18 Best Free Video Converter Software 2022

Looking for the best video converter software? We may need a free or paid video converter for Windows 10, Windows 11, Mac, and more platforms for various reasons. For instance,

• Change videos into different formats for playing on iPhone, 4K TVs, PS5, Xbox, Mac…
• Convert videos recorded by GoPro, DJI, iPhone, DSLR cameras, or screen captures to editing-friendly format
• Transcode videos for sending on Discord, Pinterest, Twitter, and other social media without quality loss
• Share the same video on different platforms with different formats for getting the best outcomes on each platform
• Convert DVDs (including the new and 99-title DVDs) with favored chapters, subtitles, and languages
• …

Given the fact that hundreds of paid and free video converters out there claim themselves to be powerful, fast, and easy-to-learn while giving no compromise to quality, choosing the best video converter software becomes one of the most frustrating roadblocks you may encounter.

Lucky you are here. We have carefully selected and assembled a list of the best video converter software you can get right now. Some are free video converters for users who already learned the ropes of coding & decoding to do very basic conversions. There’re also many affordable and self-explained 4K/HD video converters capable of helping users of all levels convert videos at blazing fast speed with amazing picture quality.

List of Best Video Converter Software

Best Video Converter Overall

Overall Best – fastest, best quality, more formats, smooth 4K/8K conversion…

• Operating system: Windows and macOS.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Input formats: MOV, MP4, MPEG2, MPEG4, VOB, VP8, VP9, AV1, Xvid, YUV411, DNxHD, 3D, 360° VR video, and more.
• Output formats: DV-NTSC/PAL, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.265/HEVC, VP8, VP9, DivX, WMV2, ProRes, and more.

VideoProc Converter is the best video converter software for Windows 11/10/8/7 and all recent versions of macOS computers. It can convert any of around 370+ media formats to your choices of 420+ output formats. Namely, you can use it to convert MKV to MP4, MOV to MP4/MPEG, YouTube to WAV, MP4 to MP3, MP4 to AVI/WMV, H264 to H265, MTS to MP4, and even DVDs to digital in just one click.

Thanks to the support of the level-3 GPU acceleration, hyper-threading, and AMD “3DNow” tech, VideoProc Converter can convert videos at a speed up to 47x faster than the real-time playback while keeping a very low CPU usage. During the transcoding process, users have no problem writing emails, watching movies, and running other programs.

No worry about quality loss! This high quality video converter applies the next generation encodiing tech and supports intelligently switching between All-I and IPB compression, allowing users to retain 99% of the original picture quality while shrinking 90% of the size. Even better, it comes with the Auto Copy feature, allowing you remux video formats without re-encoding or quality loss.

Pros:

• Feed in, (batch) convert, and export to almost any format you can imagine.
• Automate the conversion process with presets for YouTube, iPhone, Apple TV, Sony PS4, Xbox, DVD…
• Never give up video quality: support video remux, 2-pass encoding, and x265 high entropy codec.
• Allow you to select the needed chapters, language tracks, and subtitles when converting DVDs.
• The fastest video converter. Up to 47x faster conversion speed while not slowing down your computer.
• Also the best SD to HD video converter software, video downloader, video compressor, and video editor.

Cons:

• It is a flawless video converter that has nothing we dislike.

Verdict:

This fast and safe video converter didn’t use above 2% CPU usage 👍 when we converted the iPhone HEVC 4K recordings to a 1080P H.264 MP4 file. After the conversion, the file size dropped to 10.6MB without any visible downgrading in video quality.

VideoProc Converter is reviewed as the No.1 best video converter by many trusted websites. Check some of them,

• Best free and paid video converters for Mac in 2022 – comparitech.com
• Best video converter software for Mac as of 2022 – igeeksblog.com
• In-Depth comparison of 12 best video converter software – onehourprofessor.com

      Excellent

7 Best Free Video Converter Software

Avidemux

Best free video converter for basic editing features.

• Operating system: Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐
• Input formats: MP4, MKV, OGM, Cinepak, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, YV12, FFV1, DV, HuffYUV…
• Output formats: MP4, MKV, FLV, MOV, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.265/HEVC, MPEG-4, VP9…

Avidemux is an excellent option for beginners or advanced users in need of quickly converting video container formats to MKV, MP4, FLV, MOV, and WebM without changing the stored media streams. It lets users transcode the video and audio into H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.265/HEVC, and a few other popular codecs.

