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10 Best Video Converters for Windows 10 That You Can't Miss

This is a review and comparison of best video converters for Windows 10 with features, pros and cons, pricing and suitable group. Just select the best fit free or paid video converter to convert any videos easily and quickly on Windows 10.

Despite Microsoft launched Windows 11 in October 2021, Windows 10 is still the market leader, about 75% of total desktop Windows version market share worldwide, according to GlobalStats Statcounter. This means about 75% Windows users are stuck in a circle of video converting issues as Microsoft doesn't have built-in video converter in Windows 10. Users have to fall back on third-party Windows 10 video converters for smooth video playback, uploading, sharing and editing. To this end, we've picked out best 10 video converters for Windows 10 to convert any videos to or from MP4, MKV, AVI, HEVC, VP9 and more.

1. WinX Video Converter

Pricing: Free and Premium (It starts at $19.9/Year currently.)
Best for: anyone who wants convert a short video for free.

WinX is one of the best free video converters that's fully compatible with Windows 10/8/7, including the latest Windows 11. It allows you to convert any video format like MKV to MP4, MP4 to AVI, AVI to MOV, MKV to H.264, VOB to MPG, HEVC to H.264 etc. with 100% success rate. Plus, it can also reduce 4K/HD video file size greatly but no quality loss by adjusting parameters, and make basic editings like trim, crop, merge and add subtitles etc.

Free Download for Win 7 or later
Free Download for Mac OS X 10.6 or later

More than 9,000,000 users have downloaded it since 2010

WinX is an excellent tool for encoding clips and we highly recommend it to all user levels. - Elena Opris from SOFTPEDIA

Best Free Video Converter Windows 10 - WinX
Best Free Video Converter Windows 10 - WinX

Pros:

  • Convert any video to 420+ output profiles support. No crashing error on halfway.
  • Super fast conversion speed with Intel/NVIDIA/AMD hardware acceleration support.
  • Best output audio/video quality reserved.
  • 100% clean and safe without any adware, malware or harmful plug-ins and virus.
  • A professional 4k converter skilled in processing 4K and oversized video easily and fast.

Cons:

  • Editing feature is really basic.
  • The free version has a 5 minutes limit for the output video.

2. HandBrake

Pricing: Free
Best for: Small studios and freelancers.

HandBrake is a widely used royalty-free DVD/video converter for multi-platforms available to convert video to MP4(m4v), MKV, H.264(x264), HEVC(x265), MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 (libav). And you can also directly convert 4K/HD/SD videos to specific devices like iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, Android, Windows Mobile etc. >> Learn More about How to use Handbrake on Windows

free open source Windows 10 video converter
Top free Windows 10 video converter - HandBrake

Pros:

  • Free and open source, no ads or upsells.
  • Lots of options for video editing.
  • Support to convert DVD discs to video.

Cons:

  • Limited output video format.
  • The interface is not intuitive enough, a learning curve is required for novice.
  • Slow video conversion speed.

3. VLC Media Player

Pricing: Free
Best for: Small studios and freelancers.

VLC is more widely known in the form of media player. But when you have trouble on playing your video on VLC, it can also help you convert video formats to make it playable. It works great for most formats and codecs even though there are a few issues and the conversion feature is not the best. But it still works for most of us. Using it, we can easily swap video types.

VLC convert video windows 10
VLC convert video windows 10

Pros:

  • Ease-to-use, simple and straightforward.
  • Runs on all platforms - Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, iOS, Android ...
  • Completely free - no spyware, no ads and no user tracking

Cons:

  • Limited output video format.
  • It does not have enough editing features.
  • It is hard to find the output formats.

4. Freemake Video Converter

Pricing: Free and Premium ($39.95 per month for premium monthly subscription)
Best for: Freelancers, and home video editing.

Freemake has been the most popular free file converter in the past decade owing to its versatility. It supports to convert video and movies between 500+ formats and gadgets for free. Also you can use it to edit video, burn video to DVD, share video to YouTube, extract audio from video clips and make photo slideshows.

Free Windows 10 compatible video converter - Freemake Video Converter
Free Windows video converter - Freemake Video Converter

Pros:

  • Wide range of preset profiles, up to 500+ formats.
  • Support to convert DVDs, and even burn videos to DVD.
  • High quality and fast speed with paid version.

Cons:

  • Free version is unavailable, with large watermarks on the output video. Click to check other video converters without watermark for help.
  • Not support to HEVC video conversion.
  • It crashes sometimes during the video conversion.

5. Any Video Converter

Pricing: Free and Ultimate ($49.95)
Best for: Commercial ad studios, freelancers, and home video editing.

Any Video Converter is a good video transcoder working with Windows 10 for years. A quite number of free video converters for PC Windows 10 catch your eyeball with overblown hype, which could not happen on Any Video Converter Free. This application does what it claims: free convert video to MP4, MKV, AVI, WMV, DVD, and does it quite well on Windows 10. Of course, it also leaves some to be desired.

