Looking for a FlashBack alternative on a Mac?
FlashBack is Windows software, and every zoom in it is one you place on a timeline. Prequel records the Mac and opens the editor with the zooms already there, the camera framed and a background behind the window. 4K at 120 fps, $9 a month or $29 once.
No credit card required
FlashBack
Screen recorder and editor for Windows, with a free edition.
- Price
- Free Starter; $39 a year or $65 once. Windows only
- Free
- Starter records screen, camera and audio across monitors, with no watermark
- Platforms
- Windows 10, Windows 11
Prequel
Cinematic screen recorder for Mac
- Price
- $9 a month, or $29 once
- Free
- 7-day trial, then paid
- Platforms
- macOS 14+, Apple Silicon
Checked on 22 October 2026 against FlashBack, FlashBack pricing.
What is FlashBack, and what is it good at?
FlashBack is a Windows screen recorder and editor from Blueberry Software, and it has been going long enough to have earned its reputation in corporate training. Record the screen, the camera and audio across multiple monitors, then edit: cut, add callouts and arrows, blur anything private, insert zoom and pan, and publish to a file or to a video platform.
The free Starter edition is unusually honest. No time limit, no watermark, and it records screen, camera and audio across monitors. The paid editions are $39 a year or $65 for a lifetime licence, both often sold at a discount, with a Creator edition above them.
Why do people look for a FlashBack alternative?
It is Windows software. FlashBack runs on Windows 10 and 11. There is no Mac build, so switching platform means switching tool.
Zoom and pan are something you place. The editor has them, and every one is a decision you make on a timeline after the fact. On a half-hour training video that is an afternoon.
Is Prequel a good FlashBack alternative?
On a Mac, for demos, tutorials and training clips, yes.
Prequel records the screen, the camera, the microphone and system audio as separate tracks and opens the editor with the pass already made: zooms on every click and every burst of typing, tilted, with focus falling away from whatever the push-in is aimed at. The camera is framed, shaped and cut out of the room behind you. A background goes behind the window. The cursor is smoothed and hidden when it idles. Captions are transcribed on your Mac, and blur regions cover anything private.
Export is one file at up to 4K and 120 frames a second, at $9 a month or $29 once, after a seven-day trial that exports without a watermark.
What do you give up by switching?
Windows, and a genuinely capable free tier. FlashBack Starter records with no watermark and no time limit, which is more than most free recorders allow, and Prequel is a paid app after seven days.
Also the training-video furniture: callouts, arrows and annotation drawn on top of the picture. Prequel frames, zooms, cuts and captions, and leaves the annotation out.
How do the features compare?
| Feature | Prequel | FlashBack |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic zoom on clicks | Included | Not included |
| Zoom on what you type | Included | Not included |
| Cursor smoothing and resizing | Included | Not included |
| Camera overlay, shaped and placed after | Included | Included |
| Backgrounds, padding and shadow | Included | Not included |
| Layouts for the screen and camera | Fourteen, per clip | Camera over the screen |
| Camera cut out of its background | Included | Not included |
| Perspective tilt and focus falloff on zooms | Included | Not included |
| Captions transcribed on your Mac | Included | Not included |
| Timeline editing | Included | Included |
| Separate audio tracks | Included | Included |
| System audio without a virtual driver | Included | Included |
| Reframe to vertical without cropping | Included | Not included |
| Magnifying-glass loupe over the work | Included | Not included |
| Colour looks and filters | Included | Not included |
| Microphone noise reduction | Included | Included |
| Import a video you already have | Included | Included |
| Records and exports without uploading | Included | Included |
| Shareable links | Included | Publish to a video platform |
| Team workspace | Included | Not included |
| Records an iPhone or iPad | Not included | Not included |
| Maximum export | 4K, 120 fps | Not published |
| Download size | 104 MB | Windows only |
| Platforms | macOS 14+, Apple Silicon | Windows 10, Windows 11 |
| Licence | $9/month or $29 once, 7-day trial | Free edition, or $39/yr and $65 once |
What FlashBack is good at
A free edition with no watermark and no time limit, and a training-video editor above it with callouts, arrows, blur and zoom and pan.
What does each one cost?
FlashBack
- Starter$0 free, no time limit, no watermark
- 1-Year$39 per year, $29 on their current offer
- Lifetime$65 one-off, $49 on their current offer
- Creator$89 one-off, $63 on their current offer
Prequel
- Lifetime$29 once
- Pro$9 a month
Checked on 22 October 2026 against FlashBack, FlashBack pricing.
