OBS Studio vs. Zight

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
OBS Studio
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
OBS Studio is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming, featuring real time video/audio capturing and mixing. Users can create scenes made up of multiple sources including window captures, images, text, browser windows, webcams, and capture cards.N/A
Zight
Score 9.8 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Zight (formerly CloudApp) is a solution with a community of over 4M users, offering visual asynchronous communication, eliminating the need to use different applications for screenshots, GIFs, screen recordings, and web recordings.
$0
Pricing
OBS StudioZight
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Free
$0
Team
$8.00
per month per user
Pro
$9.95
per month per user
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
OBS StudioZight
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
OBS StudioZight
Considered Both Products
OBS Studio
Chose OBS Studio
Only one reason which is that OBS studio is free and open source and we had team members capable of using it effectively. Other softwares have great prebuilt features which make it super easy to go live for small streams and individual streamers.
Chose OBS Studio
I've tried both Meld and Bandicam in the past. But OBS seems like the best to me. I've been using OBS for a few years now, it's nice that it's free :) not opposed to paying for good software, but OBS seems to be the best of the bunch and it's free, so I've stuck with it …
Chose OBS Studio
I've used Zoom to capture my screen on video. Although the tool is obviously not primarily built to fulfill that function. To capture basic tasks on video, zoom could do the trick but as soon as it gets a bit complex or lengthy, or you need to use multiple video inputs, I would …
Chose OBS Studio
OBS is far more customizable and user-friendly than any other broadcasting software I have found. It keeps things simple while allowing you to customize your layout exactly how you want it - there are more user-friendly options, but none with the customizability of OBS. I would …
Chose OBS Studio
I have also used TinyTake by Mango Apps and I prefer OBS studio because the video quality results are better and OBS allows you to record an unlimited length of the video. OBS also lets you record an entire screen instead of manually having to draw your parameters, which can …
Chose OBS Studio
I first was recommended beta version of mmhmm but it was not available for Windows OS. I tried it when it became available but it was too late for me to switch and I stayed with OBS. OBS did everything I needed and it is free
Chose OBS Studio
I have never use anything like OBS Studio. This is very easy to use. I just saw some reviews online and downloaded OBS Studio. This is free for download, easy to run, no virus and no watermark.OBS Studio is a great programme for advanced users and there are no time limits.
Chose OBS Studio
OBS is the only robust screen capture with a stable graphical user interface that works on Linux (that I could find). That's why I originally chose it. Since the program is cross-platform, I have been able to keep using it. I could switch back to Panopto, now that I am on …
Chose OBS Studio
We checked out a lot of alternatives, which were simply too expensive for us when we are just in the startup stage of livestreaming.
Chose OBS Studio
The fact that it's free is helpful and it is so unique with the level of technology it provides for such a low cost that it is worth trying. Now that we use it every day, why know that there is a paid professional version that offers even more features.

I didn't do a hard …
Chose OBS Studio
Webex has its uses, particularly when meeting viewers need to participate, but we always use OBS Studio when they don't need to interact (just view).
Chose OBS Studio
OBS takes a lot more work to get started with than Google Hangouts, but you get a much more high quality output from it. It even works better with YouTube than Hangout, which is odd since it is also owned by Google. You can not set a poser image on a YouTube live stream when …
Chose OBS Studio
Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder (obsolete, clunky and not always clear what's wrong when it was giving us issues)
Wirecast (too pricey for what we needed)
Zight
Chose Zight
We've been using Loom too in its early days. Loom vs CloudApp really boils down to personal preference. If you're using screen recording more, then Loom, if you take a lot of screenshots and annotate them, then CloudApp. The pricing is very similar, with CloudApp a bit more …
Chose Zight
It's probably easier to do recordings via zoom right now. In my opinion, if CloudApp could get the Video Editor & Trimmer to actually work properly, that would be incredible. I created some videos, spent a ton of time to edit them exactly how I wanted, cutting many segments. …
Chose Zight
The closest product to CloudApp that I've used has been Photoshop. Though, they're both very different. Photoshop has better editing qualities and abilities. Whereas, I appreciate the nimbleness, efficiency and flexibility that CloudApp has to offer. CloudApp also allows …
Chose Zight
I like Loom better personally. It is easier to use in a creative way and made to be fun. CloudApp is more serious and better for professional settings.
Chose Zight
The only other competitor I'm aware of is Droplr. I liked the clean, white interface of CloudApp as well as the rest of their user interface. It's been fairly intuitive to figure out. The one thing Droplr had integrated before CloudApp was "work spaces" where you could easily …
Chose Zight
In the world of screenshot taking and sharing, there isn't much. Jing, AwesomeScreenshot, and others have been used in the past, but CloudApp is the one with the best UX, has the best-integrated capture and sharing features, and the best cross-platform compatibility (desktop …
Chose Zight
The tools I have used in the past weren't available in the tool selector! Basically, I've mostly used Jing which I found to be quite clunky. The user interface is unnecessarily complicated and sharing files is more difficult.

