Full Review of Top 10 Best Video Cutter (Software & Online)

Cut, a way to help manage large video files, may not sound like a key factor that makes video editor software compelling, but it is definitely one of the basic features that no one would miss. If you are struggling with which software to use, whether you simply want to fast trim video online, or need a video trimming software with extreme precision, this review of top 10 video cutter software listed below, in no particular order, will help you find the answer.

Our Picks for Best Video Cutters Are:

• Video cutting software: VideoProc Converter AI, iMovie, Shotcut, Avidemux, Bandicut, LosslessCut
• Online video trimmers: Kapwing, Online Video Cutter, Clideo, Ezgif

Video Cutter Software Overview

#1. VideoProc Converter AI

Supported OS: Windows, macOS

Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

VideoProc Converter AI is all-in-one video processing software with free video trimmer and splitter built in. The whole video cutting process could be as simple as: open the video, mark the start and end points, then trim video. Or run the video clipper to cut one or many unwanted parts, from the start, the middle or the end. There would be no resolution changing or image cropping. You can save your video in the exact same format as before without rendering and loss of quality.

Besides being a video cutter for Mac and Windows, VideoProc Converter AI, combined with a set of additional tools like video cropper, video joiner, video stabilizer, etc, can itself more conveniently handle your other complicated video editing tasks.

Pros:

• Flexible video cutting modes, including trimming and splitting.
• Clip any video in any format, no matter how big it is.
• No watermarks on the output file.
• 4K video cutting and editing is just what it is good at, with GPU acceleration supported.
• No distracting pop-ups or ads to interrupt your video cutting job.

Cons:

• Video cutting by frame and keyframe is not available.
• Trial version has a 5-minute limitation.

#2. iMovie

Supported OS: macOS, iOS

Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

iMovie is a video cutter for Mac and iOS only. You don't need to pay any penny to trim with it, for it is pre-installed. This Mac video trimming software comes with a simple and very user-friendly free video cutter that even a newbie can easily get started with. After dragging your video to the timeline, you can freely trim, split and cut videos in iMovie by dragging the handles. Besides, it has many presets in text and effect that allows beginners to polish their videos.

Read our full review of iMovie >

Pros:

• A free video cutter pre-installed on Mac.
• The user-friendly interface takes no learning curve.
• 4K video cutting could be ultra fast.

Cons:

• Dragging the handles is the only way to do your video cutting in iMovie.
• You can't cut videos by frame or keyframe.
• Often jump frames when trimming videos.
• iMovie doesn't allow you to cut MKV videos.

#3. Avidemux

Supported OS: Windows, Mac, Linux

Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐

Avidemux is open-source and cross-platform video trimming software, which works well with MP4, MKV, MPEG-2, H.264, H.265 video and even the newest AV1 format video. You can trim video by dragging the preview cursor or entering the specific start and end time manually. Avidemux also boasts some other hidden video editing tools. Before or after your video trimming, you can crop, add SSA/ASS/SRT subtitles or filters to videos. Mostly, Avidemux is used to remux video, like from MKV to MP4.

Read our full review of Avidemux >

Pros:

• An open source and totally free video trimmer.
• Trim your video precisely by second, frame and keyframe.
• Built in with useful editing toolkit.

Cons:

• The cutting tools are a bit hard to understand when using it for the first time.
• There are A/V out of sync problems after video cutting.
• Lack of good support of MOV, AVI and WebM clips.

#4. Shotcut

Supported OS: Windows, Mac, FreeBSD, Linux

Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Shotcut is another decent open-source video cutter software for multiple platforms that allows you to cut, trim, and split videos in various formats like H.264, HEVC, MPEG, VP8/VP9, DNXHD, etc. Before all that, you can take a rough cutting step by marking in and out to get a certain part of your video. Surely, this well-received free video editor can be used for other advanced editing works. Use it to add text, watermarks, add filters and transition, etc.

