Shotcut review

No import step, and 8K if you ask for it

Shotcut is a cross-platform multi-track editor built on MLT, the same engine behind Kdenlive, and maintained by Meltytech, LLC. Its lead developer, Dan Dennedy, co-founded MLT and still leads it, which shows in how directly the app sits on the engine: you drag a file onto the timeline and start cutting, with no media import or transcode step in between.

The interface is panel-based and starts sparser than Kdenlive's, which is the main reason we would hand it to someone new. Nothing is hidden behind a tier, so the learning curve is the only curve. Recent work has been substantial rather than cosmetic: version 26.6.25, released 26 June 2026, brought back external monitor output, added HDR preview and export with SDR, HLG and PQ video modes, shipped experimental OpenFX and VST2 and LV2 plugin support, added an RNNoise-based denoiser and put Vulkan display on Linux.

Worth a download if you want fewer panels than Kdenlive

• Beginners who want a real multi-track timeline without a week of tutorials first
• Anyone whose last search was "video editor without a watermark", since there is not one anywhere in it
• Freelancers doing paid work, because GPL-3.0 settles the commercial question outright
• Linux, Windows and macOS users equally, including Windows on ARM and macOS 12 through 26
• Not the person who needs a grading suite. That is DaVinci Resolve territory

$11.49 in the Microsoft Store, $0 on the website: how it is priced

This is the part almost every roundup gets wrong, so read it before you install. Shotcut from shotcut.org is free, with the publisher's own wording being that there are no limitations such as resolution, time, watermark or extra pay features, that it supports up to 8K, and that the only watermarks are the ones you add. Commercial use is permitted. The Flathub and Snap Store listings are linked from the same page under a heading about avoiding ads and getting automatic updates.

The Microsoft Store listing is a different matter. Microsoft's own catalogue shows it as a paid product from publisher Meltytech at $11.49, with a separate trial SKU running one week (as of July 2026). It is the same application. What you buy is automatic updates and the developer's continued attention, and he explains why on the project forum: advertising on the website is how he makes a living, so users who never visit the site to update never see the ads.

So the accurate sentence is that Shotcut is free from its own website and paid in the Microsoft Store, and "free on the Microsoft Store" is simply wrong.

Ads, manual updates, and the limits of a website download

The free route costs you two small things. The site is ad-supported, which is the funding model stated openly rather than a dark pattern, and there are no automatic updates on that route, so you go back and fetch the new build yourself. Since Meltytech says Shotcut is updated nearly every month, that is a recurring errand.

On macOS the limits are sharper. There is no official Mac App Store listing, so the App Store results under this name are other people's apps and you should not install them. That leaves the website download as the only correct macOS route.

The last limit is scope. Shotcut gives you a capable timeline, filters, keyframes and now HDR and plugin support, but it is not a colour grading system and it does not pretend to be. If your work lives on scopes and node graphs, you will outgrow it.

Our call: take the website build and bookmark the changelog

Shotcut is the editor we would recommend to someone who wants to start cutting this afternoon. It is genuinely unlimited, genuinely open source, genuinely current, and the simplest thing here that still has a real multi-track timeline. Take the shotcut.org download, or the Flathub or Snap listing on Linux, and check back for updates yourself.

Pay the $11.49 in the Microsoft Store only if you want updates handled for you and you would like to support the developer, which is a fair thing to want. If you need deeper effect work than Shotcut offers, Kdenlive is the next step across, and the whole ranked list is on our free video editing page.