#1 video, audio, game, webcam, screen and voice recording software for PC and Mac are intuitive and user-friendly. Download free. Once you’ve plugged in your new Mac, you’re in for a treat, because it’s pretty easy to set up, whether you have an old Mac to transfer data from or you’re starting from scratch.
A free screen recorder is just what you need if you're looking to make a video of what's happening on your desktop. Like an advanced version of a screenshot, screen recording enables you to create demonstration videos, record gaming achievements for posterity, and create videos than can be shared online on the likes of YouTube.
It is important to choose the right free screen recorder depending on what you intend to do with the footage you capture. Different recorders offer a range of differing features, can save captures in varying formats, or capture footage from external sources such as a webcam – and some even give you the opportunity to upload to the internet directly from within the program. Some run nicely on average hardware, while others are more demanding. The point is that there is plenty of choice.
No matter what you're hoping to do with footage captured from your computer, you need the right tool for the job. And this is where our look at the best free screen recorders can help – take a look and see which one is best for you.
1. OBS Studio
The best free screen recorder for capturing or streaming games, packed with features to help you achieve high-quality recordings
No restrictions on video length
If you’re a keen gamer, OBS Studio is easily the best screen capture software for you. Unlike the hugely popular FRAPS (which only lets you record for 30 seconds at a stretch unless you’ve bought a license, and applies a watermark to the resulting footage), OBS Studio is open source, and completely free to use without restrictions.
Free screen recorder OBS Studio supports both streaming and recording in high definition, with no restrictions on the number or length of your creations. You can stream live to Twitch or YouTube gaming, save projects and come back to them later, or encode your footage in FLV format and save it locally.
Because OBS Studio can record directly from your graphics card, it’s able to capture games running in full-screen mode (many other screen recorders can only record if the game is windowed), with customizable hotkeys to control the recording. OBS Studio can also make full use of multi-core CPUs for improved performance, and can record at 60FPS (or even higher).
It might take a little while to set it up exactly how you want, but OBS Studio is by far the best and most powerful screen recorder for gamers.
2. FlashBack Express
Another feature-packed screen recorder that's ideal for recording games and capturing footage from your webcam
Built-in video editor
OBS Studio is our top choice for recording from a desktop or webcam, but Flashback Express comes an extremely close second. Despite being a free version of a paid program, FlashBack Express won't put ugly watermarks over your recordings or impose time limits, and it's packed with features and tools that rival many premium programs. Its interface is less intimidating than OBS Studio, so if you've never used a screen recorder before, it's an excellent choice.
You can record from your whole screen, a window, a selected area, or a webcam. Once you’ve finished, your recording will appear in a simple editor, where you can crop and trim it to suit your needs, then export it to YouTube, an FTP server, or your PC.
That’s all fairly standard fare for a free screen recorder, but take a minute to dive into Flashback’s advanced options and you’ll find a wealth of thoughtfully designed settings that will make your desktop recordings look truly professional. The recorder can automatically obscure passwords entered on screen, replace your silly wallpaper with a plain one, hide messy desktop icons, and highlight your mouse pointer to make it easier to follow. There's also a dedicated gaming mode that lets you define the number of frames recorded per second.
There’s no limit on the length of your recordings unless you choose to set one, which can be useful if there’s a chance you might accidentally leave the recorder running. You can also choose to break long recordings up into chunks – a brilliant touch that helps you avoid creating huge, unwieldy files. Your recordings won’t be watermarked, either.
Following a recent update, Flashback Express can export in WMV, AVI and MP4 formats, eliminating the need for a separate video converter, and it no longer requires a free license key for activation – just install the software and you're ready to start recording.
Developer Blueberry Software has also released a free screen recorder designed specifically for games – FBX. This recorder captures HD in-game footage, with hardware acceleration for AMD and Nvidia cards, and Intel CPUs.
If you're thinking about upgrading to FlashBack Pro, Blueberry software is offering TechRadar readers an exclusive 25% discount.
3. Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder
An in-browser recorder more powerful than most desktop apps
Lots of export options
If you want to record a presentation, software demonstration or tutorial, give Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder a try. It's a browser-based tool, which means it's not suitable for games, but for any other tasks it's ideal.
The first time you use Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder, you'll be prompted to download a small launcher application. You'll then be provided with a control bar packed with more options than you'll find in most desktop screen recording software. You can capture footage from your desktop or a webcam, and record audio from your PC, microphone, both or neither.
You can record the whole screen, select an area manually or choose one of the preset resolutions – ideal if you’re recording a clip for YouTube, for example, and don’t want to use a separate video editor to resize it later.
Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder also offers customizable keyboard shortcuts for speed and convenience. You can choose whether or not to include the cursor in the recording and take your pick from a range of output formats including MP4, WMV, AVI, MOV and many more. You can even add annotations during the recording.
