From basic screen recordings to selective capture, here are the best screencasting apps for Mac!
There are lots of reasons you'd need to take screen recordings of a Mac— to create a software demo for work, to send a helpful walkthrough to your mom or dad, to add some life to a school presentation, or even just to capture something funny to share with friends. Apple builds screen-capturing into Quicktime but there are also a lot of great screen-recording options in the Mac App Store as well, including some that don't break the bank. Here are the best ones!
Voila
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Voila is one of my favorite screen recording apps for Mac because it's not only a powerful and customizable screen recording program, it has tons of custom options for taking screenshots that I haven't found to be possible otherwise. From finicky drop down menus to tricky highlighted areas, Voila does it all. You can pull in video and audio from external components too. As for sharing, Voila supports several one click publish options including YouTube, Flickr, Evernote, Tumblr, FTP, and more.
If you need not only good screencasting support, but extended support for screenshots, get Voila.
- $29.99 - Download Now
QuickCast
QuickCast is a barebones screen recording app that lets you quickly record and share clips that are three minutes or shorter. To do so you can use external audio and the built-in camera. All of your recordings are then saved to your QuickCast account for easy sharing and embedding later. You can choose to record only certain parts of the screen but that's about the only option you do have.
If you record a lot of short, sweet, and to the point screencasts that need to be shared quickly, look no further than QuickCast.
- Free - Download Now
Screencast Maker
Screencast Maker is similar to QuickCast but doesn't have a time restriction. Just select the area you'd like to record, the quality you want, and start recording. QuickCast saves your files in H264/AVC right to your computer for you to do with what you want.
If you want a simple app like QuickCast but without the limit on video length, check out Screencast Maker.
- $4.99 - Download Now
QuickTime Player
QuickTime Player comes built right in to every Mac and most people don't realize it also has the ability to do basic screen recordings. As long as you don't need to only record a specific area of the screen, QuickTime Player can capture your entire screen along with audio if you need it. It's extremely basic but it's also extremely free.
If your needs are very basic and don't require recording selective areas of your screen, give the built-in QuickTime Player a try.
- Built in to every Mac
Your picks?
Those are the Mac screen recording apps that we consider the very best. If you've had to capture the desktop on your Mac in the past, let us know what you used and why you picked it!
