Screencastify is a screen video recording software for Chrome. As it’s a Chrome extension, you can use it on any operating system, including macOS.
However, while it has a free plan, it doesn’t allow you to export edited videos that are longer than five minutes long, and all videos will have a watermark. In addition, Screencastify lacks advanced video editing features.
The premium versions are not expensive, but they don’t add much to the free version in terms of features. Instead, they add storage space and remove video length restrictions and the limit of how many videos you can keep in your library at a time.
Screencastify also doesn’t offer cloud storage. Your video library is instead synced to your Google Drive account.
Furthermore, since it’s a Chrome extension, you must download Chrome to use it. You can record your entire desktop, but you do need to have Chrome to use it.
Fortunately, plenty of fabulous alternatives to Screencastify exist. Here are the 12 best Screencastify alternatives for Mac.
Best Screencastify Alternative For Mac
1. Screencast-O-Matic
The best alternative to Screencastify on Mac is Screencast-O-Matic. To start with, it has superior video editing capabilities.
Screencastify’s video editing tool allows you to rearrange clips, cut videos, add text, zoom in, and more. Take a look at Screencastify’s editing tool here:
As you can see, although it does its intended job, it is rather simplistic. There aren’t that many advanced features, making Screencastify better suited for people with only basic editing needs.
Screencast-O-Matic’s editing tool, on the other hand, is a lot more advanced. Even the free version allows you to add overlays such as videos, images, text, and shapes.
Not only that, but you don’t need an account to use it, unlike Screencastify. The best part about Screencast-O-Matic is that the videos you create for free will have no watermark – a massive improvement on Screencastify.
However, you can get the premium plan if you want to add green screen effects, other effects, animations, animated transitions, blurs, and more. You can even upload a text file to add captions to your videos.
The Premier plan, in particular, includes a massive stock library of images, videos, and tracks that you can upload while editing your videos. On the Premier plan, you can also back up your videos to the cloud to manage them on different devices.
Since Screencast-O-Matic has an iPhone/iPad app, which Screencastify does not, that means you can sync and edit your videos on your phone, on the go, as well.
Like Screencastify, Screencast-O-Matic is great for teachers and educators who want to assign video assignments or record their lectures and share them with students.
However, while Screencastify integrates with Google Classroom, Screencast-O-Matic offers a wide range of integrations including but not limited to Google Classroom. For example, it integrates with Canvas, Moodle, Schoology, and other learning management systems and tools.
Using Screencast-O-Matic, educators can record their lectures, create quizzes for students, and assign students video assignments.
Screencast-O-Matic is also better for teams and business. It integrates with Microsoft Teams, and it’s also awesome for online coaching, HR instructional video creation, marketing, and more.
It integrates with a wide range of business tools, including Zoom, Slack, Vimeo, Google Slides, and others.
All in all, Screencast-O-Matic offers more features, a better free plan, and better features for what you pay than Screencastify. It also offers a much wider range of integrations, making it the superior choice for education and business.
Besides, the Solo Deluxe and Solo Premier plans are cheaper than Screencastify! Always check out the pricing page for updated pricing information.
One more thing: Educators, universities, and schools get 50% off. See Education plans here.
2. OBS Studio
While Screencastify offers a free version, it is still proprietary software. If you’re looking for something that’s open source, OBS has what you’re searching for.
OBS, or Open Broadcaster Software, is one of the most popular and largest open source screen recorder projects. It’s backed and supported by some pretty big names, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Logitech, and NVIDIA.
In addition to allowing you to record your screen on video, it also allows you to livestream to streaming platforms.
OBS Studio is powerful, and it includes a powerful editor that allows you to switch between different scenes, add transitions, mix desktop and mic audio, and more.
Due to it being open source, you never have to worry about the free version disappearing like you might have to when using Screencastify. On the flip side, that also means you’ll have to rely on the forums, wiki, and Discord chat for support.
3. Monosnap
Another good alternative to Screencastify is Monosnap. Featuring a forever free plan, it allows you to take screenshots and videos of your screen on Mac, sharing them as video recordings or GIFs.
Once you record a video, you can edit it, add annotations, and blur sensitive data in the Editor.
One major difference between Screencastify and Monosnap is that Monosnap offers cloud storage, while Screencastify does not.
However, you don’t have to use its cloud storage. It also integrates with storage services like Dropbox, Box, DigitalOcean Spaces, AWS Amazon S3, and other platforms that Screencastify does not offer integrations for.
Keep in mind that while Monosnap offers a free plan, it’s quite limited. Each video can’t be longer than five minutes, and you get just 2 GB of storage, 4 GB of monthly bandwidth, and 1,000 monthly uploads.
See the pricing page for Monosnap plans.
4. Camtasia
Screencastify is good for users with basic needs. However, if you need a powerhouse for serious screen recording and video editing, consider switching to Camtasia by TechSmith.
