The 8 Best Video Stabilization Software Options in 2024 Free & Paid

As a video content creator or professional video editor, you know the importance of delivering high-quality content to your clients. Video has become the most popular form of content on the internet, ranging from industry-quality short films on Vimeo to homemade videos on TikTok.

However, shaky footage can ruin the viewer's experience and make them feel motion sickness. Not everyone can afford professional equipment or DIY stabilizers, making video stabilizer software an essential tool for any video editor.

In this article, I have reviewed eight of the best video stabilizer software options available to help you fix shaky footage and deliver smooth and stable video content to your audience.

Let’s dive in!

What is Video Stabilization?

Video Stabilization is a type of video processing technique that reduces the movement from shaky videos and makes them smoother and more comfortable to watch. The stabilization process is featured in many video stabilizer software used by content creators, video editing enthusiasts, and professionals in filmmaking and television to fix shaky videos. Stabilization can also be used for creative purposes in films and commercials, as in this Beats Commercial.

Stabilization works by analyzing the shaky footage to understand the camera movement and then transforming the shaky video to compensate for the camera movement with scale, translation, and crop options frame by frame.

8 Best Video Stabilization Software Options in 2024

I picked the best video stabilization software options by focusing on ease of use, system compatibility, features, free trials, and other key features in mind. You’ll find options for all types of video editors, from professional filmmakers to starting video editors.

1. Boris FX Mocha Pro

   Mocha Pro is an academy-award winning planar motion tracker and masking standalone app and plug-in available for Mac and Windows computers. The plug-in version can be used inside Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Avid Media Composer, Nuke, DaVinci Resolve, and more. Its best features include planar tracking, image stabilization, rotoscoping, object removal, and PowerMesh organic warp tracking.

   

   Mocha Pro features four advanced modules:

   The Remove module allows you to remove unwanted elements like wires, tracking markers, etc. more easily without using time-consuming cloning techniques.

   The Insert module helps with match move and screen inserts.

   The Lens module provides tools to calibrate, match, or remove lens distortion from your videos.

   The Stabilize module locks down camera motion to stabilize or create object motion.

   Mocha Pro is among the best video stabilization software available due to its Stabilization module. With this module, you can stabilize video with camera motion easily based on tracking layers. Mocha Pro allows you to render the stabilized video or export stabilization tracking data.

   The Stabilization module in Mocha Pro features different options to use fixed frames or smooth the stabilization, adjust the borders and edges of the stabilized video with crop, scale, and zoom options, or use auto-fill to grab nearby pixels.

   Mocha Pro’s license can be purchased permanently or monthly. The prices vary depending on the chosen host. A free trial is available if you wish to test its stabilization features.

   Pros:

   • Easy to use planar tracking.

   • Versatile standalone and plug-in versions.

   • You can export stabilization data for multiple hosts.

   • Tutorials available.

   • Mocha Pro supports 360° video footage.

   • Free trial.

   Cons:

   • The interface can look complex for complete beginners.

   • It has a learning curve.

2. Boris FX Continuum: Optical Stabilizer

   The Optical Stabilizer is a premium filter from the Continuum plug-in suite from Boris FX that allows you to stabilize shaky videos recorded with motion, a handheld camera, or a mobile phone. You can apply the optical stabilizer effect to your shaky footage within any supported host, which includes Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, VEGAS Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, and After Effects.

   

   Optical Stabilizer uses optical flow to analyze each frame in the original shaky video clip and identify the camera movement. With this information, Optical Stabilizer adjusts the shaky video clip's position, rotation, and scale to reduce the camera movements.

   Optical Stabilizer features post-image stabilization settings to fill the edges of the shaky footage with solid color, transparency, repeating pixels, reflect and tile, and eliminates the empty black areas caused by the video stabilization software.

   There are three purchase options for Continuum Optical Stabilizer. One is buying the Continuum Suite with more than 300 visual effects plug-ins, image processing, keying, and other composition effects. The second option is the Continuum Image Restoration Unit ($199), which includes Optical Stabilizer plus more tools to make visual corrections like flickering footage, digital makeup, noise reduction, and more. The last option is buying the standalone Optical Stabilizer plug-in for all supported hosts for $99.

   Pros:

   • You can use it with the video editing program you already have plus other host apps with a single license.

   • Multiple stabilization modes.

   • Easy to use.

   • Customizable settings.

   • Free trial.

   Cons:

   • You require video editing software host to use Optical Stabilizer. However, it does work with the free version of DaVinci Resolve.

3. Adobe Premiere Pro Warp Stabilizer

   Premiere Pro is a popular video stabilization software for video editors and content creators. Windows and Mac users can download Premiere Pro. It provides industry-standard tools, AI features to streamline your work, and hundreds of built-in effects and transitions.

   

   Premiere Pro allows you to fix shaky footage from GoPro, drones, smartphones, and handheld cameras, making it more enjoyable to watch with just a few clicks with their Warp Stabilizer Effect. Warp Stabilizer smooths the unwanted camera movement with precision.

   Warp Stabilizer auto-analyzes the clip and uses tracking data points in the frame to decide how to stabilize the shaky video. It will usually apply the best settings for the video footage. Premiere Pro allows you to adjust Warp Stabilizer settings if the video looks wobbly or the edges are lost.

