ScreenPal Review | PCMag

Premium screen-capture utilities offer professionals many useful features, but they can feel like overkill to casual users. Conversely, free screen-capture tools grab images just fine, but lack the many advanced features that power users need. ScreenPal (formerly Screencast-O-Matic) bridges the gulf between the two extremes with a robust free version and a subscription tier featuring a powerful video editor and other cool tools. Paid ScreenPal doesn’t trump Snagit, our Editors’ Choice winner for premium screencap utilities, but its no-cost plan makes ScreenPal our Editors’ Choice for free screencap software.

(Credit: ScreenPal)

ScreenPal’s Price and Platforms

Competing screencap apps, such as Ashampoo Snap and Snagit offer free trials. ScreenPal, on the other hand, has a basic version that’s free to use forever—and it comes with unlimited cloud storage. Naturally, the free version has limitations: You can take and edit screenshots, record up to 15 minutes of video (but with unlimited recordings), lightly edit video, and share clips online.

Upgrading to Deluxe ($3 per month) unlocks many extra features, notably unlimited video recording time. Premier ($6 per month) gives you more storage and backup options, plus business-friendly branding and advertising features. Max ($10 per month) has even more add-ons, such as advanced analytics, quizzes, and 4K playback. Still, even without paying, ScreenPal’s video recording alone makes it more powerful than Microsoft’s free Windows Snip & Sketch, which lacks the feature. Education customers receive a 50% discount.

For comparison, Ashampoo Snap and Snagit are one-time purchases that cost $44.99 and $62.99, respectively (that doesn’t include the price of upgrading to the next year’s versions, should you want to).

ScreenPal works on Windows and Mac. Its publishing platform runs in your browser. Like Snagit, ScreenPal has companion apps for Android and iOS, so you can sync your mobile and desktop captures.

Image and Video Editing

ScreenPal’s menu gives you four options: Take Screenshot, Launch Recorder, Open Editor, and Open Uploads. You also get quick access to your recent screenshots and recordings.

Taking a screenshot is as simple as dragging the cursor over an area and letting go. Editing options let you crop and resize an image, blur and highlight its different sections, or add graphics and text. You can easily delete any alterations. Even better, paid users have capturing options that rival Snagit’s, such as capturing scrolling windows or grabbing text with OCR recognition.

The video recorder is similarly intuitive. You can record your screen, your webcam, or both. Paid users can record computer audio, but it costs nothing to add microphone narration. The app lets you adjust the size of the recording window depending on resolution. ScreenPal recommends 720p, presumably to manage file sizes, but I recorded my full 1080p laptop screen.

ScreenPal’s Free users can trim recordings, write captions, add animated text and video effects, and include a limited number of music tracks before publishing. Upgrading to the proper video editor turns ScreenPal into a professional tool. You can zoom in and draw during the recording for live lesson annotations, create captions with speech-to-text, make GIFs, or apply image editing tools like blurring sections and adding shapes to videos. Subscribers can combine recordings, use a green screen filter, or animate overlays. Premier users gain access to an entire stock library of assets. For context, Snagit users must download the separate Camtasia app, Techsmith’s $250 education-focused recording software, to leverage similar options. 

ScreenPal now supports more formats when exporting image files: BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, and TIFF. However, other services still support more file types. Snagit exports to 19 different formats, Ashampoo Snap supports up to eight, and Windows Snip and Sketch lets you choose between PNG and JPG. For video, you can export clips as AVI, FLV, or MP4 files. However, transitioning from the capture and editing tools back to the browser isn’t always smooth.

Sharing Images and Video

ScreenPal lets all users share images and videos to the expected locations: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Drive, Dropbox, Vimeo, or email.

Likewise, ScreenPal’s hosting service is available to everyone. This browser app lets you organize and publish captures. There’s a 25GB monthly bandwidth limit in place. Once files are uploaded, you can add titles, write descriptions, and sort them into different custom channels. Just make sure your firewall doesn’t block the app.

You can make uploads public, private, or unlisted. There are detailed analytics to see how your content performs. The capable video player has 10-second fast-forward/rewind buttons and adjustable playback speed. Premier users can brand their video pages and custom players, and upload videos longer than 15 minutes (with an expanded 100GB of bandwidth). 

While testing and researching ScreenPal, I came across many examples of users hosting public videos on the native platform. Mostly I saw educators taking advantage of the tool to share video lessons, something useful for remote learning. The free version includes Learning Management System integration and Google Classroom support. 

(Credit: ScreenPal)

Verdict: The Free Screencap Champ

ScreenPal is a recommended screen-capture tool for its video editing and hosting features. It’s not quite as premium as Snagit, our Editors’ Choice winner for paid screen-capture utilities, but it comes close. However, as a free option, ScreenPal serves as a terrific middle ground between the basic Windows Snip & Sketch and pricey alternatives, earning it an Editors’ Choice award.