HandBrake is a free open source video converter for Windows, Mac and Linux. Read our 2026 review of features, formats supported, pros, cons and alternatives.
Researched and fact-checked by Bartu Cavusoglu · Updated July 18, 2026
HandBrake is a free, open source video transcoder that converts video from nearly any format into modern codecs such as H.264, H.265, AV1 and VP9, distributed under the GPLv2 license and available on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Originally created in 2003 by Eric Petit for BeOS, HandBrake was later revived and extended by community developers who added H.264 support, reaching its first stable 1.0.0 release in December 2016 after more than a decade of volunteer-driven development.
HandBrake accepts nearly any video source as input and offers device-specific presets, a batch queue for converting multiple files, and a filter chain for deinterlacing, denoising, cropping and scaling.
Hardware-accelerated encoding via Apple VideoToolbox, Intel Quick Sync and NVIDIA NVENC speeds up conversion, while a separate command-line interface, HandBrakeCLI, supports scripting and automated batch workflows.
HandBrake is completely free to download and use, with no paid tiers, subscriptions, watermarks or feature restrictions.
As a volunteer-maintained open source project, it relies on donations rather than sales, and its source code is publicly available on GitHub for anyone to inspect or modify.
Yes, HandBrake is completely free and open source, with no paid tiers, subscriptions or feature restrictions.
HandBrake accepts nearly any common video source as input and can output to modern codecs including H.264, H.265, AV1, VP8 and VP9, typically wrapped in MP4 or MKV containers.
Yes, HandBrake runs natively on Windows, macOS and Linux.
HandBrake does not include DVD or Blu-ray decryption logic by default to remain legally distributable, so encrypted discs typically require a separate library such as libdvdcss.
Yes, HandBrakeCLI is a separate command-line interface that supports scripting and automated batch video conversion.
HandBrake is maintained by volunteer open source contributors rather than a company, with development ongoing on GitHub since the project's creation in 2003.