Action! vs Medal.tv

Action! by Mirillis is a Windows screen and gameplay recording tool built for capturing DirectX, OpenGL, and Vulkan games in high definition, alongside desktop activity, application windows, and web video. It supports live streaming directly to Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook, and can export finished recordings straight to YouTube or Facebook without a separate upload step. Recordings use hardware acceleration via NVIDIA NVENC, AMD APP, or Intel Quick Sync Video, along with Mirillis's own FICV codec, to keep capture performance smooth even during demanding gameplay. Additional features include a Greenscreen mode for removing webcam backgrounds, 120fps slow-motion capture, Time-Shift recording, and a companion Android remote-control app. It is sold as a single lifetime license rather than a subscription.

Medal is a game recording tool that lets players instantly save the last few seconds or minutes of gameplay with a hotkey (default F8), rather than recording entire sessions. An auto-clip feature can automatically capture defined moments like kills, wins or goals in supported games such as Fortnite, League of Legends, Valorant and Dota 2. Clips can be edited in-app with music and effects, stitched into montages, and shared to a mobile app on iOS and Android for viewing and posting on the go. The desktop app is Windows-only; Medal does not maintain a macOS recording client. The core product is free with no watermark or clip-count limit, with optional paid features like extended cloud storage.

• One-time lifetime license with free updates rather than a recurring subscription
• Strong hardware-acceleration support keeps recording overhead low during gameplay
• Built-in live streaming to major platforms without needing separate broadcasting software
• Greenscreen and Time-Shift modes are useful extras not found in every competing recorder

• Free tier is genuinely usable with no watermark or clip limits
• Auto-clip removes the need to manually catch highlight moments
• Low performance overhead compared to full session recorders
• Mobile app makes sharing clips fast

• Windows-only, with no native Mac or Linux version
• Interface and workflow feel dated compared to newer competitors like OBS Studio or NVIDIA ShadowPlay
• OBS Studio offers comparable streaming/recording features for free, making Action!'s paid model a harder sell for budget-conscious users

• No native macOS desktop recording app
• Auto-clip detection only supports a limited list of popular games
• Premium features like extended cloud storage require a paid plan