Shotcut
Hacker ApprovedRanked 9 of 20 video editors by recommenders
Free, open-source video editor people pick for its simple layout, high-resolution and 10-bit support. Critics say it is slow with 4K footage unless you use proxy files.
Free, open-source video editor people pick for its simple layout, high-resolution and 10-bit support. Critics say it is slow with 4K footage unless you use proxy files.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 74%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Simpler, user-friendly interface than alternatives
“Shotcut has a simpler, more user-friendly UI than kdenlive and also seems to be a bit more stable/performant.”
Comment from 18 Apr 2026 in “State of Kdenlive” “A handful of useful tools, a simple layout, just enough to get the job done”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “State of Kdenlive” Free high-resolution and 10-bit support
“high resolution support without having to pay extra”
Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “OpenShot 4.0 – Open-source video editor” “Shotcut also has 10 bit support, which is wonderful”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “State of Kdenlive”
Other video editors people recommend
The four most recommended other video editors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DaVinci Resolve | 175 | 66 | 73% | 11 | 3 yrs14 owners | Approved |
| Kdenlive | 56 | 25 | 69% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Final Cut Pro | 25 | 23 | 52% | 9 | — | — |
| Mosaic agentic video editing | 25 | 13 | 66% | 5 | — | — |
| ShotcutThis page | 14 | 5 | 74% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
16 of the 21 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“high resolution support without having to pay extra”
“They all felt rather cheap.”
“it solved most of my headaches when I was using Flatpak version”
“I just could not get used to their UIs”
“would be great if not bugged out”
“run shotcut or blender in it”
“A handful of useful tools, a simple layout, just enough to get the job done”
“I have been using Shotcut with 4K footage and it is indeed very slow so I have been using proxy files.”
“Shotcut can only leverage the GPU hardware acceleration during the render output phase.”
“Shotcut also has 10 bit support, which is wonderful”
“they too have a lot of room for improvement”
“Shotcut has a simpler, more user-friendly UI than kdenlive and also seems to be a bit more stable/performant.”
“it has come a -really- long ways since then”
“it gave me much bigger "professional product" vibes”
“not easy, but there are just too many things to configure”
“FOSS options (KDEnlive, Openshot, Shotcut, Avidemux etc)”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.