This page provides a comparison of notable screencasting software, used to record activities on the computer screen. This software is commonly used for desktop recording, gameplay recording and video editing. Screencasting software is typically limited to streaming and recording desktop activity alone, in contrast with a software vision mixer, which has the capacity to mix and switch the output between various input streams.

Comparison by specification


Product name Publisher Latest stable version Latest release date OS Software license Source code
available?
ActivePresenter Atomi Systems8.5.72022-05-16Windows
macOS
Proprietary commercialNo
ActivePresenter Free Edition Atomi Systems8.5.72021-05-16Windows
macOS
FreewareNo
Adobe Captivate Adobe Systems9.02015-08-03Windows
macOS
Proprietary commercialNo
Adobe Presenter Video Express Adobe Systems11.02016-09-14Windows
macOS
Proprietary commercialNo
AVS Video Editor Online Media Technologies Ltd7.5.1.2882017-01-16WindowsCommercialNo
Bandicam Bandicam Company6.1.0.20442023-02-28WindowsFreemium commercialNo
BB FlashBack Blueberry Software5.4.0.34422014-12-18WindowsProprietary commercialNo
BB FlashBack Express Blueberry Software5.22.0.41782016-11-09WindowsFreewareNo
CamStudio CamStudio.org2.7.2 r3262013-10-19WindowsGPLYes
Camtasia (Windows) TechSmith2023.4.1 [1]2023-12-12WindowsProprietary commercialNo
Camtasia (Mac) TechSmith2023.3.5 [2]2023-11-28macOSProprietary commercialNo
CloudApp CloudApp6.1[3]2020-07-13Windows
macOS
Linux
FreemiumNo
Debut (Windows) NCH Software4.082017-09-14WindowsTrialwareNo
Debut (Mac) NCH Software4.012017-03-31macOSTrialwareNo
Fraps Beepa Pty Ltd3.5.992013-02-26WindowsProprietary commercialNo
Freeseer FOSSLC3.0.12013-12-15Windows
macOS
Linux
GPL-3.0-or-laterYes
HyperCam Solveig Multimedia4.0.1511.062015-11-06WindowsProprietary commercialNo
HyperCam Hyperionics2.29.002016-01-07WindowsFreewareNo
Microsoft Expression Encoder Microsoft42011-11-02WindowsFreewareNo
Nero Vision Nero AG10.6.108002011-04-19WindowsProprietary commercialNo
Nvidia Shadowplay Nvidia2.11.4.02016-06-21WindowsProprietary (Part of NVIDIA GFE)No
Open Broadcaster Software

(OBS Studio)

OBS Project30.0.2[4] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-12-10 Windows
macOS
Linux
GPL-2.0-or-laterYes
Peek Philipp Wolfer 1.5.1 2020-02-19 LinuxGPL-3.0-or-laterYes
Pixetell Ontier Inc.1.3.119132010-01-15WindowsProprietary commercialNo
QuickTime X Apple Inc.10.0 (118)2010-03-29macOSProprietary (Part of macOS)No
recordMyDesktop SourceForge0.4.02021-03-14LinuxGPL-2.0-or-later & GPL-3.0-or-laterYes
Screencam SmartGuyz Inc.3.3.02009-03-24WindowsProprietary commercialNo
ScreenFlow Telestream10.0.22021-07-06macOSProprietary commercialNo
ShareX Jaex and Michael Delpach15.0.02023-01-18WindowsGPL v3Yes
SimpleScreenRecorder maartenbaert0.4.32020-12-26LinuxGPL-3.0-or-laterYes
Snagit (Windows) TechSmith2024.0.3 [5]2023-12-19WindowsProprietary commercialNo
Snagit (Mac) TechSmith2024.1.0 [6]2023-12-14macOSProprietary commercialNo
Snapz Pro X Ambrosia Software2.6.12016-10-17macOSProprietary commercialNo
VirtualDub SourceForge1.9.112012-12-27WindowsGPL-2.0-or-laterYes
VLC media player VideoLAN3.0.182022-11-08[7]Windows
macOS
Linux
BSD
Solaris
QNX
Haiku
Syllable
OS/2
LGPL-2.1-or-laterYes
Xbox (Game DVR) / Xbox Game Bar MicrosoftWindowsFreewareNo
XVidCap SourceForge1.1.72008-07-13Unix-likeGPL-2.0-or-laterYes
XSplit Broadcaster SplitmediaLabs3.0.1705.31172017-06-27WindowsSharewareNo
Product name Publisher Latest stable version Latest release date OS Software license Source code
available?

