The 15 Best Screencasting and Online Presentation Tools

Revised June 29, 2022
Revised September 1, 2021
Revised August 12, 2020

Screencasting tools are great for explaining how a software application works; demonstrating how to use it; or illustrating any online process. Combined with presentation tools, they’re also ideal for enhancing online meetings, as well as broadcasting and recording presentations.

Early screencasting apps were clunky to use and offered little functionality beyond basic recording and editing. Today’s tools are both easier to work with and much more powerful, with most offering features like the ability to add titles, custom cursors, text, visual elements, animations, and music.

Which tool is “best” depends upon your specific needs. Some are designed primarily for creating software demos and tutorial videos, while others offer more sophisticated functionality for developing graphically rich marketing content.

Whatever your objectives, here are 15 of the best tools for recording onscreen actions, editing the screen video, adding text and other graphical elements, converting among screen capture video formats, and sharing the final output with your target audience.

Screencasting Tools

1) CamStudio
Google Review Count: 206

CamStudio can record screen and audio activity on your computer as AVI or SWF video files.  You can add screen captions to recordings, use custom cursors, and record your whole screen or just a portion of it.

Sample review: “CamStudio is a free software solution for creating on screen tutorials and other types of screencasts. CamStudio allows you to generate optimized streaming Flash videos — SWF files — of your recordings.” — Web Marketing Today

Pricing: free

Showcase reviews: Web Marketing Today

2) Screencast.com
Google Review Count: 200

A screencast storage and sharing site. Upload and store high-quality screen capture video, share via link / widget / RSS feed, host in any format (Flash, WMV, Quicktime, etc.). Owned by TechSmith, works well with Jing and Camtasia (see below) as well as SnagIt.

Sample review: “Screencast.com is a resource for sharing your tutorials and demonstrations once completed. A free account allows for 2 gigabytes of storage, and 2 gigabytes of monthly bandwidth transfer.” — Web Marketing Today

Pricing: free or $10 per month

Showcase reviews: Web Marketing Today

3) Jing
Google Review Count: 196

Jing has been eliminated as a standalone product and absorbed in to TechSmit’s SnagIt screen capture tool.

Pricing: free

Showcase reviews: Web Marketing Today

4) Camtasia
Google Review Count: 192

Record your screen actions or import camera footage then edit with the drag-and-drop video editor. Add titles, animations, music, animated backgrounds, icons, and transitions.

Sample review: “A really powerful and intuitive video screen capture platform that allows you to easily edit your videos to zoom in on certain areas of the screen, add annotation, callouts, and voice over, among other options.” — SnapApp

Pricing: $199 per license; discounts for volume purchases

Showcase reviews: BuzzBlogger, RazorSocial (Online), SnappApp

5) ScreenFlow
Google Review Count: 182

Record any portion of your screen or a video camera, iOS device, microphone or computer audio. Edit the recording to add images, text, music, animations, and transitions. Export the final result as an MP4, MOV, M4V, or animated GIF.

Sample review: “Screenflow (is a) powerful video editing tool…best for a Mac…When you record, you can easily add in an introduction slide at the start and the end, add in music, cut out clips, combine clips and much more.” — RazorSocial (Online)

Pricing: $99

Showcase reviews: RazorSocial (Online), RazorSocial (Social)

6) Wink
Google Review Count: 154

Wink is presentation creation software, primarily for creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for desktop or web apps). You can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles, etc., and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users. Exports in a variety of static graphic formats (e.g., BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG) but only Flash for motion video.

Pricing: free

Showcase reviews: Web Marketing Today

7) Screencast-O-Matic
Google Review Count: 151

Record screen or webcam video up to 15 minutes long, and with the Pro version, edit video, draw and zoon, and publish to Google Drive, Vimeo, and/or Dropbox.

Pricing: free or $15 per year

Showcase reviews: Web Marketing Today

8) Ezvid
Google Review Count: 135

Free screen recorder software to capture, edit, and share on-screen action video.

Pricing: free

9) Webinaria
Google Review Count: 121

A tool to record software demonstrations and how-to tutorials, publish in Flash, and share and receive ratings. Add narration, save and edit recordings, and optionally add text.

Pricing: free

Showcase reviews: Web Marketing Today

10) Freeseer
Google Review Count: 80

A free, open source, cross-platform application that captures or streams your desktop. Though originally designed for capturing presentations, it can also be used to capture demos, training materials, lectures, and other videos. It’s most useful for presenters at events, conference staff (for recording presenters), and instructors.

