Shotcut

Shotcut shares the MLT engine with Kdenlive but wraps it in a leaner, dockable UI. It handles wide format support natively without importing/transcoding, has good filters and keyframing, 4K support, and hardware-accelerated export. Monthly-ish releases keep it moving, and it behaves identically across platforms if you edit on multiple machines.

Its timeline ergonomics trail Kdenlive — trimming and ripple editing feel clunkier, and there’s no proxy workflow as polished. Some filters are slow without GPU processing enabled, and the UI, while functional, wins no beauty contests. Most people end up preferring either this or Kdenlive after trying both; they cover the same tier.