Customizing the encoding settings is also allowed. However, exporting the converted video with desired codecs, size, and quality in Avidemux is often an error and trial process for most users. Its interface is too out of date and displays many unexplained setting options. Aside from being a free video file converter for PC, Mac, Linux, and BSD, Avidemux also serves as a basic video editor and allows you to cut, rotate, crop, denoise, stabilize video files, etc.

Pros:

• Remux video without encoding or losing quality.
• All basic video editing tools.

Cons:

• Difficult to customize the encoding settings.
• Constant crashes due to the lack of technical supports.

Verdict:

The converting speed of Avidemux is average. In our test, it took around 8 minutes for this free movie converter to convert a short piece of 720P MP4 MPEG4 video to MP4 H.264. Its biggest con is the high CPU and memory usage which makes it not possible to run other programs when converting video files.

FFmpeg

Best free video converter for a wide range of supported video formats.

• Operating system: Windows, Mac, and Linux.
• Ease of use: ⭐
• Input formats: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, HEVC/H.265, Motion JPEG, IEC DV video, CD+G, and more.
• Output formats: same as the above compatible input formats.

The fact is the majority of the open source and commercial video converters in the market are taking FFmpeg behind the scenes. Therefore, we are very satisfied with what this incredible video converter can do in terms of conversion capabilities.

It essentially can change video formats of all sorts, the supported input video codecs range from ISO disc images, MP4 (H.261/H.262, MPEG 4 Part 2, etc.), AMD/ATI (ATI VCR1/VCR2) to MOV (Cinepak, ProRes, QuickTime Animation, QuickTime Graphics, etc.), Avid, ASV… However, just because it is capable of doing everything doesn’t mean everyone can benefit from this powerful video converter.

FFmpeg is the best free video converter software for advanced users or engineers who know a command-line environment. It doesn’t come with the GUI. So you can’t convert videos by simple clicks as what you’re doing with VideoProc Converter or other video converters.

Pros:

• Give you the complete freedom to convert video and audio.
• Free to use on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Cons:

• Steep learning curve.

Verdict:

FFmpeg video converter works according to what it translates from the input command lines. A small difference in the command lines will bring up totally different conversion performances and results.

HandBrake

Best free video converter for cross-platform users.

• Operating system: Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐
• Input formats: VIDEO_TS, BDMV, VOB, EVO, MTS, M2TS, DNxHD, ProRes, XAVC, XDCAM, and more.
• Output formats: MP4, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.265/HEVC, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, Theora, VP9, and VP8.

One of the best free video converters is HandBrake. This is a professional video converter program that can output videos from multiple video formats (MP4, MKV, AVI, TS, M2TS) as well as digitize Blu-ray and DVDs to MKV, MP4, and WebM formats. It also provides beginners with presets for quick conversion but still comes with tons of options for advanced users to customize the video bitrate, frame rate, resolution, and other properties.

The support of modern GPU encoding is a big plus as it can accelerate the whole conversion process at the speed 2x to 3x faster than the real-time playback. And the adopted x265 encoding enables HandBrake to generate high-quality videos without taking up large storage space.

HandBrake is a cross-platform and open-source video converter which means you can utilize it on Windows, Mac, and Linux and get access to all incredible features without having to pay a dime.

Pros:

• A heap of input video formats.
• Basic editing toolkits including cut, crop, subtitle, filter…
• Completely free with GPU acceleration supported now.
• Flexible video parameter settings, even in command lines.

Cons:

• Unstable with errors, despite being constantly updated.
• Won’t convert encrypted DVDs.
• Good for experienced users, but not friendly enough for beginners.
• Few output formats. 3 containers (MKV, MP4, WebM) are available only.
• Over 90% consumption in CPU resources is commonly seen while the conversion.

Verdict:

HandBrake can work fast when you define a faster encoding. For instance, HandBrake took over 90 seconds to convert the 4K HEVC video to 1080P H.264 video when we selected Fast 1080P 30P. The conversion speed was shortened to 36 seconds when we switched to Very Fast 1080P.

HandBrake took 2.8 hours to convert an ISO file in our test. What is worth noticing is this free video converter failed to scan some titles of the imported ISO files for the first few times.

VLC media player

Best free video converter for batch conversion.

