10 Best Free Video Capture Software on Win/Mac/Linux(2024)

Free video capture software is very useful for capturing high-quality videos that you performed on your device like a computer, mobile phone, or tablet, and meanwhile, you don't want to spend much money on buying a paid recorder. This free video capture software is not limited to only a few features but, you can also perform various activities like editing, recording video in a different format, and much more.

You may wonder how to find excellent video capture software right now. Well, don't worry. 

To make a job simple for you, here are the 10 best free video capture software lists and comparison tables that will help you in your daily life.

Quick reviews: compare the 10 free video capture software

Below is a comparison table that can give you some information about the best free video recording software on Windows 11/10/7/8, Mac, and Linux, which lists some key factors for picking the desirable video capturing software such as the ability to customize the screen that you need to record, the quality that you can record, as well as the ability to record dual devices such as webcam and screen together. 

Besides that, we also pointed out the video editing features and audio recording and editing features that you should consider as well when choosing the video capture software for your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer.

Part 1: Best video recorder | free video capture software for Windows 11/10/8/7

If you are looking for some excellent video capture software for your Windows computer, you can also check our picks of Best Screen Recorders for Windows or learn more from Wondershare Video Community.

1. Wondershare DemoCreator

DemoCreator is the best free video capture that allows users to record the PC (or Mac) screen in HD and record through your webcam. Moreover, you can add voiceover within this program. Besides offering features that enable you to control the screen recording process completely, It is also a powerful video editing software that lets you manipulate your videos in any way you want.

👍 Pros:

• Record and edit in separate tracks: Record your computer screen with audio readily at the same time. Plus, they'll be recorded in different tracks to give you more flexibility to export a video-only or audio-only version.
• 4K lag-free recording with long-duration: Supports recording HD 4K and lag-free gameplay video and extended Zoom meeting recordings.
• Powerful editing video editor: With rich and powerful editing features, you can polish your recording videos instantly.
• Annotation tools: 10+ annotation tools, like cursor highlight, speech bubbles, and stickers, to focus on your key points.
• 3D AI avatar recording: Choose 3D cartoons, 2D virtual avatars, and combine them with AI Audio to record videos. Easily animate Yourself in video streaming or recording.
• AI Speech-to-text: Quickly transcribe your audio and video to captions with high accuracy.

👎 Cons:

• Currently, the advanced feature (AI avatar creator) is only available on Windows

Price: Free Trial (offering almost all features)

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Also, Wondershare DemoCreator turns out to be a one-stop program for being able to capture YouTube streaming videos for free. Try to know more about it.

Ultimate Guide on How to Record YouTube LiveStream

4 Practical Solutions to Live Stream Gameplay to YouTube

2. Windows 10 Game Bar

Windows 10 comes with various features to make your life easier and more convenient. The built-in screen recorder is one of them. By using this built-in feature users don't need to install a third-party application. Though this free screen recorder is designed for Xbox, you also can use it to capture other activities on your screen.

Features:

• Game Clip Recorder: Windows video capture for free is equipped with modern technologies, which allow us to record any type of heavy game with a click technique.

👍 Pros:

• This tool is very easy to handle, and any non-professional can easily use this tool.
• Another great feature for screen capture is that you can record the object on the screen in the background.

👎 Cons:

• It doesn’t record the cursor while you are capturing Screen objects, so it might be a little bit annoying when you want to stand your cursor out.

Price: FREE

3. CamStudio

This video recording software is developed by Rendersoft. CamStudio is also one of the best free video captures to record screen objects and create them in AVI format. This piece of software consists of various powerful features, which make your life easier. It offers a variety of features like high-definition Screen recording, video compression, and much more.

Features:

• Easy-to-use: With its simple and compact interface, CamStudio can help you record and create videos like a pro.

👍 Pros:

• You can download it for free from its official website.
• It is very easy to use. Any layman can easily use this recorder without any problem.

👎 Cons:

• CamStudio is currently only available for Windows operating systems.
• There is no editing feature in this application.

Price: FREE

Part 2: 4 Best free video capture/recording software for Mac

4. DemoCreator

DemoCreator supports various video capture sources, including a game console or camera, and provides a wide range of editing tools to help you create professional-looking videos. This is useful if you want to capture gameplay footage, record video conferences, or create tutorials.

It has now been supercharged with a groundbreaking feature: AI Avatar Video Creation, adding to its impressive capabilities. Alongside its support for diverse video capture sources like game consoles and cameras and its extensive selection of editing tools tailored to craft professional-grade videos, you can now harness the power of AI avatars to produce truly exceptional content. 

Features:

• Customize recording settings, like the video capturing area, resolution, and frame rate, or the audio settings.
• Video editing: add annotations, callouts, and captions, adjust the video playback speed, and apply visual effects.
• Audio editing: adjust the volume, add background music, and remove noise from the audio track.

👍 Pros:

• Upload your videos directly to YouTube, Discord, Steam, Twitch, or more platforms.
• Automatically generate subtitles for your media.

Price: Free Trial (offering almost all features)

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5. QuickTime

The QuickTime media player is another free video capture we want to recommend. This application consists of a clean user interface to help beginners easily record whatever they want. Apart from that, you can also record the camera, the screen of your iPhone, and audio from your computer or microphone. There is no doubt that QuickTime is one of the best free software on Mac when we are talking about capability.

Features:

• Editing Tools: QuickTime supports basic editing tools like trim, split, cut and flip, etc.

👍 Pros:

• Once you record your screen, then you can convert it into many different formats like WMV, AVI, MKV, and much more.
• Subtitles are another feature of QuickTime. You can enable this feature under the View menu.

👎 Cons:

• You have to install an additional codec to play video formats like AVI, WMV, MKV, and others.

