Should I Build It Should I Build It
03 May 2025
Design Tools Productivity Developer Tools

An alternative of screen.studio for window and Mac both with lower ...

...pricing and some ai features

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Swamp

The market has seen several mediocre solutions that nobody loves. Unless you can offer something fundamentally different, you’ll likely struggle to stand out or make money.

Should You Build It?

Don't build it.

Your are here

You're entering a crowded space, as evidenced by the 8 similar products we've found. This puts your idea in the 'Swamp' category, which means there are existing solutions, but none have truly captured the market's heart. The low engagement (average of 2 comments) on similar products suggests people aren't overly excited about the current offerings. Since the Net Use and Net Buy signals are neutral, this indicates that people aren't actively seeking alternatives, or at least, they haven't voiced it explicitly for similar products. Given the 'Swamp' category assessment, the general recommendation is not to build. However, if you're truly convinced you have a differentiating factor, proceed with extreme caution and a laser focus on underserved niches.

Recommendations

  1. First, deeply research why existing 'Screen Studio' alternatives haven't become dominant. What are their shortcomings? Are they truly addressing user needs, or are they missing key features or use cases? Delve into user reviews, forums, and competitor feedback to understand the pain points your solution can uniquely solve. The most frequent complaint from similar products revolved around browser compatibilities. Make sure that whatever solution you will create needs to solve it from day one.
  2. If you decide to move forward, identify a specific niche group that's demonstrably underserved by current screen recording options. Perhaps it's educators needing quick tutorial creation tools, designers wanting seamless animation recording, or developers requiring efficient bug reporting methods. Focusing on a narrow audience allows you to tailor your AI features and lower pricing to their precise requirements, increasing your chances of gaining traction. Don't try to be everything for everyone.
  3. Consider creating add-ons or plugins for Screen Studio. This approach allows you to tap into an existing user base while offering specialized AI-powered enhancements or more affordable options. For example, could you build an AI-driven tool that automatically transcribes and captions screen recordings within Screen Studio, saving users time and effort? This allows you to validate your feature set and technology without building a complete alternative from scratch.
  4. Before investing heavily in a direct Screen Studio competitor, explore adjacent problems that might be more promising and align with your AI expertise. Could you build AI-powered video editing tools? Or perhaps an AI-driven platform that automatically generates documentation from screen recordings? Think about the broader ecosystem of screen recording and identify unmet needs where AI can provide a significant advantage.
  5. Given the 'Swamp' category and the neutral signals, it's wise to carefully evaluate the market opportunity before committing significant resources. It might be prudent to save your energy, capital, and time for a different idea that exhibits more promising demand and less direct competition. Don't fall in love with the idea; fall in love with the problem.
  6. Since the idea is an alternative of Screen Studio, make sure that the UX of your product is better. A criticism for similar products was the lack of clear recording stop functionality and output file location. Make sure this functionality is very clear to the user, and they can easily find the recorded file.

Questions

  1. What are the top three unmet needs of screen recording users that your AI features can uniquely address, and how will you validate these needs before building the product?
  2. Considering the existing alternatives, what specific pricing strategy will you implement to attract users while maintaining profitability, and how will you continuously monitor and adjust your pricing based on competitor actions and user feedback?
  3. Given the browser compatibility issues reported by users of similar products, how will you ensure cross-platform compatibility and performance optimization for your screen recording software, and what testing methodologies will you employ to guarantee a seamless user experience across different operating systems and browsers?

Your are here

You're entering a crowded space, as evidenced by the 8 similar products we've found. This puts your idea in the 'Swamp' category, which means there are existing solutions, but none have truly captured the market's heart. The low engagement (average of 2 comments) on similar products suggests people aren't overly excited about the current offerings. Since the Net Use and Net Buy signals are neutral, this indicates that people aren't actively seeking alternatives, or at least, they haven't voiced it explicitly for similar products. Given the 'Swamp' category assessment, the general recommendation is not to build. However, if you're truly convinced you have a differentiating factor, proceed with extreme caution and a laser focus on underserved niches.

