Jun 26, 2020 The best free recording software By Jon Martindale June 26, 2020 Thanks to advances in computer software, it has never been easier to record your. Jun 24, 2020 Available For: Windows, Mac; Best Suited For creative beginners, Vloggers.; VideoProc is actually a video processing toolkit that can be used for basic video editing, conversions, rip DVD disc to digital, comes with downloader for popular platforms (such as Youtube, Facebook and so on), screen recording.These are just some of the features that make VideoProc so good at what it does. Amateur Mac recording engineers have known about the power of Audacity for years. A robust desktop client for recording and editing multi-track projects, Audacity will let you edit and add effects. Jul 03, 2020 However, once you’re familiar with screen recording software, you can make better use of OBS Studio’s functionality. It is, after all, a powerful screen recording software tool, suitable for the most demanding tasks. PROS: Free software; Available on Windows, Mac, and Linux; No video length restrictions ⛔️ CONS: Steep learning curve. Here you go – be sure to get the best from any other task you want to do. In an attempt to use TinyTake free video recording software, you'll be asked to download a launcher app first; after which you'll gain full – some users say it’s a better pick amongst the top best free video recording software; you can screen capture, record videos and also share videos for free.
Recording a screen used to be a real challenge.
You had to either use complicated tools or pay a software expert to get it done, which wasn’t always feasible.
Fortunately, the user-friendliness of screen recording software has significantly improved over the years. Nowadays, you can create professional-looking tutorials with minimal effort.
Besides tutorials, there are several other reasons why you might want to record your screen.
If you do any kind of product demonstrations, need or offer tech support, or use video calling, using the default screen capture of your computer won’t be good enough to capture high-quality footage.
Whether you want a more precise way to record the entire screen or if you want to capture a specific portion, a high-quality screen recorder will serve the purpose.
In this article, you’ll learn about:
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Screen recording software can record the entirety (or portions) of your computer or mobile screen.
The recording can include everything from your taps and cursor movements to typing a URL into your browser to help people learn what to do and how to do it.
Audio narration is available, and sometimes annotation is also offered as part of a tool’s package.
However, no two screen recording tools are alike. Some screen recording tools can’t save the recorded footage for various formats or export it to popular video platforms like YouTube directly.
Others may have the capability to do all of that, but might be missing a feature or two. For example, not every screen recording application comes with an HD screen recorder.
As such, you should pay attention to its capabilities before downloading or installing screen recording software on your device.
It’s also crucial to evaluate your own recording needs. Perhaps you don’t need to record in HD. Maybe you’ve recently purchased video hosting and can do without a YouTube export option. The best screen recorder for you will be the one that meets your specific needs.
Our compilation of screen recording tools ranges from browser-based software to minimalistic desktop apps. Each of the picks meets the following basic criteria:
It’s also worth mentioning that many of the software options come with HD recording capabilities. However, it’s important to know that HD files take a lot of time to upload. If you’re looking to quickly uploaded standard-quality videos on the web, HD is not a must-have.
Offline functionality is the key difference between the two types.
While desktop screen recorders can work without an active connection, online screen recorders require you to have stable internet.
This is why an online screen recorder isn’t the best of options when it comes to capturing gameplay. However, if you’re only looking to make a tutorial, they should work just fine.
Here’s our list of the best screen recorder tools on the market.
Because it has options for all of the major operating systems, you can be sure to find the best screen recorder for Android, iOS, Mac, Linux and Windows operating systems.
Quick note: The list includes both paid and free options, so make sure to evaluate your needs before downloading any software.
OBS or Open Broadcaster Software is a free screen video recorder that offers both recording and streaming in high definition, with no limits on the length of your videos.
The desktop software allows you to choose the part of the screen you want to capture, but it also gives an option to record the entire screen.
Customizable hotkeys help control the recording, and an audio mixer allows you to produce videos with smoothly recorded sound.
Apart from the intuitive screencasting features, OBS is equipped with live-streaming capabilities that you won’t find in the default screen recorders of major operating systems.
You can stream live on YouTube Gaming and Twitch, save projects, and convert your footage in FLV format.
All of this makes OBS one of the best free screen recording software options to try in 2020.
Price: Free
Supported OS: Linux, Mac, Windows
Best for: Professional live streaming to Mixer, YouTube or Twitch
This is a suite of software applications that includes screen recorders for Android, iOS, Mac and Windows.
It allows you to wirelessly cast an Android device or iPhone to your PC’s screen and use the desktop recorder to capture your PC audio, mobile device, microphone, and computer’s webcam simultaneously.
