Design your way

There are plenty of situations where you’d be much better of showing someone what’s on your screen, than describing it.

No matter if you want to show someone how to use something, or tell someone how to fix something that you’ve fixed before, a screen capture software can do the trick here.

There are plenty of video screen capture apps available, and they all let you record your screen and share it afterwards.

If you haven’t tried screen recording software, don’t worry – it’s quite simple. To help you decide, we have plenty of free screen recording software for you to take a look at. There are a lot of tools that let you record desktop or other programs, so you’ll find one for you without any problem.

Even though desktop recording software differs in price and functionality, there are some common features that they all have. These include, but are not limited to:

• Cut-and-paste editing
• Unlimited recording
• Adjustable frame
• Direct sharing on social media

Which desktop recorder should you go for? Regardless of whether you’re making a video tutorial, or marketing your business, or even recording a new trick in your favourite video game, here is a list of free video recording software for Windows, as well as other platforms.

You might’ve tried a lot of free screen recorder software, only to find out that it was a trial and requires payment after a few days. Getting a good computer screen recorder that is free can be tricky, but the list below should help with that.

Ezvid Video Maker

A couple of clicks can let you create a high-resolution recording of your screen with this Windows screen recorder. You can also have on-screen annotations and recording of a specific part of the screen, and you can add meta-info to your recording.

As far as a free screen recorder for Windows can go, this is easily among the best screen recorder software out there.

Features:

• Create a slideshow with the captures
• Auto-saves the video
• Audio recording and voice synthesis
• Direct upload to YouTube
• Webcam recording
• On-screen annotations

Atomi ActivePresenter

This can very well be the best free screen recorder at the moment. It is very powerful, and the “record my screen” function works with incredible simplicity, as well as superb quality. The free version is somewhat lacking in advanced features, but as a minimalistic recorder, it is amazing.

Features include:

• Decorating screencasts with shadows and colour effects
• No time limits or watermarks
• Adding transition effects to the videos
• Editing options such as cutting and cropping, blur, video overlays and volume adjustments
• Exporting to FLV, AVI, MP4, WMV, WebM and MKV

Screenpresso

Screenpresso is an easy creator of HD screen recordings. As one of the best premium record screen software available, it comes with a lot of functionality. However, the free version doesn’t really offer much. It has advanced management features that let you manage your recordings easily, and you can capture either the whole screen, or parts of it.

Features of Screenpresso:

– Capture and record for commercial use, even in the free edition
– Record your webcam and audio as well
– Export videos in MP4, OGG, WebM and WMV
– Edit, label and sort your screen captures
– Share your captures to various services such as Evernote, Google Drive, Facebook, Twitter etc.

Bandicam Screen Recorder

Another very popular screen recorder, Bandicam lets you capture the whole screen or just a part of it. Streaming videos and recording flash games is done with ease, and there are even modes for you to choose from, such as device recording mode or gaming mode, which will let you nail the recordings without much hassle.

Features:

• Videos are saved in either MP4 or AVI
• Real-time voice recording
• Adding watermarks, and overlaying your webcam
• Live drawing as you record
• Adding animations or mouse clicks
• Hardware acceleration is available (if supported)

IceCream Screen Recorder

Whether you want to record specific parts of your screen, or the entire screen, IceCream Screen Recorder can do that for you. Record video calls, gameplay videos, shoot webinars, everything is possible using its dead simple user interface.

As far as features go, you get:

• Audio recording with the video
• Save videos in MP4, WebM or MKV
• Record your webcam as well
• Draw or annotate on your screen, while recording
• Hotkey configuration
• Save screenshots in PNG or JPG
• Have a project history to easily access previous recordings

Open Broadcaster Software

The OBS Project is one of the best, if not the best screen recorder for gameplay. If you’re a gamer, this software is easily the best possible option for you. Unlike FRAPS, which sets some pretty bad limitations, OBS is completely free to use and doesn’t have any restrictions.

You can record and stream in HD, and streaming is available on Twitch or YouTube Gaming. Projects can be also saved or encoded in FLV so you can come back to them later.

OBS comes with a serious advantage over other screen recorders. Most of them usually record if the game is in windowed mode, but OBS records directly from your graphics card, meaning it can capture full-screen games as well.

There are also customizable hotkeys, and the software utilizes multiple-core CPUs if available. Setting it up as you want it can be a bit tricky, but once you’ve got it done, it is very powerful.

Flashback Express

The OBS Project is great for gamers, but if your primary use is tutorials or demonstrations, Flashback Express is a completely different beast. You can record a selected area of your screen, or the whole screen, or the webcam.

