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J. Alexander Curtis
I am a long time user of Screenflow. I have been using it since version 3, and this post is now highlighting version 7. I hope someone from Telestream (the company that makes this app) reads this and takes it to heart.
I think Screenflow is an amazing app, I use it almost every day, as I am a professional content creator. Screenflow does more than just record your screen (if you just want a straight recording there are tons of other tools for that, many of which are free). Instead, Screenflow records non-destructive feeds from various different inputs to allow you to not only easily record multiple feeds at once (like a web cam, external mic, screen, and iPhone) but allows you to edit it after the fact all independently. It is a very powerful tool.
With all that being said, I can't complain about the original pricetag too much for a tool I rely on everyday. To me $130 is a fair price for a solid product that I have used for such a long time. Also, they have always offered upgrade pricing that I believe used to be $29 and now is $39. I think this is fair pricing for an upgrade to new versions... except I think they are too liberal with slapping "new version" stickers on their products to justify more money.
What I am getting at here is that the last few versions of Screenflow have felt like "incremental releases", and each release seems to offer fewer new features than the previous upgrade did. The sad thing is that a lot of the new features in this version are what I would call "quality of life" improvements. I am grateful to see them, but it is a little frustrating to have to pay for them as an upgrade, they are minor improvements over a broken feature. It feels kind of like selling me a car that has air conditioning, but you can't adjust the temperature on the air conditioning. So you have it, but its not super practical to me. And then you promise me that if i just use it for a year you will have an upgrade that I can buy to add the ability to change the temperature of the air conditioning. But I have to pay to fix something that never really worked right to begin with.
An example of this is now being able to see background processes like audio rendering. This was an annoying part of previous Screenflow versions, sometimes you have to just wait for waveforms and you have no idea what is going on. So now there is a progress bar to show what is happening. Yes i am excited for that much needed "feature", but should I have to pay for that? I would argue that should be part of a free update.
Also Screenflow has always been limited in its export options and it looks like they have made improvements here to allow for a little more customizing in your exports and additional options like multi-pass h.264 now. Again, a very welcome upgrade (and more still needs to be added), but should I have to pay for this?
I hate to beat a dead horse here, but another example, the new version now allows you to export direct to Imgur and Box.com (in addition to the vimeo, youtube, etc that already existed). Do these justify a new version or is this again an incremental update that could be added for free to all users?
The new version FINALLY has the ability to override and customize keyboard shortcuts. Why am I paying $39 for this, and why hasn't this been available since version 1? I had to pay for 6 upgrades and wait until the year 2017 to finally get to the point I can customize keyboard shortcuts? As grateful as I am to see this finally arrive, I really hate that I am forced to pay for this silly little feature that should have existed all along.
I am a big fan of this software and continue to use it daily. I am looking at these new features and I am not sure if it is worth upgrading. I probably will, and its only $39 thankfully. But the features i am upgrading for are features that I feel like should be offered to my current version for free. The features I am most excited about are customized shortcuts/hotkeys, the audio rendering progress meter (yes I am paying for a progress meter... let that sink in for a moment), and very slightly enhanced export options. This is definitely not a version I will jump on upgrading too, but I might get around to it eventually. If it wasn't a daily tool for me, I really couldn't see justifying an upgrade.
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Quite the pricey app ($129.99 new, $39 paid upgrade) but one of the better independent apps for editing video and authoring screen and device recordings.
New in Version 7:
MP4 Editing Performance Improvements
Smooth and seamless editing of MP4 video files in the timeline.
60 fps Timeline
Toggle between 30 and 60 frames per second in the editing timeline.
Text Animation Effects
Choose from a handful of built in animation effects for all your text boxes.
Play Clips in Reverse
Flip your video clips in the timeline to play them in reverse.
Custom Hotkey Mapping
Set up hotkeys for all of your most used actions to personalize your Screenflow experience.
Updated UI Theme
Slight redesigns and a new dark UI theme make ScreenFlow 7 easier to use and better looking.
OLED Touch Bar Support
Using a new new MacBook Pro? Take advantage of the new controls on the OLED touch bar.
Multi-Pass x264 & Quick Sync Export
Multiple new export options for complete control over video quality, size and export time.
Box.com & Imgur.com Export
We’ve added Box.com and Imgur.com to our ever expanding list of popular direct export destinations.
Automatic Export Options
Simpler and more straightforward export options optimized for time or file size.
New Apple Audio & Audio Filter UI
UI support for Apple Audio Units (AUBandpass e.g.) and compatible audio filters. Fine tuning audio has never been easier.
