12 Best Screencasting & Screen Recording Software in 2023 [Essential Guide]

Screencasting software is used to record and share screens. This can be useful for creating instructional videos, game recordings, or videos where you just want to show off your screen.

You can use screencasting software to create a video of yourself giving a presentation in front of your computer. A screen recording can be used as a presentation itself or as a component of a larger presentation.

For example, you might record yourself giving a presentation and then upload that video to YouTube, so that your audience can watch it later. Screencasting has become more popular in recent years with the rise of tools like Zoom and Skype that make it easy to have remote meetings.

These tools also make it easy for users to share their screens with others online. With the growth of online video consumption, many people are turning towards these types of services for business meetings and presentations.

And if you’re not using one yet, now might be the time to start!

Using an online service allows you not only save money on travel expenses but also opens up new possibilities for collaboration with colleagues around the world who may not have access to your physical office space. A lot of people are looking for ways to record their computer screens in order to make educational content or use it as part of a larger presentation. 

 

 

Screen Recording and Screencasting Software – Introduction

This article introduces you to the world of screen recording and screencasting software. It explains what these terms mean and describes how such applications can help you with your projects.

What is Screen Recording? The term “screen recorder” refers to a program that lets you record everything happening on the computer screen, including computer audio.

Some programs in this category also let you record webcam video and audio from a connected microphone.

Screen recording is a very useful tool that can be used in various situations. For instance, it was originally developed for creating on-screen video presentations, but soon after its inception, it became popular for making tutorials and software demos as well.

In recent years screen recorders have become sophisticated enough to let people create full-length movies and even record games played on their computers.

What is Screencasting? The word “screencast” refers to the results of using a screen recorder – a series of screenshots recorded one after another.

Screencasting is often confused with capturing screenshots – some people think that these two terms are interchangeable. However, there is an important distinction between them: while screenshots capture only single still images, screencasts show everything happening on the screen frame by frame. 

What is the Best Screen Recording and Screencasting Software?

There are a ton of screen recording tools out there for Windows. Some of them are free, some cost money, and some come bundled with other software you might already have installed.

There are a few different types of solutions available: Screencasting software is designed to record your screen so you can create video tutorials or presentations. These apps typically include annotation tools and an option to record audio as well.

Screen recording apps simply record what’s on your screen so you can watch it later. These apps don’t usually require any special hardware, but they may limit the length of your recordings.

Game recording software is designed for gamers who want to share their in-game footage. These apps generally offer more advanced hardware acceleration options than screencasting tools.

The best screen recorder for you will depend on what you intend to use it for and whether you’re willing to pay for the software. Let’s take a look at the best free and paid options available right now.

1. Screencast-O-Matic

Features

1. Select a computer, tablet or phone to record your screen on.
2. If you have a webcam and microphone connected to your computer, you can also capture video from the camera and audio from the microphone.
3. Trim, crop, rotate and flip your video.
4. Add visual effects like arrows and text to highlight important areas of your screen.
5. Use our Video Editor to remove unwanted footage before saving your video.

Pros

•  Record all webcams, audio, and screen activity without limits.
• Upload your video to the cloud or save it locally in multiple formats.
• Add text, arrows and more with our editing tools. Share your video with a link, embed it on a website, or upload it to YouTube.
• Publish to YouTube directly from our app.
• Access your videos anytime from anywhere with free mobile apps.
• 24/7 customer support.
• Advanced privacy controls allow you to control who sees your videos and how they can interact with them.
• Get feedback from viewers using our comment feature.

2. Camtasia

Camtasia, the software used to create videos and tutorials, uses the drag-and-drop feature. It can be used in a variety of ways: to create an explainer video, product demo, instructional video, etc.

Camtasia is user-friendly and can be utilized by people with very little or no editing experience. The Camtasia screen recorder also allows you to record your screen for up to 30 minutes at a time.

Features

 –  Record your screen, webcam, or both

–  Import images, audio, and video up to 4K resolution

–  Record and import PowerPoint presentations directly from the app

–  Add built-in effects to bring out the best in your audio and video

–  Quickly produce videos for training, demos, meetings, sales pitches, marketing videos, and more

Pros

1. Great for beginners
2. Easy to use and intuitive
3. Lots of features including transitions and effects
4. Captures screen movements with ease
5. Supports 4K video resolutions
6. Provides built-in screen recorder and video editor

3. Screenflow

Screenflow is a screen recorder, video editor and a publishing tool. You can capture your screen or audio files on your computer.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a professional to use this tool. All you have to do is purchase the license, download and install it in your computer and start using it.

