Best Screen Recorders For Mac



There are no shortage of free screen recording programs for Windows, but when it comes to macOS, most screen recording apps are paid. Yes, you can use the in-built QuickTime to record your screen (which is what I was using so far) but if you do a lot of screen recording than QuickTime is not the most efficient way to go about it. Why? Well, to start with, there is no keyboard shortcut, no video editor, and no auto saved. Sometimes QuickTime just doesn’t work unless you restart it.

In short, if you do a lot of screen recording on your macOS, you need a third-party screen recording software. So, here are some alternatives to QuickTime to record a screencast on Mac for free.

Best Screen Recorders For Mac

Related: Best Video Editing Software for YouTube — A YouTuber Perspective

Best Screen Recorder For Mac

1. Apowersoft Screen Recorder

Apowersoft Screen Recorder is one of the popular free screen recording tools on any platform. Once installed on your mac, select a region and start recording. In the screen recording frame, you can click on the drop-down option to pick up a resolution like 720p, 1080p, iPhone, iPad etc. This free app allows unlimited screen recording with no watermark, however, the paid version has a Video Converter and Video Editor. You can set the recording quality from 15-60 fps, depending on whether you want to use on the web or make a professional video.

Apowersoft also offers a web-based screencast software which means you can record your screen without downloading any software, you need to install a launcher though if it’s the first time.

Aiseesoft Screen Recorder – Best 4K UHD/1080p HD Video and Audio Recorder. To record HD screen on your Windows or Mac, you need a professional HD screen recorder. Aiseesoft Screen Recorder is our first recommendation to meet your HD screencasting needs. 10 of the Best Free Screen Recorders for Mac (2019 edition) 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 your webcam, mic and system audio before the recording takes place.

Verdict:

Mac

Apowersoft screen recorder is a free app for unlimited screen recording, no watermark or time restriction. However, once you stop the recording, it asked where you want to save it (just like QuickTime), so depending on the situation it might be a bit time-consuming. However, the app does not support taking or editing screenshot neither can it automatically upload to cloud. In my opinion, it’s a decent screen recorder but, there are better options available.

2. Screen Recorder Robot Lite

Screen recorder robot lite is a bit more powerful than Apowersoft screen recorder.

The unique thing about this screen recorder is, once you stop your recording it opens that clip in the built-in video editor, where you can trim, crop, rotate, change the playback speed etc. From here you can either edit your video in the video editor or just close the window and the recording will be saved in your Pictures folder on your Mac.

The only issue with this video recorder is – every time you stop the recording, it shows a pop saying the lite version only records for 600s (or 5 mins), and to get rid of it, you need to click cancel each time.

The apps support keyboard shortcut for – start, stop, pause the recording and can also capture screenshots.

Verdict:

Screen recorder robot lite is definitely one of the best feature-rich screencasting apps out there. If you need a build in video editor with your screen recorder then look no further. However, the only limitation to the app is – 5 mins of free recording, if you want more than that, its $7.99 for the full version.

3. Recordit: Instant Screencasts & GIFs

This app is not for everyone. Unlike all the other screen recording app in the list, which saves the recording to the local drive of your computer, Recordit uploads the video to the cloud storage. It’s meant for sharing videos quickly with remote co-workers.

So, here is how it works, once installed, you’ll see a tiny Recordit icon on the top menu bar of your macOS, click on that to record any area of your screen and when once done, click the stop button, seconds after that, you’ll get a link to share your screencast.

Once the video is uploaded it automatically copy the link of that video to your clipboard, and store it on the server for the unknown amount of time. so you can always go back and find the link by right-clicking on the app. however, there is no naming, so you’ll have to rely on time date stamp.

One thing to keep in mind is – you need to have a good upload speed if you are planning to use this. I recorded a 3 min full-screen video on my 5k iMac and it took the app 4 minutes to upload it to the server. I’ve 8 Mb/s upload speed. And the final size of the video was 35 MB, so it’s safe to assume they are compressing the video footage.

Recordit also has a video to gif option on their website. So, if you want to quickly share a small screencast on Reddit, this will make it a lot easier.

Verdict

Recordit is for people who want to quickly share their screencast with other people. The recordings are limited to 5 mins only in the free version. And there is no paid version of this app.

