14 Free Software and Tools For YouTubers
Plan, script, record, and optimise your YouTube videos on a budget. We share the most highly-rated free software and tools for YouTubers.
From planning and scripting to recording, editing, and video optimisation, a lot goes into running a YouTube channel. Luckily, there are lots of software and tools that can help you work smarter, not harder. Best of all, many of them are completely free and easy to use, making them accessible for all abilities and budgets.
Whether you’re a complete NewTuber or simply want to streamline your content creation process, here are 14 free software and tools every YouTuber should use.
Planning and scripting your content
Notion
Notion is a productivity platform that can help YouTubers organise and track their projects from start to finish. The tool can act as an all-in-one hub for things like content calendars, scripts, and video optimisation. Plus, you can even add collaborators if you run your YouTube channel alongside a team.
Here are all the ways you can use Notion as a YouTuber:
Content planning:
- Create a content calendar to plan and track your projects.
- Create a list of ideas and use tags organise them based on things like category and priority.
- Create a swipe file board with links to videos or media that inspires you.
Scripting and storyboarding:
- Draft video scripts and storyboards directly within Notion, or use it to keep track of your Google Drive folders and files.
- Collaborate with your team members on scripts within your shared workspace.
Project workflow:
- Use Notion’s Kanban boards to track and manage video projects at different stages e.g. idea, scripting, filming, editing, published.
- Create templates for repetitive content such as intros and outros, or create checklists for filming.
Sponsorships and collaborations:
- Create a database of potential sponsors.
- Track current sponsorships and income streams.
Analytics:
- Embed your YouTube analytics within your Notion board.
Equipment and budgeting:
- Keep track of your gear with an equipment inventory.
One of the best things about Notion is its user-friendliness. It has thousands of premade templates that you can download and use at no cost – lots of which have been created just for YouTubers. Notion can be downloaded as an app or used within your web browser, creating a flexible, seamless experience, whether at your desk or on the go.
Check out these free Notion templates for YouTubers and choose one to suit your needs.
Why YouTubers love it:
- Hundreds of free templates made for YouTubers.
- Plan, script, organise, and optimise your videos, all from one place.
- The free plan allows up to 10 guests for collaboration.
TubeSpanner
Unless you’re a very strong writer, scripting your YouTube videos can be a tedious process. But without a solid script and video title, even the best video concepts will flop.
TubeSpanner is a hidden gem of a tool that can help you streamline your planning and scripting process. The software’s free plan includes features like:
- Content planning: Plan your videos with the help of AI, and get structured outlines to maximise engagement.
- Script writing and templates: Create scripts quickly with premade templates for intros and outros.
- Video optimisation: Get tips on how to improve your video titles and descriptions for enhanced performance and discoverability.
- Thumbnail design: Easily create attention-grabbing thumbnails to boost your click-through rates.
TubeSpanner’s free plan includes 2 AI-generated scripts and 2 thumbnail designs per month, along with video title suggestions. This makes it an excellent free tool for NewTubers and anyone looking to improve their content.
Why YouTubers love it:
- Save time on content planning and scripting with AI-generated ideas.
- User-friendly interface makes it great for new YouTubers and experienced creators.
- Easily improve your video performance with optimisation suggestions tools.
Recording your content
Teleprompter Pro
Ever wonder how successful YouTubers manage to present long sections of their videos without making a mistake? Odds are they’re using a Teleprompter.
A free Teleprompter app can make a world of difference to your presentation skills. You won’t have to learn your script off by heart, and you’ll make fewer mistakes in your delivery, saving you time on recording and editing.
Teleprompter Pro is a free teleprompter app that you can download onto your phone or tablet. Here’s why every YouTuber should consider using it:
- Easily import your scripts: The app supports Word (iOS & iPadOS only), .txt, .rtf and .pdf formats.
- Customisable settings: Change the scroll speed and font size for more comfortable reading.
- In-app recording: Use your device’s built-in camera to record selfie videos as you read your script.
- Folders: Sort your scripts into folders to manage multiple projects at once.
OBS STUDIO
OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software) is a free open-source tool that’s great for recording high-quality videos and live streams, making it a favourite amongst gamers and other live performers.
