10 Best Video Editing Apps in India 2021 - Buying Guide Reviewed By Filmmaker/Photographer

In this segment, we would be covering the best editing apps for your phones and the features you can avail of for a premium video appearance and experience. We have covered all the types, from the basic ones like FIlmaroGo, or the big ones like Adobe Premiere Rush. 

Arun is an Electronics and Media Technology graduate with more than five years of experience in photography. He spent two years working on various projects honing the art of direction and cinematography. As an enthusiast of movies and filmmaking, Arun enjoys his leisure time recreating popular movie scenes with a twist of his own. You can also reach out to him on Instagram.

Much like the bustle on social media, its counterpart, the content editing app industry is also a busy place with new releases taking place every day and even hour. And each trying to offer something new and better than the previous options available. And so, we will help you navigate through plenty of features like HD resolutions, trimming and cropping options, audio libraries, and more offered by the best apps in India.

The ease of gliding through the editing process on an app is an essential point to consider before installing or paying for editing software. Before you invest time and your money on an app, you should look for a trial option to see how quickly you can learn the features and tools, or if at all. You can even see if the apps have guides and tutorials to teach the basics of editing.

To make editing more effortless and easy, you can also opt for apps that offer pre-made templates, step-by-step assistance, and auto modes that make all the adjustments for you. All you need to do is select the contents you want to pick and edit a few options for your final video composition.

There are a lot of apps available for video editing on your mobiles. Most of these applications can be installed and used on every device, irrespective of the operating system. Widely used apps like InShot, Quik, WeVideo, etc., can be found in App and Play Stores as free and paid versions.

However, there are still quite a few exclusive apps that are only available and supported by a specific operating system (iOS). An example of it is Hyperlapse by Instagram. It is a free app just for iOS (Apple) phones. Therefore, Android mobile users do not have access to such an app but have plenty of alternatives and dupes (copies) with similar specifications to consider preferably.

The tools and features of a video editing app determine its use for your specific requirements and content you create. There are many features to choose from, for the kind of videos you will make and put out.

The majority of the video editing apps on the Play Store and App Store are all free to download and use. The unpaid version covers necessary editing tools, provides access to filters, selected audio, and other partially unlocked features on the app.

Additionally, the videos you create, share, and save for free, feature the brand’s logo, called a watermark. It can either be on the corners or center of the video screen. But the watermark does not affect the overall quality and appeal of your videos when you post on social media.

However, to make professional films and videos for business purposes, you can get rid of the watermark and access the full set of features and tools. So, for that, we would suggest opting for the paid subscription. The apps bill you for the paid version or paid features differently. Some may charge per item, weekly, monthly, and even annually with a starting rate of INR 100 going all the way to INR 5000 for such packs.

LUT and C-LUT stand for Look-Up Table and Color Look-Up Table, respectively. To give the most accurate color scheme output of the final footage, LUT transforms the RBG (Red Blue Green) color inputs or color grade footage of your videos.

With in-built LUTs in apps and software, your editing time cuts to half, becoming quite efficient as you do not have to adjust the colors in the video manually. The color accuracy also makes your visuals eye-catching and pro-quality.

Cropping, trimming, and adjusting a video’s elements are the very base of all editing apps. These are some features that are the building blocks of your creations. Therefore, every beginner can acquire the skills to handle these tools before exploring the profound techniques.

You can start by layering and aligning the audio and video together, crop and trim unnecessary parts of the clips, and merge different content to make it one seamless creation. 

As the fundamental tools like audio adjustment, overlays, motion control, etc., can be found in all editing apps and software. Some apps even let you select multiple clips, merge or duplicate them, and layer them with audios and backgrounds together. So, do not forget to look out for these features before installing the app.

The one thing that every video editing app has successfully been able to offer is the effects. Be it a mobile app or desktop software, they all come with an exceptional range of functionalities to tweak and enhance the appeal of your edits. You can change the video or film's mood with color-altering filters, LUTs and CLUTs, and background soundtracks.

Apart from that, you get text input options to add slugs, which can be the title and one-line text information in the video, chroma-key (green screen) format to add in external elements like a background image or post-production addition to the video. So, look out for these features before installing any video editing app.

When you record a steady and clear video for a vlog, tutorial, or social media and run it through an editing app to make enhancements, the visual quality may experience degradation due to the bitrate. A bitrate is the measurement of the video visuals called bits per second.

For example, when you watch a video on YouTube or any other streaming platform, you get the option of changing the video resolution or quality from the auto 240p to the highest 1080p HD. This change in the quality and clarity of the video happens because of the increased bitrate. Hence, the higher the bitrate, the better the video visuals.

Therefore, you should invest in a new-age editing app with features like bitrate transition, stabilization, and the option to save the video in different qualities, such as standard, high-definition, and even 4K. Check out for those apps that let you save videos in varying formats, including MP4, FLV & SWF (flash format), and even 4K/HD resolution.

The online editing apps are run on your computer’s browser using a Wi-fi or internet connection. All your content is also saved on the app’s cloud account or your drive and apple cloud, saving space on your devices and giving you the ease of accessing and sharing the contents anywhere, anytime.

On the contrary, offline tools and apps run without an internet connection. These applications and the projects made on them get saved on a particular device's hard-drive. You cannot share or open these edits on other mobiles or PCs, becoming a bit of a hassle when working with a group. Therefore, choose the type of storage functionality that works best for you.

Another great way to begin editing is by doing it on photographs and inanimate visuals. For which you can check out our top 10 recommendations of photo editing apps. These applications are free and available on all operating systems of your phones.

Video Editing as a whole is becoming a demanding skill, with a thriving professional industry for people dawning the right talents. You can be snip-snapping a short clip for a friend or dedicating hours and hours to bring together several videos into a meaningful piece of art. 

All of this would be possible only with the tools and a good understanding of the apps and software. We also hope that our recommendations can guide you with editing as a beginner and even an expert.

Author: Ujjwala