QuickRecorder For Mac

While there are plenty of screen recorders available for macOS, there’s a distinct shortage of capable open-source ones. At least until now.

QuickRecorder is a free, open-source, Swift-based app that offers everything you need from a normal screen recorder, and all in a very lightweight package. It’s easy to use, customizable, and well-designed.

The main interface features a minimalistic layout and allows access to all the available recording modes. You can capture a screen, a screen area, a certain app, a window, a mobile device, or just system audio.

QuickRecorder can be shown in the Dock, menu bar, or both. If you opt to hide it from the Dock, you can control everything from the menu bar, including starting, pausing, or stopping a recording.

When capturing something, after you’ve selected the recording mode, you’ll be able to choose between three resolution modes, three quality settings, and many more frame rate options. Some users will likely want more in-depth fine-tuning, but at least it’s all very intuitive.

There are other advanced recording settings you can customize, such as the color space, format, and encoder. Also, you get to include or exclude certain objects, such as the cursor, desktop files, QuickRecorder itself, or even other apps in Screen or Screen Area recordings.

While not available by default, you can enable a screen magnifier by setting up a hotkey for it. It will then be accessible while recording and allows you to highlight certain areas. Other hotkeys are also available for starting or controlling the capture process.

It’s nice to see that Apple’s Presenter Overlay mode is supported (only on macOS 14) if you’re also recording with your webcam. On macOS 12/13, the standard camera view will be shown.

QuickRecorder does pretty much everything you need from a screen recorder. Of course, you’ll find paid apps that come with other fancy features, but those are seldom used anyway, at least by regular folks. This tool should be enough for almost anyone, and the fact that it’s free and open-source makes it all the better.