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The future of video is now.
Over 86% of businesses use video as part of their marketing and content.
If you want to cut through the content noise, you need to create compelling videos for sharing your knowledge and expertise with the world.
However, which tool out there puts the onus on ease of use and functionality as you screencast and create videos from them?
Camtasia is one of the popular video software out there. But does it offer what you’re looking for in a tool?
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Techsmith Camtasia Review.
This Camtasia review post aims to show you how this video editing program works by looking into its features and how you can use them as part of your stack.
We’ll also discuss the pros and cons of using the software to give you an idea of what makes Camtasia good and things that may need further improvements.
Finally, if you feel that Camtasia isn’t for you, we’ll check out different Camtasia alternatives that may be more to your liking.
Who is Camtasia Best For?
Techsmith Camtasia (formerly Camtasia Studio for Microsoft Windows) is for everyone looking for a video editing tool that is powerful enough for professionals to use and easy enough for beginners to learn.
As long as you have a penchant for capturing everything that’s happening on your screen, this tool is everything you’ll need — seriously!
Camtasia Summary.
As mentioned, Camtasia is a video editing software that suits the needs of a variety of users, from professional video editors to enthusiasts.
With this, you can:
- Record your computer screen or from your webcam and convert it into video
- Edit videos recorded from or uploaded to the tool using its drag-and-drop technology
- Use pre-built assets to cut down on time creating video content from scratch
I know — most video editing tools do these things for you. But, as we progress deeper into this post, you will learn how much more advanced and cutting-edge Camtasia is compared to the rest of the competition.
And as a marketer with limited video editing skills, its comprehensive and easy-to-follow training videos allowed me to understand how to leverage its power to the max fully.
It’s truly a special screen recording software that I can’t recommend highly enough!
But before I get ahead of myself further, let’s take a quick look at its pricing model.
Camtasia Pricing.
Of course, no Camtasia review is complete without discussing its pricing plans!
Techsmith Camtasia has a simple one-time fee for a single license. All you must do is download the software on Microsoft Windows or Mac to activate the license. From there, you’ll be able to enjoy all the features available to your chosen plan.
But before you buy a license, you can sign up for its 30-day free trial. After which, you will be locked out from accessing the software unless you purchase a license.
You can also pay for the Camtasia Maintenance feature for $50 annually for a chance to upgrade to the latest version of Camtasia and receive priority support for one year. This feature is available at checkout for all plans.
Except for the Individual Plan, site licenses from all plans include a customer success manager, upgrades, training, and priority support.
Below, we’ll look at the plans available and the details of each:
Individual
At US$249.99, The Individual Plan caters to solopreneurs looking to get something off the ground with video content. So for people looking for top-of-the-line online course tools or video marketing software, Camtasia should be up to their alley.
This plan is the only one among the rest with a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you’re unhappy with the tool, you can request a refund within 30 days after purchasing it. You’ll get your payment back — no questions asked.
Business
For enterprise owners who leverage video editing for their business, the Business Plan allows them to purchase multiple licenses at decreasing prices.
Below is the range of licenses you can order for each purchase and the price of each license:
- 1 – 4 licenses – US$249.99 each
- 5 – 9 – US$239.04
- 10 – 14 – US$231.57
- 15 – 24 – US$224.10
- 25 – 49 – US$206.67
- 50 – 99 – US$199.20
- 100 + – Contact sales
The more licenses you purchase in each order, the more affordable each license becomes.
Education
If you work for an educational organization and want to use Techsmith Camtasia for teaching students and e-learning with the faculty, the Education Plan is for you.
Similar to Business Plan, the Education Plan allows you to buy multiple licenses in a single purchase. The more licenses you buy, the less money you have to pay for each.
Below is the breakdown of its price for each range of licenses purchased in an order:
- 1 – 4 licenses – US$169.99 each
- 5 – 9 – US$162.24
- 10 – 14 – US$157.17
- 15 – 24 – US$152.10
- 25 + – Contact sales
To be eligible for the Education Plan, you must provide information about your educational institution to the Techsmith sales team. They will then check if your organization meets the necessary qualifications to purchase this plan. Click here for details about this process.