However, there is one major problem with the app – it doesn’t keep a local copy of your recording, which means if the internet goes down for some reason, the video’ won’t be uploaded and you have to start all over.

Overall it’s perfect for sharing an image or video quickly. But not if you want to use the screen recording in some other video.

4. OBS (Open Broadcaster Software)

It’s hard to figure out how to install and use OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) at first. But after bit Google search, I was able to figure out how it works.

Once installed, the app gives you auto configuration pop-up, asking you whether you want to configure it, go for 1080p, etc. It’s basically meant for streaming, but if you want to use it not for streaming then you can configure it in the start pop page.

Verdict:

OBS is a popular screen recording software among YouTuber gaming channel. It’s free, open source and highly customizable. However, it’s difficult to setup and use. If you are not a geek, you might have a difficult time to set it up and the given that better version is available, I guess you should skip this one.

5. Monosnap

This is one of the best screen recording software available out there for free. Just after using this software for 5 minutes, I know my search for best screen recording app for Mac has ended.

Like every other software in this list, it lets you capture full screen or just part of the screen. But on top of that, it also lets you capture a particular window with a webcam in Picture-in-Picture mode.

Although, there is no video editor for screen recording. Monosnap does provide an image editor for your screenshot where you can add arrows, annotation, text etc. and once you are done you can either save your video in the local storage or upload it cloud storage like Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote. However, these services are paid for $8 in-app purchases. You can upload it for free on Amazon s3 or R0emote FTP server though.

But the feature that really blown my mind is – the built-in image editor (mini photoshop) i.e. say, you have screenshot that you want to quickly edit or a picture that you find on the Internet, then you can just copy that picture to your clipboard and then right-click on Monosnap in toolbar and select open in the clipboard, this will open the image directly in Monosnap editor.

There is also an option to convert your video to gif.

Verdict:

Overall, if you are looking for an advanced screen recorder for Mac, then look no further. Monosnap is best you can get for free. It can do everything a paid screen recorder does. The only limitation is – you can not edit your video.

Comparison table

Best Screen Recording Software For macOS

Apowersoft Screen RecorderScreen Recorder Robot LiteRecordit:MonosnapOpen Broadcaster Software
RecordRegion, Full Screen or Web CameraRegion, Fullscreen Region,

Fullscreen

Region, Full Screen with PIP Face CamRegion, Fullscreen
Record Audio From External SourceYesYesNoYesYes, with audio mixer
Keyboard ShortcutsYesYesNoYesYes
Recording QualityLow to High

(15-60 fps)

Low to High

(1-30 fps)

Decent video quality for web uploadLow to High

(1-30 fps)

Low to High

(1-30 fps)

Edit VideoNoYesNoNoNo
Capture Screenshot NoYesNoYes

(support basic image editing)

Yes
Cloud BackupNoNoYes, upload video to Recordit serverYesYes
PriceFree – no watermark or time limitFreemium,

Free for 5 mins,

Free for 5 mins only, no paid versionMostly free, except Cloud Backup Free and Open source

There are tones of game recording software on the market, many of which claim to be the best game recorder, but which one is right for you best? When you choose the best free screen recorder for game capture, you need to consider the user-interface, output format, FPS speed supported, benchmark-setting, the sharpness of video screen, and the utmost price.

To save your time, we cover the top 16 best game recording software for PC and Mac here, including free and paid. In order to help you understand each product faster, we have listed their important advantages and disadvantages, hoping to help you quickly judge and find the best game recording software that suits your needs most.

See also:How to Record Gameplay on PC Without Lag >>>

Top 11 Best Game Recorder for Windows 10/8/7

You can use the following best game recording software for Xbox, PS4, and other game recordings. If you don't want to invest any money, choose the free game recorders as you need.

1. EaseUS RecExperts

EaseUS RecExperts is a versatile free video recording software for both beginners and professionals. Using this software, you can easily capture any area of your screen (full screen, a selected region, or a specific window), record any audio coming from your computer, and record your webcam with high-quality. Apart from that, EaseUS RecExperts is an amazing game recorder for Windows 10 PC. You can record various high-quality and popular 2D/3D games in 4K resolution. Before recording gameplay, you can create a recording task to set the start time and stop time for the recording. When you are finishing the job, you can directly share the gameplay video to the social media platforms.