Trying CloudApp once was enough to see how much more …
Chose Zight
Dropbox is nice, but if you try to share to an email address outside of your domain name, there are additional setting you need to do per image. That’s too tedious for quick chatting at work.
Chose Zight
I need to point out that I love Snagit. It's a fantastic product, but there are different use-cases. CloudApp for me is about quick and efficient sharing. Snagit doesn't really allow for that. Yes, they have a cloud sharing option, but for the entirety of me using the program, …
Chose Zight
Irfanview is a personal favorite of mine. It is much more powerful at image manipulation and markup. And, it is free.
Chose Zight
We have used more screen grab/screenshot technologies than I care to remember. Many had one or two things that worked fairly well. the problem was having to annotate, adjust and edit out sensitive information using multiple programs just took too long but I thought I had no …
Chose Zight
It's very fast and allows to share images and gifs (which none of the tools I tried allows). In addition, it allows you to edit screenshots, which is essential to our job.
Chose Zight
I like how in Jing allows you to choose how you want to export the content and it is simple to find everything. However, cloud app helps to do a lot of things that were never a possibility with Jing, such as blurring content, face bubble on videos and it generates links much …
Chose Zight
Hands down better with other integrations and ease of sharing.
Chose Zight
Droplr worked great for us, until it didn't. After a new OS X version was released the app stopped working. We have not had this problem with Cloud app.
Chose Zight
Droplr is more expensive overall and also does not have a stable windows solution. DropCloud is also more intuitive and user-friendly than Droplr.
Chose Zight
I have Snagit, but I find the interface a nuisance and resent the amount of time it takes to do simple annotations. The same can be said for Voila, and a few others I can not longer remember.
Best Alternatives
OBS StudioZight
Small Businesses
Zoom Events & Webinars
Zoom Events & Webinars
Score 8.5 out of 10
Sendspark
Sendspark
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Zoom Events & Webinars
Zoom Events & Webinars
Score 8.5 out of 10
Snagit
Snagit
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Zoom Events & Webinars
Zoom Events & Webinars
Score 8.5 out of 10
Snagit
Snagit
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
OBS StudioZight
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
6.9
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.9
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
OBS StudioZight
Likelihood to Recommend
From simple streaming to bigger events, OBS has been able to handle all of it with full confidence from us. Have never questioned if it was going to be unreliable in a specific situation, even with minimal training. Software identified the external input source easily and had no issues setting that up (Blackmagic Mini Recorder), and great for pulling in separate audio from the computer input.
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In terms of client meetings or any presentations we need some ice-breaker and informational contents to be displayed that can be short animation videos or edited screenshots or links to directly upload and who will give all the minor details of the product which is to be explained so CloudApp is the best app to get the content displayed like in any site we liked some informational content or animation we can easily get that animation in the form of video and add to our presentation slides to look more innovative and also the editing part to portray the details is so good.
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Pros
  • Free software for live telecast
  • Open source project for video recording
  • Powerful video recording
  • Written in C and C++
  • Totally virus free and free download
  • Collaborates with Facebook live and YouTube live streaming.
  • Computer screen recording
  • A hub for collectting source and broadcast
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  • Ability to capture media: screenshots, GIFs and video (including webcam if you'd like)
  • Automatically hosting the images, so these can be previewed by others (this saves *so* much space!)
  • A generous freemium account which gives you a taste of what's possible
  • Cool UI -- CloudApp is really pleasant to use, especially on iOS
  • Great marketing!
  • Great integrations with tools like Slack which automatically preview the screenshots!
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Cons
  • OBS can be a little clunky sometimes, the lots of features can be a bit overwhelming
  • I can multitask with it, but can't run heavy software like Premiere alongside it