• Operating system: Windows, Mac, and Linux.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐
• Input format: MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4 ASP, XviD, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, Theora, Dirac/VC-2, MJPEG (A/B), DV, and more.
• Output format: ASF, AVI, Fraps, MPJPEG, MPEG-2 (ES, MP3), Ogg, PSTS, WAV, WebM, and more.

Did you know that you might already have one of the best free video converters installed on your computer? And its name is VLC media player. Most of us know this amazing program as a free media player developed by VideoLan that can play a variety of media including some videos that are unrecognizable on other players. But few know VLC is a versatile video converter that can batch convert videos in HEVC, VC-D, VP3/VP5/VP6/VP8, WMV, DVD, MPEG-1/2, and tons of codecs, regardless of the container formats.

Since VLC is mainly a media player software that moonlights as a workable video converter, in comparison with those professional converters, VLC has a limited output format support and presets. It does not output VP9, ProRes, ProRes 422HQ, ProRes 422, ProRes 422LT, etc. However, professional video converters, such as VideoProc Converter, support almost all the said formats. The availability of 10+ options for tweaking the output file parameters perhaps is not for the faint of heart.

Pros:

• Support H.265 codec, and can convert audio/DVD.
• It is completely free to use.
• The batch video conversion is supported.

Cons:

• Lack the support of AV1 and VP9 codec.
• No output presets for specific devices or social media.
• Unable to convert multiple videos files simultaneously to different formats.

Verdict:

The conversion speed of the VLC media player surpassed our expectations. It took about 40 seconds to encode the HEVC iPhone recordings from 4K to 1080P while keeping 60% of the CPU usage rate and 300MB of memory usage. We also checked up the transcode from AVI to MP4, MKV to WebM, and a few more, all got a fast response from the VLC media player.

What we want to complain about is, VLC media player often stopped the process automatically and gave us an unknown file with 0 bytes of content when we applied it to convert DVD files.

Shutter Encoder

Best free video converter for plenty of editing options.

• Operating system: Windows, macOS, Linux, Utunbu.
• Ease of use:⭐⭐
• Input formats: all popular video, audio and picture formats.
• Output formats: VP9, HEVC, AV1, DNxHD, DNxHR, Apple ProRes, QT Animation, GoPro CineForm, and JPEG, etc.

If you are looking for the best file converter software with useful video editing capabilities, then you’d love Shutter Encoder. It is chock full of integrated features, allowing you to convert video codecs from one to another, burn subtitles to your videos, trim/crop footage, download web videos/music, record your screens, and more.

Shutter Encoder packs all necessary conversion options that can satisfy a seasoned user’s demand. Thanks to the well-categorized codec list and the simplified interface, it doesn’t require newbies much effort to utilize the full potential of Shutter Encoder to convert videos for editing, broadcasting, or other purposes.

Many paid video converters support only Windows and Mac. Open-source video converter freeware are very compatible but usually come with a bit of out-of-date features and UI design. This made the cross-platform Shutter Encoder a perfect option for Linux and Ubuntu users.

Pros:

• Transcode, remux, compress, edit, download, and share videos/audio/pictures.
• Shutter Encoder has a very active support team on Reddit

Cons:

• Lack of easy to follow tutorials for newbies to dive deep.
• Features like screen capture and online video download are deeply buried in the function menu.

Verdict:

The GPU acceleration feature only works while decoding. Therefore, this free HD video converter falls behind the level-3 GPU accelerated VideoProc Converter in terms of conversion speed and overall performance. There are also many users encountering crash issues when enabling the GPU acceleration feature. Despite the flaws, Shutter Encoder is the best pick for users who aren’t willing to make a serious hole in their pockets.

MPEG Streamclip

Best free video converter for converting phased-out video codecs.

• Operating system: Windows and macOS.
• Ease of use:⭐⭐⭐
• Input formats: IMA 4:1, MPEG-4, AMR Narrow, MPEG Layer 2, MPEG Layer 3, etc.
• Output formats: AV1/DivX, MPEG-4.

MPEG Streamclip is one of the oldest video converters which you can tell from its 80-s style of interface, few output options, and limited editing capabilities. It can rip and convert DVDs. The most used formats, such as MOV and MP4 are supported by this free video converter. However, to speak of the output format, QuickTime MOV, DV, AV1/DivX, and MPEG-4 videos are the only few options that you can choose. In addition, you cannot convert your videos to HEVC, AV1, VP8, or other high compression codecs.