The desktop screen recorder offers multiple recording modes, including full screen, custom area, and more, and it also lets users annotate on the recording in real-time. You can apply callouts, lines, text, and more without needing to pause.
With the help of its intuitive, mobile-specific apps, you just have to set your computer and smartphone under the same WiFi network and begin casting.
Mac and Windows users can directly use the desktop screen recorder to record all kinds of on-screen activities.
Price: $59.95 per year
Supported OS: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac
Best for: Demonstrating how to use software that has both a desktop and a mobile version
Screencast-O-Matic is an online screen recorder and video editor that supports both webcam and screen recordings.
While the application doesn’t let you record in HD, it does have options to record in 800×600, 640×480 and other standard definitions, which makes it ideal for recording and uploading quick videos.
It also assists users in zooming, drawing, and adding overlays on the video files.
Plus, you can share the recording to YouTube without having to download any desktop app.
Screencast-O-Matic also has additional features including options for editing computer audio and synchronization of recording with video footage.
Keep in mind that most of the editing features are offered in the paid version of the app. However, you can use the free version to upload content to YouTube.
Price: Free or $1.50 per month
Supported OS: Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iOS
Best for: Making quick tutorials to share with friends, customers or online communities
AceThinker is a web-based laptop screen recorder that is easy to set up and use.
You can use it to record a specific screen portion or the whole screen, create real-time edits for an attention-worthy recording, and capture audio from your mic and computer simultaneously.
The software lets you convert and save your recordings in all renowned video formats, including MP4, MOV and API.
And you can also use AceThinker to directly upload your recordings to Dropbox, Google Drive, or YouTube.
All of these features are available in the free version of the app, but you can also install the PRO version to gain access to additional capabilities.
A standout feature of the PRO version is that it lets you create scheduled tasks for screen recordings.
If you want to record an ongoing live stream in the afternoon, but you don’t have the internet at work, you can install this screen capture tool on your home computer, create a schedule and let it record the screen automatically.
Price: Free or $39.95
Supported OS: Mac, Windows
Best for: Recording soccer matches, stock trends, etc.
If you’ve been searching for a Mac screen recorder with audio capabilities, then you’d love ScreenFlow.
Its range of features includes the options to record your Mac at retina resolution, group video components and settings, and add background audio to the recorded footage.
You’d also love the “Styles” and “Templates” tools that come as part of the software.
Styles lets you save visual/audio settings for certain elements like drop shadows or color filters for a recorded segment.
Templates, on the other hand, lets users arrange, insert and configure groups of annotations in advance, such as text placeholders and outro segments.
Those who subscribe to the Super Pak version of ScreenFlow (a more expensive plan) also get access to over 500,000 pieces of unique images and audio clips to use in all of their videos.
So if you’re looking to make the most of your screen recordings, ScreenFlow is unlikely to disappoint.
Price: $129
Supported OS: Mac, iOS
Best for: Making high-quality retina videos
Screencastify is another screen recording application that works via Google Chrome.
Whether you’re a seasoned or a novice video creator, you’ll find that Screencastify offers all of the important options.
You can use it to capture your webcam, entire screen or tab only, as well as narrate to your microphone.
It also presents you with annotation tools that help keep your viewers focus on what’s critical. Click highlighting, drawing pen tool, and mouse spotlight are all included.
And once you’re recorded the screen, Screencastify will do the heavy lifting for you by autosaving the video to your Google Drive.
Like many of the best screen recording software options, Screencastify gives you the option to upload to YouTube, as well as export the recording as an animated GIF, MP3, or MP4.
Price: Free
Supported OS: Mac, Windows, Linux
Best for: Recording software demos and creating solution videos
Bandicam is a robust screen recording application that supports screen and gameplay capturing.
It utilizes a high compression ratio without compromising video quality. Bandicam makes it possible to capture 4K ultra-high-definition videos at 120 frames per second.
Another noteworthy feature is Bandicam’s device recording capability. By getting a separate capture card, you can record videos from IPTV, HDTV, APPLE TV, smartphone, PlayStation and Xbox.
In addition, Bandicam lets users capture screenshots in JPEG, PNG and BMP formats.
Essentially, you can use Bandicam to record just about anything, including your entire computer screen, Excel spreadsheets, web browser, Powerpoint presentations, and more.
Its free version places a watermark on the videos, so you need to become a paid user to utilize its full potential.
Price: Free or $39.99
Supported OS: Windows
Best for: Balancing the depth of video recordings
Filmora Scrn lets you capture gameplay, webcam, computer screen and audio simultaneously without placing any limits on the duration of the video.
