When firing up Camtasia for the first time, you are likely to feel a bit overwhelmed. The user interface is jam-packed with goodies that aren’t readily apparent at first glance. But poke around a little bit, and you’ll soon discover a wealth of features brilliantly laid out for your convenience.
To assist you with this, TechSmith (the makers of Camtasia) includes a tutorial clip that walks you through some basic functions. But the help doesn’t start and stop there. TechSmith also provides its users with many other handy tutorials via its website.
We recommend that you check them out, as they are quite useful in showing you the ropes. Camtasia is a very powerful program, with lots of rich features that will undoubtedly benefit you in your video editing needs.
Let’s begin our Camtasia review by taking a closer look at this software and discuss whether you should consider making it a part of your editing collection.
What Is Camtasia?
Camtasia is a high-quality video editor available for Windows and Mac. Some of the standout qualities of Camtasia are its sleek user interface and versatile functionality. You get a lot to play with here, ensuring that you’re never without helpful features and support.
Whether you design web content or need assistance with videography, you will find Camtasia to provide all the bells and whistles that are needed to produce quality work. Camtasia shines in its ability to make your videos look special and professional.
This is expected considering the long history behind the app and the work that goes into it. What started on Windows quickly launched on Mac following Camtasia’s initial success. Since 2011, continual updates and fixes have helped Camtasia remain a top-performing program.
Camtasia Pricing Overview
The Camtasia price that you will pay largely depends on your needs. There are a few pricing options you have to choose from: individual, business, government & non-profit, and upgrade.
- Individual (single license pricing) – $249.99
- Business (single license pricing) – $249.99 (includes volume discounts)
- Education (single license pricing) – $169.99 (includes volume discounts)
- Government & Non-Profit (single license pricing) – $223.99 (includes volume discounts)
You also have the option of adding Camtasia Maintenance to your existing plan. Camtasia Maintenance will cost you $49.75 a year for those on Individual plans. And anytime a new update is released, you’re guaranteed to get it.
If you are currently running an older version of Camtasia that doesn’t include Camtasia Maintenance, you may purchase an upgrade for a one-time fee. The price varies depending on your plan. For example, an individual upgrade costs $99.50.
It’s worth noting that you get a 30-day, money-back guarantee with Camtasia. Furthermore, a 30-day free trial is available should you choose to try before you buy.
This is a great way to get a feel for Camtasia without making a commitment to purchase it. If you find that you don’t like it, you’re not out any money. And if you love it and wish to own it, a one-time fee ensures a lifetime of use.
Features of Camtasia
In April of 2020, Camtasia got a pretty significant upgrade. With it came eight new features that are firsts for the software. These include:
- New recorder settings: The recorder is now greatly improved. It’s much easier to use yet gives you more control.
- New video templates: Ideal for enhancing the user experience while saving time on video projects.
- Favorites: This tab gives you quick access to your frequently used tools.
- Magnetic tracks: This feature serves to remove any spaces in a track.
- Camtasia packages: This convenient addition makes it easy to share your work with others via a single file. This includes anything from themes and libraries to templates and presets.
These new tools are welcome additions. But what about the normal operation of Camtasia? Let’s take a moment to go over the program’s most notable features.
Annotations
Do you often make video tutorials? If so, you’ll definitely want to check out the annotations feature. This lets you add special effects, ranging from simple shapes to motion effects.
Annotations are available under six categories, including:
- Keystroke callouts
- Arrows and lines
- Sketch motion
- Blur/highlight
- Callouts
- Shapes
If you’re unfamiliar with callouts, these are a selection of arrows and speech clouds that have text inside them. Callouts are commonly used in many popular social media videos, for example. Of course, they can be used in a professional setting, as well.
With keystroke callouts, you can have Camtasia include a special shortcut command that takes viewers to a link of your choosing by simply pressing keys on their keyboard.
The arrows and lines effect does just that: it places arrows and lines in your video to point out certain things to viewers. You do the same with various shapes, too.
Blurring and highlighting lets you block certain data in your clip so that viewers can’t see it, such as someone’s face or personal information.
Sketch motions draw shapes in time with your video, adding a greater effect to transitions or areas of interest, for example.
Camera/Record Screen
The record function of Camtasia is straightforward and very user-friendly. You can control your recordings via the Recording Toolbar. This function displays as a handy pop-out box so you can continue working on your project simultaneously.
To record a project, you simply highlight the portion that you wish to record, along with your inputs for recording, such as your camera and microphone. Camtasia’s screen recording lets users capture whatever is playing on their computer screens, whether video or otherwise.
What’s more, you have the option to select the screen dimension of your recording. You aren’t limited to low-resolution recordings, as there are UHD options included among your selections.
Additionally, you may record specific portions of your screen, so you don’t have to record the entire activity on your monitor. Camtasia makes selected screen capture a breeze, as well, which seems to be a running theme with this software.
