VideoPad - Best Free Video Editing Software

VideoPad Video Editor (or VideoPad) is a video editing application developed by NCH Software for the home and professional market. The software is complemented by the VirtualDub plug-ins that work with the software.

VideoPad is a video editing application developed by NCH Software for the home and professional market. VideoPad is part of a suite that integrates with other software created by NCH Software. This other software includes WavePad, a sound-editing program; MixPad, a sound-mixing program; and PhotoPad, an image editor.

Features

VideoPad is presumably trialware. The free edition is feature-limited, while the non-free version has more advanced features. VideoPad Master Edition supports plugins while the free version does not. The non-free edition does not limit simultaneous video tracks, but the free one allows at most two concurrent tracks. The premium version allows users to generate Blu-ray Discs.

VideoPad supports frequently used file formats including Audio Video Interleave (AVI), Windows Media Video (WMV), 3GP, and DivX. It supports direct video uploads to YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook.

VideoPad uses two screens: the first for a preliminary review of chosen video and audio snippets and the second to review the entire track. The application supports several video effects, including those involving light, color, transitions, and text.

Reception

VideoPad has received generally favorable reviews from various websites and aggregators such as CNET and TopTenReviews, but has been noted to be vulnerable to rendering issues.

Redding Record Searchlight columnist Andrea Eldridge wrote in 2012 that the "easy-to-use VideoPad brings advanced features to the beginner". She said that VideoPad has a voice-over feature Windows Movie Maker did not have. The feature allows users to either record their own narration or upload existing recordings. Softonic.com praised VideoPad for being "simple" and "easy to use" but noted that "more advanced users will definitely find it too basic" and lamented that the program had "only three [transitions]".

Danny Chadwick of Top Ten Reviews rated VideoPad a 6.15/10. He praised the application for being "great for beginners" but said that it lacked "many of the transitions or extras that are standard in similar applications".

Maximum PC contributor Ben Kim stated in 2014 that "VideoPad is easily the best free video editor available." Kim wrote that VideoPad is "a stellar editor that manages to pack an almost obscene number of features into a surprisingly digestable package".