Read our full review of Shotcut >

Pros:

• This open source video cutter is completely free.
• Precise video cutting by frame.
• 4K video cutting could be smooth on even an old computer.

Cons:

• Sometimes can't capture frames precisely.
• Doesn't allow you to cut video by setting time manually.
• Shotcut is a mostly 8-bit video cutter. Better not trim videos in 10-bit depth with Shotcut in case of loss of quality.

#5. Bandicut

Supported OS: Windows

Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

You may have heard of Bandicam. Yes, Bandicut is another app developed by the same company, which is neither a pure free video trimmer, nor an all-purpose video editor. Instead, Bandicut is a combination of video cutter and video joiner. It is quite easy to use with simple user interface. But note that this is not a completely free video cutter. You will have to pay $29 for 1-PC license to remove watermark on your video.

Pros:

• Clear design with seperate video trimmer, splitter and joiner modules.
• Cut video with precision by frame.
• Fast way to add and merge cutting segments.

Cons:

• A video cutter for Windows user only.
• Limited output video formats - AVI, MP4, MKV, and WEBM.
• There is no watermark on every frame of your video, but a 5-second ad will be at the end.

#6. LosslessCut

Supported OS: Windows, macOS, Linux

Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐

Different from all video cutter software above, LosslessCut is purely a free video cutter designed for the only purpose - cutting video. Well, actually you still have the Rotate option. But that's it. You won't see any other video editing tools inside this free video cutter software. Probably just because it is single-minded, it makes your video cutting elaborate than ever. But it may take you some time to get familiar with it.

Pros:

• LosslessCut is the video cutter with most output formats in this list.
• Provide you with Zoom options from 1x to 4096x while cutting video.
• Easily switch between Keyframe cut mode and Normal cut mode.
• Allows you to fast enable and disable multiple video/audio tracks before cutting.

Cons:

• Inaccurate cutting issues, e.g. the cutpoints may be seconds earlier than you set it.
• "Unable to export this file" happens from time to time, probably caused by formats, cut modes or other unknown reasons.

Online Video Trimmers Overview

#7. Kapwing

Ease of Use: ⭐⭐⭐

Kapwing is basically a free online video trimmer, or rather, a multi-functional online video editor. But don't forget to download your edited video, or you will need to pay $20/month for re-cutting and saving any files 7 days later. When getting started with a new project on Kapwing, you can either choose to start with Studio or use a specific tool.

What might be confusing is that there are several specific video cutters on kapwing.com: Clip Video, Cut Video, and Trim Video. The truth is, all those four specific tools lead to the same video trimmer tool, presented as Studio > Trim.

Pros:

• Kapwing is the only online video cutter with no file size limits.
• Allows you to paste URL to load videos for cutting.
• Supports simple cuts by dragging handles or using arrows to specify time.
• Support single cuts and add multiple jump cuts.

Cons:

• Slow and unstable. A 20-second iPhone 4K video takes about 10 minutes to load up.
• The highest output resolution is 1080p. 4K is not accessible.
• Signing in is required to output video without watermark.
• You can only cut and save videos in MP4.

#8. Online Video Cutter

Ease of Use: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Online Video Cutter is another top-ranking online trimmers favored by both Google and users, providing you with a clear page to cut videos by simply moving sliders or setting the duration manually, and then save the outcome to Dropbox, Google Drive or directly download to PC.

In addition, you can rotate videos, or crop your frames by selecting presets for getting the best viewing on Instagram, TV, or phones on the same page. One of best parts of Online Video Cutter is that it claims the source video could be in any formats. Is that true? See our test result below.

Pros:

• Wide support of both import and output formats.
• Two video cutting modes - Extract Selected and Delete Selected.
• You can cut video with both "Fade in" and "Fade out" on.

Cons:

• Maximum file size is 500MB.
• You can cut MP4, AVI, MOV online, but output in MP4 only.
• Pasting URL for video cutting doesn't work, even without error message.
• You should be able to save 4K as 4K by choosing "Same" in the Quality setting, provided that your 4K video is successfully loaded, which seems impossible based on our test.

