Pitivi Review, Pricing & Features

Pitivi is a free, open-source video editor for Linux built on GStreamer. Explore its features, pricing, and alternatives like Kdenlive and Shotcut.

Category
Video Editing
Pricing
Open Source, from Free
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 19, 2026
Founded
2003
Headquarters
Not publicly disclosed (distributed open-source project, historically supported by Collabora)
Open Source

Overview

Pitivi began in December 2003 as a student project by Edward Hervey at the EPITECH engineering school in Paris, and grew into a full non-linear video editor for Linux tightly integrated with the GNOME desktop and the GStreamer multimedia framework.

Pitivi has no owning company; it is developed by a volunteer open-source community, historically supported by Collabora's Multimedia division and the nonprofit Pitivi Foundation, and funded through donations and community infrastructure rather than commercial sales.

Key Features

Pitivi offers a multi-track timeline for cutting, trimming, and arranging clips, along with transitions, an effects library, and waveform-based audio alignment, all built on GStreamer's editing services for import, playback, and rendering.

Because it inherits GStreamer's codec and container support, Pitivi was the first open-source video editor to support the Material Exchange Format (MXF), and recent releases have added object tracking and beat detection to help editors align cuts to music.

Pricing

Pitivi is completely free, licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), with no paid tiers, subscriptions, or watermarks of any kind.

The project accepts voluntary donations to fund ongoing development, and has historically benefited from corporate sponsorship (notably from Collabora) and periodic participation in programs like Google Summer of Code.

Key Features

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Completely free with no subscriptions, watermarks, or paid tiers
  • Open-source and auditable under the LGPL license
  • Deep GStreamer integration gives broad codec and container support
  • Clean, GNOME-native interface that is straightforward to learn
  • No vendor lock-in since projects and the software itself remain fully open
  • Long project history dating back to 2003 with continued community development

Cons

  • Linux-focused, with no official native macOS or Windows builds
  • Smaller feature set and contributor base than Kdenlive, its closest open-source rival
  • Development pace depends on volunteer and sponsor availability rather than a dedicated commercial team
  • Historically has had stability and polish issues, which led Ubuntu to drop it as the default editor in 2011
  • Less suited to complex, professional post-production work than paid tools like DaVinci Resolve Studio or Adobe Premiere Pro
  • Documentation and tutorials are less extensive than for more mainstream editors

Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Pitivi

Pitivi is a free, open-source, non-linear video editor for Linux built on the GStreamer multimedia framework and closely tied to the GNOME desktop project.

Is Pitivi free

Yes, Pitivi is completely free and open source under the GNU Lesser General Public License, with no paid tiers or subscriptions.

Who created Pitivi

Pitivi was started in December 2003 by French developer Edward Hervey as an end-of-studies project at the EPITECH engineering school in Paris.

Does Pitivi run on Windows or macOS

Pitivi is built primarily for Linux; it does not have official native Windows or macOS builds in the way mainstream commercial editors do.

What is Pitivi built on

Pitivi is built on the GStreamer multimedia framework and its GStreamer Editing Services (GES) libraries, which handle media import, editing, and rendering.

Was Pitivi ever the default video editor on Ubuntu

Yes, Pitivi was the default video editor bundled with Ubuntu starting with Ubuntu 10.04 in 2010, but it was removed from the default Ubuntu ISO starting with Ubuntu 11.10 in 2011.

How is Pitivi funded

Pitivi is funded through community donations, historical corporate sponsorship from Collabora, and periodic participation in programs like Google Summer of Code, rather than commercial sales.

What are alternatives to Pitivi

Common open-source alternatives include Kdenlive, Shotcut, and OpenShot, while DaVinci Resolve's free tier is a common proprietary comparison.

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