Upon approval, you can enter your Tax ID number upon checkout for tax-exempt orders.
Finally, users can only use the Education Plan license for non-commercial purposes.
Government & Non-Profit
Similar to the Education Plan, the Government Plan provides employees in governmental agencies all over the world a much lower rate for each site license.
They can even get much lower prices if they purchase the licenses in bulk. Below is the price breakdown:
- 1 – 4 licenses — US$223.99 each
- 5 – 9 — US$215.01
- 10 – 14 — US$208.29
- 15 – 24 — US$201.57
- 25 – 49 — US$185.90
- 50 – 99 — US$179.18
- 100 + — Contact sales
Governmental entities and non-profits are qualified to purchase licenses for this plan — they don’t have to submit proof of status before purchasing. However, Camtasia reserves the right to check your qualifications any time while you have a license.
Users can also place tax-exempt orders by entering their tax ID number at the checkout box.
Upgrade
If you purchased a Camtasia license before and want to save up on the latest upcoming version, you can buy the upgrade at a much lower price than its retail price.
You might be wondering why you have to purchase an upgrade if you already paid the video editing tool’s one-time fee. It’s because you only paid for the current version of Camtasia. So if you want to upgrade from Camtasia 2020 to Camtasia 2021, you’ll have to pay up to enjoy the new features that come with it.
The Upgrade’s standard price costs a one-time fee of $139.99 — that’s at least $100 less if you purchased a brand-new license. It includes a one-year Camtasia Maintenance feature and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
For Government and Education license holders, they can purchase the upgrade for only US$124.99 and $99.99, respectively.
Camtasia promises buyers to update them with next year’s version, as well as priority support, volume benefits, and Camtasia Certification.
Snagit Bundle
While Camtasia is everything you’ll need from a video editor tool, it doesn’t have screen capture features for taking photos of your screen that you can use in your videos.
In this case, you’d want to purchase the Camtasia/Snagit Bundle.
As a screen recording and screen capture tool, Snagit creates step-by-step instructions and quickly communicates with your team through screengrabs.
Snagit is available for a one-time fee of $49.99. But if you want to capture everything on your screen, from video clips to images, you can get Snagit and Camtasia for a one-time fee of US$274.99.
Camtasia Features.
Now, onto the fun stuff!
Camtasia is easily one of — if not the — best video software in the market, not for what it does but how it does it. There are so many nuances to this software that make it a cut above the rest.
Camtasia rolls out new updates yearly, boasting new features and functions not available in the previous version. And in this post, we’ll be talking about Camtasia 2020.
Let’s break down the different features of Techsmith Camtasia and the benefits you can get from using each one.
Screen Recording
Taking a video of your computer screen is a breeze using the Camtasia Recorder, thanks to its simple user interface. It shows you all the things you need to set up before hitting “Record,” from the recording area (screen on, dimensions) to recorded inputs (camera, microphone, system audio).
This automatically makes Camtasia one of the top screencasting tools in the market!
Unlike most professional video editing software, Camtasia unburdens you from the different video record settings by keeping the options as limited as possible, which is a great thing. This enables you to focus on creating the best possible screen recordings.
Once recorded, you can embellish the video to your liking using its wide selection of effects:
- Annotations – Add arrows, highlights, shapes, and spotlights to emphasize sections of the recording. You can also blur sensitive information in the video.
- Transitions – Create a smooth flow at the beginning, between sections, and at the end of the video.
- Behaviors – Make text and images added to the video appear more dynamic.
- Animations – Zoom in and out from the video to focus on specific areas of the recording.
- Cursor Effects – Make your cursor movements easier to follow in the video. This is useful in how-to guides involving the use of tools or software.
- Voice Narration – Record your voice while the video is playing.
- Audio Effect – Improve the audio quality of the recording by adjusting speed, eliminate
The effects are perfect for creating a dynamic intro about your business, making Camtasia a serious explainer video software to consider.