Once you’re done, you get a very simple editor with the basic functionality, and you can export your final video on your PC, or an FTP server, or upload it to YouTube.

Even though these are functions that most screen recorders will offer, Flashback Express also has some advanced features. You can have the recorder blur out passwords on your screen, or replace your wallpaper with a plain one, highlight your pointer so it’s easier to follow etc. These are all welcome features when you’re recording tutorials or webinars.

There are no limits on the length, and you can break long recordings into smaller files, which can be helpful in avoiding huge files. The recordings aren’t watermarked, which is incredible.

Xsplit Broadcaster

This is another gamer-focused option, but it does come with a few restrictions if you want to avoid watermarks. There are two flavours to it, Gamecaster and Broadcaster.

They are quite similar, but Gamecaster is more suited to gamers, where Broadcaster is more for general use. You get three tiers, free, personal and premium. The free one has a watermark if you record at more than 60 fps, or at a resolution higher than 720p.

Compared to OBS, this is a serious drawback, but the interface can more than make up for it if you want to publish a YouTube video at a regular resolution.

The free recorder can capture from your screen, or your video card, or webcam, and there’s a game-detect feature that lets you output results either as a video file, or stream them live via Twitch, YouTube Live or Facebook Live when you’re gaming.

DVD VideoSoft’s Free Screen Video Recorder

This is a software that lets you capture absolutely anything that happens on your monitor. This can range from menus and objects to multiple windows and activities. There is an instruction page which will let you figure out how to use the software, and afterwards it’s pretty straightforward.

Features:

• 100% free
• Free of adware and spyware
• Saves in a variety of formats

CamStudio

If you want to create an AVI video that shows the video and audio activities on your screen, you can use CamStudio. It is free and open source, and it can also convert those AVI videos into SWFs. The software is easy to use, and CamStudio’s website claims that you can learn it in a couple of minutes. The file sizes of the resulting videos are smaller, yet the quality is great.

Features:

• 100% free
• Included help files
• Picture-in-picture recording with webcam
• Adding screen captions to the video

iSpring Free Cam

Dead simple, and with a built-in editor, this would be the best way to describe iSpring Free Cam. The intuitive interface lets you create screencasts that look professional, yet are easy to create. Even though the software is free, there are no signs of any ads or watermarks.

Features include:

• Voice-over and computer sounds recording
• No limits, no ads and no watermarks
• High resolution recording
• Ability to save as WMV or upload to YouTube directly
• Remove background noise
• Delete unwanted fragments with ease
• Variety of audio effects

ShareX

Another open-source tool, ShareX has as many, if not more, features as some of the paid screen recorders. It’s target audience is power users and developers, which unfortunately means that a regular Joe can easily get lost in the sea of editors and advanced options.

Features:

• Custom watermarks and effects
• Importing existing media
• Supports plenty of URL sharing services
• Uses hotkeys for faster navigation
• Records either windowed or full screen

MadCap Mimic

MadCap Mimic is great if you want to create interactive simulations and videos. There are three recording modes, and quite a few single-sourcing features, among which you’ll find condition tags and custom frames. There is a 30-day trial, after which you’ll have to opt for a $428 lifetime licence, or a $144 yearly one, if you decide you like it.

Features:

• Creating video which has interactive content
• Outputs in WebM, MP4 and PDF
• A variety of video effects and visuals
• Multi-language support team
• Free product upgrades (paid version only)

Screencast-O-Matic

With the competitive pricing, as well as a simplified, but free version, Screencast-O-Matic is meant to go head to head with free screen recorders for single users. For multiple users, however, there are site licences for either 10 computers ($9/month), or 1000 computers ($250/month).

If you want Pro Hosting, you can choose from $10, $29 or $99 per month. There is, fortunately, a 30-day trial for you to test the software first.

Features:

• Computer speech for narratives
• Publishing to Google Drive, Dropbox and Vimeo Pro
• Screenshot tool
• Site licences for multiple computers
• Embedding the recorder on a website (Pro Hosting, paid)

Summary:

When you consider everything, you will see that there are both free, as well as paid tools, that can get the job done. Regardless of whether you need it for work purposes or entertainment, you can capture your screen with any of the aforementioned options. Which one to go for mostly depends on your personal needs.

You should know that a video recording software is essential if you’re a gamer, blogger or some kind of educator. Written reviews or blog posts can only do so much, but a video can be much more explanatory and offer an interactive experience. What are you waiting for?

 

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