I'm just starting out in speedrunning and I've gotten pretty decent at Portal and I'd like to start submitting my runs. Does anyone know of a good free recording software that I could use?

OBS - Open Broadcaster Software https://obsproject.com/

It's better to just submit demos, they provide more accurate times than livesplit.

Videos aren't necessary. The most common way to submit your runs is by recording demos. Just go to Resources and install the Demo Auto-Recorder Plugin (recording demos also don't affects fps).

But you can just submit video, with a risk of not being approved. (to record videos, use OBS, all the rest is fucked)

For asking more questions like this one it's more comfortable to join our discord and ask them there, feel free to join :)

Optimally you submit a video and demos, which is why we specifically ask for that for top 10 runs. In most cases a video is fine though. If we see anything suspicious will ask you for demos so its a good idea to record them anyways.

we've officially been invaded by AI generated scammers, can I get some bans in the chat?

I'm using Bandicam because OBS is annoying (i thihk its lagging because my PC is very old but anyway I can't speedrunning Portal with 10 FPS).

We all understand the importance of having tools, so your request is similar to mine. Therefore, if you want to save a little on website development, I recommend to use unamanged vps where you can learn more about the service that will help you get better business ideas and websites. This method is already used by many companies and I believe it will also be useful.

I suggest you its better to get a streaming RDP, where you can record directly from the RDP, they have multiple streaming software installed like OBS and Stream labs etc, which will be helpful for you.