Capturing an area of your screen is done much like cropping a photo. Simply select a box around the portion you want to record. That’s it. This can come in handy for creators who make GIFs and other quick snippets.
It’s a great way to cut time out of your projects, as you don’t have to go back and edit your work even more so to get the area of your recording that you really need.
Effects
No video editing software would be complete without its fair share of effects. And Camtasia certainly isn’t lacking in this area. Whether you want to add effects to video, audio, or both, Camtasia has you covered.
Once you have the effects selected that you want in your video, simply drag and drop it into your video project track. You get access to a respectable amount of effects. You’ll want to use these if you’re looking for ways to enhance your video presentation.
Let’s examine each of these effects, so you’ll know exactly what’s included in the Camtasia cost.
Video Effects
Camtasia comes packed with 10 unique video effects to use in your projects. From border selection to interactive links, you’ll have plenty to work with.
- Device frame: Places the clip in a frame of your choosing, such as that of a laptop or smartphone. This is ideal for seeing how your video will look on a different platform. For even more frames to choose from, visit TechSmith’s Assets™ for Camtasia
- Remove color: You can remove any color from your videos. This effect is often used in conjunction with green and blue screens.
- Borders: Place a unique border around the perimeter of your video.
- Colorize: Make great or small color adjustments to your clips.
- Interactive hotspot: Need to place a shortcut to a website or video? This effect makes it possible.
- Clip speed: Change the speed at which your video plays.
- Color adjustment: Change the brightness, saturation, or contrast of any video clip.
- Drop shadow: Unique shadow features get placed in your clip.
- Color tint: Place a colored overlay on top of your video.
- Glow: Quite simply, Glow adds a glowing effect to your videos.
Audio Effects
Now that you know what to expect from the video effects, let’s take a peek at the audio side. The same functionality applies to sound as it does to video. Simply drag and drop your chosen audio effect into your video’s track.
You get a total of five audio effects to choose from at the start. As with the video effects, however, you may visit the Assets store for access to even more effects to download for your projects.
- Noise removal: Eliminate bothersome background noise from your video clips with this handy effect.
- Audio compression: Adjust the compression of any audio needed for your projects.
- Fade in/out: With this, you can theatrically increase or reduce the audio at the beginning and end of your clip.
- Clip speed: Change the speed of the audio in your videos for whatever purpose you require.
The effects don’t end there, either. You also get 11 font effects included with Camtasia. This lets you add flavor to your projects in a variety of unique ways.
Zoom-n-Pan
Camtasia makes it incredibly easy to zoom and pan around your video clips. To initiate this effect, you simply need to adjust the scope of the camera in relation to the video’s thumbnail. Camtasia’s powerful software takes care of the rest.
You can easily see the portion of your clip that makes use of the Zoom-n-Pan effect. In the track below your video, a large arrow will appear that signifies the starting and ending points of the camera.
You may adjust the length of the arrow to alter the effect’s speed. For example, decreasing the length of the arrow will cause the zoom effect to speed up, while a longer arrow length will result in a slower zoom effect.
Animations
Used in conjunction with the Zoom-n-Pan effects, animations let you drop any number of moving effects into your video. You can adjust the look of each animation by changing the keyframes in the track.
The 10 animations included with Camtasia are as follows:
- Custom: You select the starting and stopping point to be animated by the software.
- Smart Focus: This effect automatically applies the Zoom-n-Pan effect to your video, focusing on the most important parts.
- Full opacity: Increases opacity to 100%.
- No opacity: Decreases the opacity to 0%.
- Tilt left: Tilt your clip to the left.
- Tilt right: Tilt your clip to the right.
- Restore: Revert your video back to its original settings.
- Scale down: Makes your video smaller by reducing its scale.
- Scale to fit: Makes your video fit-to-screen.
- Scale up: Zooms in on your video.
Admittedly, some animation effects worked better than others. This isn’t a deal-breaker, however. The effects that did work did so flawlessly. They look great and are easy to use.
Cursor/Mouse Effects
You get a concise but effective variety of cursor and mouse effects to choose from. It’s nice to see that you get yet another way to spice up your video, which is further evidence that TechSmith tried to cram as many features in as they could.
The payoff is most impressive, giving you a veritable who’s who of effects and functions to bring your videos to life.
Transitions
Camtasia includes over 30 screen transition effects to add to your video projects. You can find these under the categories fades, objects, wipes, stylized, and movement.
As you can see from our Camtasia screen recorder review, this program isn’t stingy with its effects. This is a further testament to its appeal and ranking as a viable video editing tool. Beginners will especially appreciate the ease-of-use in these effects and features.
Camtasia is designed in such a way that nearly anyone can pick it up and learn its nuances. Even people who have never edited a video in their lives will love how quickly they can master Camtasia.
It’s a versatile, affordable, and universally-friendly program that is definitely worth a look.