Another downside of MPEG Streamclip converter is it only exports video is in 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio. Users who want to convert video for posting on social media like Facebook and Instagram are advised to choose another video converter software as these platforms favor the 1:1 square videos.

Pros:

• Lightweight and free to use.

Cons:

• Not support to preview the edits that are applied to the working videos.
• It was discontinued years ago.

Verdict:

MPEG Streamclip doesn’t read HEVC, VP8, and various prevalent codecs. Thus we tested this free video converter program with some H.264 and MPEG-4 clips. We found it was quite slow. For instance, we spent a total of 18 minutes transcoding 40 seconds of H.264 1080P to MPEG-4 MOV.

Xmedia Recode

Best free video converter on PC for not taking too much space while the conversion.

• Operating system: Windows.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐
• Input formats: AVISynth, DVD, H.264/MPEG-4 AVI, H.265/HEVC, MMF, MPEG-1, and more.
• Output formats: AVI, DNxHD, GXF, H.261/3/4, HEVC/H.265, 3GPP2, AAC, AC3, ADX, AIFF, AMR, ASF, and more.

Xmedia Recode, which comes with 16.6MB of installer file, is absolutely a lightweight video converter. The supporting list of input and output video codecs of this best video conversion software is totally the same as HandBrake. But, it is widely regarded as the “HandBrake +” solution on Windows. Why? This compact video converter software can export 30+ video and audio formats including AVI, OGG, MOV, and many other files that are not supported by HandBrake.

It comes with many options that allow to fine-tune video and audio encoder parameters. The built-in bitrate calculator helps you to avoid the whopping large output that is frequently seen when using HandBrake. In addition, this free video file converter has more useful presets for TVs and smartphones (iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, etc.) than HandBrake does.

Pros:

• A lot of options for output video and audio.
• You can convert videos with or without changing its codecs and parameters.
• Support edit chapters.
• The built-in bitrate calculator helps users convert video to the desired size.

Cons:

• Not support to read ISO files.
• Won’t generate UHD HDR video.
• The interface is not user-friendly enough.

Verdict:

Xmedia Recode and Handbrake are using the same encoder and decoder. Both are good showcases of the fast and best video converter for Windows 10/11, Mac, and Linux, but the exact conversion speed is largely determined by your settings.

To convert the test DVD disk to MPEG-2 MP4, this free video converter for Windows took over an hour. Be aware, Xmedia Recode, in some cases, might eat up your memory, e.g., it took up to 2500MB of memory to convert our HEVC video to a VP8 file.

Vidcoder

Best free video converter on PC for ripping home DVDs.

• Operating system: Windows.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐
• Input format: VOB, EVO, VIDEO_TS, BDMV, DNxHD, ProRes, XAVC, and more.
• Output format: H.264, H.265, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, VP8, Theora video.

Vidcoder is a free and open-source DVD and Blu-ray ripper as well as a capable video transcoder that works on Windows. Taking HandBrake as the encoding engine, Vidcoder has similar features with HandBrake. They boast the same supported videos codecs/formats list, output presets, parameters setting options, and the capability to convert videos from/to discs.

What Vidcoder superiors to HandBrake is it’s easier to learn. However, new hands may still feel overwhelmed by a large number of video codecs jargon shown up on this multiple video converter.

Pros:

• Easier to apply than HandBrake.

Cons:

• Ask for a large amount of CPU and GPU resources.
• Not allow people to convert videos to AVI, MOV, and many popular formats.

Verdict:

The encoding speed of Vidcoder is quite slow from our test. When working with the preset Very Fast 1080P, Vidcoder took over 2 minutes to transcode our 43 seconds 4K iPhone recording. It took up 70% of our CPU resource and 1600MB of the system memory while the conversion. After we changed the import video file to a 7.26GB of ISO file, the disk usage value suddenly jumped to 99%, and worse more, it stopped the transcode in seconds and left us with a blank file.

7 Best Paid Video Converter Software

FonePaw Video Converter Ultimate

A handy video converter software program that combines with useful editing features

• Operating system: Windows and macOS.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Input formats: 3GP, MJPEG, AVI, MOV, DV Files, RMVB, MOD, MP4, M4V, MKV, and more
• Output formats: MPG, MP4, DPG, MPEG-1, M4V, TS, MPEG-2, MKV, DV, MPEG-4, MOV, VOB, H.264, 3GP, and more

FonePaw Video Converter Ultimate is a professional conversion tool that can handle various video or audio format conversion. No matter if it is a popular MP4 format file or an unusual format with a complex codec, the converter always delivers you a suitable and pleasant result.

