What is screen recording?
Screen recorders are a tool used by many. Whether you’re sharing a how-to tutorial for new software or onboarding a new employee, screen recorders are the best tool for the job. Knowing how to screen record can both help you efficiently manage your projects and streamline productivity.
In this article, we will go over:
- What is screen recording?
- How to record your screen
- The best screen recording software
- Must-have features for a computer screen recorder
- Paid vs free screen recorders
What is Screen Recording?
So, what is screen recording? Screen capture software essentially records every movement on your device to take a video of your screen. Screen recorders can be used on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. They can capture anything from a portion of your screen to your entire screen.
Screen video recorders can be used to:
- Quickly show a bug on a website to a software development team
- Walk-through a solution to a customer’s problem on their device
- Collaborate with co-workers over video
- Send welcome messages to new employees
- Discuss work outside of meetings
- Anything else you can imagine that you can do with video capture on your computer or phone!
What Screen Recording Software is the Right Fit for Me?
Most screen recording software will vary in how they perform on different operating systems. Screen recorders may include downloadable applications for both Mac OS and Windows as well as a Chrome extension. The best screen capture software come with a number of custom features that help you customize and speed up your work.
Best Computer Screen Recorder Features:
- Voice Recorder Audio – Oftentimes, video recording tools will also be accompanied by an audio recorder. Having the option of recording video with audio can help enhance both the quality and production of your recording. For more information on how to screen record with audio, check out our comprehensive list of available applications.
- High Definition Video – Clearer and sharper high-quality images are crucial in creating engaging content. Better visual resolution can create more accurate demonstrations.
- Editing Tools – To further customize your experience, editing tools can help you add commentary and notes to your videos and images. These types of tools can blur sensitive information and mark important details that you want to share with your recording. Editing tools can also help you add custom watermarks to personalize your workspace.
- Screenshots – The option to both video capture and screenshot your computer can help you customize the way you present information. Both tools can be used for a variety of tasks. Both tools can also help you create easy to understand demonstrations and clear instructions.
Selecting the Best Screen Recorder
Screen recording tools vary from free to paid solutions. They range from producing lower quality videos to high-quality HD recordings. Some come with only the ability to record video and some let you audio record alongside it. Some are available only on Mac, others on Windows. Many tools also come with watermarks. Finding the best screen recorder can help you enhance your workspace, streamline communication, and customize collaboration.
Let’s look at the pros and cons of free software vs paid software.
Free Video Recording Software:
Pros
- If you’re not using your screen recording app often, it might not be worth it to pay for a service. In these cases, it’s better to stick to using free apps instead.
- For those who are tech-savvy, you can use a separate cloud storage sync service to save your recordings rather than paying for an app that does it for you.
Cons
- Even the best free screen recording software often have non-removable watermarks that appear in saved recordings.
- Lower resolution recordings are also common.
- Short recording times limit the amount you can record.
- When you use free video capture software, you have to download the recorded video and share it by sending a file. This can be an issue for two reasons:
- Recorded video files are often too large to send through email, so you must find another way to send large files online.
- Downloaded video files take up large amounts of storage space on a computer. Videos eight minutes in length vary in size from 48 MB to 1368 MB depending on resolution and format. Screen recordings that capture just the screen tend to be smaller in size, while screen recordings that include a webcam tend to be larger. Mac screens also generally have higher resolutions resulting in larger file sizes.
Paid Video Capture Software:
Pros
- Paid recorders do not have watermarks that show up on recorded videos.
- Higher resolution is also more common among paid desktop recorders.
- Longer recording times are convenient, but this add-on usually comes with pay upgrades for the user.
- The more advanced solutions will automatically save your screen recording to the cloud and give you a link to share the screen recording with anyone. This frees up space on your computer. You also don’t have to worry if the screen recording file size is too large to share by email.
Cons
- Paid desktop recorders usually come with free trials, but these trials are limited and vary between a few days to a couple of weeks.
- Cloud storage is not always included with screen recording apps and can also come as a separate service. Having to pay for two different services or extra cloud storage can get expensive.
If you’re looking for the highest rated, lowest priced screen recording app, Droplr is your solution. Droplr is the best screen recorder that helps you get work done faster by capturing and sharing screenshots or screencasts instantly. It’s all saved to the cloud. Speed up collaboration with coworkers and clients with editing tools to help you markup your screenshots. Droplr also specializes in enterprise-level security with industry leading security, certification, and compliance.
Unlike other computer screen video recorder apps, Droplr doesn’t make you pay more for longer recording times and larger files and instead has one flat price. Try our free trial version of Droplr and join the 1.1 million teams and individuals sharing 2.2 billion screenshots and screencasts with the best screen recorder for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Chrome.
Learn How to Screen Record with Droplr
- Cloud Storage – Having the ability to directly upload your recordings and screenshots is a great tool for anyone looking to save computer space. With Droplr, you can view all of your files in one space and organize them into shareable boards. You can also share your files over the Cloud.
- Markup – Need to draw an arrow or circle a specific image or word? Use Droplr’s markup tool to help you edit your images for easy demonstrations and straight forward communication.
- Short Links for Sharing – Large photo and video files can be difficult to share over email. Use Droplr’s short links to share your files with anyone. Users can then download or view your files from these short links. You can also set your privacy settings and password settings for all of your files.