Recommendations

  1. First, deeply research why existing 'Screen Studio' alternatives haven't become dominant. What are their shortcomings? Are they truly addressing user needs, or are they missing key features or use cases? Delve into user reviews, forums, and competitor feedback to understand the pain points your solution can uniquely solve. The most frequent complaint from similar products revolved around browser compatibilities. Make sure that whatever solution you will create needs to solve it from day one.
  2. If you decide to move forward, identify a specific niche group that's demonstrably underserved by current screen recording options. Perhaps it's educators needing quick tutorial creation tools, designers wanting seamless animation recording, or developers requiring efficient bug reporting methods. Focusing on a narrow audience allows you to tailor your AI features and lower pricing to their precise requirements, increasing your chances of gaining traction. Don't try to be everything for everyone.
  3. Consider creating add-ons or plugins for Screen Studio. This approach allows you to tap into an existing user base while offering specialized AI-powered enhancements or more affordable options. For example, could you build an AI-driven tool that automatically transcribes and captions screen recordings within Screen Studio, saving users time and effort? This allows you to validate your feature set and technology without building a complete alternative from scratch.
  4. Before investing heavily in a direct Screen Studio competitor, explore adjacent problems that might be more promising and align with your AI expertise. Could you build AI-powered video editing tools? Or perhaps an AI-driven platform that automatically generates documentation from screen recordings? Think about the broader ecosystem of screen recording and identify unmet needs where AI can provide a significant advantage.
  5. Given the 'Swamp' category and the neutral signals, it's wise to carefully evaluate the market opportunity before committing significant resources. It might be prudent to save your energy, capital, and time for a different idea that exhibits more promising demand and less direct competition. Don't fall in love with the idea; fall in love with the problem.
  6. Since the idea is an alternative of Screen Studio, make sure that the UX of your product is better. A criticism for similar products was the lack of clear recording stop functionality and output file location. Make sure this functionality is very clear to the user, and they can easily find the recorded file.

Questions

  1. What are the top three unmet needs of screen recording users that your AI features can uniquely address, and how will you validate these needs before building the product?
  2. Considering the existing alternatives, what specific pricing strategy will you implement to attract users while maintaining profitability, and how will you continuously monitor and adjust your pricing based on competitor actions and user feedback?
  3. Given the browser compatibility issues reported by users of similar products, how will you ensure cross-platform compatibility and performance optimization for your screen recording software, and what testing methodologies will you employ to guarantee a seamless user experience across different operating systems and browsers?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 8
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 2
  • Net use signal: -10.8%
    • Positive use signal: 0.0%
    • Negative use signal: 10.8%
  • Net buy signal: 0.0%
    • Positive buy signal: 0.0%
    • Negative buy signal: 0.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

Similar products

Relevance

InteractiveDemo.ai - Like Screen Studio, but web-based and interactive

07 Aug 2024 Design Tools

Hi HN, I want to show off InteractiveDemo.ai - a web-based application for creating stunning, interactive product demos with smooth animations and AI-powered features.I've been working on this project for over a year.While it may share some visual similarities with desktop applications like Screen Studio, my tool offers unique capabilities:- Web-based: Works everywhere, not limited to macOS- Interactive demos: Embeddable via iframe or shareable links- Beautiful pan and zoom effects that follow the cursor- Click-triggered popovers: Add explanatory text at specific interaction points- Synthetic voiceovers: Guide users through the demoAI-powered features (in progress):- Automatic pan and zoom animation- Intelligent popover text generation based on screen contentKey features:- Record interactive product demos- Add animated popovers and voiceovers- Physics-based animations for engaging visuals- Embeddable and shareable demosComing soon:- Export functionality- Webcam recording for narrationIt's meant for developers, product marketers, engineers, and customer support teams. Anyone who wants to show their products in a beautiful and compelling way.It is in beta and free to use during the beta. The website includes a link to a Discord with about 60 current members who provide feedback on each others' projects.I've also been building this SaaS out in public, and you can see that here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@codingbutclueless

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My web-based screen recording tool with interactive features