Comparison by features


The following table compares features of screencasting software. The table has seven fields, as follows:

  1. Product name: Product's name; sometime includes edition if a certain edition is targeted
  2. Audio: Specifies whether the product supports recording audio commentary on the video
  3. Entire desktop: Specifies whether product supports recording the entire desktop
  4. OpenGL: Specifies whether the product supports recording from video games and software that employ OpenGL to render digital image
  5. Direct3D: Specifies whether the product supports recording from video games or software that employ Direct3D to render digital image
  6. Editing: Specifies whether the product supports editing recorded video at least to some small extent, such as cropping, trimming or splitting
  7. Output: Specifies the file format in which the software saves the final video (audio output types are omitted)
Product name Audio Entire
desktop
OpenGL Direct3D Editing Output
ActivePresenter[8] YesYesNoYesYes
ActivePresenter free edition[8] YesYesNoYesYes
Adobe Captivate[9] YesYes??YesSWF, EXE, MP4
Adobe Presenter Video Express[10] YesYes??YesMP4
Bandicam YesYesYesYesNo
BB FlashBack YesYes??YesAVI, FLV, SWF[11]
BB FlashBack express YesYes??NoAVI, FLV, SWF, MP4 (H.264 or MPEG-4 ASP), WMV, Animated GIF, PowerPoint slideshow, self-extracting EXE[11]
CamStudio YesYes??YesAVI, SWF
Camtasia (Windows) YesYesYesYesYes
Camtasia (Mac) YesYesYesYesYes
CloudApp YesYesNoNoYes?
Debut YesYes??YesAVI, FLV, MKV, MP4, WebM, WMV, 3GP, ASF, DV, MOV, MPG, OGV
FFmpeg with a plug-in DependsDependsDependsDependsNocf. FFmpeg § Codecs, formats and protocols supported
Fraps YesYesYesYesNoFPS1 in AVI
Freeseer YesYes??NoOgg
HyperCam YesYes??NoAVI, WMV
Jing YesYes??NoSWF
Microsoft Expression Encoder YesYesYesNoYes
Nero Vision Yes???Yes
Nvidia Shadowplay YesYesNoYesNo
Open Broadcaster Software YesYesYesYesNoSimple mode: FLV, MP4, MOV, MKV, TS, HLS
Advanced mode: Any format supported by libavformat
Pixetell YesYesYesYesYes
QuickTime X YesYes??No
recordMyDesktop YesYes?NoTheora in Ogg
Screencam YesYesYesYesYes
ScreenFlow YesYesYesYesProRes, MP4, GIF, AAC
ShareX YesYesNoNoNoAVI, MP4, GIF
SimpleScreenRecorder YesYesYesNoFormats supported by libavformat
Snagit (Windows) YesYesYesYesYes
Snagit (Mac) YesYesYesYesYes
Snapz Pro X YesYes??No
VirtualDub Yes???YesAVI
VLC YesYesYes?Yes
Windows Media Encoder YesYes??No
Xbox (Game DVR) /Xbox Game Bar Yes No ? ? No MP4
XVidCap Yes??No
XSplit Broadcaster YesYesYesYesYesMP4, FLV
Product name Audio Entire
desktop
OpenGL Direct3D Editing Output

See also

References

  1. "Camtasia (Windows) Version History". TechSmith Support.
  2. "Camtasia (Mac) Version History". TechSmith Support.
  3. "Introducing: Automated Drop Naming, Enhanced Annotations, Multi-Monitor Support, and 4k Video Quailty Options". CloudApp Blog. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  4. "OBS Studio 30.0.2". 10 December 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  5. "Snagit (Windows) Version History". TechSmith Support.
  6. "Snagit (Mac) Version History". TechSmith Support.
  7. "VLC: Official site - Free multimedia solutions for all OS! - VideoLAN". VideoLAN. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  8. 1 2 "Feature Comparison". ActivePresenter website. Atomi Systems. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  9. "Supported file formats". Adobe Captivate Help. Adobe Systems Incorporated. Retrieved 2013-06-03.
  10. "Output formats". Adobe Presenter Video Express Help. Adobe Systems Incorporated. Retrieved 2015-09-14.
  11. 1 2 "Feature Comparison". bbsoftware.co.uk. Blueberry Software. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
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