Recordit

Recordit is a screencast tool that enables users to record their desktop screen. This solution allows users to record something for as long as five minutes, albeit with a slow frame rate, and produce a recording in a GIF format.

When first launching the application users must go to the system tray or icon board, click the Recordit app, select a recording area, and then click the record button. Users can change the preferences to launch the software on startup so Recordit is automatically found in the system tray or icon board and screencasting can be more seamless.

The Recordit service is free for everyone who wants to try it. However, anyone who wants to record screens at a higher frame rate and use password protection can upgrade to the PRO version. 

Recordit Features

Using the Recordit software gives users a few useful features, the primary ones being the following:

Automatic upload

All recordings done through the Recordit software automatically get uploaded to Recordit servers. Right-clicking the Recordit app lets users access previous recordings, and left-clicking on them opens the recording in the default browser. Unless the recording is deleted by the user, the file will remain on Recordit’s servers.

Custom-size screen recording

Users can select a portion of the screen when they are prompted to select a recording area, this can be done by dragging the cursor and the mouse to select a specific recording area. This means users won’t be forced to record an entire active window and can only show a small part of the window.

The custom-size screen recording feature makes it possible to select only a portion of the screen, which is useful for keeping the rest of the information on your screen private. 

Historical logs

All Recordit recordings are logged and can be accessed by the user through the system tray or icon board. This way, users can keep on recording without being constantly directed to a recordings folder, but still know where the GIFs are stored.

Recordit Benefits

Using Recordit allows users to have a free screen recording tool that saves the recording in a GIF format while also saving it on Recordit servers instead of the user’s local machine. This software is fairly simple with limited features, especially when compared to other video recording and editing software, but it is still useful even when using the free version. Using Recordit allows users to take advantage of the following benefits:

Easy to use

Recordit doesn’t have a lot of features, but the ones it does have are easy to use. The only thing users need to keep in mind is that they still need to run the software before it can be accessible in the system tray or icon board when the “Launch on login” preference is not checked. Users must also go through the system tray or icon board to access the recent screencasts and preferences functions. Keeping these few things in mind doesn’t take much work, and users will be able to record GIFs smoothly afterward.

Recordings not stored in the user’s device

Users will find that all their recordings are stored on Recordit servers and not on their local machines. This means the recordings won’t exhaust a user’s drive space, especially when using a low-capacity drive like a 128 GB SSD for budget users. Still, users have the option to save the file locally, either as an MP4 file or a GIF file. This can be done by pressing “GIF” at the bottom part of the recording and then right-clicking and selecting “Save image as.”

Easy sharing

Because the Recordit GIFs are stored online, it’s easy to share the GIFs with other people. Users only need to copy the URL from the address bar and share the link with other people to see the GIF. This makes it easier to send clear instructions using recordings rather than when recording a video, since the GIF is directly uploaded to Recordit servers instead of the user’s local machine, where they’ll still need to upload the file to the cloud to share it.

Free screencast tool

Recordit is a useful software product since it can be used for free with only a few limitations, including slow frame rates and no password protection. Going for the paid version only allows users to record and play GIFs at 12 FPS, still not comparable to the 30 FPS that console gamers typically enjoy and the 60 FPS that PC gamers enjoy at a minimum. Sticking with the free version will provide a lot of value unless the user needs password protection for the screencasts to limit who can see them.

Recordit Pricing

Recordit comes as both a free screencast tool for both Mac and Windows devices and as a paid software with password protection features and higher frame rate speeds. The paid version costs a one-time fee of $29.99. Based on the Recordit website, the paid version is only available on Mac devices.

Conclusion

Recordit is a useful screencasting software, even when using the free version. Even though it is useful for certain use cases, it is still a limited solution, especially when compared to video recording services. Still, this is a free solution, it doesn’t require the user to learn about workarounds for the Xbox Game Bar, and the user has more control over what to record.

Using Recordit is ideal for individuals and organizations that do not have or want a dedicated server meant for sharing large media files across a network. The low-frame rate GIFs are useful enough as they are, so even small businesses can get away with using them as long as the Recordit GIF links aren’t leaked. Even if they do get leaked, recording only non-sensitive files or saving them locally can keep the recordings from getting leaked to bad actors.

Recordit is a good free screencast software as it is, and using the PRO version allows businesses to have relatively cheap software they can use to screencast while password-protecting the recorded GIFs. Although, some people might argue that the $29.99 price tag for password protection and a 12 FPS playback speed isn’t justifiable.