Growing an audience
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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 | ShareX | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $39 | Free |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | Free |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Billing | Annual only | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | macOS, Windows | Windows |
| Covers | Screen Recording, Video Editing | Screen Recording |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| 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.
Only on this side
Screen capture and recording, open source
ShareX captures a region, a window, a scrolling page or the whole screen, records video and GIFs, and then runs whatever steps you set afterwards: annotate, upload, copy the link back. It has been in development for eighteen years and it uploads to a long list of destinations, including one you host yourself. Windows only, free, and it wants no account.
Our note
For capture and share on Windows nothing paid does the job better, and the custom uploader support is genuinely rare. The moment a recording has to look edited rather than raw, it is the wrong tool.
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.