You can record anything on your computer screen with Screenflow and it also works with iOS devices like iPad and iPhone.

You can record any part of your monitor or the entire display as well as record audio from your system or microphone together with the video content. You can also record multiple screens simultaneously. Moreover, you can use it to create animated GIFs from any video file.

Screenflow has been built for Mac OS X, but if you want to capture the screen of an iOS device, Windows users may also find it useful. The program includes a video editor that allows you to crop, move and trim clips as well as add transitions between them.

You can apply various effects, such as color correction filters or graphic overlays, but there are not many options available within each effect category, so if you are looking for something really advanced you will probably be disappointed by the limited functionalities of Screenflow’s editor. 

Features

 Intuitive Interface

ScreenFlow has a beautiful, intuitive interface that makes it easy to create incredible videos. You’ll find yourself editing like a pro without ever having to read a manual or watch a tutorial.

Simple Timeline

Editing Editing your movie is as easy as clicking and dragging in the timeline. Add as many clips as you want to the timeline, and re-arrange them at will. It’s simple, powerful, and fun!

Screen Recording

Record anything on your screen, including your entire monitor area, single applications, or just selected portions of your screen. ScreenFlow can even capture video camera, iOS device, microphone and your computer audio simultaneously, making it perfect for software tutorials!

Cleanup

ScreenFlow is an award winning and easy to use video editing, screen recording and sharing tool from Telestream. Use ScreenFlow to create high-quality software demos, tutorials, app previews, training, presentations and more.

Pros

1. It records everything on your Mac including sound from your microphone, and system audio. After recording the video, you can easily annotate it using text and arrows etc.
2. The videos can be exported in different resolutions, so you can directly upload them on YouTube or Vimeo without any hassle. You can also export the video as an animated GIF or an image sequence for easy sharing and embedding on websites.
3. It has great editing tools, which allow you to create custom transitions between clips, add animations to titles and callouts etc.

4. EZVID

EZVID is a great tool for creating screen captures, screencasts and slideshows. Screencasting is recording your computer screen and adding voiceover narration.

It can be a great way to showcase products or services. EZVID is free and easy to use, even for beginners. EZVID is a free video editing program that allows users to combine images, text, narration and music in order to create videos.

It’s easy to use, and the interface is intuitive. EZVID has a built-in screen recorder that can capture anything on your computer screen, even games. It also has an automated voice-over function for narrating your video using text-to-speech technology.

Ezvid is the world’s most easy screen recorder and video editor. Ezvid is exceptional because of the power of its cutting-edge effects and features.

With voice recording, facecam, voice synthesis, screen drawing, and speed control, Ezvid the world’s single best solution for making videos which entertain, inform, and enchant your viewers.

Ezvid is 100% free video maker software for Windows. You could be making great movies within minutes using our simple drag-and-drop interface.

Ezvid’s export to YouTube feature has made it the world’s most popular Windows screen recorder and game capture software.

Features

1.   Capture your computer screen or any part of it
2. Record audio from your system or microphone
3. Import pre-recorded videos, photos, music, and much more 
4. Record from your webcam, or record from both your screen and webcam simultaneously *
5. Capture still images from video frames 
6. Edit your video by splicing together clips with easy-to-use transitions (including crossfade)
7. Add text overlays to help tell your story
8. Easily upload directly to YouTube

Pros

•  Exclusive product deals for members only
• Priority customer support and faster responses
• Invitations to product testing events and focus groups
• Special access to EZVID community activities, including meetups and special promotions
• Access to a private EZVID Pros Facebook group

5. TinyTake

TinyTake is a screen capture and video recording app built by TechSmith that lets you record your screen or a portion of it. It also lets you annotate the screenshot and add text boxes, arrows, stamps, and other effects to the image before saving it.

Once your image is captured, TinyTake offers several options for sharing it. You can save the image to your computer, copy it to the clipboard, or send it via email. The program lets you save images in JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP and TIFF formats.

TinyTake is free for personal use and $29/year for business use. 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. You can also use it to record short clips or GIFs and share them with others.

