What is a screen recorder?
Also called: screen recording software, screen capture software
A screen recorder is software that captures what is shown on a screen and saves it as a video.
Screen recorders fall into a few families. Capture tools such as OBS Studio and Xbox Game Bar produce a raw file. Cloud recorders such as Loom upload the video and give you a link. Polished recorders such as Sceed, Screen Studio and FocuSee add zooms, cursor treatment and backgrounds so the result looks edited. Full editors such as Camtasia put recording inside a general video editor.
Which family fits depends on what happens after you press Stop: send a link, edit elsewhere, or finish the video in the same app.
In Sceed
Sceed is a polished recorder for Windows: recorder and editor in one app, with files that stay on your disk.
Best screen recorders for Windows →
Related terms
- Screen recording
- A screen recording is a video of what a computer screen shows over time, usually with sound from a microphone, the computer, or both.
- Screencast
- A screencast is a screen recording made to explain or teach something, usually with narration.
- Async video
- Async video is a recorded message, usually screen plus camera, sent in place of a live meeting so people can watch when it suits them.