Once you’re done, you can save the recording as a video file or GIF, upload it directly to YouTube or Vimeo, or send it to Google Drive or Dropbox. You can also edit the clip. Selecting this option will download an additional component – Apowersoft Video Editor – which lets you make simple adjustments before exporting your video in your preferred format. A truly exceptional tool.
Note that the 'Download desktop version' button links to a program called Apowersoft Screen Recorder Pro. This is a trial version of a premium application, and is more limited than Online Screen Recorder.
4. Debut Video Capture
Amazingly flexible, and capable of much more than just screen recording
Pro Edition Quarterly Plan
$3.33
Home Edition
Pro Edition
Scheduled recordings
Looks a little dated
Debut Video Capture is a new addition to our roundup of free screen recorders, and although its slightly dated design does it few favors, it's an extremely powerful program that can do much more than just capture what's happening on your PC monitor.
In addition to basic screen recording (with no time limits or watermarks), Debut Video Capture can also record footage from external devices, including webcams and security cameras. It can even record on a regular schedule, which means it can become the main hub of a home security system. Not too shabby for a program that's totally free for personal use.
There are no post-production editing tools, but you can apply filters and add your own captions and watermarks before you begin recording. There's no option for exporting videos directly to YouTube or Facebook, but they can be saved in all the main formats, including MP4, MOV and AVI (to name just three).
Debut Video Capture is currently in public beta, so we look forward to seeing the final release version with a lick of extra polish soon. Best sticky note app for mac.
5. ShareX
A fine choice if you want to share your screen recordings online
Dozens of export options
Unintuitive interface
ShareX is an open source app for capturing still screen grabs and recording videos. There are no watermarks or time limits to worry about, but the interface isn't the most intuitive in the world so you’ll be best off using keyboard shortcuts. For quick reference, you can start a recording by tapping Shift + Print Screen, and stop it again using Ctrl + Shift + Print Screen.
You can also use this free screen recorder to save your capture as a GIF rather than a video file, which can be extremely useful for sharing on forums and social media.
Not only is ShareX a brilliant free screen recorder, it can also capture an entire scrolling webpage, capture and identify text via OCR, and even capture your screen according to a schedule.
Another of its best features is the ability to send your captured grabs and videos straight to a file-sharing or social media site. There’s a vast array of options, which you can check out on the project’s site.
Unfortunately, ShareX doesn’t support taking screen grabs or recordings from games running in full-screen mode. Other than that, it’s a superb screen recorder that will serve you extremely well.
Watch our rundown of our favourite free video editors:
Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the best products; you can learn more about our review process here. We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links.
Taking a screenshot is one of those things you don't think much about until it's time to do it. Both smartphones and computers have basic screen capturing built in, and that'll be enough for some people—but once your requirements get a little more advanced, it's time to turn to specialized tools.
Some let you grab full web pages, while others focus on the strength of their automation or editing features. You'll also find timers, screen and webcam recording, integration with other software or online services, and other options designed to make the capturing process more useful and powerful.
The majority of screen capture apps are designed to run on Windows, although there are one or two good options for Mac owners, plus a few that run in a browser. The majority are free or donation-supported, at least for the basic version, but you'll need to pay for the high-end ones. Below, we rounded up some of the best.
Our Top PicksBest for Professionals: Snagit
Long the gold standard in screen capture software, Snagit remains popular with corporate customers due to its powerful features and simple usability.
Recording Software For Mac
Available for MacOS and Windows, Snagit is an attractive app that's easy to get to grips with. A small control panel at the top of the screen lets you start a screen capture or change settings, or you can also press the PrtScr button or a user-defined hotkey instead.
A timer of up to 60 seconds makes it easier to grab menus and tooltips in your screenshots, and the clipping tool itself has advanced features like forcing the aspect ratio and scrolling around the highlighted area to help capture the exact part you need.
Best Obs Recording Settings For Mac
The editor has dozens of useful tools like callouts, blur, arrows, and more. Creating screen recordings is as straightforward as capturing static images, and you can easily create videos and animated GIFs straight from the app.
Sharing can be done in a multitude of ways, including cloud storage and direct integration with Microsoft Office apps.
While Snagit is more expensive than most of the competition, if you're regularly taking and sharing screenshots and recordings, especially in a business environment, the extras are likely well worth the money.
Best for Capturing Web Pages: Fireshot
Grabbing a quick screen capture is easy when everything fits on one screen, but what if it doesn't? Web pages are a prime example—it's painful and time-consuming to keep taking screenshots as you scroll down the page, and then try to combine them all into one long image at the end.
A few of the better screen capture tools automate this process, and one of our favorites is Fireshot. Running in Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, and other browsers, Fireshot makes it quick and easy to capture as much or as little of a web page as you need.
You can edit and annotate the captured page, save it as a .PDF or various image types, and share it via email, cloud storage such as Google Drive and Dropbox, or tools like Evernote.
