I built a screen recorder and video editor with NativePHP
Disclosure: ZXN Studio is my own app, so read the comparison below knowing who wrote it. I have tried to be fair to the other four, and every price and limit was taken from each vendor's own site on 27 September 2026.
Every video on this channel used to pass through three apps. One to record the screen and camera, one to edit, and one to cut me out of the background so titles could sit behind me. Each hand-off meant an export, an import, and another chance for the camera to drift out of sync with the screen. In June 2026 I decided to build the tool I actually wanted, and I decided to build it in the stack I teach: Laravel, running as a desktop app through NativePHP.
This post is two things. The first half is the short version of how ZXN Studio came together. The second half is an honest comparison against four tools people keep asking me about: Tella, OBS Studio, CleanCut and CleanShot X.
Three stacks in three months
ZXN Studio did not start in NativePHP. It started as a Tauri prototype, moved to a native Swift recorder, and only then settled into NativePHP. That sounds like indecision, and partly it was, but each move solved a real problem.
| Attempt | What it gave me | Why I moved on |
|---|---|---|
| Tauri | A fast prototype and a small binary | I was spending more time on the Rust bridge than on the editor |
| Swift | A proper native recorder: separate camera and screen capture, ProRes output | Mac only, and the editor was going to be a web UI regardless |
| NativePHP (Electron) | Laravel for the app logic, a web front end for the editor, and a route to Windows and Linux | This is the one that shipped |
The thing that finally made NativePHP click was realising that a video editor is mostly a very demanding web app. The timeline, the inspector, keyframes, colour wheels: all of that is front-end work, and a browser engine is a perfectly good place to run it. What I needed underneath was a reliable place to manage projects, media, model downloads, licensing and exports, and that is exactly what a Laravel application is good at. The native pieces, the recorder and the local machine-learning models for background removal, depth and transcription, sit alongside it rather than fighting it.
One design decision I have not regretted: the screen and the camera are always recorded as two separate clips. When you stop recording they land on the timeline in sync, and you can move, resize or replace the camera afterwards. Most of the editing pain I used to have came from tools that burn the camera into the screen recording the moment you press stop.
What ZXN Studio actually does
It records your screen, camera and microphone, drops them onto a multi-track timeline, and lets you finish the video without leaving the app. The parts I use on every video are keyframes, the built-in transitions, colour curves, and background removal that runs locally on the Mac with no green screen. The part that surprised me most in use is ZXN Motion, which lets you write a motion-graphics composition as a TSX component and render it frame-exact on the timeline. It is an odd feature for a screen recorder, and it is the one I would not give up.
The free plan is the whole editor, not a trial, and there is no account needed to edit. Studio adds the premium looks and the bigger exports.
| Free | Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0, never expires | $15.99/month or $159 once (35% off at launch) |
| Recording | 1080p, 30 fps | 4K, 60 fps |
| Export | 1080p, 30 fps in MP4, MOV, WebM | 4K, 60 fps, plus ProRes masters |
| Background removal | People model (RVM) | Every model, live in the inspector, depth occlusion |
| Titles, effects, filters | Plain titles, 6 filters, 6 effects, 3 camera frames | All of them |
| Motion graphics from code | Yes | Yes |
| Account required | No | For licensing only |
Two limitations you should know before downloading. The current recorder needs macOS 26 or later, and it does not yet capture Mac system audio, so if the sound coming out of another app is part of your demo you will need another route for that. Windows and Linux builds are planned but not out.