When working on a project, it’s best to keep track of the specific effects you’re using for it. In this case, Camtasia 2020 allows you to save your favorite animations and effects in a single place.
By doing so, you can just pull the same effects on a project for consistency.
You can even get granular with some of the elements by creating a custom theme for each project.
Select the colors, fonts, and logo, among others, for the theme. Save the theme and load it anytime to save yourself time from configuring each element one by one for each project.
While recording your videos, it’s common to make mistakes as you find yourself repeating back from where you started. With Camtasia, editing out these unwanted sections of the video is easy.
You can either cut the section out and patch the parts in between or leave a space on the timeline so you can record over it.
Once finished, you can upload the video directly onto Vimeo or YouTube or save it on your Google Drive and access it in the cloud later. (Here is a full list of YouTube tools that compliment Camtasia.)
Camtasia’s video editing options give you complete control to produce high-quality videos with just a few clicks of a button just from using these features alone.
This becomes very evident if you’re trying to piece together different recordings into a single video seamlessly.
Pre-Built Assets and Templates
Creating professional videos is one thing. It’s another to find media assets to include in your recordings and spice things up.
Usually, you’d have to sign up on sites that offer a selection of photos and music to add to your videos. Most of these sites require a paid subscription, so you’d have to pay just to get access to a few files.
Thankfully, you don’t have to do this if you decide to sign up for a Camtasia license.
You can simply choose from its library of royalty-free music, sound effects, and photos you can add to your video. Click on the assets to preview them before you download them.
You can also filter the assets according to different factors so you can narrow down your choices based on your specifications. For instance, you can filter the music library according to mood, genre, length, and more.
New to Techsmith Camtasia 2020 is the video template selection. If you’re not a video creator, but oh-so-badly want to create one to jumpstart your YouTube channel or upload your webinar to your choice of video hosting platform, the templates should help you get things off the ground.
The templates are perfect for introductions for how-to videos, online video courses, PowerPoint slides, and more and give Camtasia an edge over the best webinar tools available.
You can add other templates in the different sections of your video, such as company overview, brand awareness, customer testimonials, and more.
This is a game-changer for newbie video editors who want to leverage on existing templates that they can just edit on the go. This allows them to create videos and focus on the quality instead of their nuts and bolts.
The same goes for video editors who want to refine their process with premade assets and templates.
Green Screen Removal
For professional training videos, the green screen is essential for creating high-quality video courses and presentations. After recording, they can just replace the screen with a background of their choosing.
Camtasia also gives you a chance to showcase your video editor skills using the tool’s Remove a Color effect.
The tricky part of removing the background is finding the right color and its properties to remove the green screen from the video effectively. Keep playing around with the settings to achieve the desired effect.
Add Table of Contents
If you have a long video, you may want to make it easier for your viewers to watch it by adding jump sections to specific video parts. When clicking on the section, viewers will go straight to it without manually guessing which section is which from their player.
You can create a table of contents using Camtasia.
Assign markers to sections that you want to use as jump points for your video. Once you’ve saved or exported the video from Camtasia, viewers will be able to click on the list icon at the bottom right of the screen to view the video’s jump sections from the browser.
Using this feature, you can provide a convenient way for viewers to navigate your videos to their most essential sections.
Create Quizzes
For some, it’s not enough for their viewers to watch the video from beginning to end. They want viewers to complete a quiz to make sure they understood the things discussed in it.
Others may be looking for ways to improve the delivery of content in the videos. If so, they can set up a survey asking viewers what they want to see from the videos to make things easier.
If you’re either of these people, you can increase your videos’ interactivity by creating quizzes or feedback using Camtasia. Doing so helps you achieve your desired results.
Similar to the markers for your jump sections, select which time the quiz will appear on the screen.
To make the quiz or survey appear on the video, you must upload it to the Techsmith Smart Player.
Camtasia Integrations.
Techsmith Camtasia is already chock-full of useful features and options on its own. However, it’s made even more feature-rich with integrations from different tools and apps.
While the integrations aren’t as plentiful, they make the video recording and editing process even simpler for all.