Pricing: free

Showcase reviews: Web Marketing Today

11) RecordIt
Google Review Count: 62

Simple, downloadable, screencast recording tool. Record all of the action on your entire desktop or select just a specific area of your screen for recording.

Sample review: “Make your content stand out with animated screencasts. Record quick videos with Recordit and then turn them into animated gifs that you can put in your blog post. It’s a great way to make your article stand out from the rest. These also work well on Google Plus.” — BuzzBlogger

Pricing: free or $29 one-time

Showcase reviews: BuzzBlogger, HubSpot (Animated)

12) whatfix
Google Review Count: 17

Create interactive guides for training programs to get employees or users up to speed more quickly on software workflow processes. Design your guide, insert pop-ups and instructions, and measure effectiveness with analytics.

Sample review: “WhatFix lets you create quick flows showing steps users should take. You can embed the widget on your web page or send your users to the “live” version of the link that will play all the steps on your actual web page…the process is so easy. Just click the links on your page and type in the instructions for each link. The extension will record everything and immediately put together a widget for you.” — HubSpot (Animated)

Pricing: contact vendor for pricing

Showcase reviews: HubSpot (Animated)

Presentation and Screen Sharing Tools

1) Prezi
Google Review Count: 243

Deliver dynamic, engaging virtual presentations with Prezi Video by showing you and your content together on screen in live video conferences and recorded video. Start from an existing Prezi Present or PowerPoint presentation and interact with your content as if you were presenting in person. Easily create and add your own custom charts, images, infographics, and more with Prezi Design.

Sample review: “Prezi has become very popular as a way to visually enhance your presentations and make them more dynamic. While it can take some planning and creativity to create a truly effective Prezi presentation, this could be a great tool for re-purposing existing presentations into something more interesting.” — Online Marketing Institute

Pricing: individual version at $5/$13/$20 per month; business team version starting at $2,400

Showcase reviews: Online Marketing Institute

2) join.me
Google Review Count: 194

Host meetings, share your screen, conduct webinars. join.me lets you present an interactive whiteboard, and integrates with popular tools for scheduling, productivity, sales and CRM.

Pricing: free, $20 or $25 per user per month

Showcase reviews: Johnny Lists, Siasat

3) Haiku Deck
Google Review Count: 184

Create presentations on the web, iPad or iPhone. Choose from a large collection of predesigned templates, photos, fonts, and image filters.

Sample review: “If you’ve ever had to create a PowerPoint or SlideShare presentation in a pinch, you’ll wish you knew about Haiku Deck. This tool helps you quickly find simple layouts, beautiful images, and great fonts.” — HubSpot (Content)

Pricing: $10 or $30 per month for individuals; $500 per year for teams

Showcase reviews: HubSpot (Content), Kathryn Aragon Media, Quick Sprout

More Tools

AnyMeeting
Google Review Count: 208

A full-featured platform for hosting conferences of two to 30 people or webinars of 30 to 2,000 attendees. Functions include HD video broadcasting, video and screen sharing, slides, event registration, surveys, and recording. The company was acquired by Internmedia in September 2017.

Pricing: four levels from $78 to $298 per month

Xtensio
Google Review Count: 136

Create any kind of presentation, from pitches, sales sheets, and reports to case studies, agendas. Add images, videos, tables and other interactive modules. Drag and drop, resize, change backgrounds, and specify colors and fonts to adhere to your brand guidelines. Collaborate with your team, manage tasks, and when you are done, export responsive live web pages, full-screen digital presentations, and PDF/PNGs all-in-one.

Pricing: free; $15/$25 per month; enterprise pricing by quote

VideoSolo
Google Review Count: 123

A suite of tools for converting video and audio files between different formats; capturing PC screen activities as video; converting DVD and Blu-ray discs to digital video files; cloning DVD discs; and burning DVDs from digital video files. All programs are available in free trial versions, so you can try them out before buying.

Pricing: tools pricing individually or bundled from $25 to $97

Digideck
Google Review Count: 94

A cloud-based presentation platform that enables users to easily add rich multimedia such as video, motion graphics, animated GIFs and high resolution images to increase engagement, while enforcing brand design standards. For sales presentations, it alerts sellers the minute a prospect opens their sales presentation or proposal and can choose to engage in a chat, video conference, or co-browsing experience with them within minutes.

Pricing: contact vendor

My Screen Recorder Pro
Google Review Count: 87

A professional video screen capturing tool to record, edit, and share videos directly online. Record audio narration with a microphone, capture actions from any Windows-based application, and create a picture-in-picture effect to capture video from your mobile screen and webcam. Ideal for creating training videos and tutorials, presentations, and product demonstrations.

