LICEcap review

LICEcap from Cockos is the simplest way to turn a piece of your screen into a GIF. You place a frame over part of the desktop, press record and it writes straight to .GIF, or to Cockos's own .LCF format, which the company says compresses better and keeps more than 256 colors per frame. You can move the frame during capture, pause with a shift+space hotkey, insert text messages, add a title frame, show elapsed time and record mouse clicks, and a maximum frame rate setting limits CPU use. It is GPL free software with source in every download, and the installers are under 1MB. The weak points are age and editing: the current v1.32 shipped on June 8, 2022, macOS support is listed up to version 12, and there is no editor after recording, so trims and captions happen in Ezgif or Photopea. We compared documented features and published prices.

Who it is for

People recording short screen demos straight to GIF

Price

Free; GPL software.

LICEcap is GPL free software, each download package includes the source.
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 11, 2026.

Key features

• Records a desktop area directly to .GIF or its lossless .LCF format
• Move the capture frame while recording
• Pause and restart with optional inserted text messages
• Global hotkey (shift+space) to toggle pausing
• Records mouse button presses and can show elapsed time

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Installers are 250kb on Windows and 876kb on macOS
• Strength: Adjustable maximum frame rate to limit CPU use
• Strength: Title frame option with or without text
• Weakness: Latest release, v1.32, dates from June 8, 2022
• Weakness: macOS support is listed for 10.7 to 12.x
• Weakness: No editing after capture beyond what is set while recording

Key facts

• Price: Free, GPL
• Platforms: Windows XP to 11, macOS 10.7 to 12.x
• Latest version: v1.32, June 8, 2022
• Output: .GIF or .LCF

Where it ranks

LICEcap is No. 9 in our Best GIF Makers verdict.