The short version: For most people making tutorials, the software matters less than three unglamorous things: whether you’ll edit at all, whether you need webcam and cursor highlighting built in, and whether the export settings match where the video will live. Loom or Screen Studio for quick, low-friction tutorials, Camtasia or ScreenFlow for anything you’ll edit, and OBS Studio if you want free and don’t mind a learning curve.
The question people skip
Before you open a single comparison table or watch a “top 10 screen recorders” video, ask yourself this: are you going to edit the recording after you make it, or is it going out raw?
That one question decides almost everything else. If the answer is “raw, straight to the client or the team,” you want something fast with zero friction, like Loom. If the answer is “I’ll trim it, add captions, maybe a zoom-in on a menu,” you want proper editing software, something built for cuts and callouts, not just capture.
I made this mistake myself for about eight months. I bought Camtasia because a marketer I respected swore by it, then used it exactly like Loom, hit record, talk for six minutes, export, done. I never opened the timeline editor once. That’s roughly £280 spent on software whose entire value proposition I ignored.
The five things that decide which tool you need
1. Where the tutorial will live
A tutorial going on YouTube needs different export settings than one going into an internal wiki or a course platform like Teachable. YouTube wants 1080p minimum now, ideally 4K if your screen content has small text. An internal Loom link for a colleague doesn’t need any of that, 720p is fine and loads faster.
2. Cursor and click highlighting
If your tutorial involves someone following mouse movements (software walkthroughs, admin panels, spreadsheet formulas), you need built-in cursor highlighting or click animation. Camtasia, ScreenFlow and Snagit all do this well. Loom’s is basic. OBS has none, you’d add it in post with a separate plugin, which defeats the point of choosing a “simple” tool in the first place.
3. Webcam bubble placement
Most tutorial viewers want to see a small face in the corner, it builds trust that a real person made this. Screen Studio (Mac only) does this beautifully with automatic zoom and framing. Camtasia and ScreenFlow let you resize and reposition the bubble manually. Loom does it automatically but with less control over size and position.
4. File size and export speed
This is the one nobody mentions until they’ve hit the wall. A 20-minute 1080p tutorial recorded uncompressed can run to 3 to 4GB before export. I recorded a 47-minute LinkedIn training for a client in 2023, raw file came out at 6.1GB, and my laptop took 41 minutes to render it down to a shareable MP4 in Camtasia. If you’re on an older laptop or a patchy broadband connection, that render and upload time matters more than any feature list.
5. Price, honestly compared
- OBS Studio: free, open source, steep learning curve, no editing built in
- Loom: free for up to 25 videos and 5 minutes each, Business plan around £12 to £15 a month per person
- Camtasia: one-time £229 to £299 depending on the version, no subscription
- ScreenFlow (Mac only): around £129 one-time
- Screen Studio: around £89 one-time, or a subscription tier for teams
- Snagit: around £45, more for quick screenshots and short clips than long tutorials
Notice that the cheapest and the most expensive options here aren’t far apart in what most solo creators need. The gap is in editing depth and platform (Mac versus Windows), not in raw recording quality.
My own switching story, and what it taught me
I started with Camtasia in 2021 because it was what everyone in the online business world recommended. Then I moved to Loom for anything internal or quick, client feedback loops, team walkthroughs, replies to emails that needed showing rather than telling. Then I picked up OBS Studio when I started doing longer live-style demos because it handles multiple scenes and sources without choking, and it’s free, which matters when you’re rebuilding a business after a few rough years and every subscription gets questioned.
What I learned switching between three tools over three years is that the software rarely caused my problems. My problems were always the same regardless of the tool: I hadn’t scripted enough, I recorded eight takes because I kept fumbling the same sentence, and I didn’t know what I was demonstrating clearly enough before I hit record. No piece of software fixes that. A £300 tool and a £0 tool will both produce a bad tutorial if you don’t know your material.
That’s the uncomfortable bit most software comparisons avoid saying out loud: people buy a better recorder hoping it will make them a better teacher. It won’t. Write a one-page outline of what you’re showing and in what order before you touch the record button, and you’ll cut your re-recording time by more than any feature upgrade ever will.