While pricier than Screencastify, it offers a wide range of features without an extensive learning curve. You can record your screen or even use video templates to create your video.
The drag and drop video editor is extremely easy to use, allowing you to trim and cut videos, add and remove sections, and more.
One of the best parts about Camtasia is the flexibility it gives you. You can record only a specific application or window or even a specific section of the screen.
Another thing that Camtasia offers that Screencastify lacks is a library with royalty-free music tracks and other assets that you can add to your videos while editing them. You can also import images, clips, and other media from your computer.
While editing your recording, you can add annotations, text, callouts, arrows, shapes, and even links and timestamps. To make your videos more engaging, you can add quizzes.
There are animations and over 100 transitions that you can use to spice up your videos and seamlessly move from one scene to another. You can even customize your animations or create a custom theme so that all of your videos follow the same template.
To make your video look more professional, you can highlight the cursor as it moves, edit the cursor path, and more. Device frames allow you to make the video appear as if it were playing on a specific device, such as a desktop or mobile phone, even if it’s not.
To make it easier for people to navigate your video, you can add a table of contents and upload closed captions.
Camtasia also makes it easy to improve your audio. You can edit out audio, adjust pitch, even audio levels, and more.
A free trial is available, but it costs $299 after that for a lifetime license with free updates and one year of maintenance (see updated pricing here). However, if screen recording and video editing are essential for your business, it’s a worthwhile investment.
Discounts are available for businesses that buy licenses in bulk as well as for educators and even governments and nonprofits.
Check out the best free alternatives to Camtasia in this post.
5. Snagit
Snagit is another good alternative to Screencastify. It’s TechSmith’s other tool – a simple and cheap option that allows you to take screenshots and simple video recordings of your Mac’s screen.
After taking a screen recording, you can do some basic editing, trimming out parts you don’t want. You can then upload and save your recording to one of the integrated applications, such as Google Drive, DropBox, Box, and others.
Snagit also integrates with tools like Slack, Gmail, Microsoft Powerpoint, Outlook, Twitter, and more, making it perfect for team collaboration.
You can make a video out of a series of screenshots – useful for how-to videos – and Snagit has some other useful features, such as the ability to extract text from a screenshot.
Users can replace headers in screenshots, add stickers, and more.
The main difference between Snagit and Screencastify is that Snagit involves a one-time purchase. Screencastify, on the other hand, requires you to keep paying every year to retain unlimited access to the tool.
Over the long run, Snagit is a lot cheaper than Screencastify. While there is no free version, there is a free trial.
In addition, discounts are available for purchases of five licenses and more and for educators, governmental agencies, and nonprofits.
You can see updated Snagit pricing here.
6. Loom
Loom is the best Screencastify alternative for team collaboration. It allows you to record both your screen and your webcam (or only one of them) and instantly share videos with team members.
It’s simple: Once you take a video, you will get a special URL that you can share with teammates. They can then watch the video online, without even having an account or logging in.
Don’t worry – you can password-protect some videos instead of making them public so they are only viewed by the right people.
Your colleagues will be able to react to your video with time-stamped comments and even emojis.
Using the Loom app for Mac, you’ll be able to use custom backgrounds and unique frames while recording your video.
Loom HQ is Loom’s video hosting solution, where you can upload screen recordings, Zoom meetings, and more. You’ll be able to categorize and tag your videos in your online Loom library.
Unlike Screencastify, which is purely a Chrome extension, Loom offers both a Chrome extension and a desktop app.
There is a free plan available! The free plan, which is forever free, allows up to 50 creators.
Each of the creators can make 25 videos of up to 5 minutes per video. See pricing here.
Explore the best alternatives to Loom in this post.
7. Movavi Screen Recorder
Movavi Screen Recorder is one of the best alternatives to Screencastify if you need a simple screen recorder that is entirely free to use.
Like Screencastify, Movavi Screen Recorder for Mac adds a watermark to all videos created by free users. In addition, free users can’t add a description or tags to the video before exporting it to YouTube.
However, there is no mention of any time limit on the free recordings, unlike Screencastify.
Using Movavi, you can record two streams at once. Another cool feature is the ability to schedule a screen recording for a date and time in the future – if a webinar or live video stream is scheduled to come on, for example, this feature is really useful.
While recording, you can show not only your screen but even your keyboard, keystrokes, and mouse movements. You can capture your webcam and annotate the screen while recording.
Also, unlike Screencastify, Movavi offers a lifetime license option for the premium version, allowing you to save money in the long run. There is a slightly cheaper annual option, which might be for you if you are sure that you won’t be needing the recorder for more than a year.
You can also purchase the screen recorder + video editor bundle if you want both products. See pricing here.
Check Out: Vidyard vs Loom
8. Kap
Kap is a free and open source alternative to Screencastify for Mac. You’ll need a macOS 10.12 or a later version to use Kap.
