Movavi was founded in 2004, has a team of over 400 people and claims over 3,000,000 “happy users.” In this article, I’ll test their Screen Recorder and write up a review of it. Continue reading for a rundown of what Movavi does and how it works, or click here to skip straight to my verdict of it.
Installing Movavi Screen Recorder
Go to https://www.movavi.com/screen-recorder and click the “Download for Free” button to download the MovaviScreenRecorderSetupC.exe installer (44MB). Open it and start the install:
There is then a super-quick install process:
On my laptop this didn’t even take 1 minute. Then you’re done:
Using Movavi Screen Recorder
Once you open Movavi Screen Recorder, it doesn’t by default show a normal window like you would expect with most software. Instead, it’s just a little widget on the right of your screen:
Here’s a rundown of what each button does:
Settings. For some reason I wasn’t able to take screenshots of this window, but here are the settings available in Movavi Screen Recorder:
- General (language, disable countdown, hide recording panel, disable frame blinking during capture, allow window panes selection, capture separate streams, enable sound notifications and so on)
- Files (where to save recordings to, and default screenshot format)
- Keyboard shortcuts (very useful — by default, you’ll use F10 to start or stop recording, Alt+F10 to start or stop audio recording, F9 to pause and so on)
- Video (lets you set the frame rate to record at and audio quality)
- Webcam (settings for if you want to record webcam footage)
- Effects (whether you want to highlight clicks, highlight the mouse cursor and so on)
- Scheduler (for scheduling recordings)
- Sharing (to easily transfer recordings to YouTube or Google Drive)
Screenshot. For simply taking a screenshot of your screen. When you use this, you can then select just a portion of the screen to take a screenshot of if you want (instead of the whole screen), and then you have some options to edit the captured screenshot with lines, colors, shapes and so on:
Personally I don’t see the need for this, as I just use the PrtScr key on my laptop to take screenshots, then copy and paste into Paint (or any image editing software) and edit from there if I need to.
Screen recorder. The actual meat and bones of the software. Like with the screenshot tool, you select an area of the screen (or the whole screen), and then you’re presented with some options before you start recording:
You can change these default settings in the settings menu as well. You have the option to record audio from the microphone if you have one, system audio (sound from software and windows on your computer), highlight the mouse cursor and highlight clicks.
Here’s an example screen recording I made with Movavi (you can see I’ve selected the option to highlight the mouse cursor and clicks):
Features. This just lets you add some feature to the widget:
Does Movavi Screen Recorder work on Mac?
Yes, and the Mac version is the same as the Windows version. See the Mac version here.
How much does Movavi Screen Recorder cost?
$39.95 USD.
Free vs Paid versions
As you can see in the example video I recorded, the free version of Movavi Screen Recorder places a huge, obtrusive watermark in the middle of your video, making it unusable for sharing any kind of serious or professional video (the only other difference between the free and paid versions is with the free version you can’t add a description or tags to the video before sharing it on YouTube through the software – not a big deal).
Is there a crack or torrent for Movavi Screen Recorder?
No, and as always, we don’t condone stealing software.
Are there any discount codes for Movavi Screen Recorder?
None of the coupon codes I tried for Movavi Screen Recorder worked. You may be able to get a discount for Movavi Screen Recorder if you purchase it as a bundle with other software from Movavi, but most of the time, it appears that Movavi does not run discounts for Movavi Screen Recorder by itself.
If there are any specials running for Movavi Screen Recorder at any given time, they should be available on the website here:
https://www.movavi.com/screen-recorder
How does Movavi Screen Recorder compare to the competition?
In my Icecream Screen Recorder review, I listed the main screen recording software on the market including Movavi Screen Recorder, so have a read through that for a rundown of the competition in this market. As far as specific points on how Movavi Screen Recorder differs from its competition (including Icecream Screen Recorder), I would note the following:
- The watermark Movavi Screen Recorder places on your videos in the free version is far more obnoxious than most other software, such as Icecream Screen Recorder (Icecream’s software just puts a logo in the bottom right, whereas Movavi puts a dark banner across the whole screen). Therefore, the free version of Icecream Screen Recorder may be preferable to the free version of Movavi Screen Recorder. Of course, this point is moot in the paid version which removes the watermark.
- Movavi Screen Recorder lets you choose the audio quality and framerate of your recorded video, a very nice feature that is lacking in other recorders like Icecream Screen Recorder.
- Movavi Screen Recorder’s interface (GUI) is a bit unusual in that it puts a widget on the right hand side of your screen instead, but I think it works fine. You might actually prefer it over other software.
- Movavi Screen Recorder’s price at $39.95 is completely reasonable and comparable to other screen recorders. However, you can get Icecream Screen Recorder for significantly less than that, so if you don’t need some of Movavi’s unique features (the widget interface, the ability to set audio quality, the ability to set framerate and some other things like sharing to YouTube from within the software), you can go with Icecream Screen Recorder
My verdict on Movavi Screen Recorder
Movavi Screen Recorder is a quality piece of software that I can definitely recommend. However, it’s not guaranteed that it’s the best screen recorder for your needs, as other software like Icecream Screen Recorder is a bit cheaper, and there are also other screen recorders that perform similarly (such as Bandicam). If you’ve read this far and don’t wish to spend any more time comparing screen recorders, though, just go with Movavi — you can’t go wrong with it.
