The Ultimate List of Video Tools

Thirty years ago, you couldn’t make a professional video unless you had a big budget, a big crew, and years of production expertise. Today, it’s way different. There are hundreds of accessible, affordable video tools to help anyone—regardless of their production experience—quickly create a professional video. Using just your phone, you can film an entire movie!

We’ve rounded up the best video tools to cover every area of production, from video sizing to music scoring. Whether you’re making your first or hundredth video, this guide includes a variety of tools you can use to put together a high-quality, engaging video.

Every tool on this list has been tested and approved by Vyond customers and/or members of our team. Click to jump to each section:

Please note: this post includes two affiliate links and Vyond will earn a commission if you make a purchase.

Audio Editing

A video occasionally has complex audio needs—multitrack mixing, de-noising—that a standard video editor isn’t equipped to handle. If you need to make advanced adjustments to your audio files, edit them separately using one of these audio-specific editing tools.

Cost: Free

Experience level: Intermediate

Core features: Audio recording, basic audio editing features, audio clip analysis, support for plugins, open-source

Cost: $29.99

Experience level: Beginner

Core features: Audio editing, music composition with instrument and drum parts, adaptive audio parts, effects, multi-track recording

Cost: $20.99/month

Experience level: Advanced

Core features: Recording, editing, and mixing audio (including multitrack sessions), waveform and multitrack modes

Cost: Free (for Mac)

Experience level: Intermediate

Core features: Audio editing and recording, a sound library for instrumental composing, audio effects

Closed Captions

Uncaptioned videos exclude a number of disabled audiences, including viewers who are deaf, hard of hearing, or autistic. Along with disabled audiences, there are also viewers who would prefer to watch a video with captions instead of listening to audio. Make your video more accessible by using one of the following closed caption services.

Cost: Free

Description: Automatic captioning; sometimes inaccurate, but you can edit for incorrect parts and download the corrected file to use in other locations.

Cost: $2.50/minute

Description: 99% accuracy, wait time is 4 business days (or $4/minute for one-day), need Wistia account

Cost: $1.25/minute

Description: 24 hour turnaround time, 99% accuracy

Cost: Free

Description: Free captioning and subtitling platform to create your own captions. Amara also offers quality translations at a cost.

Cost: $1.04/min

Description: Offers a 6 hour turnaround time.

Cost: Custom

Description: If your needs are more custom and likely to be recursive, 3Play Media might be your solution. They offer plans in up to 16 languages on their premier plan, and their pricing quotes are bespoke.

Equipment

Though you can make an entire video with just a computer, many professional videos involve additional equipment. Our pro tip: consider renting expensive equipment—such as lenses; they’re constantly being updated and quickly lose value. Here are a number of sites to buy or rent different types of equipment for video production.

B&H and Adorama are two of the most popular and well-respected sites for professional photography and video equipment.

Hosting

Once your video is created, you need a host—a place where the video will live. It’s better to find a hosting service than to use your own site as a host: Video files are large, so they will take up a lot of space on your server bandwidth and possibly cause viewing glitches. We’ve highlighted a number of video-hosting sites to help you find one that fits your needs, whether you’re looking for a free option or a more premium tool with reporting.

Cost: Free

Description: Receives lots of traffic, plays ads with videos, limited customization options for the video player

Cost: Free to $99/month

Description: Customizable player, simple embedding and sharing, advanced video analytics, software integrations, and much more. Vyond has used Wistia since 2011.

Cost: Starting at $199/month

Description: High-quality playback, client-side interactivity, lead capture and conversion tools, viewer analytics, and much more. Vyond has a partnership with Brightcove.

Cost: Custom

Description: Customizable player, simple embedding and sharing, advanced video analytics, integrations with other software, and video personalization campaign options. Vyond has a partnership with Vidyard.

Cost: Freemium. $7/month to $75/month

Description: Player customization, no ads, video analytics, and quick customer support. Vimeo was originally a place designated for creatives to share their work. While that’s still at the heart of Vimeo’s mission, they have greatly grown their business offerings recently to mirror other professional hosting services: teams, security features, live streaming, galleries, portfolio sites, review and approval tools, marketing integrations, custom calls-to-action, and more.

