Limelight

A QuickTime Player alternative for polished screen recordings

QuickTime Player records your screen for free, but it leaves the footage flat and plain. Limelight records with a cinematic finish — auto-zoom, smoothed cursor, clean background — and shows your keystrokes right on screen.

QuickTime Player is the recorder built into every Mac. It is free, always available, and perfectly fine when you just need raw, unedited footage of your screen.

What QuickTime does not offer is any polish or guidance. There is no auto-zoom into your clicks, no smoothed cursor, no clean background, no display of the shortcut keys you press. Limelight is a full macOS screen recorder that does all of that: hit record and it captures your screen and exports a finished, cinematic video itself — auto-zooming on every click, smoothing the cursor, and rendering a clean padded background — with your keystrokes, a cursor spotlight, and freehand drawing baked right in.

Choose QuickTime when a plain, raw recording is all you need. Choose Limelight when you want that recording to look cinematic and be easy to follow, with on-screen keystrokes most recorders — QuickTime included — cannot show. Everything runs on your Mac, so nothing is uploaded.

Why Limelight

  • ▸Records and exports a cinematic video itself — auto-zoom, smoothed cursor, clean background
  • ▸On-screen keystroke and click display (⌃⌥2) QuickTime does not include
  • ▸Cursor spotlight (⌃⌥1) and freehand drawing (⌃⌥3, clear ⌃⌥C) baked into the recording
  • ▸Trim, cut, and speed up, then export mp4 or a vertical 9:16 clip
  • ▸Free to start, one-time $34 lifetime (or from $2.99/mo), Apple-notarized, macOS 14+
Try it free — download

Cursor spotlight free · from $2.99/mo or $34 lifetime · macOS 14+

Or get Pro — from $2.99/mo · See how it works →

free to start, then go Pro from $2.99/mo or a $34 one-time lifetime license. macOS 14+, notarized by Apple.

FAQ

Does Limelight replace QuickTime for screen recording?
Yes. Limelight records your screen and exports the finished video itself, so you do not need QuickTime. It adds cinematic auto-zoom, a smoothed cursor, and on-screen keystrokes that QuickTime cannot do.
Does Limelight record everything QuickTime captures?
Yes, and more. Limelight records your screen and bakes in the cursor spotlight, keystrokes, and drawing, then exports a polished, cinematic video — all on your Mac, with nothing uploaded.

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