The choices include Open a New Project, Start Editing, and Export a Project. When you first run the program, a dialog box offers help with getting started. After installation, the program takes up 284MB on the hard drive. That's svelte, compared with most video editors, which often top the scales at over a gigabyte. There are both 64-bit and 32-bit Windows versions, but there’s no macOS version. The program runs on Windows XP SP3 through Windows 10 (though no one should be running old, unsupported operating systems). If you want a free option, check out the free, open-source Shotcut, which sports a more standard interface and some powerful editing tools.

But you get far more polished interfaces and more cutting-edge tools for that higher cost. That price is a deal compared with the enthusiast video editing software category, which normally hovers around the $100 price point. VSDC encourages free users to make a small donation to support the software.

You can upgrade at any time by purchasing a license key and entering into the program after a program restart, you'll have access to the Pro features. It also adds premium support, plus extra masking and green-screen capabilities. This paid version adds support for more media types, advanced settings, hardware acceleration, sub-pixel resolution, and audio waveform editing. I tested the latter version, which is still far cheaper than most capable video editing software.

VSDC is available at two levels: Free and the $19.99 Pro edition. While we appreciate inexpensive software, the ease-of-use issues outweigh the cheapness here. Still, it remains hard to recommend the software enthusiastically, considering its shortcomings and poor ease of use. VSDC has improved (and its score has improved, too) since our last review-adding new capabilities like motion tracking, HSL color editing, beat-syncing, text animation, and more.

It costs just $19.99 and includes some fairly advanced video editing tools, but it's well behind more expensive competitors when it comes to interface and usability. If you have video-editing needs that don't warrant spending close to $100 for an enthusiast-level application, you might consider VSDC Video Editor Pro.

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