With TinyTake, you can capture images and videos of your computer screen, add comments and share them with others in minutes. TinyTake is built by MangoApps and is available for free.

Features

1.  Capture video from your screen or webcam.
2. Upload to Youtube or save as a video file Record your voice over the video. Add text and graphic annotations to images.
3. Change color of the lines, text, arrows etc.
4. Share screenshots with friends through Facebook and Twitter.
5. Drawing tools to draw shapes such as circles and rectangles, lines, arrow, texts and adding points.
6. Blur certain sections of your screenshots or videos to hide sensitive information.

6. CamStudio

CamStudio was originally released by a company called RenderSoft who were subsequently bought by a company called eHelp who used some of the technology in their program, RoboDemo …

The original CamStudio was released as an open source product by RenderSoft software in October 2001. The source code license was converted to the GNU General Public License in December 2002 with release 1.8.

The Source code of versions 1.0, 1.4 and 2.0 are still available at SourceForge.net. The main features of CamStudio are: It is absolutely free to use and is completely open source software licensed under GNU (General Public License) GPL, and that means you don’t have to pay anything to use or redistribute it as long as you keep all the credits intact with the software (i.e., You can read the complete license agreement here).

It has maximum recording rate of 30 frames per second, which is great for creating tutorials on how to use specific software (most other screen recorders record at 15 frames per second). It’s got a basic but effective compression scheme that allows you to produce small-sized AVI files, so you can save more videos on your hard drive without worrying about running out of space.

Features

• Can record for an unlimited time. Supports the VFW Video for Windows codec.
• Saves the file in AVI format. Can record audio from a microphone or speakers.
• Has a built-in SWF producer that turns AVI files into bandwidth-friendly SWF files.
• Allows you to choose the video and audio quality of your movie.
• Supports a wide range of video formats including AVI, WMV, MOV, RM and many more.

Pros

1. It’s free! CamStudio is an open-source software tool, meaning anyone can download and use it without paying anything. You can use it to record video tutorials or PowerPoint presentations, or any activity on your screen.
2. The recorded video can be saved in AVI format, which makes it really easy to share across several platforms and devices. It comes with a built-in SWF producer that allows you to convert videos into flash videos at no extra charge with audio included in them as well.
3. The software also offers a special feature that allows you to track mouse movements during recording and highlight them so that they’re easier for the viewer to see on playback. CamStudio is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10.

7. Icecream Screen Recorder

Icecream Screen Recorder is an application for screen capture and taking screenshots. Icecream Screen Recorder can both take screenshots and capture video and you can even switch between these 2 modes very easily; Just press the button in the top left corner of the application.

The program features drawing tools, like lines and arrows to highlight important parts of your videos or pictures. It saves screenshots to the folder on your computer where the application is installed by default. Video recordings are saved as WebM files.

The program supports multiple additional options such as adding text, highlights and watermarks to your screen captures. The built-in screencast editor allows you to annotate your video right after you recorded it.

You can also add graphic elements such as arrows, circles, rectangles, lines and text to your video while recording it or during post-recording editing sessions with the integrated editor. The screenshot tool allows users to record full screen, a custom region or a window.

The program can automatically detect the region size around your mouse cursor when you select the window for recording. Other options include configuring hotkeys for better control over recording sessions.

Features

Icecream Screen Recorder is a powerful program that can record onscreen desktop activity, webcam and audio at the same time. The intuitive and easy-to-use software offers a complete suite of tools and options for professional screen capture with audio.

With our screen recording software you can record webinars, games and Skype videos in HD, and much more in a quick and hassle-free way..

Select Area

Select the area of your screen that you’d like to take a screenshot of or make a video of in a single click.

Drawing panel

Mark up your screenshot with a text box, arrow, highlight and more. You can also use drawing tools to write or highlight text directly on your screen. Zoom in/out Zoom in and out while recording your screen in high definition.

Pros

Icecream Screen Recorder is one of the best screen recording apps for Windows 10. The best part is that it comes with a lot of features and customization options, making it one of the most useful screen recorders for Windows. A few highlights of the app include:

The app can record any region on your screen including 1080p HD video in MP4 format. You can also record webcam along with the screen.

This is really useful if you are creating a video tutorial and want to show your face.

You can also add narration to your videos using the built-in microphone of your computer or any other external microphone. You can also use a timer to start the recording when you want to start.