Pros:

  • Easy to use
  • Record gameplay and your voice at the same time
  • Record computer audio (system sound or microphone)
  • Support to create the recording tasks automatically
  • Allow you to edit the video by adding texts, lines, arrows, etc while recording
  • Export the recording files in different formats

Cons:

  • Only available for Windows

How to record gameplay on Windows 10 with EaseUS RecExperts? Just download it and follow the below steps.

Step 1. Start your favorite game and launch EaseUS RecExperts. Choose 'Record game' from the menu

Step 2. Select the frame rate you want to record, as well Variable or Constant frame rate.

Click the red button 'REC' and your recording will start. You will see a small bar, which shows the time of your record.

Step 3. You can choose as well the Task Scheduler, where you can define the recording area and the audio input. Also, you can define exactly the starting date and time and the duration of the record.

Step 4. Once done, you can edit the record footage with the built-in video editor. On the recorded video you can add Video Intro (in the demo case the title is 'Demo Epic Games').

Finally, you can export the ready to use video clip in the appropriate video format.

2. Windows 10 Xbox Game Bar/DVR Tool

Xbox Game Bar is a pre-installed game recording software on Windows 10 that allows you to capture game clips and screenshots. The game bar can be used to record apps, especially for gaming capture. It's able to record most PC games, enables you to instantly access to widgets for screen and sharing, finding teammates with LFG, chatting with friends across Xbox console, mobile, and PC without leaving your game.

Pros

  • User-friendly, convenient to use
  • Record video with audio
  • No time limit for recording video, ad-free
  • Completely free video recording software without watermark
  • Edit the video after recording, such as trim the beginning and end of videos

Cons

  • Record apps only, not available for recording full screen or a specific region
  • No pause function when recording the video
  • Limited video editing features

3. Open Broadcaster Software

OBS Studio is a popular open-source and flexible game recorder tool that works well for live streaming games on Twitch and recording other information as well. It is the preferred tool for a lot of gamers out there. You are not required to change any special settings, just select the source which you would like to record and start recording. OBS is capable of recording in MP4 and FLV formats at a 1:1 ratio.

After recording, the application streams with various platforms like Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Hitbox, Twitch, and more.

Pros

  • Free and open source
  • Multiple platforms supported: Windows, Mac, or Linux
  • Various plugins to enhance the experience
  • Support for most live streaming platforms
  • Entirely free, with no limitations

Cons

  • Not the most user-friendly UI
  • The free version leaves a watermark on your video recording
  • Lacks of built-in video editing functions

4. Bandicam

Bandicam screen recorder is one of the well-known software in terms of screen recording, a free game recording software as well. This best game recorder enables you to record at high bitrates and frames. You can record games at flexible frame rates and 4K Ultra HD resolution. What's more, it offers the compression feature that makes sure the recorded game video is in a small size without quality loss. The recordings can be used for gaming or other PC activities.

Pros

  • Support three recording modes - Screen Recording, Game Recording, and Device Recording
  • Record game in full-screen, region, webcam, and microphone
  • Support real-time drawing, add webcam overlay, schedule recording, mix voice, add mouse effect, etc.
  • Built-in compression feature

Cons

  • Not cheap
  • Lack of built-in video editor
  • The unregistered version record game video with watermark

5. Movavi Screen Recorder

Movavi is a nice and free game recording software that enables you to record screen and audio at the same time. It supports resolution up to 4K. In addition, you can sync webcam and microphone voice-over with an on-going screen recording. It provides a lot of video editing features so you can edit the recorded game video, for example, convert a video into GIF; trim, cut, and join videos; add animated titles and special effects, and much more.

Pros

  • Modern user interface and easier navigation
  • Set up the recording parameters
  • Record video and audio simultaneously
  • Comes with many editing tools
  • Supports screen resolution up to 4K
  • Convert screen recording to GIF instantly

Cons

  • A bit expensive
  • Limited features in the free trial version

6. Nvidia GeForce Experience

Nvidia Geforce Experience, another best free game recorder, enables you to capture and share videos, screenshots, and live streams with friends. Keep your drivers up to date and optimize your game settings. Apart from updating your Nvidia drivers, this software provides Nvidia's Shadowplay feature, allowing you to record games easily. The software can record at the same resolution as your display, so if you have a 4K panel, your recordings will also be in 4K.