And it’s not just streamers who can benefit from its many features. Its multicamera setups, webcam and screen recording capabilities make it perfect for recording vlogs, reaction videos, and video essays.
Here are some of the benefits OBS Studio can offer to YouTubers:
Recording videos
- Record screens: Record your screen(s) for software tutorials, streaming games, or reaction videos.
- Webcam: Record yourself with a webcam.
- Multi-camera setups: Combine multiple camera angles and video sources for more dynamic content.
Live streaming
- YouTube compatibility: Stream directly to YouTube for a seamless experience with more customisation options.
- Transitions and overlays: Use your own branded transitions, or take advantage of custom overlays and animations for chat, donations, and subscriber alerts.
- Custom layouts: Incorporate multiple elements into your live stream, including webcams, gameplay, and shared screens.
Edit while recording
- Switch between scenes like intros and outros at the click of a button.
Save your stream
- Save your live stream recording on your computer or device for repurposing into standalone videos.
Why YouTubers love it:
- Completely free, making it accessible for all budgets.
- Customisable to your channel’s branding.
- Supports plugins and extensions for even more features.
- Stream in 4K.
- Compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux, and can stream directly to YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook.
- Lots of community support is available for tutorials, troubleshooting, and plugin recommendations.
Editing your videos
Da Vinci Resolve
Da Vinci Resolve is one of the most popular editing programmes amongst YouTubers – and for good reason. Its advanced editing capabilities are hard to beat, even on the free version.
Here are some of the features included in Da Vinci Resolve:
- Basic and advanced editing capabilities: Trim clips, add transitions, and manage video timelines with the program’s intuitive interface.
- High-quality exports: Export videos in up to 4K resolution.
- Colour grading: Use professional colour-correcting features and built-in LUTS (filters) for consistent visuals.
- Visual effects: Add dynamic titles, transitions, animations, and graphics with customisable templates.
- Audio editing: Add audio effects and balance voice, music and sound effects for a professional mix.
- Project management: Organise videos into folders and timelines to manage multiple projects at once.
- Speed adjustment: Add slow-motion effects for a dramatic result or speed ramp clips for dynamic and engaging content.
- Handle large files: Process and edit large, high-quality video files that other editing program might struggle with.
Da Vinci Resolve’s advanced editing capabilities make it a great option for professional content creators, but that also means there’s a steep learning curve for new users. The program is also designed to cope with large, high-quality files, so it may run slowly on older computers or those low on memory. Lastly, the free version of Da Vinci Resolve also lacks some useful features, like noise reduction and HDR grading, which some YouTubers might consider essential.
If you’re looking for a simpler, more user-friendly program to edit lower-quality footage, we’ve listed some alternatives below.
Shotcut
Shotcut is an open-source video editing software that’s beginner-friendly, but still powerful enough to create professional content. It’s also completely free to use, making it great for creators with a lower budget.
Here’s how YouTubers can benefit from using Shotcut:
- Basic video editing: Shotcut offers all the basic editing features you can expect from a video editing software, such as trimming, splitting, and combining clips. The program also allows you to layer video and audio tracks.
- Ripple tracks: This handy feature automatically adjusts all future clips and audio together, so you can make edits quickly and easily.
- Visual effects and transitions: Easily add animations, graphic overlays, captions and transitions to your video.
- Colour correction: Basic colour grading tools allow you to enhance your visuals, and you can even apply LUTs (filters) for quick and consistent editing.
- Audio editing: Easily adjust volume levels, reduce noise, add audio effects, and record voiceovers directly within the program.
CapCut
CapCut currently dominates the mobile video editing space, with over 300 monthly active users. Its intuitive layout makes it very easy to use, even for absolute beginners. And although the app offers paid features, the free version generally has everything a creator needs to produce great videos.
CapCut also launched a web-based version of the app last year, allowing users to edit videos online. However, the free browser version has a storage limit of 1 GB, making CapCut better suited to making YouTube shorts than long-form videos overall.
Here’s what you can expect from the free version of CapCut:
- Lots of editing functionality: Easily edit your projects with the app’s user-friendly interface. Add overlays, effects, and filters, and even change your project’s aspect ratio in one click for posting on different platforms.
