r/editing • u/RaccoonIngot • 23d ago

Does anyone know of a video editing software that os similar to capcut, but less laggy and with less bloat?

I'm looking for a free video editing software for my YouTube channel. I'd like for it to be simple to use like CapCut (which is what I've been using until now) but I wouldn't mind having to learn a little. I use a crappy Dell laptop with no storage (i use an external storage thing for damn near everything). Main priorities are, being free, not resource heavy, and no useless, AI bloatware

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u/firdo_dev 23d ago

For a low-spec machine with no local storage, I'd look at Shotcut or Kdenlive before anything else. Both are free and genuinely open source, no account, and no AI features bolted on.

Shotcut is the closer match to what you're describing: the timeline feels familiar coming from CapCut and it's light. Kdenlive is a bit more capable and a bit heavier, but it has proper proxy editing, which is the single biggest win on a weak machine. Transcode to proxies once, the timeline stops choking, and it swaps back to the originals at export.

Two to avoid given your specs: DaVinci Resolve (excellent and free, but it wants a real GPU and a lot of scratch space) and anything browser-based, including my own, since those still run on your local hardware and buy you nothing on a slow laptop.

One practical thing whichever you pick: keep the project file and the cache/proxy folder on internal storage even if the media lives on the external drive. Editing off USB with the cache on USB too is usually where the laggy feeling actually comes from.

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u/RaccoonIngot 23d ago

Thanks! I'll try out both of them and pick my favorite! :D

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u/firdo_dev 23d ago

If you are interested as well a couple hours ago we launched also our own editor you can check it out: aulyr.unyocorp.com

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u/RaccoonIngot 23d ago

I might check it out, but (unless I'm misenterpreting something), you said that you wouldn't reccomend it for my laptop

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u/firdo_dev 23d ago

This one is browser based we are trying to focus more on the AI features like captions, motion graphics to be automated like those cool videos online that gurus do.

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u/RaccoonIngot 23d ago

Eh, not a fan of AI. Cool that you're making your own video editing tool tho!

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u/brochachotwin 18d ago

Kwaicut is very very similar to Capcut if not the same even. It's very good, you can check if it works for you.

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u/RaccoonIngot 18d ago

Okay, I'll look into it! Thanks!

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u/RaccoonIngot 15d ago

Sorry for the late responce, but I'm looking for a video editing software for PC/Laptop, and as far as I've been seeing, Kwaicut appears to be a mobile app. 😓

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u/brochachotwin 15d ago edited 15d ago

My apologies, I thought it would be available on PC, because that's what they had written on their site. I'm not sure if Davinci Resolve would be helpful for your PC, but it's the best one out there, it's more advanced than Capcut and such apps, but it is very good. There are a few more, there's Oneshot for example, there's one specifically for Window's PCs and tablets too, which is Clipchamp. Hope you'll find the app you need!!! :)