OpenScreen
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 6 screen recorders by recommenders
Free, open-source screen recorder with automatic zoom for product demos and easy setup. Its main caveat is that it lacks the wider feature set of OBS.
Free, open-source screen recorder with automatic zoom for product demos and easy setup. Its main caveat is that it lacks the wider feature set of OBS.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 24
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 24 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Easy to learn and use
“The learning curve is roughly zero.”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio” “simple to use, works Ok on my end”
Comment from 4 Apr 2026 in “OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio” “They can't do a lot of the things that OBS can do, but if all you want is to record your desktop with a webcam overlay, it's a lot easier.”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio” Free and open source
“Thanks to open source and AI, we don't need every software to be a subscription”
Comment from 4 Apr 2026 in “OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio” “This one is free even for commercial usage.”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio” “I do think it's cool that good open source alternatives are emerging and felt like this might be interesting to the community”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio” Automatic zoom feature
“The auto-zoom feature alone makes this worth it for anyone doing quick product demos”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio” “It's the automatic zooming animations.”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio” Positive experience so far
“I've been using this for the past month or so and have had nothing but positive experience.”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio” “Thought it came out pretty good”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio” “Genuinely impressed with this!”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio”
Other screen recorders people recommend
The four most recommended other screen recorders, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loom | 44 | 7 | 86% | 12 | — | Approved |
| OpenScreenThis page | 24 | 4 | 86% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Cap screen recorder | 10 | 4 | 71% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Screen Studio | 8 | 14 | 36% | 3 | 1 yr3 owners | — |
| Screenpipe | 7 | 9 | 44% | 4 | 2 mo3 owners | — |
What people said
28 of the 31 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Export on my test machine went from about 10 fps to about 126.”
“this is where I would burn my tokens”
“some very nice libraries too”
“Looks smooth, but holy motion sickness.”
“I do think it's cool that good open source alternatives are emerging and felt like this might be interesting to the community”
“purpose-built and time-saving specifically for the computer instructions use case”
“with AI, burning credits for Open source will become a trend”
“why is it good to have zero revenue and at the same time killing revenue for something else”
“If you rip something off, at least have the decency to not compare your product to it.”
“UI is so clean and minimal that it feels like modern open source”
“The repo just fails to mention the benefits of this”
“Thought it came out pretty good”
“OpenScreen supports Linux, whereas Cap doesn't”
“The auto-zoom feature alone makes this worth it for anyone doing quick product demos”
“It's the automatic zooming animations.”
“it didn't detect the screen or my microphone”
“I've been using this for the past month or so and have had nothing but positive experience.”
“The learning curve is roughly zero.”
“This one is free even for commercial usage.”
“OpenStudio apparently is and I'm hyped.”
“Looks awesome! Super excited to try it.”
“Nice project. I thought of building exactly this.”
“Genuinely impressed with this!”
“They can't do a lot of the things that OBS can do, but if all you want is to record your desktop with a webcam overlay, it's a lot easier.”
“Thank you so much for making this.”
“simple to use, works Ok on my end”
“Thanks to open source and AI, we don't need every software to be a subscription”
“there is an open standard at the w3c, Open Screen Protocol, that's built by the Second Screen Working Group”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.