Recordly — Open-Source Screen Recording and Demo Video Creator

Introduction

Recordly is an open-source desktop application for creating polished demo videos and screen recordings without professional editing skills. It captures your screen with system audio and microphone input, then lets you add annotations, zoom effects, and transitions through a simple interface. Built with Electron and TypeScript, it runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

What Recordly Does

• Records screen, webcam, system audio, and microphone in a single session
• Provides built-in annotation tools for highlighting, drawing, and text overlays during recording
• Applies automatic zoom and pan effects to draw attention to specific screen regions
• Exports recordings to MP4 and GIF formats with configurable quality settings
• Includes basic trim and cut editing without requiring external video editors

Architecture Overview

Recordly is an Electron application using the desktopCapturer API for screen recording and Web Audio API for audio capture. The recording pipeline captures raw frames and audio streams, encoding them in real-time using FFmpeg bundled within the app. Post-recording effects like zoom, pan, and annotations are applied through a canvas-based rendering layer before final export. The editing timeline provides non-destructive trim and cut operations on the captured footage.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Download prebuilt binaries from GitHub Releases for macOS, Windows, or Linux
• Build from source by cloning the repository, running npm install, then npm run build
• Configure recording defaults including frame rate, resolution, and audio sources in settings
• Set default export format and quality in the preferences panel
• All recordings are stored locally on disk in a configurable output directory

Key Features

• Zero editing skills required: built-in effects and annotations produce polished output directly
• Cross-platform availability on macOS, Windows, and Linux with native desktop integration
• Real-time annotations including highlights, arrows, text, and drawing during recording
• Automatic zoom and pan effects that follow cursor movement for focused demos
• Open-source alternative to commercial screen recording tools like Screen Studio

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Screen Studio — polished commercial screen recorder for macOS; Recordly is free, open-source, and cross-platform
• OBS Studio — powerful but complex streaming/recording tool; Recordly focuses on quick demo videos with minimal setup
• Loom — cloud-based recording with sharing; Recordly is fully local with no cloud dependency
• Kap — macOS-only screen recorder; Recordly runs on all major desktop platforms
• ShareX — Windows screenshot/recording tool; Recordly adds automatic zoom effects and annotation features

FAQ

Q: Does Recordly upload recordings to the cloud? A: No, all recordings are stored locally on your machine. There is no cloud component.

Q: What video formats does Recordly export? A: MP4 and GIF are the primary export formats, with configurable resolution and quality settings.

Q: Can I record system audio on all platforms? A: System audio recording support varies by OS. Check the platform-specific notes in the documentation.

Q: Is there a maximum recording length? A: No hard limit. Recording length is bounded only by available disk space.

Sources

• https://github.com/webadderallorg/Recordly