Price: FREE

6. Monosnap

Monosnap is one of the best free video captures for Mac. Whether capturing screenshots and drawing on them or sharing files and recording videos, Monosnap allows you all. The features of Monosnap include

Features:

• Capture the entire window or a part of it or the selected part
• Hotkeys customization is possible with Monosnap
• Screencasts recording
• Private info blurring
• 8x Magnifier for perfecting your crop area pixel
• Use of shapes, arrows, pens, and texts
• Free cloud storage space
• One-click screenshot share
• This best free screen capture for Mac lets you drop and drag files from the editor

Pros:

• You can save your work to your computer directly in this free video capture software.
• You can combine multiple screenshots in this video grabber at the top editing panel.

Cons:

• Sometimes, it will crash and then your recording will disappear.

7. Jing

Do you wish to explain things easily with screenshot captures? Jing lets you capture videos easily at any point in time. This best free video capture for Mac enables you to create visual elements and share them easily.

Features:

• Easy and simple interface
• Jing has a side menu bar and can be called up anytime
• Crosshair capture on the focus area is a must to record the screen
• Double-click thumbnails that are the recent captures featured in the history
• Jing-created content can be organized and shared with our online video and image-hosting service

Pros:

• This video grabber software will provide step by step guide on how to capture video.
• It is organized by TechSmith, so you can integrate it with Screencast. So convenient.

Cons:

• If you just want to have a lightweight video grabber, you may want to give it a second thought.

Part 3: Best 3 Open Source Video Capture Software for Linux

8. VLC

VLC is an open-source free media player application, so it can be used on both Linux, Windows, and Mac operating system. It allows you to play music and video of any format including WMA, AAC, AIF, MP3, and much more on your computer. Unlike other media players, you can use this as free screen video capture software. This media player is one of the best media players available on the Internet with the built-in screen recording features.

Features:

• Simple and Clean User Interface: VLC media player is clean in the interface; any layman can easily use such a video recorder free without consulting any professional.
• Codec: Unlike other media players, you can play video of any codec with no need to install that codec extension on the player.
• Platforms: VLC media player is available for almost every popular operating system. you download it from their official website for your computers as well as a smartphone running on Android or iOS operating systems.

👍 Pros:

• This Media player has an inbuilt Screen video recorder feature which allows you to record high-quality videos that you performed on your computer.
• VLC media player offers various alluring customized skins developed by their expert community members. You just need to download the extension of the skin and install it.

👎 Cons:

• Built-in screen recorder of VLC media player only captures data playing on VLC media player applications like music or video with audio.

Price: FREE

9. OBS

OBS is also known as Open Broadcaster Software is another powerful open-source video capture free product. It is a streaming program, you can use this free video capturing software to broadcast a live stream on Twitch, YouTube, etc. One can also use this as a pretty good screen recording program which works great for gamers to share their gameplay with their subscribers.

Features:

• Platforms: OBS is available for computers running on Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems.
• Audio Mixing: This video recorder is equipped with noise cancellation technology. By using this technology you can filter the audio such as a noise gate.

👍 Pros:

• Once you record your screen data in a video then you can filter the video by adding image masking, color correction, and much more.
• This screen recorder has various interface features. You can apply multiple themes to the application like night mode, day mode, and much more as per your needs.

👎 Cons:

• OBS doesn’t provide Internet access to the builds. Open-source software is only allowed in its repositories.

Price: FREE

Part 4: Best plugin for video recording/ screen capture

Besides the regular video capture software that you need to install on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer, we have also found some plugins or extensions that you can use to capture the video. Here we recommend the following video capture

10. Loom

The Loom is a free screen recorder Google Chrome plugin and Extension mainly popular among YouTubers and bloggers. It allows you to edit, resize, and convert the video. It is equipped with modern techniques which make your experience more enjoyable.

Features:

• Setup: Various capture settings to help you record your cam, current tab, or full screen.

👍 Pros:

• You can download loom screen recorder at free of cost from their official website.
• One doesn't have to open loom application every time, just simply install the plug-in on a web browser and then launch.

👎 Cons:

• The loom Screen recorder doesn’t have a feature to convert video into various formats.

Price: FREE

Part 5: FAQ about video capture software

What is the best free video recording software for Windows and Mac?

Talking about how to record on a computer or how to capture YouTube video on Mac for free, I'd like to recommend using the completely free-to-use Wondershare DemoCreator - which especially captures YouTube streaming video free and uses professional features, like live streaming to share - it is welcomed by millions of game users. For more free video capture software, the above options in this article will tell you more.

Does Windows 10 have video capture?

Indeed, Windows 10 does have a built-in video capture. The main users are gamers, but as a regular user, you can also use it to record videos, tutorials, and steps on your screen.

Can I capture video from my screen?

Yes, you can. If you mean your PC screen, you need to use video-capturing software. Many software is available in the market, so you need to choose the one you like. Some software is even free to use. However, paid screen recording software has more features like video editing. Which one to use is totally based on your needs.

What is the longest you can screen-record something

With Wondershare DemoCreator, there's no limit to how long your recording can be; it just depends on your available storage. Additionally, you can use it to live stream on virtually any platform of your choice, including YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and more.

Conclusion

The demand for screen capture applications is rapidly increasing. Most of the people love to share videos on social media networks and platforms. Free video capture software allows bloggers to share their tutorial videos on the Internet without spending a single penny. So, without any hesitation, just pick up one recorder to enjoy your recording journey.

If you want to find an ultimate solution to create gameplay videos, tutorials, demonstrations, or any other videos, you may try this robust and user-friendly screen recording and video editing toolkit Wondershare DemoCreator for Desktop. It features great recording features (screen/webcam/microphone recording with different tracks) as well as useful annotation tools, transition, and green screen effects.

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