Gifox vs Screen Studio
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Gifox
Mac menu bar app for recording and converting animated GIFs
Screen Studio
Mac screen recorder with automatic zooms and cursor smoothing
Where they differ
- Gifox starts at $14.99 one-time purchase per license, taxes included. Screen Studio starts at $9 per month, billed yearly ($29 billed monthly).
- Gifox has a free plan. Screen Studio does not.
- Gifox can be bought with a one-time purchase.
- Gifox also covers menu bar app.
- Screen Studio also covers transcription.
At a glance
| Gifox | Screen Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $14.99 one-time purchase per license, taxes included | $9 per month, billed yearly ($29 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | Gifox Basic is free forever: screen recordings are limited to 10 seconds and carry a watermark, with unlimited file conversion and the crop, trim, split and clone editing tools. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| macOS | ||
| Made by | Bitwild Ltd | Timpler Adam Pietrasiak |
| Price read from | gifox.app | screen.studio |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Oct 4, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Gifox
- Short GIFs for bug reports, support replies and presentations
- Mac users who want fine control over GIF size and quality
- Buyers who prefer a one-time license to a subscription
Screen Studio
- Product demos and launch videos recorded on a Mac
- Makers who want zooms and cursor polish without manual editing
- Developers showing iPhone or iPad apps inside device frames
Worth knowing
Gifox
- Mac only, for macOS 10.15 Catalina or later.
- The free Basic plan limits each screen recording to 10 seconds and adds a watermark.
- Gifox 3 is announced at $24 with one year of free updates; Gifox 2 licenses bought within 12 months of its release switch for free.
- Mac App Store and direct-download versions use different licensing and are not compatible with each other.
Screen Studio
- macOS only, requiring Ventura 13.1 or later. The vendor says there are no near-future plans for Windows.
- Subscription only: one-time licenses are no longer sold, though earlier purchases remain valid.
- Paying monthly costs $29 per month, more than three times the $9 per month yearly rate.
- The site does not mention a free trial, and the terms state that fees are non-refundable.
Key features
Gifox
- Free-area and window selection
- Free-area mode captures any part of the screen, and window-snap mode records one app window at its exact pixel size.
- Status bar menu
- Recording, importing and sharing all run from the menu bar. Videos and image sequences dropped on it become GIFs, which can be dragged into other apps.
- Integrated editor
- Crops, cuts, trims, duplicates and rearranges recorded or imported videos, then exports them again without leaving the app.
- Capture settings
- Chooses what appears in a recording: the cursor, mouse clicks, keyboard input, the window shadow and the desktop picture.
- Compression control
- Sets playback speed and frame rate, the number of colors, resizing and dithering to trade output quality against file size.
- Sharing to cloud services
- Connects to Dropbox, Google Drive and Imgur to share a GIF from inside the app. Nothing is uploaded unless a recording is explicitly shared.
Screen Studio
- Automatic zoom
- Zooms are added automatically as you record and can be edited, added by hand or turned off afterwards.
- Smooth cursor movement
- Cursor motion is smoothed and given motion blur and click effects, and the cursor can be hidden in chosen sections.
- iPhone and iPad recording
- Record an iPhone or iPad screen and present the footage inside a device mockup.
- Webcam layouts
- Camera footage can appear fullscreen, in a split screen, as an overlay or as a cutout.
- Captions and transcripts
- Generates a transcript of the recording and adds automatic captions.
- Export and shareable links
- Export MP4 at up to 4K and 60 fps or a GIF, or publish a shareable link at 1080p and 60 fps for videos up to 30 minutes.
Plans
Gifox
Gifox Basic$0
Free forever, with 10-second watermarked screen recordings, unlimited file conversion and the crop, trim, split and clone editing tools.
Gifox Pro$14.99
one-time purchase per license, taxes included
Everything in Basic plus unlimited screen recording and a removable watermark. The app is kept forever, including all minor versions.
Gifox Co-founder$150
one-time purchase, lifetime license for 1 Mac
A limited crowdfunding license with Gifox 2 and 3, all future core upgrades and priority support. Tiers for 2 and 3 Macs cost $300 and $450.
Screen Studio
Yearly$9
per month, billed yearly
All features: export up to 4K at 60 fps, shareable links, cloud transcript and project sharing.
Monthly$29
per month, billed monthly
The same features as the yearly plan, paid month to month.
Ways to pay less
Gifox
- Lifetime license
Pro is a one-time purchase at $14.99
The pricing page says the app is yours forever, including all minor versions, with no subscriptions or repeating payments.
- Education
30% off for students and teachers
Students and teachers get a 30% discount by emailing the team from a .edu address, according to the pricing page.
- Lifetime license
Founding licenses with lifetime upgrades
A crowdfunding campaign sells a limited number of lifetime licenses at $150 for 1 Mac, $300 for 2 and $450 for 3, covering Gifox 3 and all future core upgrades. No refunds.
- Other savings
Included with a Setapp subscription
The pricing page says Gifox is also available in the Mac App Store and with a Setapp subscription.
Screen Studio
- Annual discount
Save 69% with yearly billing
Screen Studio lists the yearly plan at $9 per month, which it labels a 69% saving over the $29 monthly plan.
- Education
40% off for students and educators
Students and educators get 40% off by using an email address from an educational institution or sending proof of student status.
