Gifox vs LICEcap

Gifox is a macOS status bar app for recording, editing, converting, and sharing GIFs. It can capture a selected screen area or snap to an app window, with controls for the cursor, clicks, keyboard input, window shadow, and desktop picture. You can also drop in videos or image sequences for conversion. Its editor can crop, cut, trim, rearrange, and re-export recorded or imported video. Playback, color, resizing, and dithering controls help adjust GIF quality and file size. Gifox can upload to Dropbox, Google Drive, or Imgur, then copy a public sharing link to the pasteboard. It is available from the maker’s website, the Mac App Store, and Setapp, and requires macOS 10.15 Catalina or later. The free Basic version limits recording and export to 10 seconds and adds a small watermark. Pro is listed at $14.99 a month, billed as a one-time purchase with taxes included, and includes unlimited recording and watermark removal. Other listed one-time licenses are Backer at 150.00 USD, Patron at 300.00 USD, and Benefactor at 450.00 USD.

LICEcap captures a selected area of a Windows or macOS desktop and saves animated recordings as GIF or LCF files. During recording, the frame can be moved, recording can be paused and restarted, and an optional text message can be inserted when pausing. Shift+Space provides a global pause toggle. Capture settings include a maximum frame rate, a basic title frame, mouse-button recording and elapsed-time display. LCF is the native format; the maker says it offers higher compression than GIF, more than 256 colors per frame and more accurate timestamps. LCF recordings can play in REAPER, where they can be converted to GIF or another video format. LICEcap is GPL free software, and download packages include source code. Version 1.32 downloads for Windows and macOS are dated June 8, 2022. Listed Windows support spans XP through 11, while macOS requirements cover 10.7–12.x on Intel 64-bit or M1. The maker recommends a reasonably fast CPU and at least 1GB of RAM, especially for LCF encoding. Discussion is directed to Cockos Forums.