To ease your burden of selecting a right format for output, FonePaw Video Converter Ultimate presets with a complete list of device profiles so that you can effortlessly convert video for an easy playback. For advanced users, the converter also features with useful customization options to tweak video parameters.

More than a video converter tool, the software is integrated with other versatile features including DVD ripping function, video compressor, and some amazing editing features. The built-in MV maker and video collage help add creativity to your source video. Other viable functions such as video compressor, GIF maker, watermark maker and remover are all included in its powerful toolbox section.

Basically, it is a multi-functional software program that everyone can leverage the benefit from it.

Pros:

• Easy to navigate program interface.
• Integrated with multiple features and tools.
• Editable video and audio parameters for adjustments.

Cons:

• Free trial version can only convert 5 minutes of each file.
• Cannot convert Blu-ray discs.

Verdict:

In the fields of file conversion, the full-featured FonePaw Video Converter Ultimate can meet most needs for non-techies and create a decent resultant video.

But when it comes to convert large files on old computers, high CPU consumption appears to be an only trivial improvement.

Freemake Video Converter

Best paid video converter on PC for beginners.

• Operating system: Windows 10 or earlier.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Input formats: AMV FLH, OGM, AVCHD, FLI, OGV, AVS, FLM, PVA, H.263, H.264, MJ2, MJPG, VC1, MP4, and more.
• Output formats: H.264, XVID, VC1, MPEG2/4, H.263, FLV, WMV3, VP8, DVD, Blu-ray, MP3, 3GP, AAC, and OGG.

Freemake Video Converter is the best video converter for Windows 10. It has a well-optimized interface that makes all necessary conversion features are visible to its users. With this free video converter for PC, you can copy DVD to MP4, turn videos from 40+ different codecs to another format to let it go compatible with iPod, iPad, Nokia, BlackBerry, Xbox, Sony, etc. And the whole process can be extremely easy to make with the ready-made device presets.

Though I rate it as one of top video converters, there are a few things with Freemake Video Converter that I don’t like. Firstly, it doesn’t support 4K UHD videos which are now everywhere. If you intend to convert a 4K video to another format via Freemake Video Converter, then you have to trade-off with big sacrifice in resolutions as the largest video Freemake Video Converter can export is 2160P X 2160P.

Pros:

• Easy to use with a straightforward interface.
• A free converter for video, audio, DVD, and photo.

Cons:

• Lack of support for advanced formats including HEVC and VP9.
• The presets are for 2018 devices as it didn’t receive an update since then.
• Windows only. It’s not compatible with macOS.
• Payment is required to remove the watermark.

Verdict:

Every time we added a video encoded by lossy formats, just like VP8 WebM, MPEG-2 MP4, the convert process bar was stuck at 60% – 90% after running the transcode command. Thankfully, it successfully transcoded some lossless videos, though at a slow speed.

To give an example, it took 12 seconds to convert a 28 seconds HD ProRes MOV file to 1080P H.264 MP4 video with the default settings. Under the same cases, VideoProc Converter took just about 12 seconds.

WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe

Best paid video converter on PC for beginners.

• Operating system: Windows and macOS.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Input formats: ASF, AVI, DAT, DAV, DivX, DV, F4V, FLV, G2M4, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, HEVC/H.265, QT, JPEG, and more.
• Output formats: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, HEVC/H.265, AV1, and more.

WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe, developed by Digiarty, is a GPU-accelerated HD and 4K Video Converter. It is user-friendly and has a simple layout. As a multiple media converter, it can transcode a variety of videos including 60FPS/120FPS 4K UHD videos and Facebook videos to more compatible or higher compressed files.

You can enjoy a fast conversion speed even when using it on a relatively old computer thanks to the applied of the said hardware acceleration technology. The weakness of this Mac and Windows video converter is it doesn’t read DVD, CD, or Blue-ray discs. Basic editing utilities are included, however, still a bit limited.

Pros:

• Response fast with each click.
• Also a decent YouTube/Facebook/Instagram converter.

