How to record your screen for customer tutorial videos

Bizer · 2026-10-01

If you landed here looking for Screenr, the free browser-based screen recorder: it is gone. Articulate, which made it, retired Screenr on 11 November 2015, mainly because it depended on Java running in the browser, and browsers were dropping Java support.

The good news is that recording your screen is easier now than it was then. Both Mac and Windows have a screen recorder built in, and there are good free options when you need more.

Why bother making screen tutorials at all?

Because many support questions are really "where do I click?" questions. A two-minute video showing how to book an appointment through your online scheduler, how to download an invoice from your customer portal, or how to set up the product you sold answers that question once, for every customer who will ever ask it.

They are also good for training staff. Record how you process a refund or set up a new client in your software, and the next hire watches it instead of interrupting you.

Which tool should you use?

Start with what is already on your computer. Upgrade only when you hit a limit.

On a Mac: the built-in Screenshot tool

Press Shift-Command-5. Apple's support guide describes the toolbar that appears, with options to record the entire screen, a selected window or a selected portion. Use Options in the toolbar to choose your microphone. Stop by clicking the Stop button in the menu bar or pressing Command-Control-Esc. Recordings save as .mov files.

On Windows 11: the Snipping Tool

Press Windows key + Shift + R, drag to select the area, and start recording. Microsoft added microphone and system-audio recording to the Snipping Tool in 2023, so you can talk over the video. Recordings save as MP4 files in your Videos folder.

Loom, for quick videos you share by link

Loom, now owned by Atlassian, records your screen and your face in a small bubble, then gives you a link to share instead of a file to send. Viewers do not need an account. As of 2026, Loom's free Starter plan limits each video to five minutes and each person to 25 videos, at up to 720p. That is enough to try it. Paid plans remove the time limit.

Loom suits videos you make often and casually, such as answering one customer's question with a quick walkthrough.

OBS Studio, for full control

OBS Studio is free, open-source software for Windows, Mac and Linux. It can record multiple sources at once (screen, webcam, microphone) and lay them out however you like. It is more than most small businesses need and takes an hour or two to learn, but it costs nothing and has no time limits or watermarks.

How do you make a tutorial people actually finish?

The software is the easy part. Most tutorials fail because they are too long.

1. One task per video. "How to reschedule an appointment" is a video. "Everything about our booking system" is a manual nobody watches.
2. Aim for two minutes or less. If it runs longer, split it into steps.
3. Say the goal in the first sentence. "This shows you how to download last month's invoice."
4. Clean the screen first. Close other tabs, hide personal bookmarks, silence notifications, and use a demo account. Recording a real customer's name or account details into a video is a privacy problem.
5. Make the text readable. Zoom the browser to 125 or 150 percent before recording. Viewers on phones will thank you.
6. Move the mouse slowly and pause on each click so viewers can follow.
7. Use a cheap external microphone or headset if you can. Viewers forgive rough video far more than muddy sound.

Do a test recording of ten seconds before every session. The most common failure is recording a whole tutorial with the microphone muted.

Where should the videos live?

Wherever customers already look for help. A help page on your website with each video embedded, plus a short written version of the steps underneath, is the most useful home. The written steps help people who cannot play sound, and they help search engines understand the page.

YouTube is free hosting and can bring in viewers through search. Mark videos "unlisted" if they are only for existing customers. Avoid emailing large video files: send a link.

Add captions. YouTube and Loom both generate them automatically, and you should skim and fix the errors, especially product names.

What does it cost?

The built-in tools and OBS cost nothing. Loom's paid plans cost a monthly fee per person. The real cost is your time: expect 20 to 30 minutes per finished short video when you are starting out, including retakes. The other cost is upkeep. When your software or website changes, the videos go out of date, and an outdated tutorial confuses more than no tutorial.

What is uncertain

Free plans change. Loom has adjusted its free tier more than once, and we cannot promise today's limits will hold next year. That is one reason to start with the free recorder already built into your computer: it will not change its terms on you. AI tools that turn a recording into a polished, narrated video are also improving quickly, but whether they save a small business time over a plain, honest two-minute recording is not clear yet.