  • No way to make adjustments to file after it's done, have to use After Effects or Premiere for that
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  • The one thing I can think of is making it easier to save images, videos, and GIFs to your desktop. This requires a few extra steps and it's typically easiest for me to pull an image directly from my desktop into an email or knowledge base article.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
In all honesty I don't even have time to look for an alternative to CloudApp at this point in our business. CloudApp works for what we had planned to use it for and unless a competing service that offers the same quality and ease-of-use along with video screen capture comes out I will renew indefinitely.
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Usability
Very usable because it is free and has had a lot of people helping to suggest improvements and sponsors have allowed the product to grow in sophistication and suitability across a variety of situations and use needs. It is very logical to use once you get started, although the dashboard can seem intimidating at first.
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I would give cloud app a 10 out of 10 if the video screen capture portion of the tool worked flawlessly and the addition of few suggestions like full-page screen grab and the quicker ability to download screenshots or screen videos to my hard drive. I don't mean to repeat a feature request here being that features would heavily improve usability in my particular usage situation.
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Support Rating
For a free product, a range of support is available. There are plenty of ways to find out answers to questions, because there are probably thousands of people using the product who are willing to share what they have learned. It usually works as designed, so needs for support are limited.
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I would give cloud app a 9/10 score on overall support mostly because I have had very little need of any support at all being that the tool was designed almost to use itself. In my opinion this level of forethought is equal to customer support. As of yet I've only had one real problem with cloud app which was the loss of a 20 minute video screen capture. Unfortunately I have not had the time to contact support about this loss. The only other minor issues that I confronted was within the initial set up which I was able to resolve via their website's support pages.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
I was extremely satisfied with how quick and easy the implementation of Cloudapp was on my MacIntosh using MacOS Sierra was, along with how amazingly fast I was able to be up and going with the tool. most often with sass tools we are lucky if we can use 50% of the features without having to have consultations and a ton of back-and-forth email on how to use other features of the product. Cloud app has made it extremely user-friendly with almost no need for customer support. To My business, that equals time savings which as most business owners know, can be far more valuable than a few dollars saved.
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Alternatives Considered
Only one reason which is that OBS studio is free and open source and we had team members capable of using it effectively. Other softwares have great prebuilt features which make it super easy to go live for small streams and individual streamers.
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The closest product to CloudApp that I've used has been Photoshop. Though, they're both very different. Photoshop has better editing qualities and abilities. Whereas, I appreciate the nimbleness, efficiency and flexibility that CloudApp has to offer. CloudApp also allows screenshots, which I find the most helpful part of the tool.
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Return on Investment
  • It was great to have a platform that is free that I can experiment with without having to use our business capital on.
  • It took time to learn, but it helped me understand a lot of things, so it was a great learning experience.
  • It was a great balance of cost and time with the high-quality product we got from it.
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  • The amount that I paid for it, I feel that it's paid for itself over and over and over multiple times, if for one reason, and that's time saved. If I have one app that does it all, quickly, and efficiently, that's my positive ROI.
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ScreenShots

Zight Screenshots

Screenshot of screen capture with annotationsScreenshot of screen recordings and video editingScreenshot of GIFsScreenshot of webcam recordingScreenshot of collections to organize content