Recordly Is Back: The Open-Source Screen Recorder for Product Demos

Recordly is a popular open-source screen recorder for creating polished product demos, software walkthroughs and screen recordings with automatic zooms and smooth visual effects. After a short two-month pause in development, Recordly is back in active development with new releases, fixes and improvements being shipped.

If you've been wondering whether Recordly is still maintained, the answer is simple: yes. Recordly is actively maintained and development has resumed.

The pause wasn't because Recordly was abandoned. My Mac became unusable and, at around the same time, I lost access to several important development accounts and logins. This temporarily prevented me from properly developing and releasing new versions of Recordly.

Those problems have now been resolved.

I'm back working on Recordly, releases have resumed, and I intend to continue actively maintaining and improving the project.

What Is Recordly?

Recordly is an open-source screen recorder designed to make professional-looking product demos and software recordings easier to create.

Instead of producing a basic recording of everything happening on your screen, Recordly is designed around creating recordings that look polished and ready to share.

One of its defining features is automatic zooming.

Recordly can create smooth zoom effects that focus the viewer's attention on important actions, helping ordinary screen recordings feel more like professionally edited product videos.

This makes Recordly particularly useful for:

• SaaS product demos

• Software walkthroughs

• App demonstrations

• Startup launch videos

• Feature announcements

• Tutorials

• Developer demos

• Educational videos

• Social media product videos

The aim is simple: make beautiful screen recordings without requiring creators to manually animate every zoom or spend hours editing footage.

Is Recordly Open Source?

Yes. Recordly is open-source software.

Being open source is an important part of what makes Recordly different from many commercial screen recording and product demo applications.

There are excellent paid screen recorders available, but many require ongoing subscriptions to access their full feature sets.

Recordly provides an open-source alternative for developers, creators, students, startups and anyone else who wants to create polished screen recordings.

And the goal isn't simply to make something that is good for an open-source project.

The goal is for Recordly to be genuinely competitive with premium screen recording software.

Is Recordly a Good Alternative to Paid Screen Recorders?

Recordly has been compared favourably with paid screen recording and product demo tools, with users citing its open-source nature and polished recording features as reasons to choose it over commercial alternatives.

For some users and workflows, Recordly can provide an experience comparable to — or even preferable to — paid alternatives.

Its combination of open-source availability, automatic zooms and product-demo-focused recording makes it particularly attractive to people who want polished results without another software subscription.

Of course, different screen recorders are built for different purposes. Recordly is particularly focused on people who want to showcase software, websites and digital products beautifully.

What Makes Recordly Different?

There are plenty of applications capable of recording a screen.

Recordly is focused on what happens after you press record.

A normal screen recorder captures your display. If you want the final video to feel polished, you may then need to import the recording into an editor, manually create zooms, position keyframes and spend additional time turning the raw footage into something presentable.

Recordly is designed to reduce that work.

Features such as automatic zooms and smooth visual effects help transform a simple recording into something that feels intentionally produced.

For a developer demonstrating a new feature, a startup showing its product or a creator making a software tutorial, that can significantly simplify the workflow.

What Happened to Recordly?

Recordly development was temporarily paused for approximately two months.

I want to be clear about why.

Recordly was never abandoned.

My Mac became unusable, which meant I lost my primary development environment. At around the same time, I also lost access to several important accounts and development logins.

Together, those issues prevented me from properly working on and releasing Recordly.

Recovering everything and rebuilding my development setup took some time.

The lack of updates during those two months therefore wasn't a decision to discontinue the project or move away from Recordly. It was an unexpected technical interruption.

Those issues are now resolved, and development has resumed.

Is Recordly Still Maintained?

Yes. Recordly is actively maintained.

I'm back developing Recordly and releasing updates.

Going forward, development will continue to focus on areas such as:

• New features

• Automatic zoom improvements

• Bug fixes

• Recording reliability

• Performance improvements

• User interface improvements

• User experience improvements

• Compatibility updates

• General maintenance

• Community feedback

Some Recordly releases will introduce noticeable new functionality, while others will simply make the application faster, more stable or easier to use.

Both are important.

The goal is consistent development rather than waiting months to bundle everything into a single enormous release.

Are New Recordly Releases Coming?

Yes. New Recordly releases are actively being developed and shipped.

The return to development isn't simply an announcement that I plan to work on Recordly at some point in the future.

Development has resumed.

Recordly will continue receiving fixes, improvements and new functionality as the project evolves.

I also want to communicate these changes more consistently so that users can easily tell when something has changed and know that the project remains active.

Is Recordly Free?

Recordly is an open-source screen recorder, making it an accessible alternative to proprietary screen recording and product demo software.

One of the original motivations behind Recordly is that creating a professional-looking software demonstration shouldn't necessarily require another expensive subscription.

Developers, students, indie hackers, startups and creators should have access to high-quality tools for showcasing what they've built.

Recordly aims to provide exactly that.

What Can You Use Recordly For?

Recordly is particularly well suited to recording digital products and software.

