Screen recording has become one of the best methods to create a footage of your desktop activity with ease. There might be several occasions when you want to capture your gameplay, record streaming videos, or either make some video tutorials or software reviews on your Mac. In case these circumstances arise, a good screen recorder is necessary. Actually, there are lots of screen recording software that are available online. However, most of these tools only offer paid version or have a poor recording quality. In this article, we will introduce the best free screen recorder for Mac.

1. How To Record Your Computer Screen Mac
2. Can You Screen Record On Mac Desktop
3. Record Video From Screen Mac
4. Screen Record On A Mac Desktop

Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder

Screen capture or recording is more basic feature. There are many alternatives you can choose to record your desktop as video files on Mac. You can use QuickTime Player which is a system app in Mac OS; you can just press shift+command+5 to record Mac screen. Check out these steps to record screen with audio using QuickTime on Mac, just as an. Mac saves your recording to your desktop. How To Screen Record On Mac With Third-party Programs. If the above methods don’t meet your needs, it is also very possible for you to record your mac screen using any third-party applications. These tools are mostly premium tools thou not too expensive, check out a few below.

Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder is a free but in the meantime very comprehensive program that you can use to create high-quality videos. With the help of this tool, you will have an easy access to the experience of using a brilliant screen activity recorder that doesn’t leave any watermark at all on your video after a successful registration. Moreover, this program can capture your desktop activity together with the audio coming from your system and microphone. Overall, there is surely no doubt that Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder is one of the best free screen recorders for Mac available on the market. To utilize this program, you can follow the step-by-step guide below.

• Firstly, you need to visit the official website of Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder.
• On the main page of the site you can click the “Start Recording” button to launch the screen recorder.
• Once you launched it, you can set to record screen or webcam, custom recording area, and change audio input, etc. You can also go to settings and make some configurations.
• Once done settings, hit the red recording button to start recording. During the recording process, you can add a webcam to your screen, and you can even add some annotations to it.
• After you have finalized the recording, click the stop button to stop it. At this point, a preview window will pop up. On the preview window, you can save the video by clicking the “Save video” button, or even share the video with your friends by clicking the share button.

Monosnap

Monosnap is another mentionable flexible program specifically developed for Mac OS. You can use this program not only to record your screen but also to take quick screenshots in case you need to use it as a powerful screen recording software. In addition, this tool can be used as a storage software. This program can also offer the option of capturing your webcam, microphone or system sound as you can just set it before you start recording according to your need. Aside from that, the mentioned program can record in 60 fps. This means that you can record smoothly even you are playing high framerate games. If you want to use this free video recording software for Mac, you may follow the steps below.

• Download and install Monosnap.
• After successfully finalizing the installation, click the Monosnap’s drop down menu, then choose “Record Video” to start recording.
• In case you want to stop this program from recording, just click its drop down menu again then click “Finish recording” to end it. Afterwards, your recording will be saved automatically, and you can check it right away at the location of your choice of saving.

OBS Studio

How To Record Your Computer Screen Mac

The next free screen recording tool for Mac that you can rely on according to our list is OBS Studio. This is a free and open source screen recorder that is available on both Windows, Mac, and Linux. The suggested program will allow you to capture real-time activities and create excellent live streaming videos. Moreover, this program has the ability to incorporate footage from your previous recordings or add exiting videos. On the other side, this program is to some degree complicated, in the sense that you can take certain time familiarizing its interface and configurations. Here are the steps on how to use this program.

• First of all you need to have OBS Studio installed in your computer.
• Once you have it, launch OBS, then click “Scene” > “Source” > “Add Icon”, and then click “Windows Capture”.
• After the previous step is done, a pop up window will show and allow you to rename your video you are going to record. Once done, click the “OK” button to proceed.
• Next, select the window you want to record.
• Lastly, you only need to hit the “Start Recording” button to initiate recording. Once done recording, just click the top button to end it.

Jing

Another free screen recording software for Mac is Jing by Techsmith that has been very popular on the market for a long time. This program is very simple and easy to use that are the pillars of its popularity. It comes with a movable sun icon that can be placed anywhere on your display, which enables you to easily utilize its function. Aside from screen recording, you can use this tool to take screenshots and edit it right after capturing. However, this program can only record up to 5 minutes. If you are still interested to use this program despite its time limitation, you can follow these steps.

• First and foremost, download and install this program on your pc from the official Techsmith website.
• Hit the “Sun” icon and select “Capture”.
• Once you are inside the options panel, simply adjust the frame according to your preference then select “Capture video”.
• To stop the recording, simply hit the “Stop” button, and then the recorded file will automatically pop up for preview.

