Your Complete Bandicam Review for 2024

Is Bandicam the right screen recorder for your needs? In this comprehensive Bandicam review, we’ll walk through pros and cons, key features, pricing, and everything you need to know before you begin working on your next screen recording project. Let’s get started!

So, what is Bandicam, exactly? Bandicam is a screen recording program designed to capture gameplay and videos of screen activity on your computer. It’s often used to record professional and educational seminars, webinars, and online courses. People also use it to create short personal videos and other screen recordings.

Bandicam is a top choice for video creators who want to record online educational courses, software tutorials, gaming sessions, and walkthroughs of popular video games. With several recording options, Bandicam allows users to choose between multiple modes, including recording modes for video, device, screen, and game. Basically, by choosing the appropriate mode for your recording, the program’s presets allow you to protect the quality of your export video, even if you need to compress it to a smaller file format to save space.

One of the reasons that gamers like Bandicam is the ease with which you can record gaming sessions. With Bandicam’s OpenGL/DirectX graphics tech, you can get a full-screen recording with no extraneous images (like the edges of windows or the background of your PC).

Veteran video editors and beginners alike enjoy Bandicam’s user-friendly interface. It includes intuitive controls and features that allow users to easily take screenshots, record from a specific device, and/or record the activity in a single application. With all that in mind, the free version has limitations that may make it less useful for a lot of video creators.

Pros

• Capable of sharing directly to YouTube from Bandicam without extra steps.

• Easy-to-use, minimalist platform makes screen recording simple for new and experienced users.

• Multiple recording modes allow users to easily create professional-looking recordings without spending a lot of time defining recording parameters and settings.

• Audio capabilities include internal audio and external audio, empowering users to record system sound and audio from a microphone. This is ideal for adding a voice-over to a webinar or game walkthrough.

• Reliably produces high-quality video exports.

Cons

• Audio sync can be inconsistent. While this can be fixed with some fairly simple video editing, it can be annoying when it occurs.

• 10-minute recording time limit on free version.

• Doesn’t support a live-streaming feature, making it less attractive to gamers and streamers.

Bandicam is a robust screen-recording platform, used by many professional and amateur video creators. It’s a handy tool for teachers and online course creators who need to show the steps in their video tutorials. Gamers enjoy using it to record videos of walkthroughs, tips, and tricks. And, while it’s a pro-level application, it’s also extremely easy to use, making it a favorite for educators, trainers, executives, vloggers, gamers, marketers, salespeople, and anyone who wants to create a quality screen recording video.

Plus, the paid version of Bandicam can record up to 4K resolution, making it ideal for professionals. It also includes capabilities to record footage from your webcam, as well – a feature that’s popular with a lot of online presenters and teachers.

Interface and features

Along with screen recording functionality, Bandicam includes a few key features that make it attractive to many users:

• Select recording areas. With this feature, Bandicam gives users control over what they record. You can choose to record your full screen, part of a screen, or a specific application. You can change recording areas while recording to save on video editing time, and you can even choose to have your recording area follow your mouse activity.

• Add a webcam overlay. Along with the capability of recording webcam footage, Bandicam has a feature that allows the user to overlay their webcam footage on their screen recording. Think of times that you’ve seen an online course or presentation with a video of the presenter or teacher in the corner of the screen. It’s a good way to personalize a presentation, and Bandicam makes it easy without using an additional video editing tool.

• Auto capture. If you’re presenting or playing a game, you may not have the time or ability to stop and take a screenshot, but Bandicam can take one every second if you want.

• Real-time drawing. Use this feature to sketch and draw on your screen recording in real time. It also allows users to highlight specific phrases, pictures, and parts of the screen to draw your audience’s attention to a specific action or point.

Even with all of these features, Bandicam’s user interface is surprisingly intuitive and beginner-friendly. The application’s controls and tools are clearly marked, and there’s really not much of a learning curve as you get used to the software. Plus, you can start recording your screen in just a single click.

User experience

In general, Bandicam’s user experience is pretty positive. A lot of Bandicam reviews cite its user-friendly interface and straightforward controls. Users especially like the ease with which you can switch between modes to seamlessly shift the focus of your video recording without a lot of editing after the fact. Veteran video creators enjoy how robust the software is, while beginners are attracted to how simple it is to create a professional-looking video in just a few steps.

Video editing

A lot of screen recorders require you to find another third-party video editor to create a polished video project. While some users have editing software that they’ve used before and love, a lot of creators prefer a more streamlined experience. Instead of recording a presentation and then figuring out how to animate mouse activity, highlighting, and other effects, you can do it all in Bandicam while you record your video. And the same is true for adding webcam footage, system audio, and a voice-over, too.

Sharing

Sharing and publishing Bandicam videos is easy with direct upload capabilities to YouTube and Vimeo. With just a couple of clicks, users can instantly share their videos to their preferred platform. And, if you want to share to another platform that doesn’t have a direct upload integration, you can save your video to your local computer and publish it like you would with any other video.

