Kdenlive vs Lightworks Comparison 2026
Kdenlive is free and open source with no cap at all: no watermark, no export ceiling, ever, backed only by a community forum rather than a support line. Lightworks gives away the whole editor too, but caps export resolution until you pay $13.99 a month for Create, with a pay-once option on the same page for anybody who does not want another subscription. The axis is what free actually means here: Kdenlive never asks you to pay for anything, while Lightworks' free tier is real but bounded by resolution.
Free multi-track editing from the KDE project
A film editor with a free tier and no time limit
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Kdenlive | Lightworks | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | From $13.99 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
Kdenlive
Free multi-track editing from the KDE project
Kdenlive is a multi-track video editor maintained by the KDE community, with proxy editing, keyframes and a configurable interface, and it is free in the sense that matters: no account, no watermark, no export ceiling. It reads and writes whatever FFmpeg handles, which is most of what a camera or a screen recorder produces. Windows, macOS and Linux builds come from the project itself. Support is a forum and a bug tracker rather than somebody answering a ticket, which is the real difference from a paid editor.
Our note
Compare this against Shotcut and OpenShot rather than against paid editors, since all three are free and the difference is which interface you can stand. DaVinci Resolve is the better free choice if colour work matters, and the worse one if your machine is modest.
Lightworks
A film editor with a free tier and no time limit
Lightworks has been cutting feature films since long before the web, and the free tier is the whole editor at a capped export resolution with no trial clock on it. Paying raises the export ceiling and opens the formats a delivery spec actually asks for. Three ways to pay sit on the same page, including a single payment for anybody who does not want another monthly line. The interface comes from broadcast rather than from the web, so the first afternoon is spent learning it.
Why people weigh these two
- Lightworks instead of Kdenlive
- Lightworks keeps a free tier with no time limit too, with paid plans from $13.99, another free-to-start option next to Kdenlive's fully free one.
- Kdenlive instead of Lightworks
- Kdenlive is free multi-track editing from the KDE project, with no tier above it to buy and no export limits to meet.
Which one should you pick
Choose Kdenlive if the export needs to be full resolution without ever paying, and you are comfortable getting help from a forum thread rather than a ticket queue. Proxy editing keeps it workable on modest hardware, which matters since there is no paid tier to fall back on for performance.
Choose Lightworks if a broadcast-grade timeline is worth a week of learning an unfamiliar interface, and the export resolution cap on the free tier is the thing pushing you to pay. Create is $13.99 a month, with a pay-once option on the same toggle for anybody who would rather not add another subscription.
Common questions
- Which one is actually free with no limits?
- Kdenlive: no watermark, no export ceiling, no paid tier at all. Lightworks' free tier is the whole editor but caps export resolution, so full-resolution output needs Create at $13.99 a month or a one-time payment.
- Can I pay once instead of monthly for Lightworks?
- Yes, a pay-once option sits on the same pricing toggle as monthly and yearly. Kdenlive has nothing to pay at any point, since there is no paid version of it.
- Which one has better support if something breaks?
- Lightworks is a company with a support line behind its paid tiers. Kdenlive's support is a forum and a bug tracker, which is the real difference from a paid editor even though both are free to use.
- Which one is built for professional broadcast or film work?
- Lightworks has that lineage directly, having cut feature films since long before the web. Kdenlive is a community-maintained editor without that broadcast pedigree, though it covers multi-track editing capably.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.