14 Aug 2024 Design Tools

Hey HN! I'm excited to share my new project: a web-based screen recording tool with some cool interactive features.I've always loved what Screen Studio does for desktop, and I wanted to bring something similar to the web while adding my own twist. The core idea is to make product demos and walkthroughs more engaging and flexible.Some key features:Click-to-pause interaction: Viewers can pause the demo at each click, or watch it straight through. Gives people control over the pace.Animated popovers: These pop up at key moments to explain features or highlight pain points you're solving. AI voiceovers: You can add narration to your demos using some pretty impressive synthetic voices.Smart focus & animations: auto-zoom on important areas, smooth transitions, etc. Customization: Lots of options to match your brand - margins, rounded corners, backgrounds.Forgive the .ai in the name for now - I do have several innovative AI-based features in the works including automatic animation placement and automatic popover text generation.It's free right now while it is in beta. I'm looking to recruit beta testers who are down to provide feedback and feature requests.I built this because I was frustrated with how static most product demos feel. Would love to hear what you all think, especially:Any crucial features I'm missing?Thoughts on web-based vs. desktop for this kind of tool?Ideas for making demos even more interactive?Happy to answer any questions about the tech stack, challenges I ran into, or really anything else. Thanks for checking it out!

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I made a free web alternative of Screen Studio

05 Oct 2024 Productivity

Hello HN,I've always found Screen Studio recordings superb.Unfortunately I'm not on a Mac, so I've developed my own tool that works in the browser for all OS.I hope you'll find it useful, and I'd be delighted to hear your feedback.

Users have reported issues with browser compatibility, particularly on Firefox versions 130 and 131, and on Mac and Linux systems. There are also problems with the +1 button not functioning, video recording and output file locations, saving videos due to encoding errors, and webcam video recording. Positive feedback includes praise for the app's performance, particularly in Chromium browsers, and inquiries about playback accuracy and subtitle features.

Users reported issues with unclear recording stop functionality and output file location. The stop button was often unresponsive, leading to difficulties in ending recordings. There were also browser permissions problems, and the service seemed to work best only on Chromium browsers, indicating compatibility issues with other browsers. Additionally, users faced errors when saving videos and mentioned that the webcam video was static and did not record properly.

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Relevance

I couldn't find a Screen Studio alternative for Windows, so I made one

10 Sep 2024 Windows

Hey HN!I kept seeing those awesome animated screen recordings on X and wanted to make videos like that too. I couldn't find any good screen recorders with automatic effects for Windows, so I decided to build my own!It currently - makes the cursor smooth - follows the cursor - zooms in on clicks - records & animates webcam - and a bunch of other stuff that's available in the editor (change background, generate subtitles, speed up video segments...)It's a paid app but there's a free trial if you want to play around with it - I'd love to hear what you think!PS: I'm aware of the warning when downloading / installing the app. It's because I can currently only sign the installer with an IV code signing cert. Unfortunately there isn't much I can do at the moment - apparently code signing is hard and quite gatekeep-ey.

Users appreciate ClipShare for its full-featured, professional editing interface, which they find superior to free solutions. It is also recognized as a solid alternative to Loom.

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Building a web-based screen studio alternative in public

18 Jul 2024 Developer Tools

Hello hacker news. A while ago I started building a browser extension for recording interactive product demos, and I released it on product hunt and it didn’t do very well.So I began going through and talking to people on Reddit and that led to me creating a discord and that led me to creating a channel.The name of the channel and the premise behind it is coding, but clueless about marketing.In the video above, I add a feature to my application that allows you to select backgrounds.I also think this video is really interesting because it shows how an experienced programmer works with Claude and asks the right questions to get Claude to automate most of the work.

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Create screen recordings with ease on Windows

22 May 2024 Productivity

Hey everyone,Last year, we found an awesome screen recording app, but it was only for Mac. Most of our team uses Windows, so we couldn't create the polished, professional recordings we wanted.We decided to build a new screen recording app for Windows to simplify the process of making videos for online publishing. Our app, Canvid, includes features like mouse tracking and smoothing, automatic zooms, transcripts, captions, and visual enhancements like backgrounds and shadows.Canvid is built with Electron (with custom patches) to leverage web technologies and minimize the need for extra system maintenance. Our biggest challenge was crafting a great user experience primarily using web and Electron technologies. Technologies like WebCodec, WebAudio API, and insertable streams were incredibly helpful, but ultimately, we had to patch Electron/Chromium and add several native modules to replace or enhance functionalities that weren't available in Electron.Another tough aspect was our captioning system. We use Whisper for transcripts but ultimately want users to be able to edit their video while navigating the transcript. We're still working on getting precise, word/token level timestamps, but we're making progress.We're proud of what we've achieved with Canvid and would love to hear your thoughts or feedback if you've tried it out. Happy to answer any questions!

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