OBS Studio

RATING:

4.7

(1026)

About OBS Studio

OBS Studio is an on-premise video recording and live-streaming solution that is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux devices. With OBS Studio, users can capture real-time audio and video content. The editing tools allow users to mix specified audio and recordings when working on interactive video projects. OBS Studio allows users to create videos using multiple sources/media including browser window captures and recordings, uploaded images, text annotations, webcam video, plus more. Additionally, an audio mixer tool includes filters such as noise gate and noise suppression to helps users edit audio files. An unlimited number of scenes can be used/selected when using video transition features. The OBS Studio API supports customized plugins and scripts. Tec...

Awards and Recognition

FrontRunner 2023
Software Advice's FrontRunners report ranks top products based on user reviews, which helps businesses find the right software.

OBS Studio Pricing

Open source and free software

Free trial: 

Not Available

Free version: 

Available

OBS Studio audio/video capturing

OBS Studio Reviews

Overall Rating

4.7

Ratings Breakdown

Secondary Ratings

Ease-of-use

4

Customer Support

4

Value for money

5

Functionality

4.5

Most Helpful Reviews for OBS Studio

1 - 5 of 1,022 Reviews

CharRon

Entertainment, 2 - 10 employees

Used less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

Reviewed April 2021

OBS time

User Profile

Charles Boampong

Verified reviewer

E-Learning, 11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed March 2022

Best screen recorder and video editing software

As an open-source software that offers an extremely high screen recording and video recording for professional work, I will recommend OBS for everyone, especially new YouTubers, Facebook content managers, and other digital marketers.

PROS

It has a great configuration and advanced tools for video streaming, recording, and editing.

CONS

It can be a little complicated as a first-time user, but you soon discover that it's easy to use.

Reason for choosing OBS Studio

A friend recommended OBS to me.

Reasons for switching to OBS Studio

I found it easier and much more convenient to use OBS.

User Profile

German Liber

Verified reviewer

Arts and Crafts, 1 employee

Used monthly for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed January 2021

OBS, the king of streaming (on budget) studios

It was a slow learning curve and at first really confused me, but OBS Studio was the best solution for my project. While looking at the stream I really thought it looked professional, and I was very satisfied.

PROS

I started using OBS while doing a film series in my city, the project was open to the public, but the pandemic forced me to turn the thing into an online project. I used a lot of streaming software at first, skipping OBS for no reason, but when I tried the software I was in awe. The whole package its free to use, while limited sometimes, if you learn how to set it up (Wiki and guides are really useful on the official website), you're good to go. I like to think about OBS as a solution for basic or minimalistic projects. On audio, you can set different audio tracks, separate them and record them. About video, the settings for streaming are useful if your internet connection it's not too good or if your PC/laptop it's not the most powerful out there. The software was using a lot of ram on my laptop at first, but after tweaking the settings a bit, it became really lightweight. You can add a capture device, you can capture your own desktop, a window, you can even add GIFs, images and videos and resize them or drag them through the screen. And yes, you can record on .H264, and that's one of the best things about it. Rookie streamer, if you're reading this and want to take a challenge, download and install OBS right now, it's the best solution for your project if you're on a tight budget.

CONS

As said, sometimes it lags the computer a bit if you didn't set up the whole thing correctly. The instructions guide it's really extensive and things are kind of hard to understand if you're a novice (YouTube tutorials can help you a lot on this).

Reason for choosing OBS Studio

OBS it's free and open source, and I chose it because I had zero money on the project.

Juan pedro

Broadcast Media, 2-10 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed June 2021

Obs is a really good open source experience

Wonderful experience reliable always on my tool set for all my projects

PROS

You can achieve most you will do with payed software The tools grow on every version and it gets better

CONS

Lack to capture devices connections as AJa for example Today main suppor on black magic products is good but meet to expand this

Reason for choosing OBS Studio

Price

User Profile

T. Ryan

Verified reviewer

Entertainment, 1 employee

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

2

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed May 2021

Extremely powerful tool for broadcasting multiple video and audio sources.

Overall I think OBS is fantastic. It is a bit kludge-y in certain aspects but I have been using it for about a year and a half now and I can't imagine switching to a different tool. It has been able to handle multiple camera scenarios with ease. I just love it.

PROS

This product allowed me to quickly put together professional "studio grade" composite video scenes that were then easily broadcast to a number of online sites. I used it most frequently with Twitch and it has nicely integrated twitch features, but it can also be used to broadcast to facebook or youtube given that you have things configured correctly. The ability to apply video and audio filters as well as support for a variety of different audio and video formats for inset playback was extremely useful.

CONS

This product has a bit of a DIY flair. For anyone with a background in video editing or audio editing it wont take too long to figure out how to set up a scene and broadcast with OBS. However, the onbaording for new users is virtually non existant. I certainly wouldn't give OBS to someone with little to know technical experience and expect them to be successfull. In today's tech landscape, especially when it comes to streaming there are so many unsophisticated users attempting to get started that I think a few more passes to the UX and UI would be beneficial.

Reason for choosing OBS Studio

OBS has much better integrated streaming features that many of the other video / screen capturing products i looked at do not.