Kdenlive
Free, open-source multi-track video editor supporting multiple platforms and formats. Features include chroma key, color grading, 4K rendering, keyframe animation, and customizable workspaces. Offers privacy focus, offline use, and hardware acceleration without ads or registration.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application type
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- KDE Plasma
- Snapcraft
- Flathub
- Flatpak
Features
Properties
- Customizable
- Lightweight
- Privacy focused
Features
- Visual Editing
- Sync Audio & Video
- Split videos
- Keyframe Animation
- Ad-free
- Watermark free
- Non linear editor
- MultiTrack
- Dark Mode
- Add subtitles
- Chroma Key / Green Screen
- No registration required
- GPU Support
- Color correction
- Realtime filter effects
- Live editing
- Speech to text
- Support for 4K
- Works Offline
- Support for MOV files
- Normalize Volume
- Non Destructive Editing
- Colour Grading
- Multiple timelines
- MP4 Support
- Hardware Accelerated
- Transitions Effects
- Support for Layers
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Live Preview
- No Tracking
- Specific for 64-Bit
- Tabbed interface
- Non profit
- Live Screen Recording
- Supports H265 Codec
- WEBM Support
- Matroska
- Support for Dance Pad
- AI-Powered
- Built-in Screen Capture
- Engagement analytics
- AAC
- Opus codec support
- Glitchy effect
Tags
- automatic-shot-detection
- automatic-scene-detection
- audio-tracks
- video-processing
Kdenlive News & Activities
Recent News
- POX published news article about Inkscape
Beyond Adobe's pricey products: my graphic designer’s toolbox on LinuxI've spent years polishing my craft with Adobe’s heavyweight suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesig...
- Maoholguin published news article about Kdenlive
Kdenlive 25.12.0 adds flexible docking system, new layouts, and menu overhaulKdenlive 25.12.0 has been released with a redesigned docking system that allows widgets to be group...
- POX published news article about Kdenlive
Kdenlive 25.08 released with prep work for hardware acceleration and many stability fixesKdenlive 25.08 places stability and refinement at the forefront, delivering over 300 commits and re...
Recent activities
- JWvWijngaarden liked Kdenlive
- thinks Hardware Accelerated is a important feature of Kdenlive
beatsyncpro added Kdenlive as alternative to BeatSync PRO
TheEmperorArt added Kdenlive as alternative to VideoProc Vlogger- ARTUR52 liked Kdenlive
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What is Kdenlive?
Kdenlive is an acronym for KDE Non-Linear Video Editor. It's free, and open-source and works on GNU/Linux, Windows and BSD. It's an intuitive and powerful multi-track video editor compatible with latest video technologies. Most of the video processing is done by the MLT Framework, which relies on many other open source projects like FFmpeg, frei0r, movit, ladspa, sox, etc. Notable features:
- Multi-track video editing
- Supports all audio and video formats and codecs that FFmpeg does for both input and encoding, including various HD standards, like HDV, DNxHD, AVCHD, ProRes etc.
- Workspaces for each stage of video production; Logging, Editing, Audio, Effects and Color.
- Configurable interface and shortcuts
- Create 2D titles for your projects
- Many effects and transitions
- Keyframeable effects
- Audio and video scopes
- Proxy editing
- Automatic backup project file
- Timeline preview
- Online resources of render profiles, wipes and title templates accessible directly from the interface.








Comments and Reviews
I'm coming from PowerDirector and Filmora which have only trial, I really like Kdenlive and the tools it has to offer. Pros:
Cons:
Good to know:
Hi, You can preview transitions as long as your 2 photos or videos are into a different track (see https://kdenlive.org/en/project/kdenlive-transitions/). Alas there is no import files with automatic random transition added with one click ala OpenShot. And there is a "built feature to add text" (see "add title clip" where you add your project files). See ya ;)
Not sure when it was added, but Kdenlive has the text feature now.
While it is similar to Premiere and is a fairly straight forward video editor, it's not very stable (crashed 3 times though thank God it has an auto recovery option) and it took forever to render out my video only for me to find that it didn't bring in the entire clip so I lost a good 20 minutes of the footage. Not very useful.
I'd give it another try. Kdenlive has gotten a huge performance boost in the last 3 years.
The only thing it lacks that I consider too important and is the reason I don't use Kdenlive yet; is that the effects, transitions and all that media has no preview, so you only get to know what those do once applied to the timeline workflow.
Contrary to this Davinci Resolve, Vegas, Filmora do, to name a few.
While Kdenlive is free and open source, it leaves quite a bit to be desired. Some basic functions expected in a video editing app aren't there or don't work correctly. The UI / UX could use a lot of work as well.
On one hand I want to like it since its open source and everything. On the other hand Davinci Resolve can be used for free and is just about better in every way with faster and more impactful updates.
If you just need barebones editing its a fine choice, but if you need something more there's really no reason to stick with it. A very weak it's okay recommendation.
I wish I could love kdenlive but it's lost me hours of work many times due to crashes and file corruptions so isn't worth using until it's actually stable and won't destroy your work.
I am new to video editing on Get and Live, and it has been a great experience overall. user interface and user experience are impressive, making the process enjoyable and efficient. The tools are intuitive, and the features are robust, allowing for creativity and precision. I highly recommend this platform to anyone looking to dive into video editing.
I don't like Kdenlive cause it is not intuitive at all and have too many bugs.