How it compares
I picked these four because they are the ones people mention when I talk about ZXN Studio. Tella is the closest in spirit: a recorder with a real editor aimed at creators. OBS is the free default everyone has installed. CleanCut is a newer free tool that starts from silence removal and grew a recorder and timeline. CleanShot X is the Mac screenshot tool that quietly turned into a screen recorder with an editor.
| ZXN Studio | Tella | OBS Studio | CleanCut | CleanShot X | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Mac (macOS 26+) | Mac, Windows, web, Chrome | Mac, Windows, Linux | Mac, Windows, Linux | Mac (macOS 13+) |
| Cost to start | Free, no account | 7-day trial, then from $13/month | Free, open source | Free, no account | $35 once, 1 year of updates |
| Paid tier | $15.99/mo or $159 lifetime | From $13/mo | None | $6.99/mo or $59.99/yr | Pro $10/user/mo (annual) |
| Mac system audio | Not yet | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Camera kept as a separate clip | Yes | Yes | No, composited while recording | Yes | Overlay only |
| Multi-track timeline | Yes, with keyframes | Yes, plus transcript editing | No editor | Yes | Single-recording editor |
| Auto zoom on clicks | No, keyframes are manual | Yes | No | Zooms on timeline | Yes (Studio Mode) |
| Cut out the person, no green screen | Yes, local | Not listed | Via plugin | Not listed | No |
| Silence and filler-word removal | Not yet | Yes, from the transcript | No | Silence free, filler words Pro | No |
| Motion graphics from code | Yes (TSX) | No | No | No | No |
| Max export | 1080p30 free, 4K60 + ProRes paid | 4K, 60 fps | Whatever you configure | MP4, resolution not stated | 4K |
| Footage stays on your machine | Yes | Cloud-hosted | Yes | Yes (AI features connect out) | Yes, Cloud optional |
| Works with an AI agent | Codex for motion compositions | MCP | Third-party only | MCP (Pro) | No |
Tella
If you want the recording to look finished the second you stop, Tella is the better tool. Automatic layouts, cursor-following zooms, captions and transcript-based editing are all things ZXN Studio does not do, or does by hand. Tella also records Mac system audio and runs on Windows and in the browser. Where ZXN Studio wins is on control and on cost: a real keyframe timeline, colour tools, cut-outs and motion graphics, on a free plan that does not end after seven days, with footage that never leaves your Mac. Tella is a hosted product with viewer analytics and a library; that is a feature if you want it and a bill if you do not.
OBS Studio
This is not really a like-for-like comparison. OBS is a capture and streaming tool, and at that it is excellent, free, and runs everywhere. It has no editor, and it composites your scene while recording, so the camera is baked into the frame before you have decided where it should go. ZXN Studio records less (no system audio on Mac, no streaming) and edits far more. If your workflow is record once and upload, or you stream, stay on OBS. If you record and then spend an hour in a timeline, that hour is what ZXN Studio is built for.
CleanCut
CleanCut is the most direct comparison here, because it is also free, local and built around a multi-track timeline, and it runs on all three desktop platforms. Its headline feature, automatic silence removal, is something ZXN Studio does not have yet, and its Pro tier is cheaper. ZXN Studio has the deeper finishing tools: keyframes, colour wheels and curves, blend modes, transitions, an effects library, local background removal with depth occlusion, and ProRes export. Pick CleanCut if cutting pauses is most of your editing. Pick ZXN Studio if the edit is where the video gets made.
CleanShot X
CleanShot X earned its place on most Macs as a screenshot tool, and its recorder now comes with Studio Mode: animated zooms, cursor smoothing, backgrounds and square or vertical export. For a thirty-second demo of a button, it is faster than anything else on this list. It is a single-recording editor rather than a timeline, there is no cut-out or colour work, and it is a one-time $35 licence with a year of updates rather than free. ZXN Studio is the tool you open after CleanShot's editor runs out of room.
Who should use what
- Quick demos and bug reports, shared as a link: Tella or CleanShot X.
- Streaming, or long recordings you will not edit: OBS.
- Talking-head videos where the edit is mostly cutting pauses: CleanCut.
- Tutorials and courses with titles, motion, colour and a presenter you want cut out of the background, all on your own Mac: ZXN Studio.
Try it
ZXN Studio is free to download at zxn.studio, with no account needed to edit, and it is listed in the NativePHP desktop showcase alongside the other apps the community has shipped. If you are a Laravel developer wondering whether NativePHP can carry something heavier than a todo app, I would say a video editor with local machine-learning models is a reasonable answer. I will be doing a full video on the architecture on the channel; if there is a part of the build you want covered first, tell me in the comments.