Camtasia vs. Snagit

Camtasia is so easy to use that I recommend it over Adobe Premiere, Captivate, Storyline, and other tools. The only problem is the price. Due to the fact that I purchased this for education purposes, and educational prices have gone up exponentially, it has been difficult even at $179 to upgrade, as an educator and the organization is not always willing to reimburse the purchase, it would have been more economical. It was less than $100 (Black Friday) when I bought our updated version in 2019. Camtasia profile accounts aren't the best setup, however. My profile account does not reflect when I was a user or show past invoices, and I wanted to see how long ago I was a user.

Incentivized

Let's say you are on a webinar or online meeting and want to take several screen shots of what is on the screen and save all of them. Rather than opening Windows snipping tool (or other free products) and needing to save each one as fast as you can, SnagIt saves all of them and you can go back and delete the ones you don't want. Capture the entire screen quickly or do a region for only a portion of the screen. Very handy. SnagIt also provides easy ways to add your edits to the screen shot in a professional way. Rather than trying to "hand draw" a circle around the item you want to bring attention to, you can use professional tools for circles and rectangles to highlight a specific area for someone to see right away when looking at this screen shot

Incentivized

• Very intuitive controls. You don't need to be a pro at video editing
• Seamless control of assets (separates video from still images)
• Great library of annotations and gestures
• Easy to integrate audio/video edits
• Custom formats that suit my needs (web, mobile, tablets)

Incentivized

• Being able to take screen captures quickly and with just a keystroke is a prime feature. I took several screenshots just yesterday to show folks, which saved me from taking the time to meet with [...] everyone.
• Obviously recording and sharing video is Snagit's strength. It does this as well as any product I have used. It is not an editor but there are a lot of capture features that cover just about any situation.
• One great feature that Snagit has is the ability to pull text from a capture. We don't use this a lot but when it is needed it is a huge time saver.
• The settings and tools within Snagit are intuitive and easy to find.

Incentivized

• USB Microphones can sometimes cause a problem if they become accidentally unplugged during a recording session. This can corrupt some of the files that the Camtasia Recorder application uses to capture directly to .avi mode.
• You'll sometimes get a message when you next try to record that .avi mode isn't available and the only way to fix this is by completely uninstalling and reinstalling Camtasia (with a reboot in the middle of these two actions).
• This bug only manifested after Camtasia 8 was released, but still seems to cause an issue right up to and including Camtasia 2021.
• I'd like to see more standard Annotation options. The existing ones are pretty good, but variety is a little lacking.
• More 'Behaviours' would also be really welcome as these are a great feature and make Callouts a bit more interesting and lively. I've not seen any new Behaviours over the past few versions (since Camtasia 2018).

Incentivized

• Image merge - I wish there was an easier way to merge two images in one.
• Scrolling capture - even though this is one thing I love, sometimes the text gets wonky when I use this feature.
• The shortcut - this feature feels super unnecessary. And it can be annoying when every time I move my mouse to the right of the screen it pops up.

Incentivized

Each release of Camtasia has added just enough functionality to justify the upgrade to the new version. I like that Camtasia is not a subscription-based product as we have more flexibility and control over our spend on the product. We can also purchase support packages that include the next version when released.

Incentivized

I think that the tool is excellent for what it is being used for. I particuarly like the ability to capture content from the screen whilst using the scroll wheel on my mouse. It is very annoying when your try to capture something with grab and you can't scroll which leads to multiple images

Incentivized

I haven't used another video recording and editing tools that is as comprehensive and straight-forward as Camtasia. Typically, if you want a user-friendly video editing tools for novice users, you have to compromise on features. Camtasia solves this problem by offering extensive editing features in a simplistic, user-friendly environment. Highly recommend

Incentivized

It's button centric for easy access to every feature. Everything allows undo! It works like any other standard Windows application. Everyone can be a professional without having to select every feature yourself by using the built in styles with just one click of a button in most cases. Every button is clearly labeled too.

Incentivized

With the latest version (Camtasia 2020), I actually had problems with an Imac with HighSierra, but from the first moment they answered and guided me to solve the problem, even before making the purchase (with some doubts I had). And they have support in English and Spanish, I really liked that.

I've actually never had to contact support as the tool is easy to use. One aspect is that they upgrade and send email notifications of the upgrades. They don't charge extra for upgrades and their enhancements fall in line with the way we use the tool. We haven't had to submit any upgrade requests as the tool already does what we need it to do.

Incentivized

It's a simple next next finish install. The SnagIt Library in the user profile should probably be backed up to make sure they have access to their old screen captures. We frequently will go back to previous captures and add context bubbles etc. when software changes to show the "old" vs "new". Also, go to SnagIt's website and download the additional Stamp Sets for the user. These are terrific. I wish there was one download to get them all, but you have to download and install them one set at a time. It's worth it - especially for training how-to's.

Incentivized

I've tried several freeware recorders, too. If all you want to do is literally record your screen, and nothing else, you don't need Camtasia. There are literally dozens of apps that will do that. If you want an app that will record your screen while capturing mouse clicks, follow you, record your voice while you capture, and annotate when you're done, Camtasia has no equal. Plus, it doesn't stop there. You can add professional intros and outros (many already created to choose from), lower thirds, etc., leading to videos with very high production value. This is THE program to buy if you want to produce training videos of very high quality.

Incentivized

PhotoShop is of course a very powerful image editing tool. But, the learning curve is steep and all the tools and settings aren't necessary for our needs. Snagit is a streamlined solution for capturing videos, creating gifs, and editing images. (It also supports capturing screenshots, including scrolling/panoramic ones, but we use a different tool). Snagit's ability to capture images + videos and immediately open the editor to edit those images or videos makes the entire process faster, simpler, and easier. We've raised the possibility as a team of switching to PhotoShop, but for now I prefer using Snagit for our needs.

• Many faculty members used it because it was easy to use and accomplish what they needed.
• No need for a lot of training or follow-up training due to it being very to use.
• Account management within our system and assigning permissions required a few steps when granting access.

Incentivized

• Snagit isn't a very expensive product in general so it has been a huge ROI for us
• It saves me countless amounts of time each day
• I'm able to share instructions much easier and allows for more time spent on other tasks

Incentivized