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 codeavailable? Adobe Captivate Adobe Systems WindowsmacOS Adobe Presenter Video Express Adobe Systems 12.0.2.170 2017-11-28 WindowsmacOS AVS Video Editor Online Media Technologies Ltd Windows Bandicam (Windows) Bandicam Company Windows Bandicam (Mac) Bandicam Company 26.3.0 2026-03-27 macOS BB FlashBack Blueberry Software Windows BB FlashBack Express Blueberry Software Windows CamStudio CamStudio.org Windows Camtasia (Windows) TechSmith Windows Camtasia (Mac) TechSmith macOS CloudApp CloudApp 6.1 2020-07-13 WindowsmacOSLinux Debut (Windows) NCH Software Windows Debut (Mac) NCH Software macOS Fraps Beepa Pty Ltd Windows Freeseer FOSSLC WindowsmacOSLinux HyperCam Solveig Multimedia Windows HyperCam Hyperionics 2.29.00 2016-01-07 Windows Microsoft Expression Encoder Microsoft 4 2011-11-02 Windows Nero Vision Nero AG Windows Nvidia Shadowplay Nvidia 2.11.4.0 2016-06-21 Windows (Part of NVIDIA GFE) Open Broadcaster Software(OBS Studio) OBS Project WindowsmacOSLinux Peek Philipp Wolfer Linux Pixetell Ontier Inc. Windows QuickTime X Apple Inc. 10.0 (118) 2010-03-29 macOS (Part of macOS) RecCloudWANGXU TECHNOLOGY 1.5.52025-09-26Windows recordMyDesktop SourceForge Linux Screencam SmartGuyz Inc. 3.3.0 2009-03-24 Windows ScreenPal ScreenPal WindowsmacOS ScreenFlow Telestream macOS ShareX Jaex and Michael Delpach Windows SimpleScreenRecorder maartenbaert Linux Snagit (Windows) TechSmith Windows Snagit (Mac) TechSmith macOS Snapz Pro X Ambrosia Software 2.6.1 2016-10-17 macOS VirtualDub SourceForge Windows VLC media player VideoLAN 3.0.18 2022-11-08 WindowsmacOSLinuxBSDSolarisQNXHaikuSyllableOS/2 Xbox (Game DVR) / Xbox Game Bar Microsoft Windows XSplit Broadcaster SplitmediaLabs Windows Product name Publisher Latest stable version Latest release date OS Software license Source codeavailable?
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 Entiredesktop OpenGL Direct3D Editing Output Adobe Captivate SWF, EXE, MP4 Adobe Presenter Video Express MP4 Bandicam (Windows) Bandicam (Mac) BB FlashBack AVI, FLV, SWF BB FlashBack express AVI, FLV, SWF, MP4 (H.264 or MPEG-4 ASP), WMV, Animated GIF, PowerPoint slideshow, self-extracting EXE CamStudio AVI, SWF Camtasia (Windows) Camtasia (Mac) CloudApp Debut AVI, FLV, MKV, MP4, WebM, WMV, 3GP, ASF, DV, MOV, MPG, OGV FFmpeg with a plug-in cf. Fraps FPS1 in AVI Freeseer Ogg HyperCam AVI, WMV Jing SWF Microsoft Expression Encoder Nero Vision Nvidia Shadowplay Open Broadcaster Software Simple mode: FLV, MP4, MOV, MKV, TS, HLSAdvanced mode: Any format supported by libavformat Pixetell QuickTime X recordMyDesktop Theora in Ogg Screencam ScreenPal ScreenFlow ProRes, MP4, GIF, AAC ShareX AVI, MP4, GIF SimpleScreenRecorder Formats supported by libavformat Snagit (Windows) Snagit (Mac) Snapz Pro X VirtualDub AVI VLC Windows Media Encoder Xbox (Game DVR) /Xbox Game Bar MP4 XSplit Broadcaster MP4, FLV Product name Audio Entiredesktop OpenGL Direct3D Editing Output
See also Comparison of webcam software Remote desktop software Lecture recording
References