OBS Studio
Free, open-source software for screen recording and live streaming on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Commenters treat it as the standard free tool for screen recording and streaming1234, and like its virtual camera and easy capture of slides, webcams and old tapes.567 Common complaints are a difficult UX89, a contributor policy that bans AI-written code1011, and limits for professional live shows.12
Why people recommend it
Screen recording · 3
Seen as the standard for recording talks, lectures, screencasts and demos.
“For recording OBS is pretty much the standard.”
“I love OBS! I’ve been using it for years now to record talks”
Show 1 more
Thanks to the OBS devs! I work at a university and occasionally make video lectures for my classes. I used to do it in Zoom, but it sometimes had weird glitches where it just… deletes the videos I recorded. It’s happened several times that I lost an hour or more of recordings and had to redo it, once it deleted all the recordings that I did that week. Also, it was a bit of work to position screen sharing vs my webcam
Ease of use · 3
Users find capture work easy, especially once scenes are set up.
“I love this software, it made it so easy to digitalize my 20+ year old family tapes”
Thanks to the OBS devs! I work at a university and occasionally make video lectures for my classes. I used to do it in Zoom, but it sometimes had weird glitches where it just… deletes the videos I recorded. It’s happened several times that I lost an hour or more of recordings and had to redo it, once it deleted all the recordings that I did that week. Also, it was a bit of work to position screen sharing vs my webcam
Show 1 more
“the most user friendly way is to use obs”
Virtual camera · 3
The virtual camera feature is a favorite and works with v4l2 on Linux.
“I use OBS virtual camera its one of my fav features”
“the most user friendly way is to use obs”
Show 1 more
“I use v4l2 regularly with OBS.”
Linux and Wayland · 3
Screen recording works on Wayland under both KDE and GNOME.
“I screen record with OBS on both KDE and GNOME on multiple machines with no issues”
“I love OBS! I’ve been using it for years now to record talks”
Show 1 more
“the most user friendly way is to use obs”
Capture monitoring · 2
Useful for monitoring capture cards and streaming an iPhone into a Mac.
“I use OBS to monitor my video capture.”
“I love that I can stream from my iPhone directly into OBS on my Mac.”
FOSS and quality · 2
Valued for being FOSS with excellent video quality.
Thanks to the OBS devs! I work at a university and occasionally make video lectures for my classes. I used to do it in Zoom, but it sometimes had weird glitches where it just… deletes the videos I recorded. It’s happened several times that I lost an hour or more of recordings and had to redo it, once it deleted all the recordings that I did that week. Also, it was a bit of work to position screen sharing vs my webcam
“I'm using it together with OBS to post short demo videos of my side project.”
Caveats and dissent
Difficult UX · 2
Some find the interface difficult and use OBS only when they must.
“OBS was recommended but OBS has a difficult UX.”
AI policy · 2
The project bans AI-written contributions, which some commenters dislike.
“Great, another project with an asinine and backwards-thinking AI policy”
Professional streaming · 1
One commenter says serious professional broadcasts are better served by vMix.
“OBS is a great solution if you're on a budget or doing very simple streams”
Metal shaders · 1
Metal shaders aren't supported on Mac without janky extensions.
“I love that I can stream from my iPhone directly into OBS on my Mac.”
Audio desync · 1
Webcam audio can sometimes go out of sync during recording.
“recording a video with OBS, sometimes my webcam's audio will get desync'd”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“This is something I have been working on for years and am sssooo excited to see merged.”
“This is something I have been working on for years and am sssooo excited to see merged.”
Threads where it came up
- OBS Studio 33 8 mentions
- OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio 2 mentions
- Flint · free browser streaming software for Twitch, an OBS alternative 1 mention
- It's still ok to enjoy programming 1 mention
- The work by Valve's Timur Kristóf on improving old AMD GPUs on Linux 1 mention
- EasyEffects can improve laptop speaker sound quality 1 mention
Also written as OBS. Data: obs-studio.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 26
“Each time I use it, there is very little in terms of use cases that don't fit me.”
“I love this software, it made it so easy to digitalize my 20+ year old family tapes”
Thanks to the OBS devs! I work at a university and occasionally make video lectures for my classes. I used to do it in Zoom, but it sometimes had weird glitches where it just… deletes the videos I recorded. It’s happened several times that I lost an hour or more of recordings and had to redo it, once it deleted all the recordings that I did that week. Also, it was a bit of work to position screen sharing vs my webcam
“Their policy outright bans AI.”
“I use OBS virtual camera its one of my fav features”
“I love OBS! I’ve been using it for years now to record talks”
“Great, another project with an asinine and backwards-thinking AI policy”
“I love that I can stream from my iPhone directly into OBS on my Mac.”
“Using OBS only when it’s a must”
“OBS was recommended but OBS has a difficult UX.”
“light video editing (OBS, Kdenlive)”
“obs audio filters with stacked vsts and routing filters can unironically do this programs job better”
“(on Linux, obs, kdenlive)”
“recording a video with OBS, sometimes my webcam's audio will get desync'd”
“I use OBS to monitor my video capture.”
“Love OBS and Blender.”
“I'm using it together with OBS to post short demo videos of my side project.”
“I use v4l2 regularly with OBS.”
“No it hasn't: https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/commits/master/”
“OBS (what I used) seems to have stopped receiving updates”
“I screen record with OBS on both KDE and GNOME on multiple machines with no issues”
“the most user friendly way is to use obs”
“OBS is a great solution if you're on a budget or doing very simple streams”
“OBS Studio - streaming and recording”
“For live streaming https://obsproject.com/ but I don't remember too much.”
“For recording OBS is pretty much the standard.”