Snagit's award-winning screen capture software is the only program with built-in advanced image editing and screen recording. If you're struggling to communicate clearly, Snagit lets you easily get your point across. Or walk people through workflows and answer questions with a quick screen recording.
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Taking a screenshot is one of those things you don't think much about until it's time to do it. Both smartphones and computers have basic screen capturing built in, and that'll be enough for some people—but once your requirements get a little more advanced, it's time to turn to specialized tools.
Some let you grab full web pages, while others focus on the strength of their automation or editing features. You'll also find timers, screen and webcam recording, integration with other software or online services, and other options designed to make the capturing process more useful and powerful.
The majority of screen capture apps are designed to run on Windows, although there are one or two good options for Mac owners, plus a few that run in a browser. The majority are free or donation-supported, at least for the basic version, but you'll need to pay for the high-end ones. Below, we rounded up some of the best.
Our Top Picks
Best for Professionals: Snagit
Long the gold standard in screen capture software, Snagit remains popular with corporate customers due to its powerful features and simple usability.
Available for MacOS and Windows, Snagit is an attractive app that's easy to get to grips with. A small control panel at the top of the screen lets you start a screen capture or change settings, or you can also press the PrtScr button or a user-defined hotkey instead.
A timer of up to 60 seconds makes it easier to grab menus and tooltips in your screenshots, and the clipping tool itself has advanced features like forcing the aspect ratio and scrolling around the highlighted area to help capture the exact part you need.
The editor has dozens of useful tools like callouts, blur, arrows, and more. Creating screen recordings is as straightforward as capturing static images, and you can easily create videos and animated GIFs straight from the app.
Sharing can be done in a multitude of ways, including cloud storage and direct integration with Microsoft Office apps.
While Snagit is more expensive than most of the competition, if you're regularly taking and sharing screenshots and recordings, especially in a business environment, the extras are likely well worth the money.
Best for Capturing Web Pages: Fireshot
Grabbing a quick screen capture is easy when everything fits on one screen, but what if it doesn't? Web pages are a prime example—it's painful and time-consuming to keep taking screenshots as you scroll down the page, and then try to combine them all into one long image at the end.
A few of the better screen capture tools automate this process, and one of our favorites is Fireshot. Running in Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, and other browsers, Fireshot makes it quick and easy to capture as much or as little of a web page as you need.
You can edit and annotate the captured page, save it as a .PDF or various image types, and share it via email, cloud storage such as Google Drive and Dropbox, or tools like Evernote.
Most people will get by just fine with the free Lite or Standard versions of the app, but more advanced features are available in the paid Pro version.
Best for Flexibility: Screenshot Captor
Taking partial or full-screen screenshots is one thing, but how about grabbing the content from your webcam, scanner, or any scrolling window? Screenshot Captor is one of the very few apps that can do the latter, but the features don't stop there.
You can automate several aspects of the capture process, including creating file names, uploading to image hosting services, and more. This is particularly useful if you need to capture many screenshots in a row—with a little setup, the software will manage everything behind the scenes and stay out of your way.
Screenshot Captor sits in the taskbar when not in use, and you can activate it with a range of hotkeys or by clicking on the icon. Annotation and enhancement tools are built in, with useful extras like watermarking and easily blacking out usernames and passwords.
This Windows-only tool is supported by donations rather than ads, although you'll need to request a free license key to get started.
Best for Automation: ShareX
When it comes to screen capture software, there's plenty to like about ShareX. As well as being free and open source, this Windows app is packed full of useful tools. As long as you can work your way around the slightly messy interface, you'll find pretty much every feature you could hope for buried somewhere in ShareX.
There are over a dozen different capture techniques, including choosing specific monitors, windows, and regions, with a variety of shapes available so you can grab the exact area you need. Several annotations and editing tools let you crop and pixelate the image, and add shapes, text, and more.
