Can QuickTime Player record a website scrolling smoothly?

It records the scroll exactly as you performed it, which for a trackpad means the small accelerations and stalls your hand made are in the final file. There is no smoothing pass and no way to author the motion, so an even scroll depends entirely on the take.

Can I set a custom recording size in QuickTime Player?

You can drag a region before recording, which sets the capture area by eye. There is no field for exact pixel dimensions and no aspect-ratio lock, so hitting 1080 x 1920 precisely means cropping the export afterwards.

Is it worth paying for a screen recorder when macOS includes one?

Only if the recording is a deliverable. If a video is going on a portfolio, in a case study or into a launch post, the difference between a captured take and an authored one is visible to everyone who watches it - and that is the entire gap Viewport is built to close.

When QuickTime Player stops being enough

Free, already installed, and genuinely fine - right up to the point where the recording is the deliverable.

QuickTime Player is the free screen recorder built into macOS, and for capturing what happens on your screen it is entirely adequate. It has no editing timeline, no control over output dimensions beyond the region you drag, no cursor smoothing and no way to repeat a take exactly. Viewport exists for the recordings where those four things are the whole job.

Viewport vs QuickTime Player, side by side

Viewport compared with QuickTime Player, by pricing model, platform, authoring approach, output framing, account requirement and updates.
Comparison criterion	Viewport	QuickTime Player
Pricing model	$9.99 once, no subscription	Free, bundled with macOS
Platform	macOS 13.1+	macOS
How a take is made	Authored on a timeline, replayed identically	Live performance, recorded as-is
Output framing	Exact dimensions or aspect ratio set before recording	Dragged region or full screen
Account required	No	No
Updates	All future updates included	With macOS

What QuickTime Player costs

QuickTime Player ships with macOS at no cost. There is no paid tier and nothing to buy - which makes the only real question whether its output is good enough for what you are making, not whether it is worth the money.

Source: Apple support. Checked 19 August 2026. Third-party pricing and limits change; confirm at the source before relying on them.

Which one you should actually use

Choose QuickTime Player if…

You need a quick capture for a bug report, a colleague, or your own reference. QuickTime is right there and costs nothing.
You are recording a native app or a system dialog.
The recording is going to be watched once and thrown away.
You are on a machine where you cannot install anything.

Choose Viewport if…

The scroll has to be smooth. QuickTime records your trackpad exactly as your hand moved it, jitter included.
The output has to be 1080 x 1920, or 4:3, or any size that is not the shape of the region you dragged.
You will need the take again after the design changes.
Animations need to have finished loading before the recording starts - Viewport lets the page settle first, deliberately.

QuickTime Player and Viewport, answered

Try the QuickTime Player alternative that authors the take.

Viewport is a macOS screen recorder that builds the take on a timeline instead of asking you to perform it. $9.99 once - no subscription, no account.

Usual price ~~$19.99~~ founder discount · macOS 13.1 or later

Viewport vs Screen Studio

Viewport is a one-time-purchase alternative to Screen Studio for macOS. Both produce smooth, polished screen recordings, but they get there differently: Screen Studio records a live performance and applies automatic zoom and cursor smoothing afterwards, while Viewport has you place scrolls, clicks and hovers on a timeline and replays them identically every take.

Viewport vs Loom

Viewport is a one-time-purchase macOS alternative to Loom for recording websites. Loom is optimised for fast, disposable async messages hosted in its cloud and shared by link; Viewport is optimised for a finished video file you author on a timeline and publish yourself. Loom bills per seat every month, Viewport costs $9.99 once and needs no account.

Viewport vs CleanShot X

CleanShot X and Viewport are both one-time-purchase macOS tools, but they solve different halves of the problem. CleanShot X is a best-in-class screenshot and quick-capture utility that also records video. Viewport does not take screenshots at all - it loads a website, frames it to an exact size, and replays a scroll-and-click sequence you built on a timeline.

Viewport vs OBS Studio

OBS Studio is a free, open-source broadcasting suite with scenes, sources, filters and streaming built in. Viewport is a small macOS app that does one thing: load a website, frame it exactly, and replay a scroll-and-click sequence you authored on a timeline. OBS can capture anything; it cannot author the motion of a page for you.