PowerPoint
For some people, having the ability to record their PowerPoint slides as they talk over their presentation is good enough.
With Camtasia, they won’t have to deal with the bells and whistles of most video recorder tools. Instead, they can just record their presentations straight from PowerPoint.
After recording, the training video goes straight to Camtasia, where you can make your edits and polish it up before publishing.
It’s another quick and easy way to get your videos off the ground without little to no experience using the video editor.
iOS Capture
Let’s say you want to take screen recordings from your mobile device for an app you want to showcase. Or you just need to record something on your smartphone because you’re away from your desktop or laptop.
This is where the iOS Capture comes in handy. By installing this screen recorder app on your iOS, you can record your screen or broadcast yourself. In this manner, Camtasia compares favorably to other OTT platforms as well.
You can also add images from your iPhone on the recorded video for added effect.
Once done, you can send the file to Camtasia for additional editing before publishing or exporting it.
Camtasia Pros.
- Camtasia has everything you want and need from a video editing program.
- Its video templates help record videos much easier and faster since you just have to edit the templates and don’t have to start from scratch.
- Techsmith Camtasia is simple for beginners to learn and pick up from the get-go and powerful for professional video editors to create sophisticated videos without compromising quality.
- The video tutorials on how to use Camtasia and its features are professionally made, short, and easy to understand. The training videos are created using Camtasia, which shows you the possibility of achieving your videos’ same quality.
- Camtasia has fantastic customer support from its sales reps and its thousands of users online.
Camtasia Cons.
- Camtasia is expensive because you must pay a one-time fee instead of a monthly subscription. Moreover, you have to buy an upgrade that isn’t included in the current version to enjoy its new features.
- Rendering takes a long time to complete, especially for bigger video files, and only shows you a progress bar without the estimated time of completion.
- There are many media assets (photos, sounds) and effects to choose from, but they aren’t extensive as competitors.
Camtasia Alternatives.
From this Camtasia review, it should be evident that the tool is as good as you’re going to get from any other software. However, not everybody has the same preferences from the tools they use.
So if you don’t feel Camtasia can do the things you want from your video editor tool, below are alternatives you could consider using:
- Filmora X – This video editing software is similar to Camtasia, but you can use more effects and transitions on your videos. It’s also much more affordable — $79.99 for a one-time fee of $49.99 for an annual subscription.
- Adobe Premiere Pro – This tool is the world-leading video editing program recommended by more feature-rich professionals. However, that comes at the expense of having a steep learning curve due to a more complex user interface.
- Screenflow – As a Mac-only tool, Screenflow is a screen recording and video editing app that is perfect for beginners in any industry. For an additional $46 for its first year, users get access to over 500,000 stock photos and videos.
FAQ.
Is Camtasia worth the money?
Yes, I do believe that Camtasia is worth the money. For a one-time fee, the value for the money is hard to beat. This is one of my go-to screen capture and video editing tools on the market.
What is Camtasia good for?
In this Camtasia review, I go into detail about what Camtasia is good for. The short answer is that it is good for anyone who is looking for a multi-use video tool. Whether you are looking for video editing and screen recording. It is a solid tool that I highly recommend.
Is Camtasia free to use?
Camtasia is free to use for the 30 days upon signing up for an account. After which, you must purchase a license to continue using the tool starting at a one-time fee of US$249.99 for the Individual Plan.
How much money does Camtasia cost?
Below is the breakdown of costs for each license plan type of Camtasia:
- Individual – US$249.99.
- Business – starting at US$249.99; price goes down if you order more than 4 licenses at once.
- Education – starting at US$169.99; price goes down if you order more than 4 licenses at once.
- Government and Non-Profit – starting at US$223.99; price goes down if you order more than 4 licenses at once.
Is Camtasia the Best Video Editing Software Around?
Camtasia is easily one of the best video and screen recorder tools in the market. If you’re a beginner, this tool is easy and powerful enough to help you create training videos or engaging visual content.
I hope you are able to make your decision on this product after going through my in-depth Camtasia review. I highly recommend that you sign up for a free trial and take this software for a spin.