FlashBack icon
FlashBack icon

FlashBack

 36 likes

Free software which lets you record your screen, add a PIP webcam and select multiple options to export your video to. It will first store a lossless proprietary file which you can review frame by frame and then easily experiment with the output options to select best suited.

Video editing

License model

  • FreemiumProprietary

Country of Origin

  • GB flagUnited Kingdom

Platforms

  • Windows
Discontinued

The latest version (5.60) is from August 2023.

4.1 / 5 Avg rating (7)
36likes
9comments
0news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features
  1.  Picture in Picture
  2.  Webcam recording
  3.  Screen Recording
  4. YouTube icon  Upload directly to YouTube
  5.  Record desktop activity
  6.  Edit screenshots

 Tags

  • upload-screencast

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FlashBack information

  • Developed by

    GB flagBBSoftware
  • Licensing

    Proprietary and Freemium product.
  • Pricing

    free version with limited functionality.
  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.1
  • Alternatives

    116 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

Our users have written 9 comments and reviews about FlashBack, and it has gotten 36 likes

FlashBack was added to AlternativeTo by logic on Jun 5, 2009 and this page was last updated Dec 9, 2024.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Top Positive Comment
Anamon
Apr 18, 2017
3

Edit: This information is outdated as of August 2018, please see the comments below!

FlashBack is still the screen recorder software I would most recommend. However, this is just a quick heads-up that features are now starting to be removed from the free Express version. Maybe the developer has some cashflow problems, with not enough users upgrading to a paid version, so they feel the need to restrict the free version more. And because even the free version requires an online activation, they could theoretically prevent you from using an older, more powerful version (although I saw no indication that they do that).

Most notably, as of version 5.25.0 from March 2017, the ability to export to AVI and Flash video files is gone. The only export container format and codec that is still supported in the free version is WMV, which nobody, nowhere, and under no circumstances should ever use for anything!

Licenses for the Pro version are lifetime (no subscription), so they're still a good deal – a personal license is currently $49. But if what you're looking for is "free screen recording software", than FlashBack no longer is an option, now that the free version no longer offers even a single usable export format. I can only repeat: don't ever export any video to WMV. You'd be better off manually drawing a copy into a flipbook, that's a higher-quality and higher-tech solution than the sad joke that is a WMV file.

[Edited by Anamon, August 23]

joselcruz
Aug 20, 2018

Using version 5.33.0, free version supports export to AVI, MP4 and WMV

Anamon
Aug 23, 2018

Confirmed! AVI and MPEG-4 export are back in the free version as of v5.33. Thank you for the heads-up! This actually makes me want to get the Pro license now, to show my support :)

Top Negative Comment
Shoji
Jan 14, 2019
1

easy to use but record output to flashback express format, need flashback player to export to other format

Ian James
Mar 18, 2022
0

This has been Very buggy for me. I purchased it, which was a mistake. It freezes after recording my screen content in the video editor.
The editor itself has no brightness, contrast, color, or hue adjustments. It's very limited. If it didn't crash that wouldn't bother me as much.

Shahmi Saidi
Dec 31, 2021
0

For the free offering, this app is the most honest out of the other bunch. I am really happy with this software. It records first to a proprietary format which seems to be lossless, then allows the user to edit and export the recorded videos. This can be hassle to some who just wants to simply record and share, thus an alternative for these group of users would be vokoscreenNG

tvgoing1
Jan 30, 2021
0

its the best screen recorder, no time limits, no watermarks and no sign-ups. You can upload your video to youtube or make it into a file to edit later. BB Flashback express can handle only 30 fps until you see visible problems, try it on youtube to see what i mean. Audio can can record in perfect with any options you want it.

This is the software you want for basic video recordings, if you want to record games you have to look somewhere else.

fatihb
Nov 20, 2019
0

It's simple and free (with limited features).

herbertvanderwegen
Feb 11, 2018
1

The best alternative for Camtasia Studio users who need support for annotations and an efficient timeline to quickly edit recorded tutorials. I was a Camtasia Studio user for a long time, but little things started to annoy me in the past few years. Annotating videos wasn't as efficient as it can be, for example. Pricing is also a tad high.

My search for an alternative led me to try FlashBack Pro: I downloaded the free version, and the same night I bought the full license.

Things I like:

  • the annotations tool is great! They're easy to copy and paste, adjust and edit. Absolutely love this part.
  • the timeline is effective enough for quick tutorial creation. I work with NLE software (Premiere, Davinci Resolve, etc.) and although FlashBack's timeline obviously can't compare, for quick training video editing it works very well. It is very similar to Camtasia's timeline. Keystrokes are displayed, and the mouse position is shown as well for each frame. What I particularly like is the option to jump from annotation to annotation quickly.
  • a distraction-free full screen mode with timeline is available.
  • annotations text can be exported and edited externally, and reloaded. Such a time-saver, and it becomes easy to translate the annotations too.
  • easy to insert other objects, such as images, picture-in-picture views, texts, etc.
  • support has been very good. A bug I reported was squashed in the latest release.

Things that could be improved:

  • the annotation edit dialog is modal, and locks the program until that dialog is closed. I would prefer a non-modal dialog - or even better: a dockable properties panel that adjusts according to the context (select a text: display text properties, select a text balloon: display those properties, etc.)
  • to edit screen recordings made with an external tool requires a conversion to FlashBack film file format. I suppose this is required to improve editing performance, but it's a pain sometimes. Transcoding takes time away from editing.
  • while the timeline more than suffices for quick tutorial video editing, for longer video tutorials the lack of a zoom in/out slider is at times painful. This is mitigated somewhat by the secondary timeline slider, but it slows down editing sometimes.
  • The GUI isn't very configurable. That said, the full screen option is actually quite nice, and at least the movie display and timeline windows can be separated. I use this to place the timeline so that it spans two of my three screens for a better overview.

All in all, I found it to be a great replacement for Camtasia Studio. I use annotations all the time, and FlashBack Pro does a better job at this than Camtasia. And at a far lower price point.

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7 of 9 comments

What is FlashBack?

Free software which lets you record your screen, add a PIP webcam and select multiple options to export your video to. It will first store a lossless proprietary file which you can review frame by frame and then easily experiment with the output options to select best suited.

One click upload to site like youtube if desired.

Record your screen, sound and webcam

Share movies with one-click upload to Youtube and other video sharing sites

Save movies as Flash or AVI files