Show, don’t tell. This is a fairly simple tip, and screen recording software makes it easy to follow.
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Screen recording apps capture what’s happening on your screen, including cursor movements, so you can give instructions, describe problems, or share knowledge. Writing descriptions for these things takes significantly longer than showing someone your screen, but you’re usually not around the person or people who need to see your screen. Video recording apps solve this problem.
We’ve reviewed over 30 screen recording apps and here are six of the best.
6 Best Video Recording Apps
- Loom for fast desktop recording and sharing
- Screencast-O-Matic for Mobile Screen Recording
- Camtasia for Advanced Video Editing
- OBS for Advanced Recording and Streaming Tools
- Movavi Screen Recorder to record your screen when you’re away from your desktop
- Zappy for quick sharing of Mac screen shots
What Makes a Great Screen Recording Software?
How We Evaluate and Test Applications
All of our best app reviews are written by people who have used, tested, and written about the software for most of their careers. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app for its intended purpose and rating it against the criteria we set for the category. We are never paid to publish our articles from within the app or link to the site – we value the trust our readers place in us in providing honest feedback on the categories and apps we review. To learn more about our process, check out the full description of how we choose apps to publish on the Zapier blog.
The best screen capture software makes it really easy to show how things work, or if you’re submitting a support ticket, how they don’t work. But different people are looking for different things. In our study, we tested about 30 apps, ranging from minimalist three-button windows to complex tool apps. Prices for options range from free to several hundred dollars. Each of our picks for the best screen recording app offers a unique feature, but they all meet some basic criteria:
- Ability to record the entire screen, a single window or a specific area
- Ability to overlay webcam broadcast on screen recording
- Simultaneous microphone and system audio recording
- Built-in video sharing and/or useful export tools
- Intuitive, easy to use user interface
Of course, the process does not end with screen recording. The quality of the final product can improve or hinder user engagement, which is why we also looked at post-processing features. This is what we found.
Best Screen Recording Software to Record and Share to Desktop Quickly
Loom (Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone/iPad, Chrome)
Screenshot from Loom, our pick of the best screen recording software to quickly record and share on your desktop.
If you want to quickly record something and share a link, give Loom a chance. Loom isn’t too complicated when it comes to recording: you can record just your screen, your screen with webcam video, or just your webcam. When you’re done, your video will be uploaded to Loom. You can make basic changes in the browser if you like, or you can copy the link to share the video. Everything happens very quickly, which makes it the best screen recorder windows 10 in general.
The free version of Loom allows you to store up to 25 videos up to five minutes each. It’s limited, of course, but great for a quick brag to a colleague, colleague, and/or enemy. And you can always upload your videos and save them elsewhere if you get close to that 25 video threshold.
However, the loom is not perfect. The desktop app works well, but we found the mobile apps to be confusing. For example, the Android version requires users to enter their Google password to sign in instead of using Android’s built-in support for Google accounts, which is weird. The iPhone and iPad apps cannot merge videos with a screencast.
However, Loom will get the job done for most users without much hassle.
Loom Prizes: Free for 25 videos up to five minutes long. Business plans start at $8/month with unlimited downloads.
Dropbox recently launched the beta version of Dropbox Capture, which uploads videos directly to your Dropbox folder. It’s a great alternative to Loom, so