TL;DR: I've been using VideoPad for combining small clips from multiple videos into larger compilations, but the program has its irritations. Is there a better alternative out there? Willing to pay moderate amount of money, preferably <$75.

Long winded version:

So,

I've been using VideoPad for awhile now for cutting small clips (10sec - ~2min) out of multiple videos to compile into one larger video. I like VideoPad because it provides a simple way to load up many files of the videos I want to cut from and a convenient interface to compile all of the small clips into a single video while putting fade out / fade in transitions between each clip. The video files that are loaded are easily accessible in a smaller area within the interface, so getting to the clips I want from each video and added to the timeline is fairly quick and easy... at first.

I'm not trying to do anything fancy or convoluted - basically just simple cut and join with video transitions. While VideoPad has been nice, there are some quirky things about that I have to work around.

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For example - horizontal scrolling and scaling on the video timelines is not very cooperative, especially once the video begins to get considerably longer than the clips that I am trying to add. So, like trying to add a 7sec clip into a very specific cut/joined spot in say a 12 minute compilation video while zoomed in (say 30sec of timeline on the screen) is a pain. It involves a lot of zooming and manual scrolling... So, instead of auto-scrolling when I try to move the timeline marker past the right and left edges of the timeline, I have to zoom out, scroll over to about where I want the clip and then zoom in... Instead of just keeping the same zoom scale and trying to move the cursor past the edge of the timeline to make it move over... it doesn't move over, it just stops on the edge of the timeline. Doing this over and over when trying to organize a decent amount clips within the video compilation gets tedious and then the program starts to lose 'time efficiency' for lack of better terms. So yeah...

The program also tends to further split clips already in the compilation if I don't quite have the timeline marker in the right spot or drop a clip slightly offset of where two clips are joined. For example, if I try to join three clips A, B and C, 10 seconds each, putting clip B between A and C, I might end up with

A: 9.7sec
B: 10sec
A: 0.3sec
C: 10sec

The program already provides an accurate way to do this even after the clips are added to the timeline, so why do it automatically when my mouse cursor happens to be like 1-2 pixels off?

This happens from time to time (usually because I'm not zoomed in enough to notice it, because of the reasons above) and I often times don't notice it when I can't apply a transition between "B" and "C" that is longer than the small bit clipped off the end of "A" or when I am watching the finished product and I see a sudden split second flash of a clip from earlier or later in the timeline. Going back and trying to fix this after the fact is a pain, and also again, not very 'time efficient'. It's also another reason I feel like there is a lot of unnecessary scrolling and zooming.

There are a few other random things here and there, but those are two examples.

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Now, all of that being said, I am upgrading my tower soon and will most likely have to reformat my master drive and reinstall my operating system - making me lose all of my installed programs. While I am prepared for this, I am wondering if there are other, better programs out there similar to VideoPad that provide basically the same functions and relative convenience of combining cut and joined clips, but without the quirkiness. I've tried to look around on this site, but damn... there are SO MANY video editing programs here and on the Internet in general. I am also willing to pay a moderate cost for the program (<$75) if the program provides the same functions but without the (common-sense-says-it-should-have-been-fixed) annoyances.

It's not the end of the world if I have to continue using VideoPad, but I was wondering if anyone has any alternative suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any help!