Bandicam is a popular screen recording software that allows you to take videos of your computer screen. You can capture yourself playing a game, using a desktop app, or doing anything on your computer screen for the purposes of creating a tutorial or simply recording what you are doing.
You can also use Bandicam to capture video from your webcam.
While Bandicam isn’t a bad tool, it does have a number of drawbacks. First of all, the free version only allows you to record videos of up to 10 minutes.
While that might be enough for very short tutorials, it prevents you from recording longer, more complicated tutorials, unless you get the paid license.
In addition, the free version comes with a watermark.
Another problem that Bandicam has is that it is only for Windows devices (starting from Windows XP if you download the older version or Windows 7 if you use the current version).
If you are on a MAC or Chromebook, you will need a good Bandicam alternative.
Also, if you want to record your mobile phone screen or FaceTime calls, you will also need an alternative. Bandicam does not have a standalone app that allows you to record on mobile without connecting your phone to your computer.
Fortunately, however, there are many amazing Bandicam alternatives out there. Today, I will be going over some of the best Bandicam alternatives that either:
- Allow you to record videos longer than 10 minutes for free
- Have no watermarks (for free)
- Are available for MAC computers
- Are available for Chromebooks
- Allow you to record on mobile without connecting your phone to your computer
- Are open source (you can view and customize the source code)
- Come as a browser extension instead of a program download
- Are online tools
- Have better editing features compared to Bandicam’s mediocre editing features
- Or are otherwise superior to Bandicam in whichever way
Let us get into it.
The 11 Best Bandicam Alternatives
1. OBS Studio
OBS, also known as the OBS Project, Open Broadcaster Software, or simply OBS, is a free and open source video screen recorder that is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux devices. It is my #1 recommended alternative to Bandicam.
It has zero limitations on how long your videos can be. Being that it is open source, you can view, edit, and distribute the source code, without any limitations.
The project is sponsored by some pretty big brands, including YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook! In fact, it is a great tool to use when recording video to upload to YouTube.
You can record scenes from a multitude of sources, including your screen, your webcam, and more. You can seamlessly switch between scenes in your video and use the audio mixer to improve the sound quality, suppress noise, and more.
When switching between scenes, you can choose between different transitions to improve the flow of your video. You can also customize those transitions to make your video unique.
To make video recording easier, set hotkeys for different actions. With the hotkeys, you can push a few keys to automatically do actions such as starting to record, stopping the recording, switching between scenes and video sources, muting or unmuting audio sources, and a lot more.
There is a large developer community behind OBS, and thanks to its API, the community has been able to create free plugins to enhance your productivity when creating videos with OBS.
While the older version of OBS is still available for download, it is no longer supported. Instead, download the newer version, which is updated frequently (the last version was released less than a month before the writing of this article).
The new version is multiplatform, so it is available for Windows (Windows 8 and up), MAC (10.13 and up), and Linux (Ubuntu 18.04 and up).
On the help page, you can find links to:
- Wikis
- Guides
- The Discord chat
- The forum
- The GitHub repository
- The feedback and suggestions form
- A list of certified devices
- And more
The forum is where you can find:
- Help and support for Windows, MAC, and Linux versions from other users and developers
- Plugins
- Themes
- Scripts
- And more
For a comprehensive review of the two tools, OBS and Bandicam, Check out this post!
2. Vimeo Screen Recorder
The Vimeo Screen Recorder tool is free and available as a Chrome extension, making it available on any device that runs Chrome browsers, including Chromebooks and MAC computers (unlike Bandicam). It is entirely free to use, and it allows you to record an unlimited number of videos, with up to two hours per video.
However, if you are on the free Vimeo plan, you will have a cloud storage limit of 5 GB and be limited to 500 MB of upload space per week (as well as 10 videos per day)
Yes, your videos will be automatically uploaded to Vimeo. However, that doesn’t mean they will be public; you can make those videos private but still send the link to team members and other people, so they can view it.
Vimeo Screen Recorder is perfect for:
- Sharing videos with team members
- Creating public or private tutorials
- Creating educational videos for employees or students
- Creating a video for customer support or educational purposes
One of the benefits of using the Vimeo screen recorder over Bandicam is that your videos will be stored in the cloud, so you won’t have to send heavy video files and use up your bandwidth.
Also, you will be able to access analytics on your videos, which will allow you to track video views and comments. When someone comments on a video, you can respond; that makes Vimeo perfect for team collaboration.
Another way Vimeo makes collaboration easy for teams is by allowing you to categorize and organize videos into team folders. For each folder, you can set permissions as to which employees, team members, or clients are allowed to view the folder.
One more thing: To make your videos easier to watch and navigate, you can add video chapters.
