Comparison of screencasting software

Last updated

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.

Contents

Comparison by specification


Product namePublisherLatest stable versionLatest release dateOS Software license Source code
available?
ActivePresenter Atomi Systems9.1.5 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2024-06-12 Windows
macOS 		Proprietary commercial No
ActivePresenter Free Edition Atomi Systems9.1.5 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2024-06-12 Windows
macOS 		Freeware No
Adobe Captivate Adobe Systems 12.3 [2]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2024-04-02 Windows
macOS 		Proprietary commercial No
Adobe Presenter Video Express Adobe Systems 12.0.2.1702017-11-28 Windows
macOS 		Proprietary commercial No
AVS Video Editor Online Media Technologies Ltd Windows CommercialNo
Bandicam Bandicam Company8.0.0 [3]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2024-12-02 Windows Freemium commercial No
BB FlashBack Blueberry Softwarev5.60 [4]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2023-08 Windows Proprietary commercial No
BB FlashBack ExpressBlueberry Softwarev5.60 [4]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2023-08 Windows Freeware No
CamStudio CamStudio.org2.7.4 r354 [5]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2016-08-10 Windows GPL Yes
Camtasia (Windows) TechSmith2024.1.2 [6] 2024-10-24 Windows Proprietary commercial No
Camtasia (Mac) TechSmith2024.1.2 [7] 2024-10-22 macOS Proprietary commercial No
CloudApp CloudApp 6.1 [8] 2020-07-13 Windows
macOS
Linux 		Freemium No
Debut (Windows) NCH Software 10.25 [9]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2024-12-02 Windows Trialware No
Debut (Mac) NCH Software 10.14 [9]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2024-09-09 macOS Trialware No
Fraps Beepa Pty Ltd3.5.99 [10]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2013-02-26 Windows Proprietary commercial No
Freeseer FOSSLC3.0.1 [11]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2014-01-03 Windows
macOS
Linux 		GPL-3.0-or-later Yes
HyperCam Solveig Multimedia6.2.2404.10 [12]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2024-04-10 Windows Proprietary commercial No
HyperCam Hyperionics2.29.002016-01-07 Windows Freeware No
Microsoft Expression Encoder Microsoft 42011-11-02 Windows Freeware No
Nero Vision Nero AG 2025 [13] [14]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2024-10-09 Windows Proprietary commercial No
Nvidia Shadowplay Nvidia 2.11.4.02016-06-21 Windows Proprietary (Part of NVIDIA GFE)No
Open Broadcaster Software
(OBS Studio)		OBS Project31.0.1 [15]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2025-01-18 Windows
macOS
Linux 		GPL-2.0-or-later Yes
Peek Philipp Wolfer1.5.1 [16]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2020-02-19 Linux GPL-3.0-or-later Yes
Pixetell Ontier Inc.1.3.14599 [17]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2010-07-29 Windows Proprietary commercial No
QuickTime X Apple Inc. 10.0 (118)2010-03-29 macOS Proprietary (Part of macOS)No
recordMyDesktop SourceForge 0.4.0 [18]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2021-03-14 Linux GPL-2.0-or-later & GPL-3.0-or-later Yes
Screencam SmartGuyz Inc.3.3.02009-03-24 Windows Proprietary commercial No
ScreenPal ScreenPal3.14.3 [19]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
3.14.3 [19]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 		2024-12-02
2024-12-02		 Windows
macOS
Freemium No
ScreenFlow Telestream 10.0.10 [20]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2023-10-31 macOS Proprietary commercial No
ShareX Jaex and Michael Delpach17.0.0 [21]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2025-01-08 Windows GPL v3 Yes
SimpleScreenRecorder maartenbaert0.4.4 [22]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2021-05-24 Linux GPL-3.0-or-later Yes
Snagit (Windows) TechSmith2024.3.0 [23] 2024-11-13 Windows Proprietary commercial No
Snagit (Mac) TechSmith2024.4.0 [24] 2024-11-14 macOS Proprietary commercial No
Snapz Pro X Ambrosia Software 2.6.12016-10-17 macOS Proprietary commercial No
VirtualDub SourceForge 1.10.4.35491 [25]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2013-10-27 Windows GPL-2.0-or-later Yes
VLC media player VideoLAN 3.0.182022-11-08 [26] Windows
macOS
Linux
BSD
Solaris
QNX
Haiku
Syllable
OS/2 		LGPL-2.1-or-later Yes
Xbox (Game DVR) / Xbox Game Bar Microsoft Windows Freeware No
XVidCap SourceForge 1.1.7 [27] [28]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2008-07-13 Unix-like GPL-2.0-or-later Yes
XSplit Broadcaster SplitmediaLabs 4.5.2412.0304 [29]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 2024-11-08 Windows Shareware No
Product namePublisherLatest stable versionLatest release dateOS 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 nameAudioEntire
desktop		 OpenGL Direct3D Editing Output
ActivePresenter [30] YesYesNoYesYes
ActivePresenter free edition [30] YesYesNoYesYes
Adobe Captivate [31] YesYes ? ?Yes SWF, EXE, MP4
Adobe Presenter Video Express [32] YesYes ? ?Yes MP4
Bandicam YesYesYesYesNo
BB FlashBack YesYes ? ?Yes AVI, FLV, SWF [33]
BB FlashBack express YesYes ? ?No AVI, FLV, SWF, MP4 (H.264 or MPEG-4 ASP), WMV, Animated GIF, PowerPoint slideshow, self-extracting EXE [33]
CamStudio YesYes ? ?Yes AVI, SWF
Camtasia (Windows) YesYesYesYesYes
Camtasia (Mac) YesYesYesYesYes
CloudApp YesYesNoNoYes ?
Debut YesYes ? ?Yes AVI, FLV, MKV, MP4, WebM, WMV, 3GP, ASF, DV, MOV, MPG, OGV
FFmpeg with a plug-inDependsDependsDependsDependsNocf. FFmpeg § Codecs, formats and protocols supported
Fraps YesYesYesYesNoFPS1 in AVI
Freeseer YesYes ? ?No Ogg
HyperCam YesYes ? ?No AVI, WMV
Jing YesYes ? ?No SWF
Microsoft Expression Encoder YesYesYesNoYes
Nero Vision Yes ? ? ?Yes
Nvidia Shadowplay YesYesNoYesNo
  • Video: MP4
  • Image sequence: PNG
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 ?—No Theora in Ogg
Screencam YesYesYesYesYes
ScreenPal YesYesYesYesYes
ScreenFlow YesYesYes—YesProRes, MP4, GIF, AAC
ShareX YesYesNoNoNo AVI, MP4, GIF
SimpleScreenRecorder YesYesYes—NoFormats supported by libavformat
Snagit (Windows) YesYesYesYesYes
Snagit (Mac) YesYesYesYesYes
Snapz Pro X YesYes ? ?No
VirtualDub Yes ? ? ?Yes AVI
VLC YesYesYes ?Yes
Windows Media Encoder YesYes ? ?No
Xbox (Game DVR) /Xbox Game Bar YesNo ? ?No MP4
XVidCapYes ? ?—No
XSplit Broadcaster YesYesYesYesYes MP4, FLV
Product nameAudioEntire
desktop		 OpenGL Direct3D Editing Output

