Is Recordly Free, and Can You Use It for Commercial Purposes?

Updated

Yes. According to Recordly's own site, the app is "fully free and open-source, with no paywalls or hidden limits." The site also states it is "transparent, community-driven, and built for creators who value control." The FAQ section explicitly asks both "Is Recordly really free?" and "Can I use Recordly for commercial purposes?" — the site's stated position is that it is free and that commercial use is permitted. The practical caveat: because Recordly is open-source, the exact terms of commercial use are governed by its license, which you can review in the GitHub repository.

What "free and open-source" means here

Recordly is positioned as a free alternative to Screen Studio, a paid screen recorder. The site's description of its own model is straightforward:

  • No paywalls — the site says there are no paid tiers or locked features.
  • No hidden limits — the site says there are no usage caps or feature gates.
  • Open-source — the code is publicly available, so the license terms are verifiable rather than taken on trust.

This matters for commercial use because "free to download" and "free to use commercially" are not the same thing in general. Many free tools restrict commercial use in their license. Recordly's site addresses this directly by listing commercial use as a FAQ topic, and its open-source nature means you can confirm the terms yourself rather than relying on a marketing page.

What you get for free

The site lists the following capabilities as part of the free product:

Feature What it does
Auto-zoom Adds automatic zooming to recordings so you spend less time editing
Animated cursor Smooth cursor animation and motion blur
Backgrounds Adds a background to your recordings
Webcam bubble A smart overlay that expands and shrinks based on the moment
Timeline editing Drag-and-drop control over speed, zooms, annotations, audio tracks, and length
Dual-source audio Records microphone and system audio with sample-accurate sync
Project save/load Saves projects as .recordly files so you can resume or edit later
Export options MP4 or looping GIF
Cursor path looping Keeps GIFs and autoplay clips continuous without jumps
Media import Import audio files and webcam footage with full timeline control

None of these are listed as paid add-ons. The site presents them as the standard feature set.

Platform support

Recordly runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, per the site's description. Downloads are offered for Windows on the page, and the open-source distribution model means builds for other platforms are available through the project's channels.

How to verify the license yourself

Because the site's claim is "open-source," the authoritative answer on commercial use lives in the repository, not the landing page. To confirm:

  1. Open the GitHub repository linked from recordly.dev.
  2. Find the LICENSE file in the repository root.
  3. Read the license terms — look specifically for any clause restricting commercial use, redistribution, or modification.
  4. If the license is a permissive one (e.g., MIT, Apache 2.0), commercial use is generally allowed with attribution requirements. If it is a copyleft license (e.g., GPL), commercial use is still allowed, but derivative distribution carries obligations.

The site itself does not name a specific license, so this step is the reliable way to get a definitive answer for your situation.

Getting support and contributing

The site directs support requests to GitHub issues: "For support, please open an issue on GitHub." It also lists Discord, Twitter, and a blog as community channels. If you want to help the project, the FAQ includes "How can I help Recordly?" — the open-source model means contributions, bug reports, and community participation are the intended paths.

Bottom line

If your question is "can I use Recordly for paid client work or in a commercial product," the site's answer is yes, and the open-source license is where you confirm the specifics. If your question is "will I hit a paywall or a feature limit later," the site says no. The one thing the landing page does not do is name the license, so check the repository before relying on it for a commercial workflow where license terms matter to your legal or procurement process.