What Is The Best Screen Recording Software For Mac
These days, scouting for a screen recorder for Mac isn’t ridiculously difficult. But, finding a decent free one is an uphill task for sure. In a vast sea of screen recording tools on the internet where almost every other item is either paid or downright bogus, how would you know which one is the best free screen recording software for Mac? Now, there are many factors to consider such as – HD video quality, audio recording, video subtitles, area highlighting, and social media integration, et al. before you choose/purchase a screen recorder software for your Mac. But, why would you shell out your precious money on even one expensive screen recorder when we have a list of ten of the best free screen recorders for Mac ready for you to have a good look at?
Apr 21, 2020 Screen Recording Software for Mac is designed to capture all screen activities while you work on the Mac display. The best screen recording software should be able to capture videos in HD quality that is critical for coding tutorial and game demonstration videos. There are several paid and free Mac screen recording software available in.
Apr 07, 2019 10 Best Free Screen Recorder Software for Recording & Streaming (Windows & Mac) by Lauren Todd - Last Updated April 7, 2019 (This post may contain affiliate links.).
Jan 23, 2020 TinyTake claims to be the best free screen capture and video recording software out there. The software allows you to capture a video of your screen activity, annotate it, and share it on social media. TinyTake advertises itself as simple, free, and feature-rich, though many features are only available with the paid options.
To top it all off, these best free screen recording software for Mac are most likely suitable for whatever your needs may be spanning from a coding tutorial to even game demonstration videos. Without further ado, here’s our roundup:
1) Monosnap [Overall Best screen recording tool for Mac]
Monosnap is widely regarded as one of the best free screen recorders for Mac due to a plethora of features that it possesses. For starters, it automatically turns on yourwebcam, mic and system audio before the recording takes place. Monosnap can also be paired with your Mac’s inbuilt camera or even an external camera for the recordings.
To ensure a mega-smooth playback, MonoSnap can also record your Mac’s screen in 60fps to meet the need in dire situations. It comes in quite handy with a hotkey setup for taking screenshots wherein it can capture the full screen or a part of the screen.
What else has it going that makes it a surefire best free recording software for Mac? For video recording, Monosnap supports capturing screencasts, lets you highlight the important information with annotations and even blur private information from the screen.
This beast of a screen recorder for Mac is preferred by students and professionals alike with its seamless integration with the cloud. Monosnap can be connected to cloud drives such as Google Drive, Yandex.Disk, Dropbox, Box.com and CloudApp to upload recorded videos/screenshots that can be shared with PCs and smartphones. Even if you are looking at one-off recordings that are crisp and shareable, Monosnap can do the job right off the hook.
2) OBS Studio [Best screen recording tool in Mac for Gaming]
Being an open source screen recorder for live streaming and video recording, OBS Studio is a solid contender for the coveted spot of the best free screen recording software for Mac. OBS Studio also works just as fine with other platforms such as Windows & Linux. If you are a passionate gamer, chances are this free screen recorder will be your best mate.
What else is in store? You can derive some really high-performance based real-time video/audio capturing and mixing from OBS Studio. There are various additional filters available for video sources too such as: colour correction, chroma/colour keying, image masking that come under a nifty little video editor.
Not to mention a built-in audio mixer with filter functions such as: noise suppression, noise gate, and gain. OBS Studio also allows encoding using H264 and AAC audio formats. It can also produce a video file output in formats ranging from MP4 to MLV.
3) QuickTime Player [Best inbuilt screen recorder for Mac]
A big favourite amongst Mac users, QuickTime Player is the default video player on Mac which can be used for playing various media files present on the Mac OS as it supports a wide range of diverse video formats. Although it is primarily a video player, QuickTime Player can ably perform functions of some of the best free screen recorders for Mac out there.
It is very easy to fiddle around with and lets users easily choose the entire desktop or a selected area for recording. There is also an optional feature to add your microphone’s audio channel or display the cursor in the recorded video.
4) Screen Recorder Robot Lite [Best screen recorder with no watermarks]
If you are only seeking some on-the-go screencasting, look no further than the Screen Recorder Robot Lite which is a no-frills-attached screen recorder that simply edits the recorded video to perfection.