Benefits of Camtasia
Both beginners and professionals will appreciate what Camtasia brings to the editing table. The software is incredibly easy to use and a joy to implement into your video editing needs. When you choose to invest in Camtasia, you gain access to a robust program that is packed with powerful and useful.
Unlike some of the other tools out there that charge you monthly, Camtasia requires only a one-time fee to use. After that, you will have full access and can use it as long as you like.
Camtasia Support
If you want to ensure that you get the most support possible with Camtasia, it is advised that you purchase the Maintenance package.
Camtasia comes with standard support that includes the following features:
- Video tutorials: As we mentioned in the opening, Camtasia provides a wealth of support videos to assist you in the operation of the software. Each video tutorial is high-quality and easy to follow, ensuring that you always have a helping hand to walk you through basic functions.
- Support ticket system: This lets you send a query to Camtasia, which is then reviewed by their team. After review, you will be emailed with support responding to your question.
- Community forum: With support from just under 100,000 members, you can join the forums to seek advice on using Camtasia. From how-tos to troubleshooting, you will find a variety of topics to discuss. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can always start your own thread for help and discussion.
- Webinars: On occasion, TechSmith offers special webinars that you can take part in to learn more about Camtasia.
If you require further, more in-depth support, you should consider investing in Camtasia Maintenance. Doing so will give you access to the following:
- Live chat: Get live support from a Camtasia specialist. This is useful when you need real-time assistance and direction for using the software.
- Dedicated phone queue: Priority support ensures that you get expedited responses to your inquiries.
- Online training: With over 15 hours of Camtasia training, you will gain a wealth of knowledge and understanding pertaining to the ins and outs of the software. You will even get a certificate upon completion of the online training program.
Pros
- Integrated smartphone app (iOS or Android) for recording on-the-go
- Lots of assets and a dedicated store for downloading even more
- A wealth of tutorials to help you make the most of Camtasia
- Ideal video-editing software for beginners
- Exceptional screen capturing capabilities
- Stellar customer service and support
- Handy drag-and-drop feature
- Loads of graphics effects
- High-quality resolution
- Powerful editing tools
- Simple user-interface
- Excellent value
- Easy to learn
Cons
- Occasional crashing and buggy behavior
- Lacks robust keyboard commands
- Customization is limited
Camtasia Alternatives
If Camtasia isn’t a good fit for your needs, such as if you’re a Linux user, you might want to check out some of these video editing programs. Linux users will want to give Open Broadcaster Software a look, as it is compatible with the operating system, as well as Windows and Mac.
- Open Broadcaster Software
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Screencast-O-Matic
- Screenflow (Mac)
- Final Cut Pro X
- CloudApp
- iMovie
- Prezi
Conclusion
As you can see from our review of Camtasia, there is certainly a lot here to like. If you are new to video editing, Camtasia is right up your alley. It offers the perfect balance of accessibility and performance to deliver an exceptional editing program.
FAQ
How Good Is Camtasia?
Considering everything that this software includes, Camtasia is quite good. In fact, it’s incredibly robust, offering a wide variety of useful features and tools that are sure to satisfy any video editor.
If you are a professional editor, you may require software that offers a bit more punch. In which case, Adobe has many powerful tools that will likely meet your needs. Just keep in mind that Adobe charges a monthly fee to use its software suite.
It can get a bit pricey, but you will have access to a litany of creative programs. But if you’re looking for a great deal and can do without certain features, Camtasia is hard to beat.
Is Camtasia Worth the Money?
Considering everything that Camtasia offers, we believe it is most definitely worth the money. You are getting professional-grade editing tools in a user-friendly package that is ideal for first-time editors.
The software is incredibly easy to learn and use, making it a truly excellent bargain for the price. What’s more, there are many editing programs available that charge you monthly or yearly to use.
Camtasia doesn’t do this. You simply pay a one-time fee, and the software is yours to keep and use as much as you like.
You also get access to a huge library of tutorial videos and customer support. Both help you learn how to use Camtasia like a pro, ensuring that you get the most from your investment.
Is Camtasia Free?
You may download a free trial version of Camtasia that is good for 30 days. But if you wish to use the software indefinitely, you will have to pay for the full version.
The price for the unlocked software ranges between $169.99 and $249.99, depending on which pricing category you choose.
If you require further support for Camtasia than what comes standard with the software, you will need to buy the Camtasia Maintenance package. For $49.75, you will get added features like live chat to assist you in your video editing needs.
Maintenance also guarantees that you will be upgraded to the newest version of Camtasia upon release. Unlike the one-time purchase price of Camtasia software, Maintenance requires a yearly purchase to keep this extra support service.
Is Camtasia Safe to Use?
Upon installing Camtasia, the program passes all security checks without issue. Neither Malwarebytes Anti-Malware nor Microsoft Security Essentials find anything of concern. As such, Camtasia is completely safe to use on your system.
What Platforms Does Camtasia Support?
Currently, Camtasia supports both Windows 10 (1607) or later and macOS 10.13 or later.
