Kdenlive icon
Kdenlive icon

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.

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  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • BSD
  • KDE Plasma
  • Snapcraft
  • Flathub
  • Flatpak
Editing
Audio
+2
Effects
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Comments and Reviews

   
Comment summary: Kdenlive is praised for its extensive features and open-source nature, making it a preferred choice for many Linux users over proprietary software. However, some users report stability issues, particularly on Windows, where it often crashes. The software's interface is not intuitive for beginners, posing a steep learning curve. Despite its powerful editing capabilities and support for various codecs, users highlight issues with slow rendering and occasional bugs, especially with transitions and project file corruption.
Top Positive Comment
Ezra
30

I'm coming from PowerDirector and Filmora which have only trial, I really like Kdenlive and the tools it has to offer. Pros:

  • It works fine on my windows 10 64 bit, i3-4005u (!), SSD and 8GB ram (except for when I use a heavy effects like 'Region', see note about proxy files below)
  • It has the basic features like transition, basic effects, cutting video and audio
  • What it does it does good, you can customize the parameters of almost every feature you have
  • It renders properly

Cons:

  • The interface isn't that intuitive, it would take you a lot of time to do your first project and figure out how to operate this software
  • It's built for a multi camera shoot, so if you're just trying to combine a few videos together with transitions between them it'll complicate things a little bit
  • The transitions don't have a preview, so you need to apply them and check them on your own (and if your computer is slow it's a big drawback), but there's a video on YouTube that shows you that
  • There's no built feature to add text, you need to create a transparent image (png etc.) and add it to the video

Good to know:

  • If your computer isn't that powerful it's recommended to check the 'use proxy files' under 'project' 'project settings'.
  • From the transition it's mostly Wipe (with all of it's options), Slide, Fade and Region (if your computer is strong enough) that are useful for a YouTube video all others are all kinds of weird mathematical manipulation on the images (let me know if I left out any useful transition).
  • If your video is a transition oriented video make sure you do it right, putting the first video one track and the second video on another track so that they overlap a little and then add a transition
jdopen
Replying to @Ezra

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 ;)

Sour Ce
Replying to @Ezra

Not sure when it was added, but Kdenlive has the text feature now.

Top Negative Comment
TorQueMoD
6

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.

tangycandy
Replying to @TorQueMoD

I'd give it another try. Kdenlive has gotten a huge performance boost in the last 3 years.

Al
0

It has all the features I would need, but its UI is confusing and hard to use and it crashes frequently

Review from a new or low-activity account — shown here, but not counted in the app rating.
choomaque
0

Crappy on the usability side. Crappier than Shotcut. A lot of things should be done manually over and over and there are also lack of the visual cues. On the other hand it is better than Shotcut in performance. Buttery smooth on my machine.

This profile has been deprecated.
0

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.

Douglas
1
Technical Lead

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.

ChildishGiant
2

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.

7 of 82 comments

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Install from the command line

  • winget install -e --id KDE.Kdenlive
  • brew install --cask kdenlive
  • flatpak install flathub org.kde.kdenlive

Be careful what you paste into a terminal. Check what a command installs before running it.

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.

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Kdenlive information

Our users have written 82 comments and reviews about Kdenlive, and it has gotten 949 likes

Kdenlive was added to AlternativeTo by gyorgyjano on and this page was last updated .