When comparing KDENlive vs HitFilm, the Slant community recommends KDENlive for most people. In the question“What are the best non-linear editors (NLEs)?” KDENlive is ranked 1st while HitFilm is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose KDENlive is:
Kdenlive is licensed under GPLv2, and built on top of other open source projects like FFmpeg.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Open Source
Kdenlive is licensed under GPLv2, and built on top of other open source projects like FFmpeg.
Pro Works great as an audio editor
Audio is edited in the same way as video, which makes it one of the best audio editors.
Pro Surpisingly complete
Although this editor is not up with the top of the professional pack of editors, it certainly packs a powerful punch, and should provide enough features for amateur montages, ranging from alpha manipulation, to multiple audio and video live track editing.
Pro Its great for learn the basics of video-editing
Pro Subtitles included
Pro Beginner friendly
Amazing all-in-one starter software thanks to a lot of powerful presets and a simplified workflow. There are tips, guides, explanations and easy access to community support. The interface is intuitive and easy to overview.
Pro Combines editing, VFX and 3D tools in one package
True 3d that handles particle-effects and 3d models in unified space, optical flow 2d tracking, 3d planar tracking with a lightweight version of Mocha, color-correction and color-grading.
Pro Import 3D models
You can import .obj, .lwo or .3ds models right into your composites, then texture and animate them. No 3rd party plug-in required.
Pro Real 3D
Particles, models, lights, camera tracking, effects, etc are all in true 3D space. You don't have to manage object or effect depth or angles by obfuscation.
Pro Powerful presets & visual effects
Color grading, motion blur, lights, flares, 3D muzzle flashes, procedural fire, etc. They both work out of the box and can be heavily customized. More than 150 visual effects and more are added constantly.
Pro 3D camera data support
Pro Splash screen
Gives access to community.
Pro Mac & PC support
Works on both Mac OS X and Windows.
Pro Powerful particle simulator
Physics based 3D particle simulator that can interact with surfaces and forces. You can have custom particles, size randomness, bounce, different emitters, etc. It can even be set to animate based on audio waveforms.
Pro 2D & 3D motion tracking
A 2D track is built in HitFilm and the "Camera Solve" part of Mocha comes integrated with the software
Cons
Con It's laggy and freezes, with some chance of crashing
Con Timeline cursor is not working
Timeline cursor is not working well on Kubuntu, very difficult to use it. You have to switch all the time between project monitor and clip monitor to get it work.
Con Dose not work well in Windows
They do not support windows well like other distribution. You will face a lot of problems.
Con No hardware acceleration
If you don't have a CPU that's good for video encoding, the render time can be quite bad.
Con Does not have good distribution channel
You have to go to their website to get newest version, does not auto update via package manager.
Con Doesn't support multi frame-rate video editing
When you choose the mixed frame rate option, your video with 60 fps will be broken (slow down and trimmed).
(This con might be just misunderstanding of how to do video editing and production from the user who typed in).
Con No OMFI support
Open Media Framework Interchange (OMFI) is a platform-independent file format intended for transfer of digital media between different software applications.
Con Lack of audio tools
HitFilm can playback, cut & rearrange audio, but it lacks even basic tools like EQ.