Pros

  • If you have an Nvidia GPU, the GeForce Experience is free to use
  • Simple and straightforward
  • Use GPU to handle encoding
  • Share gameplay videos and live streams on YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook.

Cons

  • Work only with Nvidia GPUs
  • Not as versatile as other professional screen recording software

7. Fraps

Fraps is another great game recording software for Windows 10/8/7. There are too many and settings and configurations. Fraps can put out some massive files due to its benchmarking nature which provides you a wide range of resolutions. You can set the video capture frame rate manually and it can go from 30 to 120FPS. There is also an option to enter a custom FPS value where you can set the frame rate even below 30. You can use this game recorder to record both screen and audios through external input or system sound.

Pros

  • User-friendly interface and simple to use
  • Handles a wide variety of resolutions
  • Benchmarking feature and statistics embedded
  • Highlight cursor and capture audio from an external input device

Cons

  • Recorded video size is high
  • Lack of editing tools
  • The free version has some limitations, including a watermark and limited recording time

8. ACTION

Action, another excellent game recorder on the market. You can use this software to record a real-time game in high definition. This gaming software is compatible with any version of Windows and supports more than one video format - AVI and MP4. It's able to output high-quality MP4 @ 60fps gaming clips by utilizing Intel QSV, Nvidia NVENC, or AMD APP hardware acceleration. It is a competent game recording and video editing software for YouTube. After recording, Action allows you to stream videos on different platforms such as YouTube, Livestream, Ustream, etc.

Pros

  • Good stability while recording game
  • Supports live streaming on different platforms
  • User-friendly interface
  • 4K support

Cons

  • Frame rates cannot be customized
  • struggle on older machines; require a decent spec machine
  • In free mode, game recording time is limited to 10 minutes

9. LOILO Game Recorder

LoiLo game recorder is a lightweight free game recording software. It offers enables you to record ongoing video games and edit the recorded game video with various features. This best game recording software supports Motion-JPEG. With this file format, you are to reach the best balance between file size and image quality. And it shows the least performance loss compared to any competitor's non-free software.

Pros

  • User-friendly interface, easy-to-use
  • Minimal performance loss
  • Record your games for free without any limitation
  • Create outstanding Full HD video in reasonable file size

Cons

  • Not compatible with Windows Vista, XP, and Windows 10

10. Xsplit Gamecaster

XSplit Gamecaster is one of the best game recorders out there. It is compatible with Twitch. It can record your game and chooses the appropriate settings according to your computer's properties without manual customization. What's more, it comes with variable video editing features, such as picture-in-picture mode, watermarks, video annotations, and social media integration. After game recording, you can share the videos with social media platforms easily.

Pros

  • Enough features are embedded in the free version
  • Offer many video editing options
  • Record locally or stream to all popular platforms with one click

Cons

  • Advanced features only come with a monthly subscription
  • It's a little expensive

11. Dxtory

Dxtory is another best game recorder software in this list that offers tons of features for game recording. In fact, it is one of the lightest software, yet quite comprehensive. The interface is extremely user-friendly, which makes it very simple to understand all settings and adjust them. This program record a lossless video of the highest possible quality, thus you need to prepare a lot of space for the captures. You can record screen with game sound or microphone's sound at the same time. In the video settings, you can customize video codecs, frames per second from 10-120, sources, size, and format.

Pros

  • Extremely flexible
  • Intuitive and clear user interface
  • Plenty of customization options for a video codec, sizes, and formats

Cons

  • Require a lot of free space on your hard drive without compression
  • Annoying trial notification
  • Not suitable for ordinary users

Top 5 Best Game Recording Software for Mac

If you want to record a game or whatever happening on your Mac screen, try out with the top five best free game recording software on Mac listed below.

Best screen recorder for mac 2019

1. Quick Time Player

QuickTime Player is the default Mac video player, but it's more than a video player. You can use QuickTime Player to do video recording for free, including game recording. It also has some basic video editing options, such as cut, copies, and pastes, adds a new soundtrack, adds annotations, rotates your video, and more. QuickTime game recording software uses onscreen controls, which are similar to a CD or DVD player.