- Easy audio mixing: Quickly record voiceovers within the app, and add music or sound effects from CapCut’s sound library, or import your own.
- CapCut templates: Hop on trending memes or quickly put together an aesthetic edit with 1000s of free, user-generated templates.
- Autocaptions: CapCut can automatically generate captions for your entire video – pulled from your voiceover or clips.
- Autosave: The app automatically saves your project with every change, so you don’t need to panic if it crashes.
Making video graphics and thumbnails
Canva
Canva is a versatile graphic design platform that lets users create all kinds of designs quickly and easily, from YouTube profile banners to thumbnails. Its intuitive interface makes it easy to use, even for complete beginners – that’s one of the reasons it has racked up over 130 million active users.
Although the paid version of Canva offers exclusive features and elements, the free plan has everything a YouTuber needs to create scroll-stopping thumbnails, profile banners, and custom graphics.
With thousands of design templates to choose from and customise, and a large bank of stock images and videos, Canva is one of the go-to graphic design apps for YouTubers.
Why YouTubers love it:
- Cloud-based storage allows you to edit projects across multiple devices
- Unbeatable on user-friendliness
- 10,000s of customisable templates
- A great resource for stock images and videos
- Can be used as an app or website
Paint.Net
Paint.Net is an image and photo editing software that’s loved by YouTubers for its intuitive interface and ease of use. With features like layering and special effects, it’s perfect for creating eye-catching thumbnails for your videos. It’s also completely free to use, and its large community means there are lots of helpful tutorials and plugins to help you get the most out of the program.
Why YouTubers love it:
- Super easy to use
- Runs fast on almost every device
- Basic and advanced image editing features
- Large community for support and tutorials
- Supports plugins for added functionality
Adobe Express free background remover
You’ll notice that many of the top-performing YouTube videos will have used some form of background removal in their thumbnails. And while background removal is possible with programs like Paint.Net and Canva, it’s either a paid feature or a somewhat time-consuming process.
Luckily, Adobe Express offers a free browser-based background removal tool. Simply drag and drop your image into the tool and the software will detect the subject and remove the background, allowing you to download the result.
Sourcing images and videos
Pexels
Pexels is an online library containing millions of free-to-use images and videos, making it perfect for sourcing thumbnail images and b-roll clips. Users can easily search for a subject or theme, and get thousands of results in an instant. The best thing? There’s no download limit!
Why YouTubers love it:
- Download millions of copyright-free images and videos
- No download limit
Dall-E Free
If you can’t find what you’re looking for on stock image sites, you can make your own with Dall-E Free – an AI image generator that turns your ideas into pictures.
Dall-E Free is super easy to use – just describe the image you’d like to see and it will generate a result within seconds. And because you technically create the images you make with Dall-E Free, you also own the rights to them. It’s the perfect option for creating scroll-stopping thumbnails and eye-catching graphics for your YouTube videos.
Why YouTubers love it:
- Generate completely unique images
- You own the rights to the content you create
Sourcing sound effects and music
Pixabay
Pixabay is a stock content library containing millions of images, music tracks, and sound effects. With thousands of options available to download for free, it’s easy to find the right sounds to elevate your videos. Plus, all content on Pixabay is royalty-free, so you don’t have to worry about copyright infringements getting in the way of video monetisation.
Why YouTubers love it:
- Over 10,000 sound effects and music tracks
- All audio files are copyright-free
- Browse and search for specific sounds and themes
Video optimisation
TubeBuddy (Mobile)
TubeBuddy is a YouTube optimisation software that helps creators maximise views and engagement through helpful analytics and SEO suggestions. Many YouTubers consider it an essential part of their growth toolkit, as its recommendations can yield dramatic results.
Although TubeBuddy’s paid plans offer more features, its scaled-down mobile app is completely free while still providing lots of value. With a focus on features YouTubers would want to access on the go, here’s what TubeBuddy Mobile offers:
- Live subscriber count
- Tag explorer
- Comment filtering
- Canned responses
- Channel milestones
- Tag rankings
- Suggested tags
- Commenter subscriber counts
- Video topic planner
- Tag list management
Why YouTubers love it:
- Easy to use
- Real-time analytics
- Provides useful SEO suggestions