# Kdenlive 56 Hacker News commenters recommended Kdenlive and 25 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Free, capable video editor that beginners pick up quickly and many find stable now. The most common caveat is crashes and corrupted project saves. ## Why people recommend it - Easy for beginners to learn (5 comments): "Kdenlive is great. With zero video-editing experience, I was able to easily edit a demo video" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47819691)) "Kdenlive is a much more approachable quest for someone who is just entering the dungeon." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47815571)) "it worked great for that, speaking as someone who has no interest in video editing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47820153)) - Stable for many in recent versions (5 comments): "So my son and I have used Kdenlive quite a bit and we've never had it crash." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47818016)) "it's now incredibly stable, I can't remember the last time it crashed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508618)) "Kdenlive hasn't had this issue in at least 4 years in my experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47881855)) - Capable free alternative to paid editors (4 comments): "it is a very capable editor that is also much more robust and performant than openshot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48396801)) "It's quality software, and it being free (in both aspects) is a dream come true." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47815754)) "Kdenlive is good at filling the needs met by Premiere" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527956)) - Improving steadily with new developers (3 comments): "bringing lot's of enhancements and quality of life improvements to the Timeline and Title Editor" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49527337)) "it is indeed becoming more robust as time goes on as new developers have come on board to help" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47819761)) "looks like a lot of things have improved heavily, that it could hit the sweet spot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47815816)) ## What people warn about - Crashes and corrupted project saves (9 comments): "My only issue with the tool right now is crashing and corrupted backups which happened a few times on the video I edited a few weeks ago." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47816492)) "I haven't found kdenlive to be 100% stable, I've had significantly fewer lost-work incidents with kdenlive than I did with Premiere Pro." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47816252)) "it got in a weird state, crashed, and corrupted recent backup saves and I had to do a bunch of work all over again" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47825344)) - Slow playback with larger projects (3 comments): "Kdenlive has some unfortunate performance regression when working with larger projects with many clips." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47816003)) "even adding the most basic effects will cause a slideshow when scrubbing and during normal playback" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49624068)) "it's nowhere near either of these functionality-wise, and struggles with big files" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508102)) - Awkward UI and timeline handling (3 comments): "It can be done, but the ergonomics are awful, and its not clear which of the 3 crop filters actually do the thing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47826584)) "I didn't find the UI as easy to use, especially when it comes to handling the timeline" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47816061)) "think kdenlive is somehow even worse if you can believe it. It is basically unusable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47817833)) - Not seen as professional-grade (3 comments): "Are these not creative software? Perhaps not industry standard" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47367812)) "the little I saw from it didn't make me feel they're about to change the world of editing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49989907)) "It did when I last used it, and that'll be a non-starter for most professionals" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45982491)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Final Cut Pro](https://hackerapproved.com/p/final-cut-pro.md): 25 recommend - [Mosaic agentic video editing](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mosaic-agentic-video-editing.md): 25 recommend - [OpenShot Video Editor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openshot.md): 25 recommend - [Cardboard video editor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cardboard-agentic-video-editor.md): 22 recommend - [Adobe Premiere Pro](https://hackerapproved.com/p/adobe-premiere.md): 17 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Kdenlive", https://hackerapproved.com/p/kdenlive/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).