Alternatives to Camtasia on Mac

Best Camtasia alternatives for macOS

Camtasia is a video editing and screen recording program. By recording your screen, camera, and microphone simultaneously, Camtasia makes it easy to create educational videos, app tutorials, video game playthroughs, and other similar content. The camera feed can also be added to pre-existing footage – useful for reaction videos and the like. With a vast library of effects and transitions, you can easily add creative flair to your video and impress your audience. Though Camtasia is available on both Windows and Mac, it is not compatible with Apple Silicon – its Mac version will work only with Intel-based Macs. And since Apple has made it clear that such computers will not make a return, many creators are now searching for a Camtasia alternative on Mac. One such alternative is Streamlabs Desktop, a great program for live streaming and screen recording. There’s also Screenflow and OBS Studio, which are also fairly capable. Another program worth mentioning is InVideo, a web-based video editor; it cannot record your screen, but has a vast library of stock footage.

Streamlabs Desktop

Streamlabs Desktop is an application primarily designed for live streaming; however, it can be used for screen recording as well. The basic streaming features – recording your camera and microphone, layout composing, and capturing a specific window – make it a capable screen recorder; for streamers, it can do even more. Streamlabs is available on many platforms, including M1/M2 Macs. It has a decent free version, though you can also subscribe to access more features.

Screenflow

Screenflow is a video editing software with a focus on screen recording. It is a Mac-exclusive program that has an Apple Silicon version. It fills exactly the same product niche as Camtasia: it’s a video editor for recording your screen, webcam, and microphone at once, as well as adding special effects and captions. Of course, it can also be used for general-purpose video editing. Screenflow is not free, but at $169, it is almost twice as cheap as Camtasia.

InVideo

InVideo is a web-based video editor; it allows users to effortlessly perform simple operations on video such as trimming and layering, as well as adding logos, images, and text. Its strength, however, lies in its library of stock content. It has a vast amount of clips, music, and images for every situation; should this prove insufficient, you can also generate short video clips with their AI tool. However, it cannot function as a screen recorder, so you will have to use some other program for this task.

OBS Studio

OBS Studio is another Camtasia alternative on Mac. It is a free program for live streaming and video recording; it has an M1/M2 Mac version. Though OBS Studio is a perfectly capable app, it takes a while to learn due to its poorly-designed interface. It also doesn’t have many video editing features. Considering that Streamlabs Desktop was specifically made to be a better version of OBS, you should probably use that program instead. However, OBS is more lightweight, which is useful if you have a weak Mac.

Didn’t find a suitable alternative? Install Windows on Mac instead

If none of these alternatives work for your use-case, you still have one option left – installing Windows on your Mac. The easiest way to do this is by using a virtual machine. In very simple terms, a virtual machine is a separate window that runs Windows inside of your macOS. Windows programs like Camtasia, as well as certain games, can be launched inside of that window.

Parallels Desktop

Parallels Desktop is the best program for creating virtual machines currently on the market. It is extremely easy to use – you will be able to install Windows on your Mac with just a couple of clicks. What’s more, you will be able to switch between macOS and Windows on the fly, and even exchange files between the two systems. Thanks to this capability, you will be able to continue using Camtasia on Mac instead of searching for an alternative.

VMWare Fusion is another capable virtualization program, though it is not as streamlined as Parallels Desktop.

BootCamp

Unlike all programs mentioned above, BootCamp is not a virtualization program – it installs Windows directly on your Mac. Though this results in greater performance, there are disadvantages to this method too. For one, you will need to reboot every time you want to switch from macOS to Windows and vice versa. It also works only on older Mac computers with Intel processors; Apple Silicon Macs do not support BootCamp.

Follow these steps to install Windows on your Mac using BootCamp:

Please note: Users of OS X Yosemite 10.10 (or an older OS X version) will need to create a bootable Windows USB.

1. Download this Windows ISO file.
2. Open Boot Camp Assistant (Go to Applications > Utilities).
3. Define the Windows partition size and choose the Windows ISO file you’ve downloaded.
4. Format the Windows partition and go through all Windows installation steps.
5. When Windows boots for the first time follow on-screen instructions to install Boot Camp and Windows support software (drivers)

Conclusion

The best Camtasia alternative on Mac is Streamlabs Desktop; unlike Camtasia, it even has a free version.
You can also install Windows on Mac using a special program called Parallels Desktop. This will allow you to run most Windows programs on your Mac and forget about searching for alternatives.
As a content creator, you understand the dangers of losing data better than most people – having to re-record a video is hardly pleasant. This is why you should consider reading our article about data recovery programs for Mac.