- Record your screen and cameraPick a display, a window or an area you drag out, with your camera, microphone and system audio each on their own track.
- Zooms and layout are applied automaticallyPrequel reads where you clicked and typed, then places the zooms, frames your camera and sets a background behind it.
- Edit, export and shareMove a zoom, trim a clip or fix a caption, then export one MP4 at up to 4K or send a link that plays anywhere.
Zoom and pan
Zooms that follow the action
Prequel automatically zooms in when you click or type, then softens the rest of the window so viewers know where to look. Every zoom is added to the timeline, so you can move, retime or delete it at any time.
Layouts
Switch layouts clip by clip
Choose from fourteen layouts for the same take: camera in the corner, beside the screen, split with it or hidden entirely. Use one layout for the whole video, or change it clip by clip.
Subtitles
Subtitles you can edit like text
Prequel transcribes every word on your Mac when the editor opens. Fix captions by typing in the transcript, choose a subtitle style or delete a sentence to remove it from the video.
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thanks so much for jumping on this call
Iwanttoshowyousomethingcool
[pause here]
we’ve been building for the past few months
Teleprompter
A teleprompter that follows your voice
Prequel hangs your script from the notch, just under the camera, and follows your voice — the word you're saying lights up as you say it. Wander off script and it waits for you; skip ahead or fall behind and it catches up within a couple of words.
Apple Silicon · macOS 14+
Native
Built for your Mac
Prequel is a native app for Apple Silicon. It records with the system’s own capture, encodes on the video hardware and draws every frame in Metal. Your recordings stay on your disk.
The editor
Everything you would have done by hand
It opens by itself when you stop recording, on the take you just made. Nothing to import, nothing to line up.
Guide attention automatically
Prequel zooms into the part of the screen that matters: the cursor, a region you draw, or whatever you are typing into. Set the level, the speed and how much the rest of the frame blurs.
Look present without taking over the video
Your camera stays framed and out of the way: circle, squircle, rounded, wide or portrait, in any corner and any size. It is never burned into the recording, so none of it is decided while you record.
Make recordings look designed
Add a background, padding and a shadow without editing any of it by hand. Your own wallpaper by default, seven bundled presets, gradients and solids.
Cut the parts nobody needs to see
Trim the pauses yourself, slice by slice, with a waveform under every clip. Layout, background and audio can all change mid-take.
Keep the pointer out of the way
Fifteen pointer styles, resized so the cursor survives a zoom. Smoothed while it travels, and hidden after a few seconds of stillness.
Export the frame you approved
The preview and the exporter draw the same plan, so the file matches what you signed off in the editor.
Quality
Videos stay sharp at 4K
Capture and export run on your Mac's own media engine. 1080p at 60 fps records without dropping frames, and 4K is a setting you pick.
- Resolution
- Up to 4K
- Frame rate
- Up to 120 fps
- Codecs
- H.264 · HEVC
- Encoding
- Hardware, VideoToolbox
- Compositing
- Metal
- Output
- Constant frame rate MP4
Formats
Export in any frame
Turn one recording into different formats without manually reframing every element. Switch from landscape to vertical and the layout stays intact.
- Landscape 16:9
- 4K
- Vertical 9:16
- Square 1:1
- Portrait 4:5
- YouTube
- Shorts
- TikTok
- Reels
- X
Record demos worth sharing
Free for 7 days. No watermark on anything you export.
No credit card required
Curious about the internals? Read the blog
FAQ
Zooms, exports and the rest
Is there a FlashBack for Mac?
No. FlashBack runs on Windows 10 and 11 only. On a Mac, Prequel records a display, a window or a region with the camera, the microphone and system audio, and opens the editor with zooms already placed on every click and every burst of typing.
How much does FlashBack cost?
The Starter edition is free with no watermark and no time limit. The paid editions list at $39 a year and $65 for a lifetime licence, with a Creator edition at $89, and all three were on offer at $29, $49 and $63 when this page was checked on 22 October 2026.
Is there a free screen recorder for Mac like FlashBack Starter?
The Screenshot app is built into macOS and records with no watermark and no limit, and OBS Studio is free, open source and far more capable. Neither finishes the video: the zooms, the framing and the cuts are yours to make, which is what Prequel does for you at $9 a month or $29 once.
Is Prequel a good FlashBack alternative?
On a Mac, for demos, tutorials and training clips, yes. The cinematic pass is automatic, blur regions cover anything private, captions are transcribed on device and export runs at up to 4K and 120 frames a second. What FlashBack keeps is Windows, a genuinely free edition, and annotation drawn over the picture.