Pricing: $130 (one-time purchase)

StoryXpress
Google Review Count: 42

Record videos using your screen and webcam, edit using the built-in tools, then share across major platforms with your own video URL. Use tools like draw and add text to emphasize key points and make the video interactive. You can brand your player and measure engagement, and the tool integrates to apps like Mailchimp, LinkedIn, Slack, and Calendly.

Pricing: free; $8/$15/$45 per user per month

CloudApp
Google Review Count: 40

Screen recording software that lets you record your screen as a video with your face and voice; capture and annotate a screen shot image; or record a GIF to instantly share. Add a human touch to your digital content by adding your face and voice to screen recordings. Create a video with your webcam to make any communication more personal. Easily upload and share large files.

Pricing: free; $10/month (individual); $8/user/month (teams); enterprise pricing by quote

RecordCast
Google Review Count: 24

A free online screen recorder and video editor, with no watermarking and nothing to download. Capture your whole screen, an application window, or any browser tab. Record on-screen actions with audio. The built-in video editor lets you add titles, annotations, effects, and more.

Pricing: free

Simple Slides
Google Review Count: 7

Get access to a large library of professionally designed infographics and slides, thousands of icons, plus world-class training. Slides and templates are optimized for use with PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote, enabling you to quickly create professional-looking presentation decks. Templates and infographics can be easily edited to fit your brand and presentation.

Pricing: $15/$30/$40 per month

Fatcap
Google Review Count: N/A

A mobile-native app (iOS and Android) that enables users to create visual slide decks in minutes. Presentations can be viewed on desktops or mobile devices and easily shared. Fatcap integrates with Slack and Dropbox, and can save presentations to PDF files.

Pricing: contact vendor

Showcase Reviews

BuzzBlogger
HubSpot (Animated)
HubSpot (Content)
Johnny Lists
Kathryn Aragon Media
Online Marketing Institute
Quick Sprout
RazorSocial (Online)
RazorSocial (Social)
Siasat
SnapApp
Web Marketing Today

This was the 41st post in the Best Online Business Tools series.

#1: Best Online Business Tools Series Kicks Off Today
#2: The 12 Best Competitive Intelligence and Benchmarking Tools
#3: The Nine Best Facebook Marketing Tools
#4: The 14 Best Content Planning and Research Tools
#5: The 23 Best Content Ideation Tools
#6: The 24 Best Online Writing Tools and Apps
#7: The Six Best Google+ Marketing Tools
#8: The Four Best Online Education Tools For Business Pros
#9: The 14 Best Marketing Automation Tools
#10: The 17 Best Keyword Research Tools for SEO and SEM
#11: The Seven Best File Sharing Tools
#12: The Five Best Infographic Creation Tools and Services
#13: The 28 Best Influencer Marketing Tools
#14: The Five Best Pinterest and Instagram Marketing Tools
#15: The 24 Best Visual Content Creation Tools
#16: The Six Best Online HR, Payroll, and Employee Scheduling Tools
#17: The 20 Best SEO Rank Tracker Tools
#18: The Six Best Screen Capture Tools
#19: The 15 Best Special-Purpose SEO Tools
#20: The Four Best Online Survey Tools
#21: The 26 Best All-in-One SEO Tool Suites
#22: The 32 Best Twitter Marketing Tools
#23: The 29 Best Web Analytics Tools
#24: The 24 Best Email Marketing Tools
#25: The 28 Best Web Design Tools
#26: The 29 Best Social Media Monitoring Tools
#27: The 17 Best Project Management Tools
#28: The 21 Best Content Curation Tools
#29: The 26 Best WordPress Plugins
#30: The 14 Best Personal Productivity Tools
#31: The 11 Best Social Media Campaign Builders and Ad Monitoring Tools
#32: The 12 Best Landing Page and Form Builders for Conversion Rate Optimization
#33: The 17 Best Photo Editing Tools
#34: The Six Best Accounting and Finance Tools for Small Business
#35: The 15 Best Content Distribution and Amplification Tools
#36: The 17 Best Social Media Management Tools
#37: The 23 Best Google Chrome Extensions for Digital Marketers
#38: The 15 Best Audio and Video Editing Tools
#39: The Eight Best Social CRM Tools
#40: The Nine Best Reputation Management, RSS, and Social Search Tools
#41: The 15 Best Screencasting and Online Presentation Tools