools and multi-cam support, Corel VideoStudio packs a professional punch at a more budget-friendly price point. For video producers and editors looking to level up from entry-level software, VideoStudio delivers many advanced video editing features without the premium price tag. The bundled screen recording toolkit also makes it easy for vloggers and online video creators to produce tutorials and other content.

6. Shotcut

As a completely free, open-source NLE, Shotcut offers an incredible value. It supports a wide range of professional codecs and formats including 4K, ProRes, and WebM up to 8K. The timeline-based multi-track editing workflow mirrors professional systems. For video production companies on a tight budget, Shotcut provides a surprisingly fully-featured editing environment at no cost.

Video editing software

7. Filmora

Wondershare’s Filmora targets the consumer/prosumer market with an elegant, easy-to-use interface. But it still packs in powerful features like motion tracking, keyframing, and GPU acceleration. For video producers cranking out social media content on a tight turnaround, Filmora is easy enough for beginners but offers the tools to achieve professional results. The affordable one-time payment makes it accessible for producers at all levels.

8. Lightworks

Despite its free price tag, Lightworks is no slouch. Having been used to edit major Hollywood blockbusters, its pedigree is well-proven. The free version has limited output options but provides a true professional nonlinear editing toolset. For LA post-production studios focused on client collaboration, Lightworks is a flexible choice. And the Pro version delivers mastering and export features needed for finished client deliverables.

Video editing software

Summary

At our Los Angeles based video production company IT STARTS! media, dealing with massive corporate video production projects, we rely on DaVinci Resolve Studio for our post-production workflow. Here is why in our opinion DaVinci Resolve is the best video editing software: the all-in-one editing, color grading, audio and VFX environment provides huge advantages in efficiency and collaboration.

We find Resolve to be extremely stable and bug-free, which is especially important when handling complex timelines and processor-intensive formats like 8K RAW. It is extremely crucial when there is a team working on a video production project, whether it is a commercial, a recruitment video, or an About Us video. The constant updates from Blackmagic add great new features like cloud collaboration, one-click facial isolation, and AI-powered relighting. Voice isolation is a game changer as well – check it out in one of our recent projects.

For our team, having Resolve’s full suite of post tools in one application is a massive time-saver. We can jump from editorial to color to audio to VFX for a streamlined client project handoff. Features like the cut page and DaVinci Neural Engine speed up our workflow and enable faster turnaround.

Unlike subscription models like Adobe CC, Resolve is available via a reasonable one-time license fee. There are no monthly payments to worry about. This makes budgeting and planning easy for our production studio.

Worth mentioning is that this video editing application utilizes the resources of our video editing workstations hardware at maximum, which is crucial for fast and smooth video editing. Every Megabyte of RAM and GPU is in use, when needed.

We strongly recommend DaVinci Resolve to other video production companies, especially those handling end-to-end post workflows. The unparalleled breadth of tools, stability, frequent updates, and fair pricing model make Resolve our #1 choice for professional post-production. It truly has everything a video production studio could need or want, all in one application.

Video editing app