Comparison of screencasting software

Short description: None

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

* 1 Comparison by specification
* 2 Comparison by features
* 3 See also
* 4 References

## Comparison by specification

Product name  | Publisher  | Latest stable version  | Latest release date  | OS  | Software license | Source code
available?

|
|
|
|
|
|

Adobe Captivate | Adobe Systems |  |  | Windows
macOS | Proprietary commercial | No
Adobe Presenter Video Express | Adobe Systems | 12.0.2.170 | 2017-11-28 | Windows
macOS | Proprietary commercial | No
AVS Video Editor | Online Media Technologies Ltd |  |  | Windows | Commercial | No
Bandicam (Windows) | Bandicam Company |  |  | Windows | Freemium commercial | No
Bandicam (Mac) | Bandicam Company | 26.3.0 | 2026-03-27 | macOS | Freemium commercial | No
BB FlashBack | Blueberry Software |  |  | Windows | Proprietary commercial | No
BB FlashBack Express  | Blueberry Software |  |  | Windows | Freeware | No
CamStudio | CamStudio.org |  |  | Windows | GPL | Yes
Camtasia (Windows) | TechSmith | [1] |  | Windows | Proprietary commercial | No
Camtasia (Mac) | TechSmith | [2] |  | macOS | Proprietary commercial | No
CloudApp | CloudApp | 6.1[3] | 2020-07-13 | Windows
macOS
Linux | Freemium | No
Debut (Windows) | NCH Software |  |  | Windows | Trialware | No
Debut (Mac) | NCH Software |  |  | macOS | Trialware | No
Fraps | Beepa Pty Ltd |  |  | Windows | Proprietary commercial | No
Freeseer | FOSSLC |  |  | Windows
macOS
Linux | GPL-3.0-or-later | Yes
HyperCam | Solveig Multimedia |  |  | Windows | Proprietary commercial | No
HyperCam | Hyperionics | 2.29.00 | 2016-01-07 | Windows | Freeware | No
Microsoft Expression Encoder  | Microsoft | 4 | 2011-11-02 | Windows | Freeware | No
Nero Vision | Nero AG |  |  | Windows | Proprietary commercial | No
Nvidia Shadowplay  | Nvidia | 2.11.4.0 | 2016-06-21 | Windows | Proprietary (Part of NVIDIA GFE) | No
Open Broadcaster Software
(OBS Studio)  | OBS Project |  |  | Windows
macOS
Linux | GPL-2.0-or-later | Yes
Peek | Philipp Wolfer |  |  | Linux | GPL-3.0-or-later | Yes
Pixetell | Ontier Inc. |  |  | Windows | Proprietary commercial | No
QuickTime X | Apple Inc. | 10.0 (118) | 2010-03-29 | macOS | Proprietary (Part of macOS) | No
RecCloud | WANGXU TECHNOLOGY | 1.5.5[4] | 2025-09-26 | Windows | Freemium commercial | No
recordMyDesktop | SourceForge |  |  | Linux | GPL-2.0-or-later & GPL-3.0-or-later | Yes
Screencam | SmartGuyz Inc. | 3.3.0 | 2009-03-24 | Windows | Proprietary commercial | No
ScreenPal | ScreenPal |

| Windows
macOS
| Freemium | No
ScreenFlow | Telestream |  |  | macOS | Proprietary commercial | No
ShareX | Jaex and Michael Delpach |  |  | Windows | GPL v3 | Yes
SimpleScreenRecorder | maartenbaert |  |  | Linux | GPL-3.0-or-later | Yes
Snagit (Windows) | TechSmith | [5] |  | Windows | Proprietary commercial | No
Snagit (Mac) | TechSmith | [6] |  | macOS | Proprietary commercial | No
Snapz Pro X | Ambrosia Software | 2.6.1 | 2016-10-17 | macOS | Proprietary commercial | No
VirtualDub | SourceForge |  |  | Windows | GPL-2.0-or-later | Yes
VLC media player | VideoLAN | 3.0.18 | 2022-11-08[7] | 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
XSplit Broadcaster  | SplitmediaLabs |  |  | Windows | Shareware | No
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

|
|
|
|
|
|

Adobe Captivate[8] | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | SWF, EXE, MP4
Adobe Presenter Video Express[9] | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | MP4
Bandicam (Windows) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |

