FastStone Capture vs. ActivePresenter. Side-by-side comparsion of FastStone Capture and ActivePresenter. Find out which one is better in this article!
FastStone Capture and ActivePresenter overview
FastStone capture is simple and powerful screen capture software we reviewed couple days ago. It’s no doubt one of the best screen capture software for taking screenshot of your full screen desktop, part of the screen or a scrolling page/ window. Apart from the lacks of video editing tools, it is free to use within 30 days without watermark or time limit. In comparison with other screenshot tools, FastStone capture is a great option you can try.
ActivePresenter comes along with screenshot tools, video and audio recorder as well as free and no watermark video editor for Windows and Mac. Of all the screen recording software we tested, ActivePresenter gained our trust in recording video, capture screenshot, editing video and designing e-Learning courses.
In today’s post, I will share with you some of my personal opinions about these programs and tell you which one is better for creating traning materials, product demos and software simulations. Stay tuned!
Both programs offer intuitive User Interface
Looking at the interface when we start the program, FastStone Capture seems to be less attractive than ActivePresenter. It comes with a small window, contains all the feature icons which is hard to see if you are new. However, we have to admit that it is designed for capturing screenshots, such simple interface may help you save your time in creating training materials.
In contrast to FastStone capture, ActivePresenter provides a busy interface but logical arranged one. When you open ActivePresenter, there are various options to get started such as Creating blank project, Record video, Create a responsive project or Import PowerPoint slide and so on. You need to spend more time setting up your project than FastStone.
Here are screenshots of both programs!
They are safe to use!!!
Further to what we tested, these programs are safe to use. We checked for virus, malware and adware with Virus Total and looked at their Digital signature too. The results are positive. You can download and try them safely. If you need to get our reports, let us know!
FastStone Capture wins the game in Screen Capture!
It’s hard to say which program is better in capturing screenshots. But, FastStone capture got our reward because it has more screen capture options than ActivePresenter. For example, you can capture either a scrolling window or a scrolling page and choose saving location directly to Microsoft Word or Excel. This is an effective way to create operational material for trainers.
ActivePresenter is much more powerful in recording and editing videos than FastStone!!!
If you only look at screen recording tools, it’s not easy to find the differences between them. Both programs offer various recording options such as full screen, fixed region with microphone, speaker and so on. But if you dig deeper into both programs, you will find out the differences:
- FastStone Capture allows you to record video in WMV only. It can’t record your webcam simultaneously and there is no way to record a locked application too. The program lets you record mouse pointer and highligh mouse clicks but in very basic styles only. Added to that, the video editor comes along with the only option to cut/delete unwanted parts of your recording.
- ActivePresenter gives you more options than FastStone. For example, record video and webcam at the same time, record a locked application, edit your recordings and convert it to AVI, MP4, MKV, MOV or WebM. That’s not to mention the video rendering speed in ActivePresenter is faster than FastStone (We tested the speed on the same machine and the same video length).
Here are screenshots of the editors!
Which one is better?
So you know some information about these programs. What do you think? Which one is better?
Honestly, it’s very hard to answer this question! I hope you share with us more experiences in using these programs here for discussion. We will figure out the better one in couple of weeks.
Bottom line
Elearning Supporter provides honest reviews about software for Windows and Mac such as screen recorder, video editor and elearning authoring tools. If you like our post, don’t hesitate to share it with your friends. Don’t forget to follow us to receive more valuable post notifications in the future.
Good luck!
Elearning Supporter 
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