Quicktime Player

The last recording program for Mac is the Quicktime Player. This is an extensible multimedia framework that can be used not only to record videos but also to play, edit and share videos on Mac. This tool can be characterized with that it has a very intuitive interface which makes it very easy to use even for beginners. This program can create footage of your Mac screen with a web camera or iPhone screen. You can follow the instructions below to capture your screen using this best free screen recorder for Mac.

• To begin with, you have to launch Quicktime Player at the first hand.
• Once you see the interface, click “File” and select “New Screen Recording”, then a screen recording window will pop up. On this window, you can configure your recording settings. After configuring, hit the red round recording button to start recording your screen.
• Once done with the complete recording process, click the “Stop” button in the menu bar, then your recorded file will automatically pop up.

Conclusion

As you can see, the aforementioned programs are the currently best free Mac screen recording software you can find on the market. You can decide which program you will use for your recording. I highly recommend Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder. Compared to the other programs above, this program can be used to quickly record your screen, audio, as well as a webcam as it is a web-based application. Aside from that, it has an easy interface and even beginners can use it.

Use the Screenshot toolbar

To view the Screenshot toolbar, press these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 5. You will see onscreen controls for recording the entire screen, recording a selected portion of the screen, or capturing a still image of your screen:

Record the entire screen

1. Click in the onscreen controls. Your pointer changes to a camera .
2. Click any screen to start recording that screen, or click Record in the onscreen controls.
3. To stop recording, click in the menu bar. Or press Command-Control-Esc (Escape).
4. Use the thumbnail to trim, share, save, or take other actions.

Record a selected portion of the screen

Can You Screen Record On Mac Desktop

1. Click in the onscreen controls.
2. Drag to select an area of the screen to record. To move the entire selection, drag from within the selection.
   
3. To start recording, click Record in the onscreen controls.
4. To stop recording, click in the menu bar. Or press Command-Control-Esc (Escape).
5. Use the thumbnail to trim, share, save, or take other actions.

Trim, share, and save

After you stop recording, a thumbnail of the video appears briefly in the lower-right corner of your screen.

• Take no action or swipe the thumbnail to the right and the recording is automatically saved.
• Click the thumbnail to open the recording. You can then click to trim the recording, or click to share it.
• Drag the thumbnail to move the recording to another location, such as to a document, an email, a Finder window, or the Trash.
• Control-click the thumbnail for more options. For example, you can change the save location, open the recording in an app, or delete the recording without saving it.

Change the settings

Click Options in the onscreen controls to change these settings:

• Save to: Choose where your recordings are automatically saved, such as Desktop, Documents, or Clipboard.
• Timer: Choose when to begin recording: immediately, 5 seconds, or 10 seconds after you click to record.
• Microphone: To record your voice or other audio along with your recording, choose a microphone.
• Show Floating Thumbnail: Choose whether to show the thumbnail.
• Remember Last Selection: Choose whether to default to the selections you made the last time you used this tool.
• Show Mouse Clicks: Choose whether to show a black circle around your pointer when you click in the recording.

Use QuickTime Player

1. Open QuickTime Player from your Applications folder, then choose File > New Screen Recording from the menu bar. You will then see either the onscreen controls described above or the Screen Recording window described below.
2. Before starting your recording, you can click the arrow next to to change the recording settings:
   
   • To record your voice or other audio with the screen recording, choose a microphone. To monitor that audio during recording, adjust the volume slider. If you get audio feedback, lower the volume or use headphones with a microphone.
     
   • To show a black circle around your pointer when you click, choose Show Mouse Clicks in Recording.
     
3. To start recording, click and then take one of these actions:
   • Click anywhere on the screen to begin recording the entire screen.
   • Or drag to select an area to record, then click Start Recording within that area.
4. To stop recording, click in the menu bar, or press Command-Control-Esc (Escape).
5. After you stop recording, QuickTime Player automatically opens the recording. You can now play, edit, or share the recording.

Record Video From Screen Mac

Learn more

Screen Record On A Mac Desktop

• The Screenshot toolbar is available in macOS Mojave or later.
• When saving your recording automatically, your Mac uses the name ”Screen Recording date at time.mov”.
• To cancel making a recording, press the Esc key before clicking to record.
• You can open screen recordings with QuickTime Player, iMovie, and other apps that can edit or view videos.
• Some apps might not let you record their windows.
• Learn how to record the screen on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.