The best screen recorders for Windows

1. OBS Studio — Screen Recorder and Streaming App

Best for: Best overall: unlimited recording and live streaming

• Open source
• Free
• Video

OBS Studio is open source with no paid version, no watermark and no time limit. You build scenes from a display, a window, a game, a webcam and images, record with NVIDIA, AMD or Intel hardware encoders, and stream to Twitch or YouTube from the same window. The virtual camera sends your scene into Zoom, Teams or Meet.

Setup takes a few minutes, and OBS has no editing tools, so you trim recordings in a separate editor such as Shotcut. If you only need a quick capture of part of the screen, ShareX is faster to use.

2. ShareX — Screenshot and Screen Recording Tool

Best for: Quick captures, GIFs and screenshots on hotkeys

• Open source
• Free
• Utilities

ShareX combines screenshots, scrolling captures, OCR and screen recording to MP4 or GIF in one open-source tool. Press a hotkey, select an area, and it can annotate, save and copy the result automatically, which makes it ideal for support replies and documentation.

It is not a studio: there are no scenes or streaming as in OBS Studio. The settings can be overwhelming, it is Windows only, and you should review the After capture tasks on first launch so captures are uploaded only when you choose.

3. FlashBack Express — Screen Recorder

Best for: A simple recorder with no time limit or watermark

• Freeware
• Free
• Video

FlashBack Express is the easiest free recorder here that has no watermark and no time limit. It records the screen, a window or a region across several monitors together with webcam, microphone and PC sound, and lets you draw on screen, highlight the cursor, schedule recordings and blur the webcam background.

Multi-track editing, effects and smart zoom need a paid licence, and AI subtitles are capped at a few minutes on the free plan. It is Windows only. Compared with OBS Studio it has no scenes, but it is simpler to set up.

4. NVIDIA App — GPU Driver and Settings App

Best for: Gameplay clips on a GeForce PC

• Freeware
• Free
• Utilities

If your PC has an NVIDIA graphics card, NVIDIA App already includes ShadowPlay recording with Instant Replay, which saves the last moments of a game when something good happens. It also handles driver updates and game settings, so there is nothing extra to install.

It only works with NVIDIA GPUs and runs background services and an overlay unless you disable them. On AMD or Intel graphics, use the replay buffer in OBS Studio or a clip app like Medal, whose free downloads carry a watermark.

5. ScreenToGif — GIF Screen Recorder

Best for: Short animated GIFs for docs and bug reports

• Open source
• Free
• Video

ScreenToGif records a screen region, webcam or sketchboard and then opens every frame in an editor, so you can delete mistakes, crop, change delays and add captions or arrows before saving as GIF, APNG or video. It is open source with no paid version or watermark.

It records no sound and is meant for short clips, not long tutorials. Video export needs FFmpeg as an extra download. For GIFs with less editing, ShareX is quicker.

6. oCam — Screen Recorder

Best for: One-click recording at home

• Freeware
• Free
• Video

oCam is a small recorder with almost no learning curve: pick a region, press record, and the file is saved when you stop. It has a game mode, saves to MP4, MKV, GIF and other formats, and can record system sound alone as MP3. It adds no watermark of its own.

The free version shows ads and is only for non-commercial personal use; companies, schools and PC cafes must buy a license. The current installer dates from 2023. For a free recorder you can also use at work, OBS Studio or FlashBack Express are better.

7. Loom — Screen Recorder for Video Messages

Best for: Video messages for remote teams

• Freeware
• Free
• Video

Loom records your screen with your webcam in a bubble, and a share link is ready as soon as you stop. Viewers watch in the browser, leave time-stamped comments and read an automatic transcript, and it connects with Slack, Jira and Confluence on the free plan.

Every video goes to Loom's cloud, and you need an account. The free Starter plan allows 25 videos per person, 5 minutes each, at up to 720p, and downloads and trimming are paid. For local recordings, use OBS Studio or ShareX.

8. Bandicam — Screen Recorder

Best for: A light game recorder, if you buy a license

• Shareware
• $33.26, per year (Personal license, 1 PC)
• Video

Bandicam is a small recorder with separate modes for a screen area, a game, a webcam or a capture device, and the free version adds no watermark to recordings. It is quick to start and easy on the system.

Every free recording stops at 5 minutes, videos exported from its editor are watermarked, and the Personal license at $33.26 per year is for non-commercial use only. Icecream Screen Recorder has the same 5-minute cap and also adds a watermark. If you record often and do not want to pay, OBS Studio has no limits at all.

9. Camtasia — Screen Recorder and Video Editor

Best for: If you want to pay: polished tutorials and training videos

• Shareware
• $179.88, per year (Essentials plan, removes the watermark)
• Video

Camtasia from TechSmith records the screen, webcam and audio and opens the result on a multitrack timeline built for tutorials: cursor smoothing and highlights, zooms, callouts, captions and transcript-based editing, plus quizzes and SCORM export for courses. It saves a lot of time compared with recording in one app and editing in another.

The free Camtasia Editor has no time limit, but every export has a watermark that is baked into the file. The cheapest plan that removes it is Essentials at $179.88 per year, and the download needs a TechSmith account. On a budget, OBS Studio plus a free editor does the same job with more work.