OBS Studio is the free recorder and streaming app most streamers, teachers and course makers end up using. You build scenes out of sources (a screen or window, a webcam, a game capture, images, browser panels, audio inputs), switch between them live, and either record to a file or stream to Twitch, YouTube, Facebook or any RTMP server. Hardware encoders from NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and Apple are supported, so recording costs little CPU.
It earns its place for having no catch: no watermark, no time limit, no account, and the same app on Windows, macOS and Linux. A large plugin ecosystem and the built-in obs-websocket remote control let other tools drive it, from stream decks to scripts.
The project dates from 2013, has about 78,000 stars and 750 contributors, and released 33.0.0 the week it was scanned. It is GPL-2.0 or later, written in C and C++. The interface is dense at first; the auto-configuration wizard on first launch gets you to sensible settings.
- Repository: github.com/obsproject/obs-studio
- Licence: GPL-2.0 (GNU General Public License v2.0)
- Language: C. Stars: 78.3K. Forks: 10.9K. Last push: Oct 23, 2026.
- Scan: safe, Oct 26, 2026, commit 72e8665
Who it is for
Streamers, teachers and anyone recording tutorials, meetings or gameplay who wants a recorder with no watermark or subscription, and people who want full control over how the picture is put together.
Getting started
1. macOS (Homebrew)
brew install --cask obs2. Windows (winget)
winget install OBSProject.OBSStudio3. Linux (Flathub)
flatpak install flathub com.obsproject.StudioInstallers for every platform are also on obsproject.com. On Linux the project publishes the Flathub package and an Ubuntu PPA itself; other distribution packages are maintained by those distributions and can lag behind.
Safety scan
We cloned obsproject/obs-studio at commit 72e8665 on Oct 26, 2026 and ran the checks described on the GitHub Tools page: credential patterns, decode-and-execute code, install-time scripts, committed binaries, risky CI workflows, every host the code talks to, known vulnerabilities in pinned dependencies, and project hygiene. A person read every hit. This is what we found.
- No secrets, no suspicious code patterns and no bare-IP URLs across roughly 500,000 lines of C, C++ and Objective-C.
- One committed binary, deps/w32-pthreads/libpthreadGC2.a: a prebuilt static library of the pthreads-win32 threading layer, used when building for Windows with MinGW. It is a build input, not something that runs on its own.
- The one installer script, .github/scripts/utils.pwsh/Install-BuildDependencies.ps1, installs build tools for Windows CI. It does not use elevated rights or pipe anything to a shell.
- The outside hosts in the code are the streaming services it supports (Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Restream) and Google's APIs for the YouTube Live integration; none is contacted unless you set that service up. There is no lockfile, so the advisory check had nothing to read; libraries such as FFmpeg and Qt come in through the build.
- 9 workflows, none using pull_request_target, and all 10 third-party actions are pinned to a commit. Security policy, CodeQL and contributing guide present; OpenSSF Scorecard 6.1 of 10.
What the scanner counted
| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| Secrets | None found. |
| Suspicious code | None found. |
| Install-time code | 1 installer script |
| Committed binaries | 1 executable or compiled object committed; listed under the raw findings. |
| CI workflows | 9 workflows. None use pull_request_target. 0 of 10 third-party actions pinned to a tag rather than a commit. |
| Network hosts | 40 distinct hosts referenced from source; most often www.gnu.org, sources.redhat.com, developer.apple.com, github.com. No URLs to bare IP addresses. |
| Known vulnerabilities | No lockfile to check: dependencies are declared as ranges, so what gets installed is whatever is current on the day. |
| Project hygiene | Has security policy, CodeQL, licence file, contributing guide. Missing automated dependency updates. |
| OpenSSF Scorecard | 6.1 out of 10, as of Oct 19, 2026. |
The raw findings
Every hit the scanner wrote out, with a link to the exact line at the scanned commit. Secrets candidates are redacted.
Installer scripts (1)
Committed binaries (1)
deps/w32-pthreads/libpthreadGC2.a: .a, 98 KB
By the numbers
| Stars | 78.3K |
|---|---|
| Forks | 10.9K |
| Contributors | 753 |
| Commits | 15.8K |
| Open issues | 834 |
| Open pull requests | 350 |
| Releases | 254 |
| Latest release | 33.0.0 |
| Licence | GPL-2.0 |
| Main language | C |
| Project age | 13 years |
| Last push | Oct 23, 2026 |
| Tracked files | 5,200 |
| Lines of code | 498.7K |
| Checkout size | 39 MB |
Lines by language: C 231.9K, C++ 123.9K, C/C++ header 88.9K, CMake 9,774, Swift 8,988, HTML 8,361.
Questions
Is OBS Studio free?
Yes. OBS Studio is free and open source under GPL-2.0 or later, with no watermark, time limit, ads or paid edition. The project is funded by donations and sponsors.
Can I use OBS just to record my screen, without streaming?
Yes. Recording to a file is a first-class feature: set up a scene with a display or window capture and press Start Recording. Many people never stream at all. Recording to MKV and remuxing to MP4 afterwards, from the File menu, protects the file if the app or computer crashes.
Does OBS Studio run on Linux and Apple Silicon Macs?
Yes. It runs natively on Apple Silicon Macs, on Windows 10 and 11, and on Linux, where the Flathub package is the easiest route. Features are close to identical across the three, though some capture methods differ by platform.
This post is part of GitHub Tools, where every repository is cloned and scanned before it is written up. The scan is a snapshot of one commit on one day; the repository has moved on since, so check it before you install.