"I'm new to video editing and I don't know which software is the best to use."

"There are so many video editing packages, but which one is the easiest to use?"

"Is there any free video editing software?"

One of the best video editing applications available is also free. It's DaVinci Resolve, video editing software used by professionals around the world.

DaVinci Resolve combines basic editing tools with colour correction, effects and audio post-production. In addition, you can collaborate with others on the same project.

Different versions of the software make it easy for editing different types of video, such as ads or news items. To get up to speed with DaVinci Resolve, there is training available and a certification program for advanced users.

A simpler but powerful alternative to DaVinci Resolve (and with a lower learning curve) is WeVideo. There's no need to download WeVideo onto your computer. It's an online video editing suite, which means you edit from anywhere you have internet access via a computer.

You can edit your smartphone videos using the WeVideo app, but it's not easy as the online version. The beauty of WeVideo is that you don't need a very powerful computer to edit videos. You just need a fast internet connection to upload and edit your videos.

Many video editors use Adobe Premiere Pro on their computers for creating videos for the web, TV and film, but it's not cheap. You can buy it on an monthly subscription for about £20. The 'beginners' version, Premiere Elements, costs around £86 as a one-off cost.

Premiere Pro has many of the features you find in similar video editing packages and you need a computer with a video card capable of handling the demands of processing video clips.

Adobe has a smartphone version, Premiere Rush, which is around £10 a month.

Launched in January 2020 is Vimeo Create, a free video editing app specifically designed to videos to share on social media. Vimeo Create aims to make creating social media videos quick and easy by automating the process for you. It takes your video clips, picks what it thinks are the best bits, adds a template and music you choose, and then compiles it for you.

Although it's free to use, you have to pay a monthly subscription when you publish it. You also need to crop your clips before uploading them to the system because it doesn't have those basic editing tools in it. Subscriptions start from £16 a month.

Apple's iPhone and iPad version of their free editing app is a simple but good option for editing your videos. iMovie has built-in trailer templates and themes to help you create videos quickly. You can speed up and slow down videos, add in green screen clips and split screen effects. Plus, there are many more features to help you edit great videos.

If you have an iPad, you can edit the same video by transferring the video project via AirDrop or iCloud, and download it to your tablet PC. When you're ready, you can export the video in 4K (if you've shot it in 4K to get the best results) or 1080p resolution to YouTube.

With over 70 million downloads PowerDirector is popular for a reason. It's a capable, high quality video editing app for Android and iOS. The app has all the features you'd expect in a desktop editing version packed into a smaller version.

It takes some time to learn how to use all the features in the PowerDirector interface. But, it's worth the effort and you will soon learn how to edit great videos on your smartphone. There is also a computer version you can download for free. However, to use all the features you will need to upgrade to a paid version.

Splice is a popular video editing app for iPhone. It's simple to use and powerful too, which means the developers designed it well. In addition to the basic editing tools, like cutting, splitting and trimming, with Splice you can add overlays, title slides and synchronise your video to the beat of the music (which is handy!).

You can use free music and sound effects from the app to add to your video to make it look professional. It's easy to share your video to YouTube, Facebook or other platforms. To get the best features, however, you need to subscribe either weekly, monthly or yearly.

The Vivavideo video editing app was originally developed for the Android platform. It's now available on iOS too.

The app includes the basic features you'd expect to edit videos on your smartphone, including trim, cut and split functions. To get all the features in ViviaVideo you need to upgrade to the 'Pro' version of the app. A Pro licence also gets rid of the ads (which can be annoying).

ViviaVideo is also useful when using photos to make videos.