   Adobe Premiere Pro is a subscription for $34.99 monthly, $22.99 monthly for 12 months, or prepay $263.88 for one year. Premiere Pro is also included with other Adobe Cloud applications in the Creative Cloud All Apps subscription for $60 monthly.

   Pros:

   • Simple and intuitive interface.

   • Easy to apply like a regular effect.

   Cons:

   • It’s very demanding on memory and can make Premiere Pro work slower when processing a shaky video.

4. Final Cut Pro Video Stabilizer

   Final Cut Pro is a professional post-production and video stabilization software exclusive to Mac devices. Final Cut Pro features video and audio editing, motion graphics, color grading, and stabilization tools.

   

   The video stabilizer feature in Final Cut Pro minimizes camera movement in your shaky video to improve its quality by making it smoother. It analyzes shaky footage and applies the best stabilization settings automatically. You can also enable it to reduce rolling shutter distortion. If you’re unhappy with the auto-stabilizing results, you can adjust the Stabilization method, translation, rotation, and scale smoothness in the inspector.

   The stabilization feature in Final Cut Pro works best with isolated sections from shaky video because it analyses pixels frame by frame to identify the camera's motion. You must cut the shaky video clip to make the stabilization process faster.

   Final Cut Pro is $299.99 and is only available as a one-time payment for the license. A free trial is available to try the stabilization and other video editing tools for 30 days.

   Pros:

   • Fast nonlinear video editor.

   • Optimized for M1.

   • It supports RAW files and 360° video footage.

   • Compatible with iMovie.

   • Free trial.

   Cons:

   • It’s only available on Mac systems.

   • There are no subscription options.

5. DaVinci Resolve Stablization Tool

   DaVinci Resolve is a powerful and industry-standard video editor with excellent video stabilization software. It features an all-inclusive post-production tools for advanced color grading, video editing, visual effects, motion graphics, and audio post-production. There's also a sleek and friendly user interface that’s easy to learn and suitable for beginners.

   

   DaVinci Resolve's built-in stabilization tool features three stabilization modes depending on the type of shaky footage you want to fix. The three modes are Perspective, Similarity, and Translation. The first two analyze the video's pan, tilt, zoom, and rotation to maintain the original perspective. The third option works best when the unwanted movement occurs on the x and y-axis. You can also stabilize with Zoom to remove black edges and Camera lock.

   The stabilization process is quick and automatic, but you can adjust settings to apply the best stabilization for your shaky video.

   DaVinci Resolve is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux systems in two versions. The standard is free to use, with most of the video editing and composition tools you would need for content creation and filmmaking. The Studio version is $295 and has more powerful tools, AI tracking, stereoscopic tools, and more effects for Fusion and Fairlight.

   Pros:

   • Free.

   • It has one of the best color grading tools.

   • Easy to use stabilization modes.

   Cons:

   • It requires a lot of power from your computer.

   • The learning curve is high.

   • More powerful features are only available in the Studio version.

6. Pinnacle Studio Stabilize

   Pinnacle Studio is friendly video editing software with advanced video editing tools, cinema-grade effects, and unmatched keyframing precision. Among its features are video stabilization tools to remove camera motion from sports videos and handle unstable camera footage.

   

   Pinnacle Studio stabilization uses presets to fix shakiness, allowing you to choose a setting to fill the outer areas of the clip that were cropped with the stabilization tool, delivering high-quality video footage.

   Pinnacle Studio is only available for Windows systems with a one-time payment of $59.99. A Studio Premium version with advanced features is available for $129.99. Both versions offer a 15-day trial.

   Pros:

   • Intuitive interface.

   • Stabilization presets.

   • Free trial.

   Cons:

   • It is not available for Mac.

   • You can find better alternatives with more features.

7. Shotcut

   Shotcut is a free, open-source, cross-platform video editing software supporting multiple audio and video formats. The Shotcut interface is simple and customizable: you can move the panels and arrange them how you want to adjust to the workflow you’re used to. Shotcut may look very basic, but this video editing software has more features than meets the eye.

   

   Shotcut features video effects such as chroma key, blur, blend modes, noise reduction, color grading, film grain, masking, stabilization, motion tracking, 360° video support, keyframing, and more. It also features audio editing with compression, EQ, and reverb.

   Shotcut can be complicated to navigate and can get lost the first time. Thankfully, their website offers video tutorials to get you started, but you may end up looking for answers on YouTube more than you’d like.

   Pros:

   • It supports an array of audio, video, and image formats.

   • Free.

   • 360° stabilization.

   • Video tutorials available.

   Cons:

   • It has a steep learning curve.

   • It looks outdated.

8. AVS Video Editor

   AVS Video Editor with video stabilizer software whose user interface resembles Windows Movie Maker. Anyone can create good-quality videos and quickly edit videos in it. AVD Video Editor does not have as many features as other video editing software but offers basic recording, trimming, cut, and stabilization while supporting HD, Full HD, 2K, and 4K Ultra resolutions.

   

   It's a good option for quick stabilization fixes, but it does have some performance issues, according to users.

   AVS Video Editor is only available for Windows for $149.00 for one year or the Unlimited version for $279.

   Pros:

   • Easy to use

   • Free trial with watermark.

   Cons:

   • Occasional stability error.

   • Subscription plans are confusing.

Video Stabilizer Software Comparison Chart

Here's a chart of the best video stabilizer software. I've collected information from all the most powerful video editing software and highlighted how they can help you stabilize your video footage, as well as their cost.