Comparison of screencasting software
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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
Comparison by features
The following table compares features of screencasting software. The table has seven fields, as follows:
- Product name: Product's name; sometime includes edition if a certain edition is targeted
- Audio: Specifies whether the product supports recording audio commentary on the video
- Entire desktop: Specifies whether product supports recording the entire desktop
- OpenGL: Specifies whether the product supports recording from video games and software that employ OpenGL to render digital image
- Direct3D: Specifies whether the product supports recording from video games or software that employ Direct3D to render digital image
- Editing: Specifies whether the product supports editing recorded video at least to some small extent, such as cropping, trimming or splitting
- 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 | Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content. |
| Bandicam (Mac) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content. |
| 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 | Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content. |
| Camtasia (Mac) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content. |
| 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 | Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content. |
| 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 | ? | Template:Screen reader-only | No | Theora in Ogg |
| Screencam | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| ScreenPal | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content.
|
| ScreenFlow | Yes | Yes | Yes | Template:Screen reader-only | Yes | ProRes, MP4, GIF, AAC |
| ShareX | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | AVI, MP4, GIF |
| SimpleScreenRecorder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Template:Screen reader-only | No | Formats supported by libavformat |
| Snagit (Windows) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content.
|
| Snagit (Mac) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content.
|
| 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
References
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Camtasia (Windows) Version History". TechSmith Support.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Camtasia (Mac) Version History". TechSmith Support.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Introducing: Automated Drop Naming, Enhanced Annotations, Multi-Monitor Support, and 4k Video Quality Options". CloudApp Blog. 28 April 2020. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."RecCloud - AI Speech to Text". App Store. 26 September 2025. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Snagit (Windows) Version History". TechSmith Support. 13 November 2024.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Snagit (Mac) Version History". TechSmith Support. 14 November 2024.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."VLC: Official site - Free multimedia solutions for all OS! - VideoLAN". VideoLAN. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Supported file formats". Adobe Captivate Help. Adobe Systems Incorporated. Retrieved 2013-06-03.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Output formats". Adobe Presenter Video Express Help. Adobe Systems Incorporated. Retrieved 2015-09-14.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Feature Comparison". bbsoftware.co.uk. Blueberry Software. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