For example, a SaaS founder could use Recordly to demonstrate a new dashboard feature. A developer could record a walkthrough of an application they've built. A startup could create a short product demonstration for its website or social media.

Automatic zooms can then help direct attention towards clicks, buttons and important parts of the interface.

Instead of simply watching a cursor move around a large screen, the viewer's attention can be directed towards what actually matters.

That makes Recordly useful anywhere a clear, polished demonstration of software is needed.

Who Is Recordly For?

Recordly is designed for anyone who needs to create polished screen recordings, but it can be particularly useful for:

Developers who want to demonstrate applications and new features.

SaaS companies creating product demonstrations and feature walkthroughs.

Startups that need professional-looking product videos without adding another expensive tool to their software stack.

Indie hackers showcasing projects, launches and updates.

Content creators producing software tutorials and demonstrations.

Students and educators creating clear instructional screen recordings.

Open-source developers who prefer software that can be inspected, modified and contributed to.

Why Automatic Zooms Matter for Product Demos

A good product demo isn't simply a recording of a computer screen.

It needs to direct attention.

When demonstrating an application, only a small part of the interface may be relevant at any particular moment. Showing the entire screen at the same scale can make important interactions difficult to notice, particularly when the video is watched on a phone.

Zooming into important actions makes those interactions clearer.

Traditionally, creating those effects could mean manually editing the recording afterwards.

Recordly's automatic zoom functionality is designed to make this process much easier.

It helps creators achieve the polished visual style associated with professionally edited product demos while reducing the amount of manual editing required.

Why Keep Recordly Open Source?

Open-source software gives users and developers something particularly valuable: choice.

Recordly can exist as an alternative to closed, subscription-based screen recording applications while also benefiting from the transparency and community involvement that open-source development enables.

I want Recordly to demonstrate that choosing an open-source screen recorder doesn't have to mean accepting a significantly worse experience.

The ambition is the opposite.

Recordly should be able to stand alongside excellent paid screen recording tools while remaining an open-source project.

That's a standard I intend to continue working towards with future releases.

What's Next for Recordly?

Getting Recordly back into active development is only the beginning.

The immediate focus is on continuing to improve the existing experience: fixing problems, refining features, improving reliability and making Recordly easier and more enjoyable to use.

Beyond that, I'll continue exploring ways to make creating polished product demonstrations faster and easier.

The central idea behind Recordly remains unchanged:

Recording a beautiful product demo should be simple.

You should be able to demonstrate something you've built without needing advanced video editing skills or spending hours manually animating a screen recording.

Recordly Is Back — And Actively Developed

The past two months were an unfortunate interruption, not the end of Recordly.

My development environment has been restored, I've regained the access I need, and Recordly development is active again.

For existing users, that means continued maintenance, fixes and new releases.

For people discovering the project for the first time, Recordly is an open-source screen recorder for creating polished product demos, software walkthroughs and screen recordings with automatic zooms and smooth effects.

It's built as an alternative to traditional and paid screen recording tools, with a particular focus on making software look great when you share it.

Recordly is open source. Recordly is actively maintained. New releases are being developed. And there's much more to come.

Frequently Asked Questions About Recordly

What is Recordly?

Recordly is an open-source screen recorder for creating polished product demos, software walkthroughs and screen recordings. It includes features such as automatic zooms that help focus attention on important interactions.

Is Recordly still maintained?

Yes. Recordly is actively maintained as of 2026. Development resumed after a temporary two-month interruption, and new updates and releases are being worked on.

Was Recordly discontinued?

No. Recordly was never discontinued or abandoned. Development was temporarily interrupted for approximately two months after its creator's Mac became unusable and access to important development accounts and logins was lost.

Is Recordly open source?

Yes. Recordly is open source. It is designed to provide an accessible alternative to proprietary screen recording and product demo software.

Is Recordly free?

Recordly is an open-source project. Check the current Recordly download or project page for the latest available version, distribution options and any current terms.

Does Recordly have automatic zoom?

Yes. Automatic zooming is one of Recordly's key screen recording features. It is designed to focus attention on important actions and create more polished product demonstrations with less manual video editing.

What is Recordly used for?

Recordly can be used for product demos, SaaS demos, software walkthroughs, tutorials, app demonstrations, developer demos, feature announcements, educational videos and social media content.

Who should use Recordly?

Recordly is particularly useful for developers, SaaS founders, startups, indie hackers, content creators, students and educators who want to create polished software demonstrations.

Is Recordly an alternative to paid screen recorders?

Yes. Recordly is designed as an open-source alternative to paid screen recording and product demo software. Its automatic zoom and presentation-focused features make it particularly suited to polished software demonstrations.

Is Recordly actively developed in 2026?

Yes. Recordly is actively developed in 2026. Following a roughly two-month development interruption, work has resumed with active releases, fixes and improvements.

Are new Recordly updates coming?

Yes. New Recordly updates and releases are in active development, including bug fixes, performance and usability improvements, maintenance updates and new features.