It doesn't have all the bells and whistles as expensive programs but it does plenty enough to do most basic projects. All in all I'm very pleased with Shotcut, I highly recommend it. This will definitely teach you the basics for free before you decide to lay out your cash. If you can master Shotcut, you'll be in perfect shape to advance to a more expensive program later on. This program is perfect for those on a budget or for a beginner. Since the amount of scene transitions is limited I find myself concentrating more on the quality of the scenes themselves instead of the transitions, which is a good thing. So far I've had no problems with Shotcut.

The software is really good and lightweight and even has a portable version.

CONSĪs you could probably expect Shotcut doesn't have some of the features of the higher end video editing software such as powerful color correction. It's a must for who is starting out and feels like the popular software is either too expensive or too overwhelming. Similar software requires an additional encoder when with Shotcut it's a simple 3-5 step process. I think that my favorite thing about Shotcut is how easy it is to create proxies for heavy videos. You have all the necessary information and buttons to work with and if and only if you want to go deeper you'll have to face the more complex functions of the software. Shotcut was what allowed me to start with its simple and minimalistic interface. Usually when you open video editing software you're met with so many buttons and so much information that it gets scary to even try. Before using more sophisticated software for video editing it was what helped me get familiar with a lot of concepts that were completely alien to me and it taught me how to use channels and separate audio from the video files and other useful things that looked too complicated to do in similar software.

Shotcut is a very simple and easy to use video editor. If the fact that Shoctut is open source (free) isn't enough for you to use it allow me to go deeper.

Shotcut cut a video