Contents
1. Summary
2. Comparison of Recording
3. Comparison of Quality
4. Comparison of Editor
5. Comparison of Compatibility
6. Comparison of Formats
7. Alternative
8. FAQs

ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording: Which One Is Worth to Have on Mac

Jordan ScottJordan ScottUpdated on Feb 28, 2024Video Recorder

Whether you are a teacher, student, YouTuber, designer, or any other professional, you might need a video recorder and video editor in today’s digital age. ScreenFlow and QuickTime Screen Recording are two popular options for Mac users who want to record and edit videos. QuickTime Screen Recording is a built-in feature of QuickTime Player that comes free with all Mac devices, while ScreenFlow is paid. The latter boasts more powerful recording capabilities and editing features.

So, which one you should choose? To address this, we have written this review about ScreenFlow vs QuickTime Screen Recording. We will help you compare their unique features, editing tools, worth of money, ease of use, and more. By the end of this article, you will know which is the best for your needs.

ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording

Table of contents

Part 1. Summary Part 2. ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording – Video Recording Part 3. ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording – Recording Quality Part 4. ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording – Video Editing Part 5. ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording – Compatibility Part 6. ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording – Output Formats Part 7. Best Alternative to ScreenFlow or QuickTime Screen Recording Part 8. FAQs about ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording

Part 1. Summary

Overall Ratings

ScreenFlow QuickTime Screen Recording
Overall Ratings
Pricing $129 Free
Platform macOS 10.14 or later Mac & Windows
Video Recording
Recording Quality Up to 5K resolution with maximum 60 fps It depends on your Mac models, most Macs’ cameras are 720p.
Editing Tools
Features
Learning Curve
Customer Support

Unique Features

ScreenFlow is a robust screen recording and editing software. You can simultaneously record multiple screens, cameras, microphones, and apps and edit the recording with a customizable title library, effects, animations, templates, and more advanced tools. ScreenFlow also helps you manage your media files. You can use the Archive option to free up some disk space and only keep the media that you use.

QuickTime Screen Recording is the built-in feature of QuickTime Player, which is a versatile tool that’s pre-installed on Macs and is user-friendly. It supports playing videos, audio, and images in various formats. Additionally, it can capture high-quality screenshots from either your screen or a video.

Final Verdict

Drawing from the comparison above, ScreenFlow stands out for its more advanced features. You must be curious about how powerful and versatile this tool is. Without further ado, let’s continue our exploration.

Some amazing features of ScreenFlow are:

◆ It requires no learning curves.

◆ Multi-track editing.

◆ Stock media library.

◆ Streamlined media management.

◆ ADA-compliant soft subtitles.

◆ Animated GIFs & APNGs output.

◆ Multiple animations, effects, filters, transitions, styles, and templates.

◆ Supports preset export settings, like ProRes, MP4 Encoding, and more.

Part 2. ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording – Video Recording

ScreenFlow Video Recording

ScreenFlow Video Recording

ScreenFlow is a powerful screen recording program that enables you to capture high-quality content, such as lectures, product demos, sales presentations, gameplays, and more. With ScreenFlow, you can record your computer or your iOS devices. In addition, it allows you to record multiple screens, cameras, and audio at the same time. For example, you can simultaneously record your microphone, your audio device, and any app that makes sound. Therefore, ScreenFlow is an ideal option for both beginners and advanced users who need a versatile and user-friendly screen recording tool.

QuickTime Video Recording

QuickTime Video Recording

QuickTime Screen Recording is one of the built-in features of the QuickTime Player. It lets you record video and audio on your computer with the entire screen or a selected region. It provides three modes of recording: movie, audio, and screen. QuickTime can record the system microphone and other USB audio devices. However, if you want to record the system audio, you need to install a third-party plugin, such as Soundflower.

Part 3. ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording – Recording Quality

ScreenFlow Recording Quality

Delivering the highest quality recording, ScreenFlow can capture retina displays and supports records in up to 5K resolution with a maximum frame rate of 60 fps. Therefore, when capturing at a high frame rate and high quality, ScreenFlow won’t lag or skip like other recording tools. This feature is important for recording fast-moving or complex content, such as games, sports, or simulations. Furthermore, ScreenFlow has an efficient algorithm that provides the perfect details of your high-resolution recording and keeps the file sizes low.

QuickTime Recording Quality

The highest resolution that QuickTime supports is exactly the resolution of your Mac screen, and the maximum frame rate depends on the video codec you use. For instance, Apple ProRes can record up to 60 fps, while H.264 limits it to 30 fps. You should also know that using other devices like webcams or microphones at the same time might cause some lag or delay in QuickTime’s recording.

