Kdenlive's 2026 State: Steady Growth, Community Momentum, and What's Next

Kdenlive, the open-source video editor, has released its 2026 State report, offering a comprehensive look at the project's progress in 2025 and its roadmap for the future. The report highlights a year of steady development, community growth, and strategic improvements that balance new features with stability.

A Year of Balanced Development

The Kdenlive team describes 2025 as a year of "grinding" to push the project forward through steady development, collaboration, and community support. The team found a "nice balance between adding new features, bug fixing, polishing the user interface, and improving performance and workflow, with stability taking priority over feature creep."

This measured approach is evident in the three major releases delivered in 2025 as part of KDE Gear:

25.04.0 introduced a powerful automatic masking tool based on the SAM2 model for background removal, a complete rewrite of OpenTimelineIO import/export using the C++ library for better interoperability with other editing applications, and a 300% performance boost in audio waveform generation with higher-resolution rendering.

25.08.0 focused heavily on stabilization, delivering over 300 commits and fixing more than 15 crashes. The release included a redesigned audio mixer with clearer visuals and HiDPI display support, a major overhaul of markers and guides for better project organization, and significant improvements to the titler with enhanced SVG and image support.

25.12.0 emphasized user experience improvements, adding a welcome screen for first-time users, a new flexible docking system for customizable layouts, and a revamped monitor interface with an audio waveform minimap.

The upcoming 26.04 release promises monitor mirroring for multi-display workflows and animated transition previews that automatically adjust duration to match adjacent clips.

Community Growth and New Contributors

One of the most encouraging aspects of the 2025 report is the community growth. The Kdenlive core team consists of 8 active members, including 2 developers. In 2025, 38 people contributed code to Kdenlive, with about half being first-time contributors. This influx of new talent is crucial for the project's long-term sustainability.

Technical Advancements and Roadmap

The report outlines several exciting developments on the horizon:

Dopesheet Development: The team is currently refactoring the keyframing system and implementing a Dopesheet - a dedicated timeline for managing and viewing keyframes from multiple effects simultaneously. This work, funded by an NGI Zero Commons grant via NLnet, will introduce per-parameter keyframing, a significant improvement over the current system where keyframes apply to all parameters by default.

MLT Framework Improvements: The roadmap highlights upcoming features in MLT, the multimedia framework powering Kdenlive. These include 10/12 bit color support, playback optimizations for decoding, and OpenFX support. Notably, a community member is leading the OpenFX implementation effort.

Microsoft Store Support: The team is working on enabling MLT to compile with MSVC, which will allow Kdenlive to be distributed through the Microsoft Store and enable Windows unit testing on CI.

Subtitle System Refactoring: The team plans to refactor the subtitle system and continue developing Advanced Trimming Tools.

Sprint Success and Community Engagement

The report details productive sprints in Amsterdam and Berlin. The Amsterdam sprint included a visit to the Blender Foundation, where the team gained valuable insights into product management. The Berlin sprint was described as "one of our most productive gatherings to date," covering topics from titler integration with Glaxnimate to menu structure reorganization and audio clip view development.

The team also participated in Akademy 2025, KDE's annual conference, where they discussed collaboration opportunities with Glaxnimate's maintainer.

Impressive Usage Statistics

Kdenlive's reach continues to grow impressively:

• 11.5 million downloads from the official download page in 2025
• 41,499 monthly downloads of the Flatpak package from Flathub
• 25.04.2 was the most downloaded release
• 17.08.2 was downloaded only once - a reminder of the challenges in release management

The user base is truly global, with the United States, India, Brazil, Germany, and France leading in usage. The report humorously notes the 5 downloads from Antarctica, inviting those users to share what they're editing.

Funding and Sustainability

While Kdenlive hasn't actively solicited donations since its successful 2022 fundraiser, the community continues to support the project. In 2025, the project received €9,344.80 in donations, down from €11,526.61 in 2024. Approximately 30% came from recurring donors, with an average donation of €25 (ranging from €10 to €500).

The project allocates 20% of its budget to KDE e.V. for infrastructure and administrative support. These contributions enable the team to support Jean-Baptiste, Kdenlive's maintainer, allowing him to dedicate several days each month to the project beyond his volunteer work.

The Call for Support

The report concludes with a compelling case for community support. If just a quarter of the 11.5 million people who downloaded Kdenlive in 2025 contributed €5, the project could hire additional developers to accelerate development and improve stability.

The team outlines several ways to contribute beyond financial support: reporting and debugging bugs, translating the software, and promoting Kdenlive in local communities.

Looking Forward

Kdenlive's 2026 State report paints a picture of a mature, stable open-source project with a vibrant community and clear technical direction. The balance between stability and innovation, combined with growing community involvement and strategic funding, positions Kdenlive well for continued growth in the competitive video editing landscape.

The project's commitment to open standards (OpenTimelineIO), cross-platform support (including upcoming Microsoft Store distribution), and community-driven development makes it an increasingly attractive option for users seeking a professional-grade, open-source video editing solution.

As the team continues to refine the user experience, expand technical capabilities, and grow its contributor base, Kdenlive appears poised to strengthen its position as a leading open-source video editor in 2026 and beyond.