Cost: Starting at $49/month

Description: A full suite of video marketing tools including lead capture, video SEO, social sharing, and more. The ability to design and publish a video portfolio, secure portal, or marketing site. SproutVideo allows you to develop your own solutions with a platform API or a Javascript Player API, and their embeddable player is customizable, which allows you to generate responsive embeds, email embeds, or a lightbox embed.

Miscellaneous

HandBrake

Cost: Free

Features: Compress your video file to save space, and more

Music Libraries

Music builds an emotional connection with viewers, directing their feelings as they watch your video. Whether you need strings to emphasize a dramatic moment or you want a lighthearted tune for a happy explainer video, we’ve gathered a number of music libraries to help you find the right tracks for your video.

Cost: Varies by track

Description: Over 800,000 tracks and songs, free music, and sound engineering tutorials

Cost: Varies by track

Description: Royalty-free music, search by genre or mood, limited editing availability

Cost: $199/year

Description: Royalty-free music library; unlimited use, commercial or non-commercial, for a single yearly price (This is what we use at Vyond to supplement our music library)

Cost: $49.89/year to $99.89/year

Description: Royalty-free library of background music; the ability to adjust the momentum, depth, and power of each clip

Cost: $299/year (Essential plan), $649/year (Premium plan), $999/year (Professional plan)

Description: Video editor for animated videos; comes with a library of up to 100 royalty-free songs available to use on Vyond videos only

Production Resources

It’s never been easier to learn about video production. The internet is full of blogs, tutorial videos, podcasts, and more that cover everything you need to know about filming and editing videos. We’ve highlighted the top production resources that our video producers have found most helpful over the years.

Lynda

Lynda, an online course site, offers 642 courses for learning about video production.

Iconlogic

IconLogic, an online training site, offers several courses on creating videos with Adobe Premiere and Vyond.

NoFilmSchool.com

NoFilmSchool.com is a professionally curated website full of video production knowledge. The comments section on each post holds an active community discussion around each topic.

Vyond’s Help Center Library

For Vyond customers, our help center library covers every aspect of video making in Vyond Studio. The resources section of our site shares video knowledge for learning and development experts, marketers, HR professionals, small businesses and sales teams.

Screen-Recording Tools

Screen-recording tools, as you might have guessed, capture the contents of a screen. With this “footage,” it’s easy to explain how to complete a task on a computer, phone, or tablet. Whether you’re creating a demo for a software product or an educational tutorial, screen-recording tools are a valuable video resource.

Cost: $249.00/user license

Experience level: Intermediate

Core features: Offers a variety of capture tools with additional editing features

Cost: Freemium to $300/year

Experience level: Beginner

Core features: Screen recording, webcam recording, view switching, built-in transitions, link sharing

Cost: Free

Experience level: Beginner

Core features: Screen recording, webcam recording, built-in transitions, link sharing

Cost: Free (comes with Macs)

Experience level: Beginner

Core features: Screen recording

Cost: Free

Experience level: Beginner

Core features: Screen recording and webcam recording

Cost: Free

Experience level: Beginner

Core features: Screen recording and webcam recording

Stock Video Footage

Some video projects—such as social media videos—are created on a tight schedule, with little time for filming. In that case, stock video footage is a great alternative to filming on your own. We’ve highlighted several sites that make it easy to find stock footage with clear categorization and powerful search engines. Stock video can be imported into Vyond and combined with animation.

Cost: Unlimited download plans ranging from $25 – $50/mo

Core features: Artgrid focuses on providing a simplified licensing experience for high-quality video footage from today’s best cameras.

Cost: Starting at $29/month for photos and $79/HD video clip

Core features: 247 million images available with 150,000 added each day, one of the largest libraries of stock video available.

Discount: Vyond customers get 10% off their first purchase with code VYOND10

Cost: $79.99/HD video, $199.99/4K video

Core features: Royalty-free HD and 4K videos in multiple categories, including lifestyle and sports

Cost: $16.50/month for unlimited downloads

Core features: Over 92K stock videos and motion graphics, search by resolution and frame rate

Cost: Free

Core features: Over 12,000 free stock videos and motion graphics—no sign up required. Most downloads are royalty-free and some require a Videvo Attribution License.

