Short answer first. There is no single best video editing software market anymore; there are four, stacked on top of each other. Our database tracks 206 editing tools, and 69 of them edit video. They split into 12 professional editors, 20 consumer editors, 18 mobile editors and 19 AI video tools, and the segments behave like different industries: different prices, different free tiers, different ideas of what an editor is.
The four segments, counted
| Segment | Tools | With a free tier | Median monthly price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional video editors | 12 | 3 | $23.49 |
| Consumer video editors | 20 | 15 | $19.95 |
| Mobile video editors | 18 | 17 | $1.99 |
| AI video tools | 19 | 15 | $29.00 |
The professional tier is the smallest and the most closed: only 3 of its 12 tools offer a free tier, and its median price is a professional expense. The consumer tier is the contested middle, 20 tools with three quarters offering a free way in. Mobile is nearly all free at the door, 17 of 18, with a median paid price under two dollars a month, because the phone editors monetize templates and effects instead of the editor itself. The AI tools are the surprise: the newest segment is already the most expensive at the median, $29 a month, because they sell generation time rather than software.
Free tiers, by segment
The pricing models behind the segments tell the same story at database scale. Of all 206 tools we track, 103 are freemium, 46 are subscription only, 30 sell a one-time license, 22 are open source and just 5 are fully free. Freemium is the default business model of editing software now, and the segments that resist it, the professional suites and the open source projects, are precisely the ones that never needed a funnel. AI features follow the money too: 148 of the 206 tools, 72 percent, now ship some form of AI assistance, and the AI video segment exists because generation became a product category of its own.
Read the chart as a map of where the money is made. Segments that give the editor away earn on volume, assets and upgrades. The segment that does not, professional software, earns on the seat, and its buyers expense it. Our reviewed comparison picks the strongest tool inside each segment; this census is the map those picks were drawn from, and the full database behind both sits behind the site search. If your need is a file rather than an editor, the built-in PicConvert converts and compresses images in the browser with nothing to install.
Sources: segment form modeled on PCMag, The Best Video Editing Software We've Tested for 2026. All counts, free-tier shares and prices from the ImageVideoTools database of 206 editing tools, read on November 5, 2026.