Moreover, unlike some of the best free screen recording software for Mac on our list, Screen Recorder Robot Lite doesn’t add any unwanted watermarks on the video. However, the length of the videos recorded through this tool can range from a minimum of 3 minutes to a maximum of 10 minutes. But, on the brightside you can record over and over again and then edit the video to make it longer.
5) Recordit: Instant Screencasts [Best screen recorder for GIFs]
A unique entrant on our list of the best free screen recording software for Mac, Recordit’s novelty factor lies in generating shareable GIFs on the fly. With Recordit, you can make a quick video of yourself doing something interesting/entertaining on your Mac and then convert the recorded video to a GIF.
Moreover, Recordit allows users to record the screen for up to 5 minutes before they can create a fancy GIF from the recorded video. The screencast, which is shareable to various social media platforms, is uploaded directly to the software’s servers.
6) TinyTake
Believe it or not TinyTake is a fully free program, but in order to avail its services you will have to sign up for a TinyTake account. But, once installed on your Mac, TinyTake can be accessed right from the menu bar. However, to get started with your screen recording, you will have to click on the icon and log in to your TinyTake account at least once.
But, wait there’s good news in the offing: You can record from anywhere between two minutes to up to two hours, and even add notes or annotations on the screen. Aren’t all these features the hallmark of perhaps the best free screen recording software for Mac? Moreover, TinyTake also allows you to post your videos straight to YouTube.
7) Jing [Best screen recording tool for narration videos]
Jing by TechSmith is a rather peculiar screen capture application on our list of the best free screen recorders for Mac but in an interesting way. Jing can capture a video that can be saved exclusively in SWF format or stored straight in the screencast. It also comes with five minutes of video recording with additional microphone support for recording.
Where can it be used? Jing can be useful for making narration videos or wherever narrating of steps to solve a problem is involved.
8) SCREENCAST-O-MATIC
Even though Screencast-O-Matic is absolutely free to use, it also offers a paid version for about $18 per year, which comprises of add-on features. With the free version of Screencast-o-Matic you can record for an impressive duration of up to fifteen minutes, and do screen and webcam recording as well. Further, you can even publish your recorded videos to YouTube, or save all your recordings as video files in multiple formats.
9) VLC
Did you know that the renowned video player, VLC can also be used for screen recording? Yes, VLC has been around for quite a while and is capable of doing many things such as playing videos in formats galore. But, for a free and open-source software, VLC does a pretty decent job of screen recording as well.
10) Apowersoft Screen Recorder
The last one on our list of the best free screen recorders for Mac doesn’t disappoint one bit in terms of utility. Apowersoft Screen Recorder is a very lightweight screen recorder that offers utility in the form of a pause and play button even in the midst of recording so that users can have the flexibility to control the recording contents.
Besides, Apowersoft supports recording audio from your microphone and is also capable of syncing the audio to the screencasts. Plus, there is a great option of scheduling up tasks to automatically record for you as per your convenience.
Bonus addition on our list of the Best free screen recorders for Mac
11) Quickcast
If you want to avoid a resource hogging, heavy-duty screen recorder and are only seeking something to record crisp and short 3 to 5 minute videos, then you might want to give QuickCast a quick peep.
Quickcast can work seamlessly with your webcam and external microphone as well. All you need to do is to get the app installed in your menu bar and voila! Just click on it when you need it.
Best Screen Recording Software Mac
And…that’s about it! Did you like our round-up of the best free screen recording software for Mac? Did we miss out on any screen recorder that you are aware of? Sound off in the comments.
SEE ALSO: Best Audio Recording Software
Screen recording has become one of the best methods to create a footage of your desktop activity with ease. There might be several occasions when you want to capture your gameplay, record streaming videos, or either make some video tutorials or software reviews on your Mac. In case these circumstances arise, a good screen recorder is necessary. Actually, there are lots of screen recording software that are available online. However, most of these tools only offer paid version or have a poor recording quality. In this article, we will introduce the best free screen recorder for Mac.
Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder
Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder is a free but in the meantime very comprehensive program that you can use to create high-quality videos. With the help of this tool, you will have an easy access to the experience of using a brilliant screen activity recorder that doesn’t leave any watermark at all on your video after a successful registration. Moreover, this program can capture your desktop activity together with the audio coming from your system and microphone. Overall, there is surely no doubt that Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder is one of the best free screen recorders for Mac available on the market. To utilize this program, you can follow the step-by-step guide below.
