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Both cover screen recording. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Camtasia | OBS Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $39 | Free |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | Free |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Billing | Annual only | One-time purchase |
| Free trial | Not stated | None |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | macOS, Windows | macOS, Windows, Linux |
| Covers | Screen Recording, Video Editing | Screen Recording, Live Streaming |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | YouTube, Twitch |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Screen recording and editing in one suite
Camtasia has been the default answer for recorded training and software walkthroughs for about two decades, and the reason is the editor rather than the recorder: callouts, zooms and cursor effects are built in rather than assembled by hand. TechSmith sells it by the year and bundles Snagit with it. There is still a perpetual licence for people who would rather buy a version and keep it.
Our note
Ignore the $39 tier unless you genuinely only want Snagit, because the editor that makes Camtasia worth buying is on the plan above. Against DaVinci Resolve, which is free, this earns its price on the demo-specific tooling and nothing else.
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Free and open source streaming and recording
OBS is what most of the streams you watch are running, and it costs nothing because it is a volunteer project rather than a business with a free tier. Scenes, sources, filters and a real audio mixer are all there, along with plugin support. Nothing about it is friendly on the first evening, and the settings that decide whether your stream looks good are the ones with no explanation next to them.
Our note
Every paid streaming tool in this catalog is, in part, selling you an escape from OBS's settings panel. That is a real thing to buy if your time is worth more than the evening. If it is not, OBS does everything they do and costs nothing.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.
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