Any Video Converter Free
Free Windows 10 video converter - AVC

Pros:

  • Support a wide library of input and output formats.
  • Allow you to customize your footage on Win 10, like trim, crop, adjust settings, add effects to video.

    Cons:

  • Some output files are problematic, including audio video out of sync, improper aspect ratio, fragmentary video playback.
  • Conversion is slow compared to our top pick. Only NVENC accelerated encoding supported, accelerated decoding unsupported.
  • Long time consumed for loading 4K videos now and then.
  • Confusing interface, hard to access to edit and parameter features.

6. Movavi Video Converter

Pricing: Free and Platinum
Best for: Users who want an easy-to-use software with useful features.

Movavi Video Converter is a good way to start for converting videos on Windows 10 with its 7-day trial version. It supports more than 180 different formats, enabling you to convert videos from one format to another randomly, such as AVI to MP4, MKV to MOV, and more. If you feel good with this program, you can upgrade to premium to unlock the full features permanently. Moreover, Movavi is available to compress video files without losing quality and edit videos basically such as trim, crop, add subtitle etc.

Movavi video converter for windows 10
Movavi video converter for windows 10

Pros:

  • Easy-to-use.
  • 180+ video formats supported.
  • Speedy processing for video conversion and compression.

Cons:

  • The output video processed by 7-day trial version is stamped with watermark.
  • You can't use the trial version when it expires unless you pay for it.

7. Wondershare Uniconverter

Pricing: Free and Ultimate ($39.99/Year)
Best for: Small to large businesses and freelancers.

Wondershare Uniconverter gets your video converted and customized with most comprehensive features, of all the Windows 10 video converters we mentioned. It allows you to not only convert (4K) video to over 1000 formats, but also trim, crop, merge clips on Windows 10.

Uniconverter
Uniconverter

Pros:

  • All-purpose video converter.
  • A rich set of editing features available.

Cons:

  • Most expensive converter in this review list, up to $69.95 lifetime/1 PC.
  • Software not working sometimes, most complained problem on trustpilot.
  • The official purchase system sometimes charges more on users credit card than it stated on the website, feedbacks from its users.
  • Unable to remove uniconverter completely on Windows 10.

8. FFmpeg

Pricing: free
Best for: Those who knows something about command lines.

FFmpeg is a free and open-source software project that can be used to convert videos on Windows 10. It was initially released in 2000 and has added the support for a large selection of codecs and formats, such as H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, HEVC/H.265, VP8, AV1, WMV, Cinepak, ProRes, and QuickTime. Besides format transcoding, it also supports basic editing, video scaling, video post-production effects and standards compliance.

Free FFmpeg Video Converter
FFmpeg Video Converter

Pros:

  • Free and open source.
  • Support many formats.
  • Provide great flexibility over demuxer, decoder, processer, encoder, muxer choice and settings.

Cons:

  • Steep learning curve.

9. Video Converter - PRO

Pricing: $4.99
Best for: Simple video conversion to mainstream formats.

When searching a video converting app in Microsoft store, Video Converter - PRO is the way to go if you don't ask too much for video conversion. It enables you to convert video to MP4, WMV or MKV, compress video file size and convert multiple videos at once on Windows 10. Meanwhile, it has new IUs, allowing you to convert videos easily.

Video Converter - PRO Windows 10
Video Converter - PRO

Pros:

  • Low-cost
  • No ads or malware.

Cons:

  • Output formats are inadequate.
  • Major quality degradation in resulting files.
  • Video conversion failed now and then.
  • Speed leaves much to be desired.
  • No extra bonus like merge, trim.

10. Online Convert (web-based)

Pricing: free
Best for: Someone who don't want to install any extra programs on Windows 10.

Online Convert is a miniature of all online video converter services, which allows you to convert videos between mainstream formats, adjust video codec, resolution, bitrate, frame rate, aspect ratio, audio etc., trim, crop, rotate, flip videos as you like. Better yet, Online Convert is not limited to convert videos on Windows 10, but also all platforms as long as you have a good Internet connection.

Online Convert
Online Convert

Pros:

  • Available across any platforms - Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android...
  • No need to install any extra plugins or programs.
  • Ease-to-use.

Cons:

  • Processing of large files is only available for Premium users.
  • It depends greatly on Internet. Slow uploading speed and video converting speed.
  • Possible data secuirty and privacy issues.

Part 2. Summary: What's the Best Video Converter for Windows 10?

The ability to complete video conversion always comes first for a video converter on Windows 10. While for a good user experience, the following extras like ease-of-use, features, supported formats, security, support should be included.