#9. Clideo

Ease of Use: ⭐⭐⭐

Clideo is one of the free online video cutters that claim to be able to trim any sort of video that with size smaller than 500MB and convert to any of your desirable video formats. It does look pretty neat and video cutting can be finished in some easy steps. But just like Online Video Editor, not all types of videos are accepted well. Mostly, MOV files can't load correctly and sometimes the preview gets stuck when trimming.

Pros:

• It is fairly easy for anyone to use.
• Fast load videos in various types, like slow-mo video, 360 degree video, etc.
• Supports pasting URL to load video. Good for YouTube video cutting online.

Cons:

• Only supports videos under 100MB.
• There is no timeline slider for moving to easily cut videos.
• Inaccurate video cutting. Cut video by seconds only.
• Slow and crashing from time to time. Sometime MOV and AVI videos can't be previewed.

#10. Ezgif Video Cutter

Ease of Use: ⭐⭐

Ezgif video cutter is not as flexible as the other 3 online video trimmers. It only allows you to enter the start and end time to trim. The import file could be any MP4, WebM, AVI, MPEG, FLV, MOV, 3GP files with size smaller than 100MB from your PC or links. Ezgif also allows you to resize, adjust the play speed of your footage.

Pros:

• It is fairly easy for anyone to use.
• Fast load videos in various types, like slow-mo video, 360 degree video, etc.
• Supports pasting URL to load video. Good for YouTube video cutting online.

Cons:

• Your videos need to be under 100 MB.
• There is no timeline slider for moving to easily cut videos.
• Inaccurate video cutting. Cutting video by frame is not available.
• MP4 is the only video output format.

Best Video Cutter Software FAQs

1. Cut videos without re-encoding?

It is possible to cut videos without re-encoding, but few video cutters support it. Programs claiming to trim videos without encoding again mostly can't cut videos precisely.

Cutting videos without re-encoding, to some extent, means cutting videos without decoding. If there is no video decoding, you can't regain each exact frame for trimming. As a result, the video cutter software might not seek the I-frames correctly, leaving your video starting with P-frame or B-frame. That may cause problems like video stuttering or full of glitches at the beginning, missing frames, video and audio out of sync, etc.

Our suggestion: Use fast video cutters like VideoProc Converter AI instead of cutting videos without re-encoding.

2. Cut videos without quality loss?

It seems that nine out of ten users believe cutting videos without re-encoding is the best (maybe only) way to prevent quality loss. That's not the truth.

Actually, as long as you don't change parameters like video resolution or bit rate, you won't see any difference between the original and the processed one after video cutting and re-encoding. There won't be video quality degrading at all, at least invisible to the naked eye.

Our suggestion: Simply cutting videos normally won't cause worse quality problem. Cutting videos without re-encoding is not that necessary as you imagine.

Video Cutting vs Trimming vs Splitting

What is the difference between cutting and trimming? Are the Razor button and scissor button meaning the same thing? See the analyses below.

Cutting: As you may be aware, the Cut option is mostly available as a scissor button in video editing software. When people speak of "cutting", normally they mean all types of video rearranging operations, including video trimming, splitting, clipping, etc. However, enabling the cutting option equals to splitting video in some video cutters, while it also could be to cut off the part before your playhead in some others.

Trimming: When you trim a video, you can only remove video segments from the start and the end. Most video trimmers allow you to specify the start and end time by dragging handles.

Sidenotes. Cutting and trimming help you to remove unwanted sections of the clip (in terms of time duration), and if you want to remove unwanted areas of a video, the video editing function you shall resort to is cropping. Depending on your specific case, you can pick one of these free video cropping software for Windows and Mac to adjust your footage.

Splitting: The Splitting option mostly is presented as a razor icon in video cutter software, which allows you to clip a long piece of video into small separate ones. None of your scenes will be removed here.