Most people will get by just fine with the free Lite or Standard versions of the app, but more advanced features are available in the paid Pro version.
Best for Flexibility: Screenshot Captor
Taking partial or full-screen screenshots is one thing, but how about grabbing the content from your webcam, scanner, or any scrolling window? Screenshot Captor is one of the very few apps that can do the latter, but the features don't stop there.
Voice Recording Software For Mac
You can automate several aspects of the capture process, including creating file names, uploading to image hosting services, and more. This is particularly useful if you need to capture many screenshots in a row—with a little setup, the software will manage everything behind the scenes and stay out of your way.
Screenshot Captor sits in the taskbar when not in use, and you can activate it with a range of hotkeys or by clicking on the icon. Annotation and enhancement tools are built in, with useful extras like watermarking and easily blacking out usernames and passwords.
This Windows-only tool is supported by donations rather than ads, although you'll need to request a free license key to get started.
Best for Automation: ShareXBest Audio Recording Software Mac
When it comes to screen capture software, there's plenty to like about ShareX. As well as being free and open source, this Windows app is packed full of useful tools. As long as you can work your way around the slightly messy interface, you'll find pretty much every feature you could hope for buried somewhere in ShareX.
There are over a dozen different capture techniques, including choosing specific monitors, windows, and regions, with a variety of shapes available so you can grab the exact area you need. Several annotations and editing tools let you crop and pixelate the image, and add shapes, text, and more.
ShareX's automation features are particularly strong, letting you do anything from copying, uploading, and watermarking captured images to uploading them to 30+ destinations, then shortening and sharing the resulting link. If you have a particular workflow that you like to use for your screen captures or recordings, there's a good chance the app can accommodate it. Powerful, free, and regularly updated for over a decade, ShareX is well worth trying out.
Best for Optical Character Recognition (OCR): Screenpresso
There aren't many screen capture tools that include optical character recognition (OCR), but it's a useful feature. Screenpresso Pro lets you analyze any image you've captured for words and letters, and turn them into editable text.
The Windows software has many other features as well and represents good value for a lifetime license. Screenpresso Pro can capture static images and video, including both what's on the screen and what is being recorded via webcam. It's also possible to connect an Android device to the computer and record what is happening on it—an unusual and useful option.
An image editor is built into the app, which lets you add effects and watermarks as well as perform other standard editing tasks. A video editing tool is also included, but it's quite basic—you'll likely need to use something else for all but the simplest tasks.
Screen Recording Software For Mac
Once you're done, it's straightforward to save and share on a variety of platforms, including Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, and social media.
If you don't need the features of the Pro version, a basic free option is also available, limited to image captures and watermarked video only.
Best Inbuilt Option (Windows): Snipping Tool
If you only have basic screen capture requirements, you may not need to download or install anything at all. Since Windows Vista, Microsoft's operating system has included the 'Snipping Tool,' a basic screen capture utility.
It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the dedicated apps mentioned above but is fine for capturing the contents of application windows, rectangular, or free-form areas. You can set a delay of between one and five seconds, and basic editing tools like pens and highlighters are included.
When you're happy with the image, you can save it as a PNG, JPG, or GIF file, or send it by e-mail. It's also possible to copy the screenshot and paste it into your editing app of choice, or open it directly in Paint or Paint 3D, depending on your version of Windows.
To use the Snipping Tool, press the Windows key, type 'snipping,' and click the app icon. Best diet software for mac. For even more basic screen capturing, press the Print Screen button on your keyboard to capture the entire screen, Alt-Print Screen to capture the active app window, or the Windows key and S to select a rectangular area.
Best Built-In Option (Mac): Screenshot
Ever wondered why there aren't many good screen capture apps for MacOS? The answer is simple: because Apple's inbuilt version already does most of the things you need.
If you're running at least OS X Mojave, pressing the Command, Shift, and 5 keys simultaneously opens up Screenshot, a more-than-useful screen capture utility. A small toolbar at the bottom of the screen lets you select from full-screen, window, or rectangular area screenshots, as well as recording full-screen or windowed video.
If that's not enough, the Options menu lets you set a capture timer (five or ten seconds), choose whether to show the mouse pointer in the captured image, pick a save location, and more.
Other keyboard shortcuts are available, which also work on earlier versions of MacOS. Try Command — Shift — 3 to capture the entire screen, Command — Shift — 4 to capture an app window or selected area, or Command — Shift — 6 to grab a screenshot of the touchbar if your Mac has one.
Once the image is captured, you can click on it to get basic editing options, do nothing to let it save to the default location, or press Control and click it to do things like choosing an app to open it with.
Our writers spent 9 hours researching the most popular screen capture software on the market. Before making their final recommendations, they considered 12 different software overall, read over 15 user reviews (both positive and negative), and tested 3 of the software themselves. All of this research adds up to recommendations you can trust.
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