Recording Audio Mixing Setup
When using an audio interface, customize our audio mix once, and save it for every project.
Audio Rendering Progress Meter
New progress meter for rendering audio waveforms keeps you informed on the work being done behind the scenes.
New Library Functionality
Easier to use media library and a global library function for easy access to elements used in multiple projects.
Enhanced Motion Blur
Adjust the intensity of motion blur on export. Especially useful for the new text animations!
I'm a huge fan of Sceenflow as a simple editing tool for product demos. The ease of use and ability to quickly add graphic frames around a demo make this a go-to for me. As others have mentioned though, this is a little pricey.
Upgraded, looks and feels similar to the previous version.
One feature that was removed which has weakened this product for me is the ability to manually select the scaling ratio when exporting to GIF. It was super helpful when creating GIFs that needed to be under twitter's 15MB threshhold.
So for example, a GIF export might have been too large when exported at "50%" of the original size, but it was just under 15MB at "43%". Perfect! To figure that out, I would just slowly decrease the % by 1-2 from 50, which would automatically resize the GIF, until I exported something that was the right size.
Now, you can only choose from 4 pre-set sizes: 25% 50% 75% & 100%. If you want to find something in between, you need to manually calculate the sizes and input them.
So, if I had a recording at 1256x708 and needed to downsize it to something I thought would get it under 15MB, let's say 43%, I would need to multiply both those numbers by 0.43 and then export to see what the export size was. If I'm off, I need to then multiply them both by 0.42 etc etc
@lumbadoja You're comparing Apple to Oranges. It is like comparing Windows Movie Maker to something like Adobe Premier and Adobe Aftereffects. Or comparing Microsoft Paint to Photoshop.
@_jacurtis didn't intend to make comparisons. Just a simple alternative for basic screen recording. Your analogies are correct in terms of how ScreenFlow is far superior.
This software is ridiculously over priced. The features they add in between each version upgrade are largely useless. The only real reason to upgrade have been small refinements to the UI, which is definitely not worth the $130 they request for each new version. Obtaining the upgrade price has been a difficult exercise when I've attempted to do it in the past.
Additionally, if you have two computers, the developers do NOT allow you to use the program on both of your machines. Instead, you are forced to pay $130 for each machine you use Screenflow on. This is absurd and an insult to the user.
While Screenflow is the best screencasting software available for Mac, the developers are not generous people and they certainly don't think of their users very highly.
@magnuson I don't know if I consider it the best Mac app, I give that to OBS (which is 100% freeware). It doesn't need render time to save your video and you get almost the same features, with a less elegant interface. But to be honest I use both, OBS when I am doing something big and Screenflow if I need something short (1-3 minutes). The longer videos in screenflow end up needing to render and can take quite awhile for 30 minute-60 minute type videos. Even on beefier machines it's still pretty slow, when OBS renders real time and you never have to 'export' it.
@teq @tpbtv I use both OBS and Screenflow every day for different purposes. Aside from a method of recording your screen, that is basically their only similarity. Screenflow is a much more professional app that lets you do a lot of post-production management of your recording, whereas OBS is record once and you're done. So Screenflow lets you highlight your cursor, magnify it, adjust audio levels, clean up audio, adjust colors, zoom in, pan, tilt (even adjust on z-axis), and more, all after the recording was completed. It is like a non-destructive recording. I can record once and then export completely different videos because it records non-destructive feeds from web-cams, audio inputs, computer audio, and even iPhone screens. It also has a pretty powerful editor so many of my films never need to be pulled into Adobe Premier (although to be fair its editing is no where as advanced as premier, but its still pretty good in its own right).
I can't tell you how many times I look at an OBS recording only to find that one audio feed is too loud and another is too weak or something like that. Once you've recorded with OBS, its over. You can always pull it into Premier and split it and cut it and stuff, but you can't move web cam feeds, fade them out and fade them back in, or adjust audio feeds independently, throughout the video, it is all just one compiled video.
Not saying OBS is bad, I use it for certain things when that is all I need. It has its' role, but there is definitely value that comes with Screenflow that OBS doesn't even begin to touch. It becomes much easier to see when you record your screen for a living or as a common practice and need a more professional approach than OBS. However, if you just want to record your screen here and there for quick demonstrations for people or something like that, then I can totally understand why someone would think OBS is good enough and Screenflow is not worth the $130.
PS - What do you mean by "humiliating creators". I am a creator that uses screenflow almost every day. I have never felt "humiliated". I legitimately am curious what you mean by that.
this software is so awesome that I don't even know where to start to say how good it is!