Cons:

• High price tag: $49.95/yr.
• The interface is intuitive but out-of-date.
• Lack of support for converting DVD and Blu-ray discs.

Verdict:

WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe goes really fast. We spent around 30 seconds converting the 4K footage captured by iPhone to VP8 WebM while keeping the same resolution and picture crispy. Thus, if you are in search of the fastest video converter, it can be your go-to option.

Adobe Media Encoder

Best paid video converter for Adobe subscribers.

• Operating system: Windows and macOS.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐
• Input formats: 3GP, AAF, AVC-Intra LT, AVC Long GOP, Cinema DNG, RMF, DV Stream, DNxHD Op1a, and more.
• Output formats: uncompressed UYVY, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.265/HEVC, VP8, VP9, MP4, and more.

Adobe Media Encoder is a top-notch paid video converter. It’s capable of converting almost all the existing video codecs, so there is no worry about codec things when applying this serious video converter to transcode or remux video files. Besides, it enables the dynamic link with Adobe series products. This brings much convenience for video editing experts who need to polish a large number of videos that come in different codecs.

People who have worked with Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop, or other tools from the big Adobe family should have no problem mastering Adobe Media Encoder. However, it’s very possibly a long process with trial and error to learn all its bells and whistles for beginners. They have to dive headfirst into the obscure codec terminologies before successfully converting the first video clip. Adobe Media Encoder is not for an armature. It acquires large memory and CPU for the entire decoding and encoding process. Thus, if you don’t have a well-built machine, this daunting video converter can leave your other processes paralyzed.

Pros:

• Allow videos in a wide range of formats, resolutions, and aspect ratios.

Cons:

• Not for converting DVD or Blu-ray discs.
• Not natively support the output of MKV, VP9 WebM, H.264 AVI…
• It’s installed as part of Premiere or After Effects, both cost $20.99/month.
• Lack of options to control the audio stream.

Verdict:

In the output-format setting tab of Adobe Media Encoder, you’re going to see a great number of lossless formats options. This makes Adobe Media Encoder the best video converter software for people whose target is getting some lossless video files.

The conversion speed of Adobe Media Encoder is overall slow. For instance, it took 4 minutes and 24 seconds to transcode the iPhone 4K clip to 1080P video using the Facebook 1080P HD preset.

To avoid unfairly tying the hands of this heavy video converter, we tested over 20 times with different clips with different settings on target bitrate and codecs. However, we got a similar slow conversion process. Besides, on average, it set up the CPU usage to 95% and took a large memory space of about 2800MB.

Prism Video Converter

Best paid video converter for less-robust PC.

• Operating system: Windows and macOS.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐
• Input formats: all common and rare media formats.
• Output formats: all common and rare media formats.

Unlike VideoPad Video Editor, offered by NCH software that allows you to edit videos without paying, Prism Video Converter is a paid video converter developed by NCH that lets it’s user convert videos for personal use. It runs on all recent Mac and Windows (64 bit). With it, you can easily convert AVCHD to MP4, as well as AVI, MOV, VOB, ASF, and tons of other formats such as regardless of the contained codecs.

Prism Video Converter also enables you to rip DVD and Blu-ray discs, and it even allows you to choose the preferred language for the digital copy. It doesn’t prepare many presets for TVs but offers rich options for iPhone, iPad, and game consoles (Xbox, PS3, PS4, PSP, Nintendo 3DS, and many more). Thus, it’s definitely one of the best free video converter software for quick video conversion. However, I’d have to admit, it still has many limitations in terms of the adjustments on video properties. For example, it doesn’t allow you to set up a specific video bitrate, audio sample rate, and the resolution you can convert to is constrained to 2K.

Pros:

• A raft of editing options: watermark, text overlay, color correction, etc.
• Convert all video files even when your machine lacks the related codecs.

Cons:

• Require users to buy the paid plan ($60) to convert videos for commercial use.
• Not flexible enough to convert videos.
• Might add black bars to your video as it doesn’t support aspect ratios like 9:16 and 1:1.

Verdict:

Prism Video Converter has better performance than a lot of high-cost video converters in terms of CPU and memory usage. Whether we turned the high-compressed HEVC 4K video to 720P MPEG-2 clips or transcoded the large ISO video file to H.264 MPEG, the CPU usage rate didn’t surpass 32%, and the memory usage didn’t go larger than 300MB.

