Cursorful vs Recordly

Cursorful

• Product demos recorded in the browser with zooms added for you
• People who want recordings rendered on their own device
• Buyers who prefer a one-time payment to a subscription

Recordly

• Product demos and walkthroughs with automatic zooms
• People who want this style of recorder at no cost on Windows or Linux
• Developers who want to inspect, extend or build the app themselves

Cursorful

• The free plan is for non-commercial use, records only the browser and exports at up to 1080p; microphone, camera and 4K need Pro.
• The desktop apps need a Pro license to export, and the Mac app requires Apple silicon.
• Firefox is not supported, and in the extension automatic zooms work only while the browser is in focus.
• Cloud storage beyond the 10 GB included with Pro costs $0.02 per GB per month.

Recordly

• It needs macOS 14.0 or later, or Windows 10 build 19041 or later for the native capture helper.
• On Linux the real cursor cannot be hidden, so exports may show both it and the styled cursor, and system audio usually needs PipeWire.
• Support is through GitHub issues; there is no paid plan or support contract.
• The source is under AGPL 3.0, which the site says allows commercial use.

Cursorful

Automatic zooms and pans

A zoom is added when two or more clicks happen within 3 seconds and follows the cursor while clicking continues. Zooms can be added, removed and adjusted afterward.

Segment timeline

Zooms, speed changes, camera layouts and blur are segments on one timeline that can be trimmed, moved and stacked. Any segment can be sped up to 10x.

Redrawn cursor in the desktop apps

The desktop apps capture the pointer separately from the video, so it can be smoothed, resized and given sway, motion blur, a shadow and click animations.

Captions and microphone denoising

Captions are generated from the audio on the device and can be restyled. Denoising removes fan, hum and keyboard noise from narration, also on the device.

Local rendering and aspect ratios

Exports are rendered on the user's machine with hardware encoding, in ten aspect-ratio presets from ultrawide to portrait. 4K needs Pro.

Shareable links

A video can be exported to a streaming link that is public or private to an organization. Pro includes 10 GB of shared cloud storage.

Recordly

Auto-zoom and cursor polish

Suggests zooms from cursor activity and renders a cursor overlay with smoothing, motion blur, click bounce and a loop mode for cleaner looping exports.

Frame styling and backgrounds

Places the recording inside a frame with built-in wallpapers, uploaded images, solid colors or gradients, plus padding, rounded corners, blur and drop shadows.

Webcam bubble overlay

Adds webcam footage as a bubble with preset or custom positions, mirroring, roundness and shadow controls, and optional scaling that reacts to zooms.

Timeline editing

Drag-and-drop regions set trims, zooms, speed changes, text and image annotations and extra audio. Work is saved as a .recordly project file and reopened later.

MP4 and GIF export

Exports MP4 or GIF with a choice of quality, aspect ratio and output size, and for GIFs the frame rate, looping and size presets.

Extensions and marketplace

A community extension system adds things such as cursor click sounds, device frames, browser mockups and wallpapers, installed from the Recordly Marketplace.

Cursorful

• Cursorful Free$0

  Records the browser with automatic zoom and pan, zoom editing, backgrounds and unlimited exports rendered locally. For non-commercial use.

• Cursorful Pro$79

  per seat, one-time payment

  Shown as $40 off a crossed-out $119. Adds the macOS and Windows desktop apps, commercial use, microphone and camera, 4K exports and 10 GB of cloud storage.

Recordly

• Recordly$0

  The complete desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux, as a prebuilt release from GitHub or built from source.

Cursorful

• Lifetime license

  Pro is a one-time payment of $79 per seat

  Cursorful Pro is paid once, not as a subscription, and includes lifetime access to all current and future offline features.

• Other savings

  Lower per-seat price from 3 seats

  The seat selector on the pricing section drops the Pro price to $66 per seat for 3 or more seats, $59 for 5 or more and $54 for 10 or more.

Recordly

No public discounts listed.