A Mac screen recorder you pay for once, not every month
Qreata costs $49 one time. That payment covers recording, editing and export on three Macs, and every future update. Nothing in that workflow renews. Below: exactly what the license covers, the one thing that is optional and recurring, and the same recorders priced over one and three years.
7-day trial · $49 once · no subscription · Apple Silicon · macOS 14+The short answer
Qreata is a one-time purchase screen recorder for Mac: $49 once for 3 Macs, with all future updates and no subscription. The 7-day trial is the full app with no watermark, and recording needs no account. The only recurring charge is Qreata Cloud, optional hosting for share links. Over three years that is $49 against $324 for Screen Studio billed yearly and $648 for one Loom Business seat.
Buy once when
You want the recorder to be a tool you own, not a line on a card statement.
- You record demos, tutorials or walkthroughs on a Mac and want the file on your own disk.
- You record in bursts: three videos this month, none for the next two. A subscription bills the quiet months too.
- You work on more than one Mac. The Personal license covers 3.
- You already have somewhere to put videos: a help center, YouTube, a shared drive, a pull request.
Pick a subscription tool when
What you are paying for every month is a service around the video, not the recorder.
- Viewers comment and react on the video itself. That is Loom, and Qreata has no comments.
- Part of your team records on Windows. Loom and Camtasia run there; Qreata does not.
- You need cursor smoothing, 60 fps, GIF export or iPhone capture. Screen Studio has them.
- You build courses with quizzes, SCORM packages or SRT captions. That is Camtasia.
What the $49 covers
The Personal license is $49 at the current early-bird price, paid once. There is also a Team license: $149 once for up to 50 Macs. Neither renews.
The license is activated with a key in a single online request and works offline after that. It is bound to the Macs you activate, and the Mac limit is checked by the server. Deactivating a Mac in Settings returns it to trial mode and asks the server to free the slot for another Mac. You do not need an account to record.
| Item | Included in $49 | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Macs | 3 | Activated with a key; deactivating in Settings frees the slot |
| Future updates | Yes, all of them | The license does not renew |
| Recording | Yes | Screen, camera, microphone and system audio as separate tracks; 720p, 1080p or 4K at 30 fps; live drawing and blur |
| Editing | Yes | Split, Delete, zooms, segment speed, blur, captions, transcript cuts, Replace Take |
| Export | Yes | H.264 MP4 at the recording’s resolution, no watermark |
| Account | Not required to record | A qreata.cc account is only for Qreata Cloud |
| Hosted share links | No | Qreata Cloud, a separate paid add-on, or your own Google Drive |
What stays optional and recurring: Qreata Cloud
One part of the product is a subscription, and it is not part of the license. Qreata Cloud hosts an exported MP4, up to 1 GB, and gives you a qreata.cc/share link. It needs a qreata.cc account and is billed separately.
You can ignore it completely. Nothing uploads unless you press a button, and the MP4 on your disk goes anywhere a file goes. When Google Drive is connected in Settings, the Upload to Google Drive button puts the file in your own Drive and copies a link anyone with the link can open; that needs a Google sign-in, not a Qreata plan.
So the recurring cost of recording, editing and exporting with Qreata is $0 a year after the $49. Hosting is a separate decision, and you make it per video.
What a Mac screen recorder costs over 1 and 3 years
These are US list prices for one person, before tax and discounts, taken from each vendor’s own pricing page on October 2, 2026. The arithmetic is in the cells so you can check it. Loom’s annual billing takes up to 17% off the monthly price used here.
The $49 is less than two months of Screen Studio on monthly billing ($29 × 2 = $58) and less than three months of one Loom Business seat ($18 × 3 = $54). Against Screen Studio billed yearly, which works out to $9 a month, it is paid back in the sixth month ($9 × 6 = $54).
For a team the gap is wider. Ten Loom Business seats on monthly billing cost $2,160 a year ($18 × 10 × 12). The Qreata Team license is $149 once for up to 50 Macs. Loom’s price includes hosting and comments for every viewer, so the fair comparison is $149 plus whatever you already use to share files.
| Recorder | List price | 1-year cost | 3-year cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qreata Personal | $49 once, 3 Macs | $49 | $49 |
| CleanShot X Basic | $35 once; updates after year one are $19 a year, optional | $35 | $73 ($35 + $19 × 2), or $35 without updates |
| Screen Studio, billed yearly | $108 per year | $108 | $324 ($108 × 3) |
| Screen Studio, billed monthly | $29 per month | $348 ($29 × 12) | $1,044 ($29 × 36) |
| CleanShot X Pro | $10 per user per month, billed annually | $120 ($10 × 12) | $360 ($10 × 36) |
| Camtasia Essentials | $179.88 per year | $179.88 | $539.64 ($179.88 × 3) |
| Loom Business | $18 per user per month | $216 ($18 × 12) | $648 ($18 × 36) |
| Loom Business + AI | $24 per user per month | $288 ($24 × 12) | $864 ($24 × 36) |
| OBS Studio | Free | $0 | $0 |
What the subscription recorders give you for the monthly fee
A subscription is not automatically the worse deal. Each of these tools charges every month or year for something specific, and if you use that thing, the fee is earned.
