Abstract The presented study was conducted to assess the shear capacity and the mechanical behavior of fiber reinforced concrete two-span beams in a five-point bending test. Experimental research was focused on observing changes in the behavior of tested elements depending on the amount of shear reinforcement (stirrups) and the fiber type used. The beams had varied stirrup spacing and two sorts of fibers were used as dispersed reinforcement. The steel fiber content was 78.5 kg/m3 and the basalt fiber content was 5.0 kg/m3. Concrete beams without addition of fibers were also examined as reference ones. The effectiveness of both sorts of fibers as shear reinforcement was assessed on the basis of strain development and crack pattern analysis. The digital image correlation technique was used to monitor the development of cracks around the central support of beams. It was shown that fibers control the cracking process and deformations in reinforced concrete beams and they can be effectively used as additional or the only shear reinforcement. The results of shear capacity obtained in the experiment were also compared with the shear capacity calculated according to current design approaches. This analysis has shown that fibers enhance the ultimate shear strength of reinforced concrete beams.