Part 4. ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording – Video Editing

ScreenFlow Video Editing

ScreenFlow Video Editing

As you know, ScreenFlow is more than a screen recorder. It is also packed with a professional video editor, yet with a user-friendly interface. It lets you create amazing videos for various purposes. With ScreenFlow, you can add images, videos, and music from your local files or the built-in Stock Media Library, which contains over 500,000 items. You can also further enhance your video with the customizable title library, video transitions, filters, animations, effects, and more. Plus, it is easy to zoom in or out of any video elements. You just need to add a video action and adjust the scale and position at the start and end of the action.

QuickTime Video Editing

QuickTime Video Editing

QuickTime Player provides only simple editing features, which is great for simple video editing tasks. It enables you to trim, split, and combine videos. Additionally, it allows for video rotation, audio muting, music addition, mouse highlighting, and zooming in on a section of your recording. QuickTime also provides options to manage video language and turn off subtitles. If you just need simple video editing features like merging clips, you should try this free bundle program on Mac.

Part 5. ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording – Compatibility

ScreenFlow Compatibility

As a professional video recorder and editor, ScreenFlow only works on Mac. Its latest version, ScreenFlow 10, can run smoothly on both Intel and Apple Silicon, and it is only compatible with macOS Catalina 10.15 and Big Sur 11. Therefore, you should check your operating system before upgrading to ScreenFlow 10.

QuickTime Compatibility

QuickTime Player is a free software that comes with all Mac computers and updates automatically with macOS. However, QuickTime Player 7 is incompatible with macOS versions after Mojave, as well as macOS Sierra and later versions. QuickTime Player can also work on Windows OS, and you can get the latest version (7.7.9) from Apple’s website. However, since Apple stopped supporting it in 2016, QuickTime Player for Windows may have some risks and limitations.

Part 6. ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording – Output Formats

ScreenFlow Output Formats

After you’ve finished your creation, ScreenFlow allows you to share the project with various formats and platforms. It provides several preset settings to export your videos at optimal quality and lets you customize the settings to your preference. You can save your video project in MP4, MOV, or M4V formats, as well as animated GIFs and APNGs. Then, you can send your masterpiece to any social media, website, or cloud service instantly, such as Vimeo, YouTube, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Wistia, and Imgur.

QuickTime Output Formats

With QuickTime Player, the movie can only be exported in a specific resolution or file format. Once you complete your video recording and editing, you can export the video as a QuickTime movie (.mov) using the H.264 or HEVC codec. But MP4 videos cannot be exported by QuickTime Player. It will be an MPEG4 audio file if you export your movie as audio-only.

Part 7. Best Alternative to ScreenFlow or QuickTime Screen Recording

As you’ve explored the detailed features of ScreenFlow and QuickTime Screen Recording, you may have noticed that neither of them is ideal for Windows users. To address this, we recommend Aiseesoft Screen Recorder, a fantastic alternative compatible with both Windows and Mac OS. This makes Aiseesoft Screen Recorder a viable option for users of either operating system. Even as a Mac user, you can explore its features to see if its unique capabilities meet your needs.

Aiseesoft Screen Recorder Interface

What is Aiseesoft Screen Recorder

Aiseesoft Screen Recorder is a multifunctional tool that serves as a screen capture tool, recorder, and editor. It can capture selected areas or the full screen, along with webcam footage, microphone input, and internal audio. It can also record a variety of content, including gameplay, mobile devices, audio-only files, and open windows. The software supports automatic recording and various output formats for video, audio, and images. Moreover, Aiseesoft Screen Recorder boasts multiple editing tools that allow you to further polish your recording.

Free Download Free Download

Part 8. FAQs about ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording

How long can QuickTime Player record?

QuickTime Screen Recorder does not have a specific time limit for recording, so you can record as long as you wish.

How to record the webcam using QuickTime?

Recording the webcam on QuickTime is straightforward. First, select the movie recording mode to capture face cam footage. Next, choose the screen recording mode to capture on-screen activities. Following these steps, you will get a recording that includes the webcam.

Is ScreenFlow free to use?

Yes, ScreenFlow offers a trial and full-feature demo for Mac users, but the exported videos are watermarked. To remove the restriction, you can buy a single license of ScreenFlow 10 for $129 online.

Conclusion

To sum up, this review provides an unbiased comparison between ScreenFlow, QuickTime Screen Recorder, and an alternative solution. We evaluated their platform compatibility, recording functions, editing features, pricing, and more. Based on our evaluation, our verdict favors ScreenFlow as the optimal choice. We trust that you’ll find this review beneficial. We hope this review of ScreenFlow VS QuickTime Screen Recording proves helpful to you.

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