i recently made the transition from Bandicam to OBS (I use no money for my speedrunning hobby) and my footage has become laggy to the point the runs may not be verified. Any good recorders for free/tips for OBS?

Lower the quality of recording videos. For example, 1080/60fps might be too much for your PC to handle. Try settings like 720/30fps. The quality is lower, but this should reduce/remove any lag.

Also a tip: Close your browser while recording.

Turn off the preview in OBS when recording or streaming.