Whether your home is on Twitch, TikTok, or YouTube, creators rely on green screens for content. They allow us to turn living rooms into full studios and take us into other worlds. However, getting started can be intimidating. Let us help you find the best green screen for your budget.
Best green screen for any creator’s budget
Best starter green screen – ShowMaven Lighting Kit
Price: $119.95
With a starting price of $119.95, you might ask, “What do you mean by starter green screen.” That’s a reasonable concern. However, when jumping into the world of green screen video, you should set yourself up for success. The ShowMaven lighting kit is everything you will need to make incredible videos.
This kit has a 6.5ft x 10ft background support system and white, black, and green polyester backdrops. These will form the foundation of your green screen education. This kit lets you start making videos before investing in a better background. As a bonus, the ground support system can hold up any new backgrounds you buy.
The magic of this kit, however, is the lighting setup that comes with it. You get four 6.5ft light stands, two softboxes with lighting mounts and bulbs, and two umbrella light reflectors with mounts and bulbs. Finally, there are additional light reflectors and a carrying case.
Why does this matter? If you want to make incredible green screen videos, you need good lighting. Your subjects in front of the green screen and the green screen both need lighting. You don’t want dark shadows from your subjects to come back and haunt you during editing. The good news is every video probably needs better lighting. Even if you’re just shooting TikTok’s at home, having good lights increases your content’s quality.
One note: the screen that comes with this set isn’t the thickest material. Accordingly, place it against a wall when filming. You don’t want lights to shine through the screen from behind. Still, for $120, this little kit can give your DIY projects a major professional facelift.
Pros:
- Affordable
- A great introduction to lighting
- It comes with a green screen, mounts, lights, reflectors, softboxes, and stand
- Portable carrying case
- Perfect setup for teaching yourself lighting without investing hundreds of dollars
Cons:
- The carrying case is cheap
- Light stands are perfect for a few years but are not built for rough use
- Putting together the lights can be a chore
- It uses bulbs instead of LEDs, so you need to be more careful
- A thinner green screen means you need to make sure there are no light sources behind it
Best green screen for small spaces: Fotodiox 5×7 Collapsible Chromakey Green + Blue 2-in-1
Price: $79.95
For professional creators who need a reliable, compact, and quick-to-set-up collapsible background, Fotodiox is essential. At just $80, this kit has everything you could need for great green screen content. Expanding to 5x7ft tall, this background is big enough for any Twitch or YouTube video needs your small space might face.
The Fotodiox has chromakey green and blue backgrounds, so this unit work with any location’s lighting. It’s also built to last, with heavy-duty construction that feels good in your hands during setup. Fotodiox even includes a 24-month manufacturer warranty in case anything goes wrong.
You don’t even have to worry about propping it up, thanks to the included 6-8ft stand. Should you encounter any wrinkles, this cotton background is safe to lightly steam or iron. With a tremendous solid color backing, easy setup, and an included stand, this isn’t just the best green screen for small spaces. The Fotodiox might be the best collapsible office green screen available.
Pros:
- Massive 5x7ft size fits in a compact 30×30” carry case
- It comes with green and blue screen backgrounds
- Included stand
- 24-month manufacturer warranty
- Solidly built and thick fabric
- Great price
Cons:
- 5×7 might be too big for some smaller apartments
- Learning how to fold it up can take some practice
Best professional green screen: Elgato Green Screen XL
Price: $169.99
If you’re shooting green screen videos every day but aren’t ready to paint the walls green just yet, Elgato is a professional solution. This is the luxury car of home green screens; portable, massive, easy to set up, high quality, and wrinkle-resistant. Your green screen lives inside a 79” metal rectangle with feet, ready and waiting. When you’re prepared to shoot, it can quickly be pulled up to 77.65”, making it perfect for solo video or duo interviews.
Made of durable Dacron fibers by DuPont, this screen is crisp and wrinkle-free whenever you put it up. The housing is just 4.7” tall when the screen is closed, letting it fit under a bed, up against the wall, or in a closet. You can create a wall-sized backdrop for your stream or shoot in just a minute.
Elgato also sells a 58.27”x79” model for $10 less if you’re looking to save money or simply have a smaller apartment. No matter what size you select, Elgato green screens are the best compact home studios solution you can buy. If money is no object, make sure you invest in the best.
Pros:
- Incredible build quality
- Massive wrinkle-free and compact design
- Pull up screen makes for some of the fastest set up on the market
- From the legs to the screen to the support pole, everything is in one package
- Easy to stow away
- Great price for what you get
Cons:
- Expensive for new creators
- At 6.5ft long, it can be a little awkward to find a place to store
Best budget green screen: Selens 3x5ft Green Screen Backdrop
Price: $48.99
Only some creators always need a full-on green screen in their house. If you’re a newbie or a new Twitch streamer with a ring light and a dream, Selens is here. For less than $50, you can get Selens’ incredible 3.5ft collapsible background with green and blue sides.
Both adorable and functional, Selens’ collapsible background lets you quickly pull it out of your closet. Simply remove it from the handy travel bag, attach it to a stand (sold separately), and set it up. This background is just 18.7” when collapsed, making it ideal for tiny apartments. Best of all, it won’t wrinkle up when you’ve got it stored under your bed or in a closet.
Most importantly, this model is the sort of thing you can buy to try out making green screen videos without breaking the bank. Creativity doesn’t require a massive budget, just the drive to make things.
Pros:
- Tiny and quick to set up
- Cheap
- It comes with both green and blue backs
- It comes with a photo stand mount
Cons:
- It doesn’t come with a stand to hold up the background
- It takes a little practice to learn how put it back in its case