This free video converter software loses in the conversion speed. Averagely, it took 7 times longer than VideoProc Converter needs to convert the same video with nearly the same target bitrate and compression codec.

MacX Video Converter Pro

Best video converter on Mac for fast speed.

• Operating system: Windows and macOS.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐
• Input formats: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, HEVC/H.265, QT, VP8, VP9, JPEG, and more.
• Output formats: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, HEVC/H.265, AV1, VP8, and more.

MacX Video Converter Pro is the go-to toolkit for a lot of macOS users to convert and download videos. It is well accepted for being professional in dealing with hundreds of media formats and for amazing fast speed with hardware acceleration support. With this safe video converter for Mac, you can remux or re-encode video files to solve codec format incompatible issues whether you run into the problem during video playback or when importing video for post-production, in iMovie for example.

With the built-in downloader and compression engine, MacX Video Converter Pro makes it possible to convert online videos for watching later and shrink the size of HD or UHD videos. However, it might not be the best video converter for you. It won’t convert DVD videos or any type of audio files. The integrated editing toolset needs some improvements as it doesn’t enable you to apply subtitles, special effects, or any other edits.

Pros:

• Also a reliable online video downloader.
• Easy to navigate layout.

Cons:

• No access to convert audios, DVDs, or Blu-ray discs.
• Not let you to add or edit subtitles.
• High price tag: $49.95/yr.

Verdict:

MacX Video Converter Pro is a very fast video converter software on Mac. We tested it with many videos recorded by iPhone and DJI drones, it averagely can fulfill the conversion at a speed 5x faster than the real-time playback, and all the exported files are in nice quality.

FFworks

Best video converter on Mac for social media videos.

• Operating system: macOS.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐
• Input formats: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.265/HEVC, PRORES, DNxHD, DV Video, MPEG TS, MPEG PS, VP8, and more.
• Output formats: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.265/HEVC, VP9, PRORES, DNxHD, MPEG TS, MPEG PS, XAVS, and more.

Geared toward Mac users, FFworks is an easy-to-use and cheap (which costs $24) video converter software that supports 4K HEVC, H.264, AV1, and other 20+ common media formats. More than 300 advanced options are given by FFworks which allow users to have full control over the output video properties. Newbies? No worry, FFworks provides you with dozens of presets for generating videos that can play smoothly on different brands and modes of smartphones, TVs, Game Consoles as well as various social media.

In its recent version, FFworks video converter optimizes the feature of GPU accelerated encoding with Video Toolbox which decreases some extent of reliance on CPU resources while the conversion. Better yet, the support of chapter edits allows you to add chapters information for MP4, MOV, and MKV videos with great ease. Thus, it should come as no surprise that FFworks has made our list of the best video converter software.

Pros:

• Rich features in editing videos (filter, watermark, cut, subtitle, etc.)

Cons:

• The ability to convert video from/to DVD or Blue-ray disk is absent.

Verdict:

If you compare FFworks with the professional HD/UHD video converter, like VideoProc Converter and WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe, this lightweight tool will very possibly disappoint you.

However, it works faster than the said Prism Video Converter and most free video file converters. To give an example, the time is 3 minutes for FFworks converting the 27.2MB 1080P MP4 file with a length of 40 seconds to 33MB 720P AVI video.

2 Best Online Video Converter Apps

Freeconvert

Best online video converter for converting small video files.

• Operating system: browser-based.
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Most web-based video converters constrain you to convert videos to MP4 formats. In Freeconvert, you can choose the format for the exported video from 8 different options. Not sure which video format you need to get? It prepares a few devices presets for iPhone, iPad, Kindle, and Xbox, etc. To speak of the size limit, Freeconvert is far more generous than its competitors are. The max file size for a free account is up to 1GB.

As a browser video converter app, after all, it’s far away from being perfect. The high reliance on your network environment, the lack of options to make precise settings of your conversion, and the absence of support to convert DVD discs are all big issues.

Pros:

• Cut, Flip, and subtitle your videos.
• Allow to custom video resolution, aspect ratio, and frame rate.

Cons:

• The pro plan costs $25.99 per month.
• No access to improve the bitrate.
• Slow conversion process under the bad network environment.

Verdict:

Freeconvert might disappoint those who need a fast online HD video converter.