This is really useful if you are planning to record something that starts after some time, such as a webinar or online class.

8. iSpring Free Cam

iSpring Free Cam is free screen recording software for Windows to help you record screencasts with ease. A number of video editing tools and functions come with the software to let you delete fragments of video, remove background noise, and apply audio effects.

With iSpring Free Cam it’s easy to create videos that demonstrate features of a new software product, describe a process, or simply review an interesting performance in your favorite game. iSpring Free Cam works online as well as offline; it is fully compatible with Windows 10.

Features

• iSpring Free Cam is completely free of charge.
• iSpring Free Cam records your desktop activity into a video file.
• With iSpring Free Cam, you can record the full screen, a selected region, or capture from your webcam.
• iSpring Free Cam supports a wide range of video formats including AVI, WMV, FLV, SWF, MP3 and many more.
• iSpring Free Cam lets you record high-quality videos at 60 FPS without slowing down your computer.
• You can make stunning recordings with smooth movements and excellent picture quality.
• The program also offers various kinds of recording modes: full screen, custom region on the screen or application window.
• Record system sounds and microphone audio into your video simultaneously.
• You can even mute the audio when necessary.
• The software has an intuitive interface that makes it easy to manage all its features in just a few clicks.

Pros

1. Easy-to-use interface. You can start recording immediately without watching a training video.
2. Convenient screen capture area selection. You can record the entire screen or just a portion of it using the rectangle tool, fixed-region tool, or mouse cursor tool.
3. Advanced video editing options. You can cut off unwanted fragments from the beginning or the end of your video clip, or remove a part from the middle with just two clicks on the timeline in iSpring Cam Pro.
4. Recording voice and system sound. You can record your voice via microphone, and system sound simultaneously while capturing on-screen activity.

9. Free Screen Video Recorder (by DVDVideosoft)

Free Screen Video Recorder is a compact, yet full-featured screen video recorder and screenshot capture tool that allows you to easily record screen activities and capture anything on the screen including windows, objects, menus, full screen and rectangular regions.

You can choose to save captures to file, clipboard or print them put directly from the program window. Built-in editing tools include basic functions like resizing, cropping and rotating.

Free Screen Video Recorder saves video files as AVI and image files in BMP, JPEG, GIF, TGA or PNG formats. The program is easy to use, and you can select an area or full desktop for recording.

You can adjust the video quality settings to reduce file size if needed.

Features

• Free Screen Recorder is an easy to use screen recording software for windows.
• It captures screen video, audio and also microphone sound at the same time.
• It is useful when you need record your desktop, make video tutorials, create software demos or record game video.
• With a intuitive design, everyone can use it record screen, and save as video files to share with friends.
• Record part of your desktop or an application window.
• Add mouse click effects and animations.
• Record audio from speakers, microphone or both.
• Pause/resume recording hotkeys are supported. Command line is supported.

Pros

Free Screen Video Recorder is an effective, yet simple and straightforward tool for recording videos from your screen. The program lets you easily record as a video whatever is happening on your computer screen.

The recorded videos are saved in AVI format. You can also use Free Screen Video Recorder to record online TV shows and other streaming web content that can be accessed with a browser.

To start recording a video, you just need to launch the program, choose the source and destination folders, provide a name for the output video file, specify video quality and size, and click the Start button.

In addition to capturing video clips, Free Screen Video Recorder also allows you to take snapshots of whatever is shown on your PC monitor.

The images are automatically saved as BMP files.

10. SMARTPIXEL

The SMARTPIXEL. is a solid all-in-one solution for small business owners who want to take control of their online image and marketing. The SMARTPIXEL. is the only dedicated app that combines a powerful image editing tool with an intuitive web interface to let you create stunning images, and then quickly share them across the web for maximum exposure.

From mobile to desktop, you can use the SMARTPIXEL. to improve your website, social media accounts, email marketing profiles and more. This feature packed app will make it easy for you to share your products across social media and build your sales with every click of the mouse.

Features

 – Support for popular audio, video and image formats including MP3, AVI, MPG, MP4, FLV, 3GP, OGG, WMV, APE, MOV, MKV etc.

– Easy and powerful timeline editing.

– Capture Screen: Record your computer screen and create tutorial videos easily.

– High Definition (HD) video export.

– Add subtitles to your videos using .ASS/.SSA subtitles files or external SRT subtitles files.