Two of the rows above are not subscriptions at all. CleanShot X Basic is also a one-time purchase, $35 with one year of updates, and it is the better buy if most of what you capture is screenshots. OBS Studio is free and open source; it records and streams, and editing happens in another app.
- Screen Studio ($108 a year): automatic zoom with cursor smoothing, export up to 4K at 60 fps and GIF, iPhone and iPad recording over USB, and share links included in the plan. One-time licenses are no longer sold.
- Loom ($18 per user a month): a link the moment you stop recording, comments and reactions, and apps for Windows, Chrome, iOS and Android. A free Starter plan exists with 25 videos of 5 minutes each.
- Camtasia ($179.88 a year for Essentials): a multitrack editor on Mac and Windows with SRT caption export, quizzes and SCORM packages. Perpetual licenses ended in 2025.
- CleanShot X Pro ($10 per user a month, billed annually): unlimited CleanShot Cloud storage on top of the screenshot and recording tools.
Who should still pick a subscription tool
Match the payment model to how the video is used after you make it.
- Your team answers each other with video and replies in comments: Loom. The conversation lives on Loom’s servers, and that is what the seat pays for.
- You publish polished marketing clips every week and want cursor smoothing and 60 fps: Screen Studio.
- You deliver training with quizzes into an LMS: Camtasia Essentials or higher.
- You record on Windows or an Intel Mac: any of the three above, or OBS Studio for free. Qreata needs Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or later.
- You record a handful of videos a year and only trim them: stay on the free built-in recorder and QuickTime Player. $49 is still $49 more than free.
What a one-time license does not change
Paying once does not make Qreata the right tool for every job. It is in beta. It runs only on Apple Silicon Macs with macOS 14 or later, with no Windows, Intel or browser version. It records and exports at 30 fps, never 60. It edits only recordings made in Qreata, with no video import, and it has no crop, no text on video and no annotations you can edit after recording (pen, highlighter, arrow, box, laser pointer and live blur are drawn live, while recording), no SRT or VTT caption files and no GIF export.
“All future updates” means updates to the app. It is not a promise about which features arrive or when; buy for what the trial shows you today.
A 10-minute test before you pay
The trial runs 7 days with every feature. There is no watermark on exports, no limit on recording length other than disk space, and no account to create.
Record a two-minute walkthrough of your own product with microphone and system audio. Click the wrong thing on purpose around the one-minute mark. Then select that range, re-record it with Replace Take (the Rerecord tool in the editor), add one zoom on the smallest control, and export the MP4. Play the file where you normally publish.
When the 7 days end, Record, Add clip, Rerecord and Export are blocked until you enter a license key. Editing is not blocked, and your recordings stay on your Mac. If the test file is good enough to publish, the license is $49 once.
Questions worth asking
Is there a screen recorder for Mac with no subscription?
Yes. Qreata is $49 once for 3 Macs with all future updates. CleanShot X Basic is $35 once with one year of updates. OBS Studio and the built-in Mac recorder are free. Screen Studio and Camtasia are subscription only.
What does the $49 include?
Recording, editing and MP4 export on 3 Macs, plus every future update of the app. It does not include Qreata Cloud, the optional paid hosting for share links.
Will I ever be charged again?
No, not for the app. The license does not renew and updates are included. You pay again only if you choose Qreata Cloud for hosted links, which is a separate subscription.
Is the free trial watermarked or limited?
No. The trial is the full app for 7 days with no watermark and no account. After it ends, recording and export are blocked until you activate a license; editing still works.
Can I use one license on several Macs?
Yes. The Personal license covers 3 Macs. Deactivating a Mac in Settings returns it to trial mode and frees its slot for another Mac. The Team license is $149 once for up to 50 Macs.
Does Qreata work on Windows or Intel Macs?
No. Qreata is a native app for Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 14 or later. On Windows, the options in the table are Loom, Camtasia and OBS Studio.