Pros

  • Small and intuitive interface
  • Record audio with video simultaneously
  • Record Skype videos in full screen
  • Ability to save videos from the web
  • Provide video editing features to create beautiful video and share it via email

Cons

  • Limited recording and editing functionality
  • System audio recording is not possible

2. Camtasia

Camtasia is an advanced video recording and editing tool. It's also a competent game recording software. You are free to change the recording settings and adjust the recording window size. It also supports you to record with a camera, microphone. As a comprehensive video editing software, Camtasia offers some advanced video editing features to assist users in adding effects, text, transitions, etc., fantastic features to the target video.

Pros

  • Record full screen, window, region, webcam, and microphone
  • Feature a video editor to edit recorded game video as imported videos
  • Supports green screen effect to make it seem as if you are a part of the action
  • Easy to incorporate animated items, like callouts and scrolling text

Cons

  • Only free for 30 days with watermark
  • Cost is high for ordinary users

3. Monosnap

Screen

Monosnap is a free best game recorder for Mac. You can use this program to record your screen and take quick screenshots in case you need to use it as a powerful screen recording software. This software can be used to capture a selected window or just a small part of the screen. After video recording, you can connect the cloud drives such as Dropbox, CloudApp, Yandex. Disk, Box.com, Google Drive, or FTPs to upload recorded videos to share with other PCs and smartphones.

Pros

  • Totally free without feature limitation
  • Record video as well as system sound
  • Record in 60fps to ensure an ultra-smooth playback
  • Highlight important details with pen, text, arrow, and shape
  • Export to monosnap.com, Youtube, and other cloud platforms

Cons

  • Video editing is not possible
  • Mobile devices cannot be recorded

4. VLC

MacMac

VLC is a free and open-source video recording software, as well as a free game recorder, available for cross-platform, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. It's great music and video player of any format, including WMA, AAC, AIF, MP3, and much more on your computer. You can use it as a free screen video capture software with the built-in screen recording features.

Pros

  • Simple and clean user interface
  • Completely free and open source
  • A simple and efficient way to create screen recordings
  • Offer various alluring customized skins

Cons

  • No audio recording options
  • No video editing options
  • Only record the entire screen

5. ScreenFlick

Screenflick is a macOS app focused on the core essentials of screen recording and game recording: providing the highest quality screen and audio capture, and delivering the key tools needed to communicate your screen experience to your viewers. This program enables you to create time-lapse screen recordings of long projects, and export to multiple sizes, frame rates, and formats whenever needed.

Pros

  • User-friendly and well-streamlined interface
  • Record screen in the whole screen, a section, or a specific window
  • One-click type audio recording facility
  • Strives to be as efficient as possible
  • Record audio, including system audio, your Mac's microphone, or external mic

Cons

  • Don't support Livestream, timeline editing, adding annotations
  • Require OS X 10.10 or Later

To Sum Up

That's it. These are the top 16 best game recording software for Windows and Mac, both free and paid. They have their disadvantages and advantages, some with video editing function, some have no or limited ones. If you are a beginner, you can choose some free and simple-to-use game recording software. For advanced game recording, you can select the high-level tools.

For beginners working on Windows, we highly recommend EaseUS RecExperts. This game recording software is easy to use yet powerful. You can not only record gameplay but capture your screen, audio, and webcam with it. And after recording, you can simply edit it by adding images or watermarks, changing its speed, or compressing the recording file, then you can upload it to the social media platforms.

FAQs About Best Game Recording Software

1. What is the best video game recording software?

There is a lot of video game recording software available on the market. If you are a novice, EaseUS RecExperts is the best option for you. It allows you to record gameplay with a few simple clicks. Apart from that, you also can use it to capture screen, audio, even your webcam according to your needs.

2. What recording software do Youtubers use?

Screen Recording Software Mac Free

The most common screen recording software used by YouTubers are EaseUS RecExperts, OBS Studio, ShareX, Xsplit...

Best Screen Recorder For Mac Os

3. How do I record my gameplay?

Best Screen Recorders For Macbook Air

To record your gameplay, you need a useful game recording software. Here you can try EaseUS RecExperts.