All in all, Vimeo is a better screen recorder tool for teams and those looking for collaboration and cloud storage features.
3. Screencast-O-Matic
While Screencast-O-Matic does have a limit on how long your videos can be on the free plan, you can still create longer videos than with Bandicam. While Bandicam limits you to 10 minute videos, Screencast-O-Matic lets you create an unlimited number of 15 minute videos for free.
Sometimes, you just need those extra few minutes to get a few more ideas or points in.
Screencast-O-Matic also has a wide range of other features, many of which Bandicam does not offer. Here are some of them:
- A built-in music library so you can add music to recordings (Bandicam doesn’t have this)
- Sound effects to add to recordings
- Edit multiple audio tracks
- Green screen effects
- Import videos and mix them with recordings via cut, copy, and paste
- Remove silence in recordings to make your recordings shorter and save space
- Add narration to recordings
- Blur sensitive information such as passwords and pictures
- Animate overlays
- Zoom in and zoom out
- Stock library with images to add to your videos
- Upload your own images and host them in your personal online library
- Annotation buttons
- Call to action buttons
- Add links to videos
- Protect videos with passwords
- Back up videos to online storage
- Record videos on the mobile apps and transfer them to the desktop video editor
Bandicam, for example, doesn’t even have mobile apps for Android and iOS. If you want to record on your mobile phone with Bandicam, you will have to connect your phone to your computer (either with a cable or via wifi).
Screencast-O-Matic, on the other hand, allows you to record your Android or iOS phone’s screen, FaceTime calls, narration, and system audio.
You can add filters and stickers and otherwise enhance your recordings or transfer the recordings to the desktop editor, so you can edit them more thoroughly (you will need the Premier plan to transfer videos from mobile to desktop).
In addition, Screencast-O-Matic, unlike Bandicam, is available for Chromebooks with the Chrome browser extension.
Finally, the video editing possibilities offered by Screencast-O-Matic are far superior to what Bandicam offers.
Premium pricing, if you want to record videos longer than 15 minutes, starts at just $1.95/month. Always refer to the pricing page for updated pricing information.
4. Camtasia
Camtasia is a great alternative to Bandicam that works on both Windows and MAC computers. It also has superior editing features, allowing you to produce and edit awesome screen capture videos.
When editing videos, you can quickly add text, transitions, effects, and more.
Another area in which Camtasia beats Bandicam and most other alternatives, is when it comes to video templates. Camtasia offers pre-made video templates to help you create beautiful videos.
For example, if you are creating a video with a list of tips, there is a template for that. There is a template for birthday videos and a template for customer testimonial videos.
All of these templates come with transitions, effects, backgrounds, and text fields perfect for the video you are trying to make.
In addition to templates, there are:
- Themes: Themes with different color scheme and fonts
- Device frames: You can embed your video into specific device frames. For example, even if you recorded your video on your desktop, you can insert it into a mobile phone frame. View the screenshot below to see some different frames
- Intros, outros, and transitions: Templates for the beginnings and ends of your videos and when transitioning to a new scene
You can also insert:
- Music
- Loops
- Sound effects
- Images
- Icons
- Video footage
Other ways to enhance your videos include:
- Edit the sound to adjust pitch and gain and a lot more
- Upload your own images, videos, or audio
- Add closed captions to your videos
- Add a table of contents
- Customize the cursor
- Add animations
- Add annotations, including callouts and arrows
- Add quizzes
- Integrate with PowerPoint to display slides
As you can see, Camtasia gives you a lot of ways to create beautiful videos. Although it is not free, it does offer a free trial; you can learn more on the pricing page.
5. Apowersoft Screen Recorder
The Apowersoft screen recorder is an online tool. Unlike with Bandicam, you won’t have to download the tool to your computer.
Apowersoft isn’t even a browser extension; it is a purely online tool.
In fact, the only thing you need to install is a launcher. Then, whenever you want to record your screen, you can go to the website and start recording using the online tool.
Apowersoft does not limit what you can record. You can record TV shows, for example, to view them later.
Although it is an online recorder, you are not limited to recording your browser. You can record anything you are doing on the screen, as well as your webcam video.
When recording, you can annotate the video and add lines, text, callouts, and more. All this is possible in real time; you can annotate the video during the recording, so you won’t have to wait until the video is completed.
Once you do complete the video, you can export it in a variety of formats, either straight to your computer or to the cloud.
One great reason to prefer Apowersoft to Bandicam is that although Apowersoft is free to use, it does not come with any time limits, unlike Bandicam, which limits you to 10 minutes per recording.
One of the downsides of using Apowersoft or other online screen recorders that I will cover is that you will need an internet connection to use them.
In addition, they can use up your bandwidth, so if you are tethering your laptop to a mobile phone, consider that you might be using up your mobile data.