ShareX's automation features are particularly strong, letting you do anything from copying, uploading, and watermarking captured images to uploading them to 30+ destinations, then shortening and sharing the resulting link. If you have a particular workflow that you like to use for your screen captures or recordings, there's a good chance the app can accommodate it. Powerful, free, and regularly updated for over a decade, ShareX is well worth trying out.
Best for Optical Character Recognition (OCR): Screenpresso
There aren't many screen capture tools that include optical character recognition (OCR), but it's a useful feature. Screenpresso Pro lets you analyze any image you've captured for words and letters, and turn them into editable text.
The Windows software has many other features as well and represents good value for a lifetime license. Screenpresso Pro can capture static images and video, including both what's on the screen and what is being recorded via webcam. It's also possible to connect an Android device to the computer and record what is happening on it—an unusual and useful option.
An image editor is built into the app, which lets you add effects and watermarks as well as perform other standard editing tasks. A video editing tool is also included, but it's quite basic—you'll likely need to use something else for all but the simplest tasks.
Once you're done, it's straightforward to save and share on a variety of platforms, including Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, and social media.
If you don't need the features of the Pro version, a basic free option is also available, limited to image captures and watermarked video only.
Best Inbuilt Option (Windows): Snipping Tool
If you only have basic screen capture requirements, you may not need to download or install anything at all. Since Windows Vista, Microsoft's operating system has included the 'Snipping Tool,' a basic screen capture utility.
It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the dedicated apps mentioned above but is fine for capturing the contents of application windows, rectangular, or free-form areas. You can set a delay of between one and five seconds, and basic editing tools like pens and highlighters are included.
When you're happy with the image, you can save it as a PNG, JPG, or GIF file, or send it by e-mail. It's also possible to copy the screenshot and paste it into your editing app of choice, or open it directly in Paint or Paint 3D, depending on your version of Windows.
To use the Snipping Tool, press the Windows key, type 'snipping,' and click the app icon. For even more basic screen capturing, press the Print Screen button on your keyboard to capture the entire screen, Alt-Print Screen to capture the active app window, or the Windows key and S to select a rectangular area.
Best Built-In Option (Mac): Screenshot
Ever wondered why there aren't many good screen capture apps for MacOS? The answer is simple: because Apple's inbuilt version already does most of the things you need.
If you're running at least OS X Mojave, pressing the Command, Shift, and 5 keys simultaneously opens up Screenshot, a more-than-useful screen capture utility. A small toolbar at the bottom of the screen lets you select from full-screen, window, or rectangular area screenshots, as well as recording full-screen or windowed video.
If that's not enough, the Options menu lets you set a capture timer (five or ten seconds), choose whether to show the mouse pointer in the captured image, pick a save location, and more.
Other keyboard shortcuts are available, which also work on earlier versions of MacOS. Try Command — Shift — 3 to capture the entire screen, Command — Shift — 4 to capture an app window or selected area, or Command — Shift — 6 to grab a screenshot of the touchbar if your Mac has one.
Once the image is captured, you can click on it to get basic editing options, do nothing to let it save to the default location, or press Control and click it to do things like choosing an app to open it with.
Our writers spent 9 hours researching the most popular screen capture software on the market. Before making their final recommendations, they considered 12 different software overall, read over 15 user reviews (both positive and negative), and tested 3 of the software themselves. All of this research adds up to recommendations you can trust.
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 the market, and the basic features can be found on free screen recorder apps.
Here we listed some basic Mac screen recorder software for free and a couple of paid recorder apps that has some extended features best for professional use.
When you go for Mac free screen recorder, please keep in mind, many of them will come with time-limited recording, or some features will be missing. But these apps will be a good choice for those who don’t want to spend money on these apps.
QuickTime Player
Mac users know that Quick Time Player is the default video player on Mac. QuickTime can also be used for the playing different media files present on the system and support a wide range of video formats. Despite being a video player it can also perform screen recording software easily and you can choose the entire desktop or the selected area for recording. There is an optional feature to show the mouse and add microphone audio in the recording video.