Performance

With screen recording and basic video editing capabilities, Bandicam performs well for anyone who wants to create online presentations, webinars, gaming walkthroughs, and other videos. It also makes it easy to take screenshots on the fly, record gameplay, and add a personal touch with a webcam overlay. With three recording modes, users can choose the best mode for what they want to do with their video projects. And, if you need to switch modes, you don’t have to stop your video or perform any extra edits when you get done.

Video and audio quality

Video and audio quality are highly customizable with Bandicam. You can record at different framerates, between 1 and 144 frames per second (fps). If you’re trying to decide between the Bandicam free vs. paid versions, the premium version allows HD video recording up to 4K resolution. Bandicam also has multiple codec options, making it an ideal choice for YouTubers who often need to record in the highest resolution possible to create quality videos for their viewers. If you need to save space or you’re running low on system resources, you can also adjust Bandicam’s recording settings to work at a lower resolution and/or framerate.

• Screen recording. Perhaps the most important feature for many users, Bandicam makes it easy to record part or all of your screen. You can choose to record a custom area of your monitor, the full screen, or a single application window. Bandicam includes multiple modes that allow users to switch between these recording options without starting and stopping a screen recording session.

• Device recording. Along with recording screen activity on your computer monitor, Bandicam can also record on a connected external device. Some supported devices include Xbox, IPTV, and webcam recording. This is another area where switching between modes can be beneficial, as creators can switch seamlessly between gameplay (or other video activity) on an external device and screen activity on their computer.

• Game recording. Bandicam’s game recording capabilities are especially popular with gamers, as the screen recorder does a good job of capturing gameplay without noticeable lag or glitches.

• Screenshots. Bandicam’s screenshot capabilities include manual and automated screen captures. You can take a quick screenshot at any time during a recording, and you can set Bandicam to automatically take screenshots as frequently as every second during a recording, as well.

Of course, we’d be failing in our screen recorder review duties if we didn’t cover the differences between Bandicam’s free vs. paid versions. The premium version of Bandicam starts at $39.95 for a one-computer license. If you need to license two computers, you’ll pay $79.90, and the price increases as you add licenses. You can, however, opt to just use the free-download trial version of Bandicam, depending on your screen recording needs.

The free version of Bandicam is intended to just be a trial version to give users an idea of what they’ll be paying for with the premium version. As such, it includes almost all of the features that come with the full premium version.

So, is Bandicam free? What’s the difference? Basically, even though you can record in high resolution (up to 4K) with Bandicam for free, your videos will export with a watermark that cannot be removed. And, if you need to record more than 10 minutes of video time, you’ll be out of luck with the free version. For longer videos, you’ll need to pay for the full version of Bandicam.

Fortunately, when you purchase the full version, you receive a lifetime license for a single, one-time payment. You can save your Bandicam recordings for as long as you need them, and you won’t have to worry about limitations on the length of your video recordings.

Movavi Screen Recorder is an alternative screen recorder to Bandicam. Like Bandicam, Movavi includes editing tools as well as the ability to record part or all of your screen. Pricing for the full version of Movavi is comparable to Bandicam, and users can record as much screen time as they want with the free trial version before deciding to make a purchase.

Pros

• A handy tool to boost your day-to-day productivity with screen and audio capture
• Includes simple editing tools for creating screencasts on the go
• Runs smoothly on any Windows or Mac computer

Key features

• Save anything you need to keep from your screen in high quality
• Get crisp, clear sound in your videos – record system audio, mic and speaker feeds
• Show keystrokes and mouse clicks to create easy-to-follow guides and tutorials
• Draw notes, shapes, and figures on videos to explain complex content
• Schedule recording of important meetings or live streams that you don’t want to miss and watch videos when you have the time
• Take meaningful screenshots and edit them by adding text, arrows, or frames

You can see from our screen recorder review that Bandicam is a solid choice for many users’ screen recording needs. But it may not be the best option for you. How can you tell? We recommend taking a few things into consideration, such as:

• Is it user-friendly? Bandicam has multiple modes for recording, but Movavi and other screen recorders also give you options to record part or all of your screen. While these programs might be comparable, their interfaces might not be. How easy is it for you to figure out how to record what you need? Can you easily schedule a recording ahead of time? Test out a couple of programs and see which is the most intuitive for you.

• Is it feature-rich? You’re probably going to need to edit your video when you get done recording your screen. The right screen recorder will have all the editing tools and features you need to create a final video project without using an additional editing platform.

• Does it perform consistently? A screen recorder can be great 90% of the time, but if it lags or glitches the other 10%, you’re not going to be happy. Consistency is key in ensuring that you can always record what you need to record when you need to record it.

• What’s your budget? Movavi and Bandicam price points are very close. So, choosing the screen recorder with the lowest price might seem like a good idea – until you look at included features. Determine your budget and consider what you get for the price of your chosen screen recorder.

If you’re still not sure which screen recorder to choose, why not try out Movavi Screen Recorder for free? You can see how its features and tools perform for your next video project.