It’s a simple and easy tool, without any complicated features. After capturing your screen, you can export the recording as an MP4 file, webM file, animated PNG, or GIF.
You can trim the video, highlight clicks, and choose whether to include audio.
Kap was designed as an MVP, or Minimum Viable Product. That means that its creators intentionally included as few features as possible.
All they wanted was to create a simple screen recorder that was built on web technology, that you could build plugins for, and which was completely free and open source.
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9. QuickTime Player
Did you know that Mac has a built-in screen recorder that you can use to record a video of your screen?
The QuickTime Player comes bundled with macOS. That means that you don’t need to download additional software to record your screen, unlike Screencastify.
However, it is a very simple application, so it’s best if you have bare-bones needs.
You can start a new recording under “File” in the app menu. You can then save your recording and trim it in the QuickTime app.
10. Screenflow
If you need a more advanced and professional solution, Screenflow by Telestream is a good Screencastify alternative to consider if you have a Mac Monterey, Big Sur, or Catalina (it doesn’t work on other Macs).
You can record multiple screens and apps at once with extremely high video quality. With a stock library of over 500,000 assets, you can add images, videos, and audio clips to your recordings.
Screenflow has a much better video editor than Screencastify, with the ability to add annotations, text and video animations, animated headers and logos, transitions, and more.
The title library includes plenty of prebuilt titles and animations, so you can add titles instantly without designing them yourself.
You can also add multi-channel audio.
The caption editor allows you to add closed captions to be ADA compliant and help your viewers follow your video even if the sound is turned off.
Screenflow has a very intuitive user interface, which makes it a good choice if you don’t have time to go through an extensive learning curve. In the newest version, additional improvements to the UI were made, including a customizable toolbar to make your workflow easier.
As I mentioned, you can record multiple screens, cameras, and microphones, at once. That includes iOS apps via the Screenflow app for iPhone.
You don’t even need a green screen to achieve the green screen effect with Screenflow. That’s due to its automatic background removal filter, which uses machine learning to accurately remove backgrounds without affecting video quality.
To save space on your computer, Screenflow offers a destructive archive option so that any part you edit out of your final video is removed from your disk space.
Screenflow also has some new features, such as 75% lower CPU usage and the ability to override your system’s light and dark themes while making a video recording.
Screenflow costs just $149 – that’s a one-time fee, making it cheaper in the long run than Screencastify. However, access to the stock media library requires an additional annual purchase of $79/year.
In addition, you can get an optional Premium Support upgrade for $39/year. It gives you access to phone support, priority responses, remote access service (a technician can access your device remotely to troubleshoot issues), and more.
Discounts are available on bulk purchases. You can see updated pricing for Screenflow here.
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11. IcecreamScreen Recorder
Icecream is a free screen recorder for Mac. The app allows you to record your entire screen or only a specific section, along with your microphone and system audio. You’ll also be able to record your webcam as an overlay.
One feature that I liked is that the app lets you automatically select the last-selected area of your screen to record, saving you time.
You’ll be able to annotate your recordings with text, arrows, and shapes.
Users can copy their recordings to their clipboard for instant sharing or upload them to Dropbox, YouTube, or Google Drive.
Unfortunately, the Mac version of Icecream Screen Recorder is a lot more limited than the Windows version. For example, you can’t speed up or slow down your recording, convert the file format, or schedule screen recordings in advance.
On the free version, your videos are limited to five minutes each, and you can only export them as WEBM files. Also, all videos will have a watermark.
However, you can upgrade to Pro for just $29.95. That’s a one-time fee that gives you lifetime access to Pro, making it cheaper than Screencastify if you will be using the premium version for even just a few months.
You can see updated pricing for Pro on the upgrade page.
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12. Apowersoft
A great alternative to Screencastify is Apowersoft. WIth the press of a button, you can start recording your screen, webcam, microphone, and computer audio to create a quick video.
One big difference between Screencastify and Apowersoft is that Apowersoft is an online screen recorder. You will need to download a launcher if it’s your first time using it, but you don’t need to download any additional software.
However, if you wish, there is also a desktop app for Mac.
You can select the region of your screen to record, and you can even use Apowersoft to record entire TV shows, movies, webinars, and more. Alternatively, you can use it to create tutorials, collaborate with your team, or show a friend how to use a software or app.
You can add callouts, highlights, and other annotations to your screen recordings to make it easier for your viewers to follow your instructions. You can do all that while still recording – you don’t have to wait until the recording is completed.
Once the video is done, you can upload it to RecCloud cloud storage or download it to your local drive. The best part is that Apowersoft is completely free.
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Wrapping It Up: What Is the Best Screencastify Alternative for Mac?
Screencast-O-Matic looks like the best alternative to Screencastify.
It has a great free version. Although videos are limited to 15 minutes, you still get features like closed captions.
The premium version gives you access to a much better video editor and screen recorder than Screencastify at a very reasonable and affordable price.