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "ActivePresenter Changes Log" . Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  2. ↑ "Adobe Captivate - Design awesome courses in mins" . Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  3. ↑ "Bandicam 8.0.0 (Bandicam 2025) - Blur effect, 'Whiteboard and All display - Bandicam Forum" . Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  4. 1 2 "FlashBack change history" . Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  5. ↑ "CamStudio - Free Screen Recording Software". 15 December 2020. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020.
  6. ↑ "Camtasia (Windows) Version History". TechSmith Support.
  7. ↑ "Camtasia (Mac) Version History". TechSmith Support.
  8. ↑ "Introducing: Automated Drop Naming, Enhanced Annotations, Multi-Monitor Support, and 4k Video Quality Options". CloudApp Blog. 28 April 2020. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  9. 1 2 "Debut Video Capture Software Versions" . Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  10. ↑ "26th February 2013 - Fraps 3.5.99 Released". Archived from the original on 16 September 2022. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  11. ↑ "Release 3.0.1". 3 January 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  12. ↑ "HyperCam Home Edition version history" . Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  13. ↑ "Nero Video - Simply better film projects!" . Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  14. ↑ Nathan (9 October 2024). "What's New in Nero Platinum Suite 2025" . Retrieved 13 December 2024.
  15. ↑ "Release 31.0.1". 18 January 2025. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
  16. ↑ "Release 1.5.1". 19 February 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  17. ↑ "Pixetell: Powerful Screen Recorder for Efficient Communication". Archived from the original on 16 March 2011.
  18. ↑ "Release v0.4.0". 14 March 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  19. 1 2 "Release Notes Desktop - Version 3.14.3 - ScreenPal" . Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  20. ↑ "Version History".
  21. ↑ "Release 17.0.0". 8 January 2025. Retrieved 17 January 2025.
  22. ↑ "Release 0.4.4". 24 May 2021.
  23. ↑ "Snagit (Windows) Version History". TechSmith Support. 13 November 2024.
  24. ↑ "Snagit (Mac) Version History". TechSmith Support. 14 November 2024.
  25. ↑ "VirtualDub - Browse /virtualdub-win/1.10.4.35491 at SourceForge.net".
  26. ↑ "VLC: Official site - Free multimedia solutions for all OS! - VideoLAN". VideoLAN. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  27. ↑ "xvidcap - Browse /xvidcap/1.1.7 at SourceForge.net".
  28. ↑ "xvidcap / News: xvidcap 1.1.7 released".
  29. ↑ "XSplit Broadcaster Release Highlights: Powerful New Audio Mixer Features, Background Removal Updates, and More!" . Retrieved 13 December 2024.
  30. 1 2 "Feature Comparison". ActivePresenter website. Atomi Systems. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  31. ↑ "Supported file formats". Adobe Captivate Help. Adobe Systems Incorporated. Retrieved 2013-06-03.
  32. ↑ "Output formats". Adobe Presenter Video Express Help. Adobe Systems Incorporated. Retrieved 2015-09-14.
  33. 1 2 "Feature Comparison". bbsoftware.co.uk. Blueberry Software. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
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