Download from Apple
Related: 10 Best Video & Photo Editing Software for Mac Professionals
Monosnap
Monosnap is a free Mac screen recording software coming with the option of turning on your webcam, mic and system’s audio all before the recording. You can your Mac’s inbuilt camera or an external camera for the recordings on the software. MonoSnap records the screen in 60fps to ensure an ultra-smooth playback to meet the need in the demanding situations. For screenshots, Monosnap can capture full or part of the screen delayed screen capture and hotkey setup to trigger the screenshot.
The video recording support to capture screencasts, blur private information from the screen and also let you highlight the important information with text, marker or arrows. This Mac Screen Recorder is ideal for students and professionals with its integration with the cloud. You can connect the cloud drives such as Dropbox, CloudApp, Yandex.Disk, Box.com, Google Drive or FTPs to upload screen recorded videos and screenshots to share with other PCs and smartphones. Monosnap is mainly good for one-off recordings that are short and can be shared quickly.
Download from Apple Store
Icecream Screen Recorder
You can easily use Icecream Screen Recorder to capture any area of the screen. Capture as well as save the area in the form of a screenshot or video file over your system. Record your games, webinars and Skype video calls in HD quality in a quick and simple manner.
Record the screen in a window as well as in full-screen mode to display the content in the best possible manner. You can easily add your own watermark while capturing the screen of your desktop or laptop. Set your video quality output and record the entire screen in that manner.
Download from Website
OBS Studio
OBS Studio is an open source and free software for video recording and live streaming for Windows, MAC & Linux. You can get high-performance real-time video/audio capturing and mixing, with unlimited scenes. The additional filters available for video sources such as image masking, color correction, chroma/color keying, and more. The built-in audio mixer is coming with filter functions such as noise gate, noise suppression, and gain.
Download from Website
Jing
Jing is an interesting free screen capture application from TechSmith, different from all other screen-capture software. The captured video can be saved in SWF format or stored in the screencast. Coming with a five-minute video recording with the option of using the mic while recording, it is a good option for narrating the steps to solve a problem.
Download from Website
Screen Recorder Robot Lite
This is one of the simplest tool presents for screencasting and edits the recorded video to perfection. Unlike many free recording tools it doesn’t include any watermark on the video and every mouse click can be detected easily with the tool. The videos recorded through the tool can be a minimum of 200 seconds and maximum of 600 seconds. You can record over and over then edit the video to make a big video.
Download from Apple Store
Recordit: Instant Screencasts
Recordit allows you to make a quick video of yourself doing something interesting on your Mac. You can easily turn the recorded video into a GIF and share them instantly without any trouble encountered. From the software, you can record the screen for 5 minutes and create a GIF from the recorded video. The screencast is uploaded to the software’s servers from where it can be shared to other platforms.
Best Screen Recording Software For Mac Free
Download from Apple Store
Apowersoft Screen Recorder
Apowersoft Screen Recorder is a great professional tool for screen recording. The program is quite rich in features and gives more control to the user during the screen recording process. Create a vivid tutorial that includes your feelings along with the recording.
Record in the best possible manner with the three recording modes as well as use different audio inputs for recording. Configure the mouse style for recording the screen in the manner that you find suitable for yourself.
Download from Mac App Store
Record it
Record it is a good and professional tool that allows you to record your screen for displaying the software as well as giving video tutorials. You can capture the screen for iOS devices with the tool through Airplay / Wi-Fi. Access the custom recorder feature of the tool to capture the videos at full screen or any size.
You can easily export the screen video to other online sharing platforms and also export it as a GIF. The one-click feature of the tool makes the screen recording process quite simple for the beginners. The interface is smooth allowing the people to have more control over the screen recording process.
Download from Mac App Store
As you know, the paid Mac screen recorder apps are good for customer support and packed with a lot of features as well as no restriction for maximum recording time.
