Cap suits developers, founders, and support teams who record their screen weekly and want polished, shareable videos without handing every recording to a vendor cloud. Its Tauri desktop recorder, one-click links, optional self-hosting, and Studio editor cover capture, polish, and sharing in a single open-source package. Teams that need Linux capture, a long independent review record, or a fully managed cloud with years of operating history should weigh Loom or Screen Studio instead. If you live on macOS or Windows and want Loom-style speed with a self-hosting exit, choose Cap; if you need Linux or the most mature managed cloud, choose Loom.[1][2][3]
Good fit. Product and engineering teams doing weekly demos, code walkthroughs, and bug reproductions will love the record-to-link loop with comments and transcripts, which replaces meetings with videos people can watch at double speed.[1]
Keep in mind. Cap ships for macOS and Windows only, with Linux merely a contributors-welcome note, so a Linux team cannot adopt it today.[1][2]
Repository review signals: unknown status, very stale · Observed August 31, 2026.
Sources and editorial review
Source research. Reviewed on October 9, 2026. Written by Sanjib Sah. AI assisted; reviewed by a human editor.
We have not run or tested this product.
- Cap: Beautiful, Shareable Screen Recordings
official · Observed October 9, 2026
Official homepage observed 2026-10-09: open-source screen recorder; record, edit, share in seconds; 25,000 GitHub stars; instant links; Studio editor with trim, 1080p/4K, backgrounds, auto zoom; comments and reactions; custom S3 on Pro; local-first privacy with Frankfurt GDPR/CCPA hosting.
- Cap Pricing
official · Observed October 9, 2026
Official pricing observed 2026-10-09 in USD: Free forever with 30-day storage and 100 videos; Pro $16 per creator/month annual or $20 monthly; Commercial $8 annual or $10 monthly; AI subtitle and transcription minutes capped per tier.
- Cap Self-Hosting Documentation
official · Observed October 9, 2026
Official self-hosting docs observed 2026-10-09: AGPLv3 with free personal self-hosting; commercial use needs the $8/month license without full compliance; desktop records locally with no account; Cap Cloud via Docker with S3-compatible storage.
- CapSoftware/Cap repository README
official · Observed October 9, 2026
Repository README at inspected revision observed 2026-10-09: 100 percent open source, YC-backed, 400-plus contributors; Rust plus Tauri plus TypeScript; roughly 30MB app with no Chromium; macOS and Windows only; MIT for Cap crates, AGPLv3 otherwise, commercial EULA available.