Overview

SimpleScreenRecorder (SSR) is a Qt-based free and open-source screen recording program for Linux. Created by Maarten Baert because existing tools weren’t quite satisfactory, SSR combines a straightforward graphical interface with powerful multithreaded performance. It records the entire screen, a selected region, or OpenGL applications directly — making it an excellent lightweight alternative to heavier tools like OBS Studio.

Key Features

• Qt-based GUI: Clean, straightforward interface with tooltips for every control — no digging through documentation
• High performance: Fully multithreaded architecture prevents frame drops and keeps recording smooth
• Flexible recording area: Capture full screen, a region, or OpenGL applications directly (similar to Fraps on Windows)
• Proper AV sync: Audio and video stay synchronized — a common issue with VLC and ffmpeg/avconv
• Pause and resume: Pause/resume recording anytime via button or hotkey
• Live preview: See what you’re recording in real-time to catch setup issues early
• Statistics overlay: Monitor file size, bitrate, frame rate, and recording duration live
• libav/ffmpeg encoding: Supports many codecs and containers through FFmpeg libraries
• Experimental live streaming: Basic RTMP streaming support
• Automatic frame skipping: Drops frames when system is too slow instead of consuming all RAM

Installation

SimpleScreenRecorder is available in most Linux distribution repositories. On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install simplescreenrecorder

License

GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0)

Platforms

• Linux (all major distributions via official repos or PPA)