Adobe Premiere Pro is a well-known professional-level video editing program, available for both Windows and Mac. It has clear and flexible non-linear editing interface, responsive speed, excellent stabilization, unlimited multi-camera angles, and powerful set of capabilities in video editing.
However, for home-made video editors and small businesses, it seems a little expensive. You need to integrate with other applications such as After Effects or SpeedGrade to realize some techniques. And it may be too complicated for those who are about to edit videos.
Therefore, in this article, we are going to introduce top 6 best Adobe Premiere alternatives to edit videos on the PC or Mac, in case you need a replacement for Premiere one day.
#1 Joyoshare Media Cutter (Windows & Mac)
Compared with Adobe Premiere, Joyoshare Media Cutter is a simple and easy-to-use video cutter and editor for Mac and Windows. You can use it to do the basic editing such as trimming, cutting, splitting, joining, etc at a super faster speed with almost 100% original quality preserved. Besides these, you're also allowed to adjust the video's brightness, contrast, hue and saturation, crop and rotate a video, change the aspect ratio of video, add subtitles and watermarks to the video, apply special sound effects and video effects to it, etc. Additionally, Joyoshare Media Cutter supports a large number of media formats and devices, so you can edit video in any format and save it in any device as you like.
Pros:
Intuitive interface and simple to operate
Create and export high-quality videos
Multiple video and audio editing tools provided
Support tons of media file formats and devices
Cons:
Can only process one video file at a time
#2 CyberLink PowerDirector (Windows)
Another good alternative to Adobe Premiere is PowerDirector developed by CyberLink. Similar to Adobe Premiere, it is also a competent video editing tool, with less complexity. It allows you to do the trimming, merging and overlaying of video clips and effects, and it supports lots of video formats including the latest standard format like H.265 video. PowerDirector now supports complete 360 degree footage editing; it just seems that you've shot a scene with multi cameras from multiple angles. Producing a pro-quality video with PowerDirector can be easy as pie, you only need to import the videos, drag-and-drop the clips you want to the beginning, middle and end of the project and then publish the video or share it on the social media.
Pros:
Drag-and-drop interface and easy to operate
New standard format H265 supported
Support 360 degree footage
Loads of video effects offered
Cons:
Easily overwhelm the interface when operating several options
#3 MAGIX Vegas Pro (Windows)
Formerly known as Sony Vegas Pro, this is non-linear video editing software for professional editors, just like Adobe Premiere. Vegas Pro delivers a better way to edit your video and author it on a Blu-ray disc fast with all the tools you need. The customizable drag-and-drop user interface makes it efficient and flexible to edit videos in the way you desire. You can also mix, match and edit most popular formats including HEVC, AVC and so on. Use new picture-in-picture effects and other plug-ins to make your footage more creative. Vegas Pro might be the most similar software to Premiere, and thus can be a great Adobe Premiere alternative.
Pros:
Contain all features professional editors need
Rich import and export format support
Numerous video effects and transitions
Cons:
Lack of robust media library management features
A little complex for beginners
#4 Davinci Resolve (Windows, Mac & Linux)
If you don't have much budget for editing, but you also need high-quality videos, you can consider Davinci Resolve as Premiere alternative. This is a full-featured professional video editing program for editing, color correction and audio post production. With multi track and stackable timelines, you can do the editing and trimming incredibly fast. You can also add transitions, effects and filters from the built-in library quickly. Besides editing, it also performs as an advanced color correction and grading tool to improve the video. You can edit and enhance the audio thanks to the built-in Farilight audio post production tools.
Pros:
Free version also contains many powerful features
Allow edit videos up to 4K
Advanced color correction and multi-screen support
A number of video effects and filters provided
Cons:
Crash issues often occur if your computer resources are limited
#5 VSDC Video Editor (Windows)
VSDC is a good Adobe Premiere alternative free option for video and audio editing. The non-linear video editor allows you to apply plenty of video effects, audio effects, color correction and video filters to the video file to make it stunning. It supports virtually all popular codecs, video and audio formats, as well as image files. You can even export your video in the new codec like H.265/HEVC, which makes it the only free video editor to do so. Besides, you can also burn it to DVD, or export it onto various popular multimedia devices such as iPhone/iPad/iPod, Galaxy, PSP and many others, or directly share it to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Vimeo, etc.
Pros:
Non-linear free video editor
Full compatibility with media formats
Comparatively stable performance
Multiple visual and audio effects offered
Cons:
Export speed is a little slow
#6 iMovie (Mac)
This is a free Adobe Premiere alternative Mac users can be adopted to edit videos like a pro. You can easily open your video, add titles, audio and effects and then create a film-quality 4K stunning movie. You can select from several styles to add animated titles, add picture-in-picture and other extra special effects or video filters to your video. With built-in music, sound effects and recording, you're able to make a movie with high-fidelity sound tracks. Apple's iMovie also has version for iPhone and iPad, so you can start a project on your iPhone, continue to edit it on your iPad and then finish the work on the Mac, which makes it possible to edit anywhere anytime.
Pros:
Free video editing bundleware
Beautiful and simple interface
Lots of video and audio tools
Support 4K videos
Cons:
Limited video editing features
Conclusion & Suggestion
Adobe Premiere is actually very good and reliable video editing software for professional editors. If you have enough budgets and quite experienced at video editing, you can utilize it to edit and make your videos. If you feel not good about the program, you can take these Adobe Premiere alternatives into consideration. Vegas Pro is something that seems very resemble Premiere but less expensive while Davinci Resolve is also a similar one but free; PowerDirector and VSDC (freeware) are for those who are somewhat experienced at video editing; and Joyoshare Media Cutter and iMovie is suitable for those people who are newcomers to the field.