Kdenlive

Long-term owners

Kdenlive hasn't had this issue in at least 4 years in my experience

Apr 2026 · comment

anecdotally it hasn't done this in at least 4 years

Apr 2026 · comment

What hackers pick instead

• Final Cut ProFast, smooth editing workflow many editors prefer, sold as a one-time purchase with free desktop updates. Critics say it trails DaVinci Resolve and Apple drops older versions.25recommend
• Mosaic agentic video editingAgentic video editor built from tiles on a canvas. People like the Rough Cut tile for first cuts. Critics find the homepage busy and say sign-up was buggy.25recommend
• OpenShot Video EditorFree, open-source video editor that people find easy for casual editing and capable, with no accounts needed. Critics say it is still buggy and less polished than alternatives.25recommend
• Cardboard video editorPeople recommend Cardboard as an agentic video editor that understands footage content and renders in the browser, with sample projects to try.22recommend
• Adobe Premiere ProRecommended as a capable, industry-standard video editor; critics most often cite crashes and subscription cost.17recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 97 comments. Each links to the original.

1. 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.

   Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

2. 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.

   Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

3. it got in a weird state, crashed, and corrupted recent backup saves and I had to do a bunch of work all over again

   Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

4. it's great for quick and simple things, and I save frequently, but it is extremely frustrating when it happens

   Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

5. Kdenlive being crash prone is a known thing, but for the parent to say the devs don't care goes too far.

   Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

6. bringing lot's of enhancements and quality of life improvements to the Timeline and Title Editor

   Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Kdenlive 26.08 Released”

7. it is indeed becoming more robust as time goes on as new developers have come on board to help

   Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

8. Kdenlive is great. With zero video-editing experience, I was able to easily edit a demo video

   Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

9. Kdenlive is a much more approachable quest for someone who is just entering the dungeon.

   Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

10. it is a very capable editor that is also much more robust and performant than openshot

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “DaVinci Resolve 21”

11. I didn't find the UI as easy to use, especially when it comes to handling the timeline

    Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

12. looks like a lot of things have improved heavily, that it could hit the sweet spot

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

13. it worked great for that, speaking as someone who has no interest in video editing

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

14. It's quality software, and it being free (in both aspects) is a dream come true.

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

15. So my son and I have used Kdenlive quite a bit and we've never had it crash.

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

16. it's now incredibly stable, I can't remember the last time it crashed

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “OpenShot 4.0 – Open-source video editor”

17. Kdenlive hasn't had this issue in at least 4 years in my experience

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

18. Are these not creative software? Perhaps not industry standard

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “"This Is Not the Computer for You"”

19. I found KDenLive more intuitive for my (simplistic) use cases

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “OpenShot 4.0 – Open-source video editor”

20. perfectly adequate and usable without being overwhelming

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

21. Kdenlive is good at filling the needs met by Premiere

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files”

22. anecdotally it hasn't done this in at least 4 years

    Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

23. Kdenlive is good enough for my video editinf needs

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too”

24. haven't noticed any stability issues at all so far

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

25. It can be done, but the ergonomics are awful, and its not clear which of the 3 crop filters actually do the thing.

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

26. Kdenlive has some unfortunate performance regression when working with larger projects with many clips.

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

27. even adding the most basic effects will cause a slideshow when scrubbing and during normal playback

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “DaVinci Resolve 21.1”

28. I've had several instances of Kdenlive corrupting my save file, making them unable to be recovered.

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

29. the little I saw from it didn't make me feel they're about to change the world of editing

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “ArtCraft Apps – open-source Adobe compatible suite written in Rust”

30. think kdenlive is somehow even worse if you can believe it. It is basically unusable.

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

31. interrupting creative flow with crashes is not an acceptable cost of doing business

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

32. it's nowhere near either of these functionality-wise, and struggles with big files

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “OpenShot 4.0 – Open-source video editor”

33. certain versions have broken my projects, and there are some long-standing bugs

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “DaVinci Resolve 21”

34. It did when I last used it, and that'll be a non-starter for most professionals

    Criticizes · Nov 2025 · in “Blender 5.0”

35. Video editing on Linux for the last 9 months with Kdenlive has been killing me

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “DaVinci Resolve 21.1”

36. I experienced a few anomalies and crashes using the version from my distro; I switched to an AppImage version, and with it, everything Just Works

    Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

37. spend 3-4 days of quality time with it, watch a few youtube tutorials when stuck, and things will fall into place

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

38. open source editors like Openshot and Kdenlive are generally underrated and easier to use than they used to be

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “OpenShot 4.0 – Open-source video editor”

39. I launch it everytime I want to do something quickly, without really thinking about what tool to use.

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”

40. After trying all the alternatives I can say that Kdenlive has become my goto for video editing.

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “State of Kdenlive”