Alternatives to Avid Media Composer
A professional non-linear video editor used for film, television and news production. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Avid Media Composer
A professional non-linear video editor used for film, television and news production.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Avid Media Composer.
Adobe Premiere
Adobe's professional video editing and post-production application for Windows and macOS, formerly Premiere Pro.
Adobe Premiere is a paid professional editor for Windows and macOS that combines editing, effects and audio mixing and works alongside other Adobe creative apps.
DaVinci Resolve
Professional editing, colour grading, visual effects and audio post in one program, with a free version that is genuinely capable.
DaVinci Resolve combines editing, colour grading, VFX and audio, runs on Linux as well, and offers a free version with no watermark or time limit.
Final Cut Pro
Apple's professional video editor for Mac and iPad, with editing, audio, motion graphics and color grading.
Final Cut Pro is a professional editor with a one-time purchase option on Mac and an iPad version, but it runs only on Apple devices.
Lightworks
Professional video editor with a free tier limited to 720p exports.
Lightworks is a professional editor on Windows, macOS and Linux with a free tier, though free exports are capped at 720p resolution.
VEGAS Pro
Long-running professional video editor with strong audio-editing tools.
VEGAS Pro is a paid Windows-only editor with strong built-in audio editing and a timeline-driven workflow, without shared NEXIS storage or script tools.
Kdenlive
KDE’s free video editor, with a multi-track timeline, proxy editing and a large effect set.
Kdenlive is a free, GPL-3.0 editor for Windows, macOS and Linux with multicam, three-point editing and proxy clips, but no shared storage workflow.
Cinelerra-GG Infinity
A non-linear video editor for Linux with 8K timelines, multicam editing and color grading tools.
Cinelerra-GG Infinity is a free, open-source Linux-only editor with 8K timelines, multicam editing and colour scopes for long projects.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Frame.io
A cloud platform for uploading creative files, gathering review feedback and managing creative projects.
Adobe Media Encoder
Adobe's desktop application for ingesting, transcoding and batch rendering video into many output formats.
Nuke
Node-based compositing software from Foundry used for visual effects in film, TV and animation.
Adobe After Effects
Adobe's desktop application for motion graphics, visual effects compositing and animation for film, TV and web.
Fusion
A node-based compositing program for visual effects, motion graphics and 3D work.
Descript
A video and audio editor where you edit recordings by editing their text transcript.
