Kdenlive vs Shotcut Comparison 2026
Both cover video editing. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Free multi-track editing from the KDE project
A free desktop video editor, open source
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Kdenlive | Shotcut | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | Free |
| Pricing model | Free | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Everything, in an open format | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on | macOS, Windows, Linux | macOS, Windows, Linux |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
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.
Shotcut
A free desktop video editor, open source
Shotcut is a free desktop video editor that has been maintained for well over a decade and runs on Linux, macOS and Windows alike. It reads a wide range of formats because FFmpeg is doing the work underneath, and it asks for no account at any point. The interface takes a session to settle into. Nothing is upsold later.
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.