A simple way to decide, step by step
- Write down where the tutorial will be watched (YouTube, internal wiki, a course, a client email)
- Decide honestly whether you will edit it afterward or send it raw
- Check whether you’re on Mac or Windows, this rules out ScreenFlow and Screen Studio for Windows users immediately
- Test the free tier or free trial on the exact type of screen you’ll be recording (a spreadsheet looks different to a mobile app demo)
- Record one full test tutorial, export it, and time how long the whole process took from record to shareable file
- Only then compare price, because now you know what you need
That fifth step is the one people skip and it’s the one that matters most. A tool that costs nothing but takes you 40 minutes to export a 10-minute video is not cheap, it’s expensive in time.
Where AI features fit in, and where they don’t
Most tools now bolt on some kind of AI, auto-generated captions, background noise removal, even AI-written summaries of what you recorded. Loom’s AI features will clean up filler words and generate chapter titles automatically. Camtasia has added AI voice cleanup. These are useful for a solo creator who doesn’t have time to caption their own videos, and captions matter more than people think, most tutorial viewers watch with sound off, especially on LinkedIn.
I’ve written before about how I can’t keep up with AI, and screen recording software is a small but honest example of that feeling, every update adds three new AI buttons and half of them I never touch. Don’t let the AI feature list be the deciding factor. Ask whether it saves you time on the boring parts, captioning, trimming silence, generating a title, and ignore the rest.
What to do with the tutorial once it’s recorded
Recording is only half the job. If you’re building tutorials as part of a wider content or teaching business, think about repurposing before you even hit record. A 15-minute screen tutorial can become a blog post, a carousel, and three short clips for social. If you want the audio only, say for a podcast feed or an audio-only version for people who prefer listening, the process is the same principle as when you convert an Instagram reel to MP3, strip the video track, keep the audio, republish.
And if your tutorials are part of promoting products you recommend, whether that’s software you use daily or courses you’ve built, the tutorial format works well alongside affiliate content. I cover this in my affiliate marketing guide, where screen recordings of “here’s how I use this tool” consistently outperform written reviews because people trust what they can watch you do.
The mistakes I see most often
- Choosing based on a “best screen recorder 2026” listicle without checking Mac versus Windows compatibility first
- Buying editing software and never opening the timeline, just using it as an expensive record button
- Ignoring export settings until the file is too big to upload anywhere useful
- Skipping the script or outline and recording six takes because of it
- Assuming free means worse, when for short internal tutorials, free is often exactly enough
Choose the tool that matches your actual workflow, not the one with the longest feature list. Test it on real content before you pay for anything. And write your outline before you record, because that single habit will save you more time than any software switch ever will.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free screen recording software for tutorials?
OBS Studio is the best free option if you don’t mind a setup curve, it handles multiple sources and scenes and produces broadcast-quality files. Loom’s free tier (up to 25 videos, 5 minutes each) is better if you want something instant with zero configuration.
Do I need webcam recording for tutorials?
Not always, but for anything teaching a process rather than just showing a UI, a small webcam bubble builds trust and keeps viewers watching longer. If your content is purely screen-based, like a code walkthrough, it matters less.
Should I pay for Camtasia or ScreenFlow if I’m just starting out?
Only if you plan to edit your tutorials, cut mistakes, add zooms, layer callouts. If you’re recording and publishing largely as is, that money is better spent elsewhere and a free or lower-cost tool like Loom will serve you just as well.
How much should a tutorial video file size be before I worry?
Anything over 500MB for a 10 to 15 minute video is worth checking your export settings, you’re likely recording at a higher bitrate or resolution than the platform needs. Most YouTube and course-platform uploads look fine at 1080p and a standard export preset rather than the maximum quality setting.
Related reading: How to Format a Resume in Microsoft Word (The Steps That Get It Read) and How to Pick a Resume Template That Suits a Nursing Career.
For the bigger picture, see my full guide to productivity.