* Video: AVI, MP4
* Images format:BMP, PNG, JPEG
* Audio: WAV, MP3

Bandicam (Mac) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

* Video: MOV, MP4
* Audio: M4A

BB FlashBack | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | AVI, FLV, SWF[10]
BB FlashBack express | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | AVI, FLV, SWF, MP4 (H.264 or MPEG-4 ASP), WMV, Animated GIF, PowerPoint slideshow, self-extracting EXE[10]
CamStudio | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | AVI, SWF
Camtasia (Windows) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

* Video: MP4, MP4 embedded in webpage (HTML5), WMV, AVI, Animated GIF
* Images format: PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP
* Audio: WAV, MP3, M4A (audio-only MP4)

Camtasia (Mac) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

* Video: MP4, MP4 embedded in webpage (HTML5), MOV, Animated GIF
* Images format: PNG
* Audio: WAV, M4A (audio-only MP4)

CloudApp | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | ?
Debut | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | AVI, FLV, MKV, MP4, WebM, WMV, 3GP, ASF, DV, MOV, MPG, OGV
FFmpeg with a plug-in  | Depends | Depends | Depends | Depends | No | cf. FFmpeg § Codecs, formats and protocols supported
Fraps | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | FPS1 in AVI
Freeseer | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | Ogg
HyperCam | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | AVI, WMV
Jing | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | SWF
Microsoft Expression Encoder  | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Nero Vision | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
Nvidia Shadowplay  | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |

* Video: MP4
* Image sequence: PNG

Open Broadcaster Software | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Simple mode: FLV, MP4, MOV, MKV, TS, HLS
Advanced mode: Any format supported by libavformat
Pixetell | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
QuickTime X  | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No |
recordMyDesktop | Yes | Yes | ? | N/A | No | Theora in Ogg
Screencam | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
ScreenPal | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

* Video: MP4, FLV, AVI. Animated GIF
* Audio: WAV
* Images format: PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP
* Optical character recognition (OCR): simple text

ScreenFlow | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A | Yes | ProRes, MP4, GIF, AAC
ShareX | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | AVI, MP4, GIF
SimpleScreenRecorder | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A | No | Formats supported by libavformat
Snagit (Windows) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

* Video: MP4, Animated GIF
* Images format: PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, WebP, BMP
* Documents: PDF
* Optical character recognition (OCR): simple text

Snagit (Mac) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

* Video: MP4, Animated GIF
* Images format: PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, WebP, HEIF, BMP
* Documents: PDF
* Optical character recognition (OCR): simple text

Snapz Pro X | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No |
VirtualDub | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | AVI
VLC | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
Windows Media Encoder | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No |
Xbox (Game DVR) /Xbox Game Bar  | Yes  | No  | ?  | ?  | No  | MP4
XSplit Broadcaster  | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | MP4, FLV
Product name  | Audio  | Entire
desktop  | OpenGL | Direct3D | Editing | Output

## See also

* Comparison of webcam software
* Remote desktop software
* Lecture recording

## References

1. ↑ "Camtasia (Windows) Version History". https://support.techsmith.com/hc/en-us/articles/115006443267.
2. ↑ "Camtasia (Mac) Version History". https://support.techsmith.com/hc/en-us/articles/115006624748.
3. ↑ "Introducing: Automated Drop Naming, Enhanced Annotations, Multi-Monitor Support, and 4k Video Quality Options" (in en-US). 28 April 2020. https://getcloudapp.com/blog/feature-update-6-1.
4. ↑ "RecCloud - AI Speech to Text". 26 September 2025. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reccloud-ai-speech-to-text/id6476857948.
5. ↑ "Snagit (Windows) Version History". 13 November 2024. https://www.techsmith.com/snagit-version-history.html.
6. ↑ "Snagit (Mac) Version History". 14 November 2024. https://www.techsmith.com/snagit-mac-version-history.html.
7. ↑ "VLC: Official site - Free multimedia solutions for all OS! - VideoLAN". https://www.videolan.org/.
8. ↑ "Supported file formats". Adobe Captivate Help. Adobe Systems Incorporated. http://helpx.adobe.com/captivate/kb/supported-file-formats-captivate-6.html.
9. ↑ "Output formats". Adobe Presenter Video Express Help. Adobe Systems Incorporated. https://helpx.adobe.com/presenter/using/record-video-presentations.html.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Feature Comparison". Blueberry Software. http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBFlashBack/CompareEditions.aspx.

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison of screencasting software. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Software:Comparison_of_screencasting_software&oldid=4289759"