Firstly, you need to visit the official website of Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder.
On the main page of the site you can click the “Start Recording” button to launch the screen recorder.
Once you launched it, you can set to record screen or webcam, custom recording area, and change audio input, etc. You can also go to settings and make some configurations.
Once done settings, hit the red recording button to start recording. During the recording process, you can add a webcam to your screen, and you can even add some annotations to it.
After you have finalized the recording, click the stop button to stop it. At this point, a preview window will pop up. On the preview window, you can save the video by clicking the “Save video” button, or even share the video with your friends by clicking the share button.
Monosnap
Monosnap is another mentionable flexible program specifically developed for Mac OS. You can use this program not only to record your screen but also to take quick screenshots in case you need to use it as a powerful screen recording software. In addition, this tool can be used as a storage software. This program can also offer the option of capturing your webcam, microphone or system sound as you can just set it before you start recording according to your need. Aside from that, the mentioned program can record in 60 fps. This means that you can record smoothly even you are playing high framerate games. If you want to use this free video recording software for Mac, you may follow the steps below.
Download and install Monosnap.
After successfully finalizing the installation, click the Monosnap’s drop down menu, then choose “Record Video” to start recording.
In case you want to stop this program from recording, just click its drop down menu again then click “Finish recording” to end it. Afterwards, your recording will be saved automatically, and you can check it right away at the location of your choice of saving.
OBS Studio
The next free screen recording tool for Mac that you can rely on according to our list is OBS Studio. This is a free and open source screen recorder that is available on both Windows, Mac, and Linux. The suggested program will allow you to capture real-time activities and create excellent live streaming videos. Moreover, this program has the ability to incorporate footage from your previous recordings or add exiting videos. On the other side, this program is to some degree complicated, in the sense that you can take certain time familiarizing its interface and configurations. Here are the steps on how to use this program.
First of all you need to have OBS Studio installed in your computer.
Once you have it, launch OBS, then click “Scene” > “Source” > “Add Icon”, and then click “Windows Capture”.
After the previous step is done, a pop up window will show and allow you to rename your video you are going to record. Once done, click the “OK” button to proceed.
Next, select the window you want to record.
Lastly, you only need to hit the “Start Recording” button to initiate recording. Once done recording, just click the top button to end it.
Jing
Another free screen recording software for Mac is Jing by Techsmith that has been very popular on the market for a long time. This program is very simple and easy to use that are the pillars of its popularity. It comes with a movable sun icon that can be placed anywhere on your display, which enables you to easily utilize its function. Aside from screen recording, you can use this tool to take screenshots and edit it right after capturing. However, this program can only record up to 5 minutes. If you are still interested to use this program despite its time limitation, you can follow these steps.
First and foremost, download and install this program on your pc from the official Techsmith website.
Hit the “Sun” icon and select “Capture”.
Once you are inside the options panel, simply adjust the frame according to your preference then select “Capture video”.
To stop the recording, simply hit the “Stop” button, and then the recorded file will automatically pop up for preview.
Quicktime Player
The last recording program for Mac is the Quicktime Player. This is an extensible multimedia framework that can be used not only to record videos but also to play, edit and share videos on Mac. This tool can be characterized with that it has a very intuitive interface which makes it very easy to use even for beginners. This program can create footage of your Mac screen with a web camera or iPhone screen. You can follow the instructions below to capture your screen using this best free screen recorder for Mac.
To begin with, you have to launch Quicktime Player at the first hand.
Once you see the interface, click “File” and select “New Screen Recording”, then a screen recording window will pop up. On this window, you can configure your recording settings. After configuring, hit the red round recording button to start recording your screen.
Once done with the complete recording process, click the “Stop” button in the menu bar, then your recorded file will automatically pop up.
Conclusion
As you can see, the aforementioned programs are the currently best free Mac screen recording software you can find on the market. You can decide which program you will use for your recording. I highly recommend Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder. Compared to the other programs above, this program can be used to quickly record your screen, audio, as well as a webcam as it is a web-based application. Aside from that, it has an easy interface and even beginners can use it.