Also, if your internet connection is weak, it may slow down page loading times.
Many people who are recording their screens are recording themselves doing stuff online with a strong internet connection anyway, so it may not make such a difference.
6. ACETHINKER
ACETHINKER is another excellent free alternative to Bandicam. Unlike Bandicam, it does not require you to download anything to your device, as it is a purely online tool.
You will need to download a launcher to your device the first time you use it.
You can still customize your screen recordings. For example, you can record the entire screen or only a selected portion of the screen, and you can decide whether to include system audio or your own audio.
Once you have recorded your video, you can export it in a variety of video formats. You can download it directly to your local drive, or you can upload it directly to Dropbox, Google Drive, and even YouTube.
Unlike Bandicam, ACETHINKER does not add a watermark to your videos, so nobody will know you used it to record your screen. Also, there are absolutely no time limits when recording, even though you can use it for free, without any registration.
7. TinyTake
TinyTake is another excellent alternative to Bandicam if you are on a MAC.
It’s a simple tool, and it makes it easy to annotate the videos you take with text, arrows, and more.
In addition, not only can you download your videos to your local drive, but you can also publish them online and share a link to the video with your friends or colleagues. You can view all of your past uploads in your online video library, from any device.
If you want to share videos easily with friends and family, TinyTake is a great alternative to Bandicam.
TinyTake allows you to record your entire screen, part of your screen, or your webcam. You can also take simple image screenshots and save them locally, copy them to your clipboard, or store them online, in the cloud.
In addition to uploading your videos to an online library, you can connet TinyTake to YouTube to upload presentations and tutorials straight to your YouTube channel.
Another cool thing about TinyTake is that it comes with a built-in online file viewer. That means that when you are recording things in your browser, and you want to open a file, you can open it online, in your browser.
If you ever opened a document that was sent to you in Gmail, and the file opened right in the browser, you will have an idea of how that works. The TinyTake online file viewer also allows you to unzip files and view zipped documents.
You will have a limit of five minutes per video on the free version, as well as 2 GB of storage in your online library. You can upgrade to one of the premium plans for longer video recording and more storage.
8. ScreenRec
ScreenRec is an awesome, free Bandicam alternative for Windows, MAC, and Linux devices. Not only is it available for free, but it does not come with any time limits, unlike Bandicam.
It’s great for educators, employers, Youtubers, and team members who want to communicate via video recordings. You can annotate the videos you record, and once you are done, you will get a link you can use to share or embed the video.
9. ShareX
Although ShareX is only available for Windows devices, it is entirely free and open source, unlike Bandicam, which is a proprietary software. Since ShareX is open source, you can access and edit the source code based on your needs.
ShareX comes with zero advertisements. It has been around for 13 years, and it has a large community of developers behind it, constantly improving the product and fixing bugs.
You can capture the entire screen or specific regions, and you can annotate the video recording with stickers, highlights, speech balloons, uploaded images, and more.
The software source code is available on GitHub, and there is a lot of documentation to help you learn how to use the tool.
10. Free Cam
Free Cam is another great alternative to Bandicam for Windows devices. It is entirely free, forever, with zero time limits, unlike Bandicam.
Not only that, but it does not place any watermarks on your videos, while Bandicam does (on the free version, at least).
To start, select an area of your screen to record (you can also record your entire screen, of course). You can highlight your mouse movements and record either your own audio or the system audio to go along with your video.
Even though Free Cam is free, it still has an excellent video editor. Using the built-in video editor, you can do things like remove background noise, adjust the volume, add fade-in effects, cut out parts of the video, and a lot more.
Free Cam only lets you download your video in a WMV format in 720p. However, in addition to downloading the video directly to your local drive, you can upload it straight to your YouTube channel.
Cam Pro, the premium version, allows you to export your video in an MP4 format in 1080p. It also allows you to record your webcam and add more annotations.
There are some other differences between the free and paid versions, but you can record without any time limits and without any watermarks on both versions.
Check the Pro page for more information (right now, it costs $227/year, but that can always change).
11. Screencastify
Our final Bandicam alternative is great for Chromebooks. It is available as a Chrome extension, so any device running a Chrome browser can use it.
It is free to use, and you can record not only your browser tab but your entire screen. You can even record your webcam and add it as an overlay to your screen recording.
You can export videos as MP4 files or upload them directly to YouTube or Google Drive.
Unlike Bandicam, Screencastify does not add a watermark to free videos. However, it does have a limit of five minutes per video on the free version.
Wrapping It Up: What Is The Best Bandicam Alternative?
The best Bandicam alternative, without a doubt in my mind, is OBS. It is entirely free and open source, and it is available for Windows, MAC, and Linux devices.
It has superior video editing features as well, including amazing transitions.