Cost: Free

Core features: Library of high-quality stock footage with easy search function

Cost: Free

Core features: HD and 4K stock footage in multiple categories, such as nature and travel videos

Cost: Starting at $10/photo and $29/HD video

Core features: A popular site for professional videographers with over 2.5 million stock photos and videos

Translation and Localization

There are a number of ways to make your video available to watch in different languages. The simplest solution is using a translation service to write subtitles in your international audiences’ languages. For a more immersive viewing experience, use a localization service to record your narration and dialogue in a different language and with some, even adjust the lip-synching to match the new speakers.

Cost: Get a quote

Description: Professional translation and localization in one centralized location. InWhatLanguage helps save you time and money by leveraging phrases stored in translation memory.

Cost: Request quote

Description: Hires voiceover talent to re-record dialogue and narration in other languages, subtitle creation

Cost: Get a quote

Description: Records voiceover talent; film editing to adjust timing and lip synchronization

Cost: Get a quote

Description: Professional translation service

Video authoring (eLearning course creation)

E-learning professionals don’t need a background in production to create video course content. There are plenty of simple, user-friendly learning management systems available that make video-course creation easy for all types of users. Here are a few options to help e-learning professionals get started with video-course creation.

Cost: Starting at $2,595

Description: Learning interactivity features for videos, course templates, video and audio recorder, and editor, Camtasia for screen recording

Cost: Starting at $499/year

Description: Content library of 3 million+ course assets (templates, videos, icons and more), includes authoring apps Storyline 360 and Rise

Cost: $29.99/month

Description: Interactive learning features, 360 video support, HD screen, and webcam recording, mobile course creation

Cost: Varies

Description: Interactive video editing (add chapters, quizzes, links, etc), video analytics

Cost: $708+/year

Description: Interactive editing (hotspots, in-video navigation, camera switching, branching, etc.)

Cost: Varies

Description: Create playable branching scenarios, compatible with Storyline 360, Lectora and Captivate

Video Editing

It doesn’t matter how incredible your footage is—if your video isn’t edited well, it’s not going to look polished. To help you turn your video into a finished product, we’ve highlighted a wide range of editing tools for beginners and seasoned filmmakers alike.

Cost: $20.99/month

Experience level: Intermediate to advanced

Core features: Color grading, intelligent audio cleanup, edit vector graphics, Motion Graphics templates, team collaboration

Reviews: SoftwareHow

Cost: $299.99

Experience level: Intermediate

Core features: 360-degree VR editing, video noise reduction, timecode window,multi-cam editing, motion graphics templates

Cost: Free with a Mac

Experience level: Beginner

Core features: Animated titles, special effects, 10 filters, built-in sound effects and soundtracks, voiceover recording

Cost: Free app or $299 for the pro version

Experience level: intermediate to professional

Core features: Even the free version includes a powerful video editor with professional coloring tools, an audio editor, motion graphics, 3D animation tools, and more.

Cost: $299.00

Experience level: Advanced

Core features: 360 editing, motion tracking, proxy editing, smart upscaling, multicam editing

Reviews: SoftwareHow

Cost: $63.99

Experience level: Beginner

Core features: Split screen video templates, lens correction, 360 video editing, stop motion animation, 3D title editor

Reviews: SoftwareHow

Cost: $299/year (Essential plan), $649/year (Premium plan), $999/year (Professional plan)

Experience level: Beginner

Core features: Drag-and-drop animation editor, animated templates, character creator, props, music library

Reviews: G2Crowd, SoftwareHow

Voiceovers

Professional voiceover recordings take a narrated video to the next level. A trained actor will bring emotion and depth to your video content. Not to mention, a professional voiceover will have a polished sound quality that lends credibility to your video. We’ve highlighted a number of online markets for voiceover talent, so you can easily find a trained actor to narrate your video.

Cost: Varies by actor

Description: Average turnaround time of 6 hours, quality screening

Cost: Varies by actor

Description: Delivery typically 24 hours or less, free revisions

Cost: Varies by actor (pricing estimator)

Description: Free audition process, hire in one click

Learn more about adding voiceovers to your video with our resource, “How to Add High-Quality Voice-Overs to Your Video.”

Create professional videos with the right set of tools

From editing software to closed-captioning services, there are numerous video-creation tools available to everyone, regardless of their production experience. Using this guide, you can find tools that match your experience level, fit your budget and have the features you need to make a professional, high-quality video.

Free Trial