– Add sound effects or background music to your videos using popular audio formats such as MP3 music files.

– Smart and powerful real-time Video Encoder (XVID, DivX, x264vfw) with lossless full quality output option.

– Optimized H264/AAC encoders bundled with SMARTPIXEL are specially configured to provide the best possible quality of encoding at optimum speed on mainstream PCs with any modern processor installed.

Pros

1. Easy to Use: The user-friendly interface will help you quickly learn how to edit movies, add effects, text and transitions;
2. Import & Export: Import all popular audio & video formats (Including AVI, ASF, WMV, MOV, MPG, MP3 etc.) and convert these files to any format;
3. Editing Tools: A plenty of editing tools are provided such as Trimming, Cropping, Rotating, Flipping and more;
4. Special Effects & Transitions: Create awesome videos with over 50 visual effects and 50 transitions;
5. Subtitle Tools: Add cool text to your video with flexible formatting settings

11. ShareX

ShareX is an open source program that lets you take screenshots or screencasts of any selected area with a single key, save them in your clipboard, hard disk or instantly upload them to over 80 different file hosting services. It also allows uploading images, text or other types of files to over 80 supported destinations you can choose from.

ShareX is able to capture screenshots with different shapes: rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, triangle, diamond, polygon and also freehand. It can upload images, text files and all other different file types.

It is able to capture screenshots with transparency and shadow. ShareX allows uploading images and text files to many supported destinations you can choose from.

Features

-Built-in image editor with many tools and simple interface.

-Easy to add new destinations or image uploaders by using destination settings or scripts.

-Automatically capture specific window, region or full screen. You can also use hotkey combinations to start/stop auto capture. With this feature you can create video tutorials easily.

-Color picker which can be used for HTML color codes, RGB values and HSL values.

-DNS changer which is useful when your ISP uses DNS hijacking or transparent proxies.

-Image effects such as adding drop shadow, rounding corners, outlining, watermarking, rotating and more.

-Image combiner to combine multiple images into single image.

-Image splitter to split images into tiles of specified dimensions.

-Video thumbnailer to create thumbnail from video file.

-Animated GIF creator from a set of images (or video).

What Is Screen Recording Software?

Screen recording tools are like video conferencing programs, in that they allow you to share your screen with a third party. But the difference is in the way they work.

Screen recording software allows you to record anything on your computer screen, then export it as an animated GIF or MP4 file. It can be a great tool for sharing tutorials, demonstrating how-to steps or even showing off your latest project.

It’s also useful when you need to show someone what’s on your screen, but don’t want to hand them a file or print off a screenshot. Screen recording tools make it easy for anyone to see exactly what’s happening on your screen.

Screen recording is the art of taking a video of a computer screen, and then saving it as a file. It can be useful for making instructional videos, showing off software features in action, or showing your customer how to use your product.

Screen recording tools are easy to find. Some are free, and some will cost you. One of the most popular is Camtasia, which costs $149; ScreenFlow and Jing (both $99), Screencast-o-Matic (free) and Jing ($69).

Screen Recording and Screencasting Software – Frequently Asked Questions

So you’re thinking about recording your screen. You have some questions, and we’ve got answers.

What is screen recording and what is a screencast? A screencast is the recorded output of a screen recording.

The output can be a simple video – recording the desktop and related sounds, or more advanced with voiceovers, text and annotations. Screencasts are often used for software tutorials, to demonstrate how a piece of software works.

They can also be used to capture live webinars or presentations. Some organizations use them as internal training tools, while others share their content with customers or other stakeholders via social media platforms like YouTube, Vimeo or Instagram.

There are many different ways to create a screencast, from professional video studios to smartphone apps. You can even buy dedicated hardware devices that let you record parts of your desktop or mobile device screens using an HDMI cable.

But most people just use dedicated screencasting software like Movavi Screen Recorder for Mac or Movavi Screen Recorder for Windows. These tools are easy to install and extremely intuitive to use – making it possible for anyone to create high-quality screencasts in no time at all.

Best Screen Recording and Screencasting Software – Summary

 Screencasting software comes in a variety of shapes and sizes and for many different uses.

That’s why it can be hard to choose just one program to get your projects done. The good news is that there are a lot of great options out there, and many of them are even free!

Every screencasting program is designed differently, so finding the right one will depend on what you’re trying to accomplish.