Open-source Camtasia alternatives

OBS Studio, from the Open Broadcaster Software project, is a free, open-source application for recording video and streaming live. It runs on Windows 10 and 11, recent macOS versions and Linux, and it is written mainly in C and C++ under the GPL-2.0 license.

Content is composed as scenes built from multiple sources, such as window captures, images, text, browser windows, webcams and capture cards. You can create as many scenes as you need and switch between them with customizable transitions. An audio mixer provides per-source filters like noise gate, noise suppression and gain, and VST plugins are supported. A modular dock-based interface can be rearranged, and individual docks can be popped out into separate windows.

OBS can stream to Twitch, YouTube and other providers, or record to local files using H.264 video and AAC audio. The project is funded through sponsors and backers. It suits streamers, educators, gamers and anyone producing tutorials or presentations who needs flexible capture and mixing without a license fee.

ShareX is a free, open-source application for Windows that combines screenshot capture, screen recording, file sharing and productivity utilities. It is built for people who capture and share their screen often and want to do it with a single hotkey and minimal manual steps.

You can capture any region of the screen, record video or GIFs, annotate and edit screenshots, extract text with OCR, scan QR codes and pick colors. Finished captures can be copied, saved, or uploaded to a wide range of destinations such as FTP servers and cloud storage, with shareable links copied for you, and a URL shortener is included. Custom task chains and hotkeys let you build workflows that capture, edit and upload in one go.

ShareX is built on .NET and licensed under GPL-3.0. It runs only on Windows, and as a desktop app there is no hosted service. It is widely used by support staff, developers, educators and content creators who send screenshots and recordings daily and want more control than the built-in Windows tools offer.

Screenity is a free screen recorder and annotation tool that emphasizes privacy and has no recording limits. It can capture a browser tab, a selected area, the whole desktop, a specific application or a camera, and also records audio, which makes it useful for product demos, tutorials, presentations and feedback videos.

Topics show it runs as a Chrome extension, and it includes annotation tools to draw on screen while recording. The README documents how to create a development version and how to enable saving to Google Drive. The project is funded by sponsorship, with Recall.ai supporting its open-source work, and its creator offers an optional paid tier called Screenity Pro, described as an EU-hosted, privacy-minded platform offering link sharing, multi-scene editing, zoom keyframes and captions.

Screenity is JavaScript and licensed under GPL-3.0. The free extension can be installed from the browser store, and there is a section on self-hosting it. It suits teachers, support staff, designers and developers who regularly record their screen and prefer not to depend on a subscription.

ScreenToGif is a tool for recording a selected area of your screen, a live webcam feed or drawings made on a sketchboard. After capturing, you can edit the recording frame by frame and save the animation in formats including GIF, APNG, video, PSD or PNG images. It suits quick demos, bug reports and tutorials.

The application is written in C# using WPF and requires the .NET 9 Desktop Runtime or newer. It includes an editor along with its three recorders, and the project has a website at screentogif.com with downloads. Contributors can help with localization of the app, website and installer.

ScreenToGif is released under the Microsoft Public License. The author asks people not to relabel the program and sell it as their own work, although reusing the source code in other projects is fine. Support comes from donations and subscriptions on several platforms, and feedback is collected through GitHub.

BetterShot is a free, open-source Mac app for capturing, editing, and sharing screenshots and screen recordings. It is built natively with SwiftUI and needs no account, subscription, or cloud service. It requires macOS 26 or later and is positioned as an alternative to CleanShot X and Loom. The input lists its license only as other.

Screenshot tools include region, window, fullscreen, and scrolling capture, OCR text extraction, a color picker, and annotation with arrows, shapes, text, numbered markers, highlights, blur, and pixelate. Captures can be framed on a wallpaper or gradient with padding, rounded corners, and shadow. Recording supports a display, window, or area, with optional system audio, microphone, camera, and teleprompter, followed by a video editor for cutting, speed changes, zooms, transitions, captions, and masks.

It also provides customizable shortcuts, URL scheme automation for tools like Raycast, and self-hosted cloud sharing, with Cloudflare R2 among the topics. BetterShot suits Mac users who make tutorials, documentation, and bug reports and prefer a local, privacy-focused tool.