Product

Ease of Use

Features

Supported formats

Security

Speed

Support

WinX

Yes

Convert, compress, basic editing, slideshow

420+

100% safe

47x real-time faster under hardware acceleration

Yes, 24/7 service

HandBrake

No, with some  interference options

Convert video/DVD, edit

MP4 (M4V) and MKV

General

Slow

No

VLC

No, the output format is somewhat cryptic

Play, convert, stream...

Mainstream audio and video formats

General

General

No

Freemake Video Converter

Yes

Convert, compress, download, slideshow

500+

Safe

General

Yes, 24/7 service

Any Video Converter

Yes

Convert/edit video, burn DVD

100+ inputs, 160+ outputs

Safe

General

Yes, 24/7 service

Movavi Video Converter

Yes

Convert, compress, edit, subtitles

180+

Safe

Lightning fast

Yes, 24/7 service

Wondershare Uniconverter

Yes

Convert, compress, edit, record, save, burn video. customize video with toolbox

1000+

Safe

90X fast high speed

Yes, 24/7 service

FFmpeg

No

Convert, edit, capture

Mainstream formats

Safe

General

No

Video Converter - PRO

Yes

Convert, compress

MP4, WMV, MKV

Safe

Slow

No

Online Convert

Yes

Convert, compress, edit

Mainstream formats

Not safe enough

Slow

Yes

In short, from the comparison and analysis of teh above aspects, we have formed some conclusions for you to choose the best fit video converter for Windows 10.

  1. If you're a beginner who hasn't used much conversion software in the past, you may need an app that is particularly easy to use, without any confusing menus or complex designs.
  2. Make sure that your pick has all of the features you need. For example, if you'd like convert video for YouTube, a full-featured video converter with conversion, compression, editing is more practical.
  3. The whole point of a Windows 10 video converter is to be able to convert videos into different formats. You need to check that the converter you're using offers full support for the file formats you want to work with.
  4. Make sure that the data you shared with the app is safe and private, especially for online tools.
  5. Check your picked video converter for Windows 10 has support. And make clear what sort of support it offers, such as live chat, online, email support or whatever.

Part 3. FAQs

1. How to convert videos on Windows 10?

Take WinX Video Converter as an example, free download the .exe installation package on your Windows 10 PC. Install and launch it.

  1. Click "Add Video" to browse and open your source video on the program.
  2. Choose an output format from the automatically popped up window, where over 420 preset profiles are available. MP4 Video (h264+aac) is always recommended for its wide compatibility.
  3. Click "Browse" button to choose a folder for the output video.
  4. Tap "RUN" button to activate the video conversion on Windows 10.
Start to free convert video on Windows
Start to free convert video on Windows

2. Does Windows 10 have a built-in video converter?

Not really. It has a built-in video player - Windows Media Player, as well as a DVD player for Windows 10 (Windows DVD Player). Speaking of video converter, free video converter for Win 10 or online converter is worth your consideration.

3. How to speed up video converter?

  • Upgrade your converter to the latest version. Generally, the latest version might be optimized in the encoding algorithm.
  • Enable GPU hardware acceleration tech on your video converter (if it has).
  • settings are, the slower video converter will be.
  • Activate hyper-threading tech and multiple CPU core use on your converter (if it has).

4. Is Freemake video converter free?

Not really. It used to be a free video converter. Yet, currently, several windows pop up to let you pay for other features during use. If not, there will be watermarks on your video image, even at the center of your video picture.

5. Is online video converter safe?

There are exceptions to everything. It's impossible to simply reach a conclusion that all the online video converters are safe or unsafe. The safe online video converters roughly accounts for 80%. They won't bring malware or virus to put your system in risk. Yet, most of them do cover lots of ads thereon. That's annoying, but no danger.

6. Can I play 4K HEVC video on Windows 10?

Theoretically speaking, yes. But you can't watch your 4K HEVC video smoothly on your Windows 10 PC unless both your hardware configurations and Windows 10 media player software meet the requirements.

7. Is it legal to convert audio tracks from YouTube?

It's illegal to download copyright music video and convert to audio file. As for the personal YouTube video that doesn't allow the public to download, it's better not to download and convert audio from YouTube.

8. What's the difference between format and container?

When it comes to format, what we highlight is the codec. The significance of codec is to compress your files, lossy or lossless.

The container is just like a box that can contain multiple video and audio streams, subtitles and metadata. And it's usually called as file extension. Each video file (encoded by whatever codec) uses a container format to encapsulate the encoded multimedia content. Find more details >>

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matthew Palmer

Matthew Palmer twitter icon

Matthew Palmer is a seasoned content creator with over 10 years of experience in Windows at large. He has been specialized in almost any technology with Windows OS and written thousands of new articles, covering everything from in-depth features of new laptops, latest GPU/CPU PC hardware, games, to software related. While digging into new techs, he continues enjoying painting and comics.

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