# OpenShot Video Editor

25 Hacker News commenters recommended OpenShot Video Editor and 17 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, 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.

## Why people recommend it

- Free and open source (3 comments): "open source editors like Openshot and Kdenlive are generally underrated and easier to use than they used to be" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49512240)) "FOSS, cross-platform, no accounts and very capable and easy to use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849333)) "it’s free, so give it half an hour or an hour and see?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508493))
- Easy for casual editing (3 comments): "open source editors like Openshot and Kdenlive are generally underrated and easier to use than they used to be" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49512240)) "significantly easier to use and does what you need for casual editing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508180)) "openshot allows me to edit videos quickly on linux. I like it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49511813))
- Powerful with capable features (3 comments): "It has more audio capabilities built-in than many other video editors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49522095)) "FOSS, cross-platform, no accounts and very capable and easy to use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849333)) "This program is powerful, quite powerful indeed!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49514177))
- Polished, good-looking interface (3 comments): "looks like a great release. UI looks like it got a nice touch up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508116)) "Who knew a QT app could look this good?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49509883)) "I couldn’t tell it looks so good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49510524))

## What people warn about

- Buggy and crashes at times (4 comments): "Openshot is alive and well and actively developed, but it's still buggy as hell." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47846418)) "it crashes on my M1 Sequoia" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508591)) "The main option was Openshot, which was also in development and buggy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47821023))
- Less polished than alternatives (3 comments): "Unlikely to be near that polish and feature completeness." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508127)) "much more robust and performant than openshot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48396801)) "they too have a lot of room for improvement" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47820630))
- Complicated and hard to learn (3 comments): "it seemed neat but a bit complicated to use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49530529)) "The current design makes me not use this software." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49510218)) "I just could not get used to their UIs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48397358))
- Missing VST and caption workflow (2 comments): "If it had VST support I could use it instead of DaVinci Resolve." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508248)) "The caption editing workflow has been a pain point for years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49511763))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Kdenlive](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kdenlive.md): 56 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
- [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, "OpenShot Video Editor", https://hackerapproved.com/p/openshot/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).