It gives you the option to record in 15-120 frames per second. Higher FPS is ideal for recording gameplay with loads of action.
The software also lets you add annotations like text to improve the viewing experience for your audience. Also, you can modify the size, color and shape of your cursor to make it look unique.
With Filmora Scrn, you don’t need a separate video editing tool because the screen recording software itself boasts a wide range of editing tools to help refine your video recordings.
It can import from over 50 file formats, and you also get the option to export your recordings in multiple formats as per your requirement.
Price: Free or $29.99
Supported OS: Windows, Mac
Best for: Recording screen from two devices simultaneously
TechSmith’s Camtasia makes it simple to capture and make professional-looking videos on your PC.
You can record both audio and video from a desktop or iOS device, and also capture your webcam to infuse a personal element to your recording.
Its built-in video editing tool is where Camtasia shines. A good selection of stock images along with click-and-drag effects is offered in the sidebar of the tool. Users can create outro and intro segments by dropping them into their recordings in a matter of seconds.
You can also insert zoom out, zoom in, and pan animations into your footage, and use transitions between slides and scenes to enhance the flow of your videos.
The screen recording software also lets you import or record PowerPoint pages directly into its environment. Grab attention in your presentations by adding eye-catching recordings, titles, and more.
Price: Free or $249
Supported OS: Windows, Mac, iOS
Best for: Adding a professional touch to captured videos
This open-source screen recording software is ideal for capturing videos.
It doesn’t place watermarks or duration limits on your recordings, and you also get the option to save your file as a GIF instead of a video.
The video file sharing features are ShareX’s biggest advantage, because it’s easy to upload recordings directly to YouTube and other platforms.
Enhancing screenshots you capture with this tool doesn’t require much effort either. A built-in photo editor lets you freely customize still photos in any way you want.
Not only is it a brilliant screenshot and screen capture tool, but it can also capture and reveal text via OCR, record a whole scrolling webpage, and even record your screen according to a schedule.
Price: Free
Supported OS: Linux, Windows
Best for: Recording screens of Linux devices
Screen recording software can serve a variety of purposes, and the best ones don’t necessarily need to come at a price.
Based on your individual needs and the operating system you’re using, you may be able to achieve your objectives with a free screen recorder.
And if you’re looking to add additional power or use professional editing tools, you can always sign up to a paid option.
Hopefully, one of these screen recording programs will fulfill your requirements, whether you’re creating a tutorial for YouTube or just sharing a gaming achievement with your peers.
Do you use any awesome screen recording software that we missed? Let us know by dropping a comment below.
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There are no shortage of free screen recording programs for Windows, but when it comes to macOS, most screen recording apps are paid. Yes, you can use the in-built QuickTime to record your screen (which is what I was using so far) but if you do a lot of screen recording than QuickTime is not the most efficient way to go about it. Why? Well, to start with, there is no keyboard shortcut, no video editor, and no auto saved. Sometimes QuickTime just doesn’t work unless you restart it.
In short, if you do a lot of screen recording on your macOS, you need a third-party screen recording software. So, here are some alternatives to QuickTime to record a screencast on Mac for free.
Related: Best Video Editing Software for YouTube — A YouTuber Perspective
Apowersoft Screen Recorder is one of the popular free screen recording tools on any platform. Once installed on your mac, select a region and start recording. In the screen recording frame, you can click on the drop-down option to pick up a resolution like 720p, 1080p, iPhone, iPad etc. This free app allows unlimited screen recording with no watermark, however, the paid version has a Video Converter and Video Editor. You can set the recording quality from 15-60 fps, depending on whether you want to use on the web or make a professional video.
Apowersoft also offers a web-based screencast software which means you can record your screen without downloading any software, you need to install a launcher though if it’s the first time.
Verdict:
Apowersoft screen recorder is a free app for unlimited screen recording, no watermark or time restriction. However, once you stop the recording, it asked where you want to save it (just like QuickTime), so depending on the situation it might be a bit time-consuming. However, the app does not support taking or editing screenshot neither can it automatically upload to cloud. In my opinion, it’s a decent screen recorder but, there are better options available.
Screen recorder robot lite is a bit more powerful than Apowersoft screen recorder.
The unique thing about this screen recorder is, once you stop your recording it opens that clip in the built-in video editor, where you can trim, crop, rotate, change the playback speed etc. From here you can either edit your video in the video editor or just close the window and the recording will be saved in your Pictures folder on your Mac.
The only issue with this video recorder is – every time you stop the recording, it shows a pop saying the lite version only records for 600s (or 5 mins), and to get rid of it, you need to click cancel each time.