Snagit
Another great Mac screen recording software from TechSmith, Snagit is premium screen recorder software which can download at a one-time cost of $49.95. Combining some of the best editing features; it is an easy to use software to record desktop.
The recorded video is saved in MP4 format and comes with a large 1 GB file limit. After doing the recording, you can send the video to any suitable application service offering a great level of reliability.
Download from Website
Camtasia
Camtasia 2 is one of the most famous and professional screen recording software for Mac OS and is offered for a price of $99. With the extensive layout, the user can make smooth editing and mix on the recorded video.
Add titles, annotations, transitions and panning animations on the recorded movie to increase the effect of the video. The tools of the software are huge time savers for the people who record screen regularly.
Download from Apple Store
Screen Record Studio HD
It is a professional screen recording software that can be purchased for $4.99. Screen Record Studio supplies some good text and image logos along with screen recording feature. The people can mix two audio sources and add mouse click animation along with the click count. You can record for a particular time by setting a timer for recording. The software can only record for only 120 seconds.
Download from Apple Store
AV Recorder & Screen Capture
AV Recorder & Screen Capture allows you to capture everything and anything on your screen. It offers a max resolution of 2800 by 1800 for recording video. Make gameplay tutorial with its perfect FPS option and auto stop recording at a fixed time. If you want to shorten the recording then you can trim the video easily from the software. The recording software is offered to people at a cost of $9.99. The sharing of videos can be done online with ease.
Best Screen Recording Program For Mac
Download from Apple Store
Capto Screen Capture
Bring out the creativity present in you by capturing informative and compelling videos with Capto Screen Capture. Record your entire screen or selected portions in Full HD at 60 FPS with clear audio. You can also record your emotions during the screen recording process with system’s camera or through an external recording device.
The powerful video editing suite of the tool gives you all the features to make the recorded video better. The file manager of the tool offers easy storage as well as retrieval of the projects. Just sort the recorded videos in efficiently labeled folders that are customizable in every manner.
Download from Mac App Store
Screen Recorder Movavi
Get the unique possibility for capturing the screen in high quality with Movavi Screen Recorder. You can easily capture the gameplay, video as well as audio streams through the tool available for the purpose. Capture the movement of the mouse along with the keyboard actions for recording a tutorial or how to do video in a better way.
Coming with automatic monitor area, the recorder can be adjusted into any specific manner preferred by you. You can add system alerts, keyboard types, cursors types as well as custom sounds on clicks. The tool also comes with a timer allowing you to add a timer and relax on your chair, while recording is going on its own.
Download from Mac App Store
Screen Recorder Pro
Record the screen of your Mac at 30 frames to 60 frames per second with optimum performance result through Screen Recorder Pro. Choose to record the computer audio or record it from the internet, app or any game. With custom scaling, you can easily scale down the recorded video to get the necessary result in the video.
Compress the video after the recording process to make it small for uploading on social networking sites. Record the screen with no time limit and save the file in MOV or MP4 format. With the tool, you can add mouse click animation with your logo as well as your signature to the recorded video.
Download from Mac App Store
Related: Best Wireless Headphones for iPhone 7 to Replace Apple Airpods
Perhaps the most prominent use of Mac Screen Recording Software is for showing off the solution to a system problem and upload on Youtube. When you use the screen recorder software for Mac, rather than just recording the screen, you may have a bunch of features that will improve the productivity.
These features include audio recording, selected window recording etc. The screen recorder software available in different names ‘screen capturing’ or ‘screen recording’ or ‘desktop recording,’ they all are doing the same job with some additional features like point zooming, area highlighting, video subtitle, etc.
With these top pick Mac Screen Recorder software, you can easily make screencast videos, make tutorials more explanative and clear. You can choose the best screen recorder from the paid or free ones in order to have the features as well as the characteristics needed to make a great tutorial video.