Cheese vs DroidCam

Cheese is a free GNOME Desktop program for taking webcam photos and videos on Linux. It applies multiple effects to photos, and those effects and sharing choices also work with videos. A three-second visual countdown helps prepare for a shot, while burst mode captures a configured number of photos at a configured delay. Users can select an installed webcam, set its resolution, and adjust brightness and contrast. Fullscreen mode supports kiosk-style setups such as an office lobby or party. Photos can be saved to disk, emailed, uploaded to Flickr, exported to F-Spot, or used as a GNOME account photo. Installing nautilus-sendto adds more sharing options. Packages are listed for Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and Ubuntu, with stable tarballs and a GitLab repository also available. Documentation, chat, mailing-list, and issue-tracker support are listed. Cheese costs nothing.

DroidCam turns an Android or iOS phone into a webcam for computer chat and video production software. It connects over WiFi or USB and describes its video transfer as low latency. Compatible programs listed include Zoom, Discord, Microsoft Teams, and OBS Studio. Its OBS plugin connects a phone camera directly to OBS without a separate client. Image controls include exposure, focus, zoom, color adjustment, rotation, flipping, and mirroring, plus custom text, image, or video overlays. The PC webcam supports up to 1080p, while OBS integration supports up to 4K. The free plan provides 480p SD video without a watermark; HD and other Pro features require an upgrade. The listed Pro Upgrade is $4.99 a month, with the price shown by Apple for the US storefront. DroidCam supports Windows, macOS, and Linux computers alongside Android and iOS phones. Its privacy policy says it does not collect personal information and that audio and video streams are normally contained within the local network, while noting that third-party analytics and advertising tools may collect usage or device-related information.