The apps support keyboard shortcut for – start, stop, pause the recording and can also capture screenshots.
Verdict:
Screen recorder robot lite is definitely one of the best feature-rich screencasting apps out there. If you need a build in video editor with your screen recorder then look no further. However, the only limitation to the app is – 5 mins of free recording, if you want more than that, its $7.99 for the full version.
This app is not for everyone. Unlike all the other screen recording app in the list, which saves the recording to the local drive of your computer, Recordit uploads the video to the cloud storage. It’s meant for sharing videos quickly with remote co-workers.
So, here is how it works, once installed, you’ll see a tiny Recordit icon on the top menu bar of your macOS, click on that to record any area of your screen and when once done, click the stop button, seconds after that, you’ll get a link to share your screencast.
Once the video is uploaded it automatically copy the link of that video to your clipboard, and store it on the server for the unknown amount of time. so you can always go back and find the link by right-clicking on the app. however, there is no naming, so you’ll have to rely on time date stamp.
One thing to keep in mind is – you need to have a good upload speed if you are planning to use this. I recorded a 3 min full-screen video on my 5k iMac and it took the app 4 minutes to upload it to the server. I’ve 8 Mb/s upload speed. And the final size of the video was 35 MB, so it’s safe to assume they are compressing the video footage.
Recordit also has a video to gif option on their website. So, if you want to quickly share a small screencast on Reddit, this will make it a lot easier.
Verdict
Recordit is for people who want to quickly share their screencast with other people. The recordings are limited to 5 mins only in the free version. And there is no paid version of this app.
However, there is one major problem with the app – it doesn’t keep a local copy of your recording, which means if the internet goes down for some reason, the video’ won’t be uploaded and you have to start all over.
Overall it’s perfect for sharing an image or video quickly. But not if you want to use the screen recording in some other video.
It’s hard to figure out how to install and use OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) at first. But after bit Google search, I was able to figure out how it works.
Once installed, the app gives you auto configuration pop-up, asking you whether you want to configure it, go for 1080p, etc. It’s basically meant for streaming, but if you want to use it not for streaming then you can configure it in the start pop page.
Verdict:
OBS is a popular screen recording software among YouTuber gaming channel. It’s free, open source and highly customizable. However, it’s difficult to setup and use. If you are not a geek, you might have a difficult time to set it up and the given that better version is available, I guess you should skip this one.
This is one of the best screen recording software available out there for free. Just after using this software for 5 minutes, I know my search for best screen recording app for Mac has ended.
Like every other software in this list, it lets you capture full screen or just part of the screen. But on top of that, it also lets you capture a particular window with a webcam in Picture-in-Picture mode.
Although, there is no video editor for screen recording. Monosnap does provide an image editor for your screenshot where you can add arrows, annotation, text etc. and once you are done you can either save your video in the local storage or upload it cloud storage like Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote. However, these services are paid for $8 in-app purchases. You can upload it for free on Amazon s3 or R0emote FTP server though.
But the feature that really blown my mind is – the built-in image editor (mini photoshop) i.e. say, you have screenshot that you want to quickly edit or a picture that you find on the Internet, then you can just copy that picture to your clipboard and then right-click on Monosnap in toolbar and select open in the clipboard, this will open the image directly in Monosnap editor.
There is also an option to convert your video to gif.
Verdict:
Overall, if you are looking for an advanced screen recorder for Mac, then look no further. Monosnap is best you can get for free. It can do everything a paid screen recorder does. The only limitation is – you can not edit your video.
Best Screen Recording Software For macOS | |||||
Apowersoft Screen Recorder | Screen Recorder Robot Lite | Recordit: | Monosnap | Open Broadcaster Software | |
Record | Region, Full Screen or Web Camera | Region, Fullscreen | Region, Fullscreen | Region, Full Screen with PIP Face Cam | Region, Fullscreen |
Record Audio From External Source | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes, with audio mixer |
Keyboard Shortcuts | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Recording Quality | Low to High (15-60 fps) | Low to High (1-30 fps) | Decent video quality for web upload | Low to High (1-30 fps) | Low to High (1-30 fps) |
Edit Video | No | Yes | No | No | No |
Capture Screenshot | No | Yes | No | Yes (support basic image editing) | Yes |
Cloud Backup | No | No | Yes, upload video to Recordit server | Yes | Yes |
Price | Free – no watermark or time limit | Freemium, Free for 5 mins, | Free for 5 mins only, no paid version | Mostly free, except Cloud Backup | Free and Open source |