As said, the conversion speed of the online tool was heavily influenced by the network condition. Thus, both Freeconvert and the Clip Converter that we are going to introduce later are the underdogs on our list. From we imported the MP4 video (with the length of 40 seconds) to we saved the MOV exported video on our disk, Freeconvert took over 23 minutes, and Clip Converter cost 36 minutes.

Clip Converter

Best online free video converter for casual users.

• Operating system: browser-based
• Ease of use: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Clip Converter is an online free video converter that lets you convert your source video into the output format you want. In this post, we will walk you through how to convert a video to another format, namely YouTube to MP4 step by step. You just need to copy & paste a URL or upload your video to this online application, and then you can convert your video to the format you desire. Currently, it supports various media formats as follows: audio formats like MP3, M4A, AAC, and video formats such as MP4, 3GP, AVI, MOV, MKV.

Pros:

• An online video converter software with free service.
• You can specify the start and end time of your video to be converted.
• Popular media formats partially supported.

Cons:

• Video URL you copy & paste is malfunctioning – you may be navigated to the fraud sites.
• Default option built-in, unavailable to customize parameters.
• Unavailable to batch processing conversion file.
• IE6 browser fails to support YouTube video conversion.
• An online tool, security untestified and data leak risk unknown.

Verdict:

Sadly, from our test and what we’ve got from its users, Clip Converter has far more cons than pros of its degree, which demonstrates that it is not a reliable online video converter.

How to Pick the Best Video Converter for Windows 10/11 or Mac

1. Supported File Formats

Taking this criterion, the best video converters are VideoProc Converter, FFmpeg, Shutter Encoder, and Prsim Video Converter.

Many of you want a video converter with the aim to overcome the device compatibility issues for freely playing any videos on smartphones, music players, computers, TVs, game consoles, DVD players, etc. Therefore, the best video converters should have the capability to read and write plenty of different formats.

2. Picture Quality

Taking this criterion, the best video converters are VideoProc Converter, Adobe Media Encoder, FFmpeg, and MacX Video Converter Pro.

Though quality always rolls downhill every time you make the video conversion, an excellent video converter can retain most of the data from the original files. In this way, the slight loss in video quality happened while the video conversion process won’t be noticed by human eyes.

3. Conversion Speed

Taking this criterion, the best video converters are VideoProc Converter and MacX Video Converter Pro.

We see too many people complain about the video converter they use to convert Blue-ray discs and TV series responses ridiculously slow. That’s true. Most paid and free downloadable video converters in the market take several hours to successfully convert minutes of video. Luckily, you don’t have to tolerate that sort of plain trashes anymore as we have excluded those terribly slow video converters for you.

To pick up the fastest video converter for PC and Mac, we made speed tests for each tool with at least 3 videos (Surely we used many more videos). Below is the detailed information. Note: The test was made when all unnecessary background processes were closed.

• Clip 1 – recorded by iPhone – 99.6MB, 46S 51MS, 18.1 Mb/S, 3840 X 2160P, HEVC, MP4
• Clip 2 – grabed from YouTube – 27.3MB, 40S 43MS, 5718 Kb/s, 1920 x 1080P, H.264, MP4
• Clip 3 – The ISO file of FROZEN with the total file size of 7.26G

And we’re glad to find VideoProc Converter can convert all the video clips we throw to it in seconds.

4. GPU Acceleration

Taking this criterion, the best video converter is VideoProc Converter.

We don’t want to see our CPU usage rate blast up to 80% or even higher. A video converter that supports the GPU acceleration tech can speed up the conversion process while easing up the CPU’s burden. Thus, the video converter that enables GPU acceleration always prevails over those who don’t in overall speed.

So far, 65% of the video converter software makes use of GPU acceleration for video encoding only, 24% of them utilized GPU acceleration for both decoding and encoding videos. VideoProc Converter is the sole video converter that enables full utilization of the hardware acceleration during the video encoding, video decoding, and UHD video processing processes.

5. Low Investment

Taking this criterion, the best video converters are WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe and VideoProc Converter.

Generally speaking, there are 3 factors you should consider: the cost of the video converter software, the supplement investments in hardware, and the associated costs of the learning courses.

That is to say, the best video converter software itself should be free or low cost. It doesn’t require too much computer resources as well. Thus you don’t need to update your PC built for running it smoothly. The sleek and straightforward layout is also necessary for you to easily apply it without having to follow any expensive training courses.