Cap Screen Recorder 0.4.71

Cap is a free, open-source screen recorder built as a direct alternative to Loom, giving you full ownership of your recordings while delivering the same instant-share workflow that made Loom popular. 

Available for Windows and macOS, Cap lets you record, edit, and share screen captures in seconds - with no watermarks, no time limits on local recordings, and no vendor lock-in.

Two Recording Modes for Every Workflow

Cap offers two distinct recording modes to match different workflows.

Instant Mode uploads your recording as you capture, generating a shareable link the moment you stop - perfect for quick bug reports, async team updates, and client demos.

Studio Mode records at full quality directly to your device with no compression or upload, giving you complete control over 4K footage before you decide what to do with it.

Both modes capture your screen and webcam separately, allowing professional-level editing after the fact.

How Cap Compares to Other Screen Capture Tools

What sets Cap apart from tools like OBS Studio or ShareX is its focus on video messaging rather than just raw capture.

Every recording automatically gets AI-generated titles, summaries, chapters, and transcripts.

Built-in thread commenting on shared links means your team can give feedback directly on the video without switching to another app.

If you need more advanced capture features like scene composition or multi-source mixing, OBS Studio remains the go-to choice, while ShareX excels at screenshot workflows with annotation tools.

Privacy, Self-Hosting, and Data Ownership

Privacy and data ownership are central to Cap's design. You can connect your own S3 storage bucket, use a custom domain for branded sharing links, or keep everything entirely local.

For teams with compliance requirements, Cap offers self-hosting through Docker - deploy it on your own infrastructure and maintain complete control over where recordings live. This makes Cap particularly appealing for developers, IT teams, and organizations that cannot send sensitive screen content to third-party cloud services.

Editing and Post-Production Options

Once you have finished recording, Cap's built-in editor handles basic trimming and adjustments. For more advanced post-production, export your recordings and use LosslessCut for quick lossless trimming without re-encoding, or bring clips into Shotcut for multi-track timeline editing with transitions and effects.

Need to add polished captions or text overlays? CapCut provides AI-powered auto-captioning that pairs well with Cap's raw recordings.

For lightweight screen captures where you just need a quick screenshot or short clip without the sharing infrastructure, Kalmuri runs portably from your system tray with zero installation.

System Requirements and Performance

Cap runs natively on both Windows and macOS with a clean, minimal interface built using Rust and Tauri - no sluggish Electron wrappers. The desktop app is lightweight and launches fast, staying out of your way until you need it.

System requirements are modest, and the native architecture means smooth performance even on older hardware. The entire project is open source on GitHub, backed by an active community and regular updates.

Download Cap and start recording shareable screen captures without subscriptions, watermarks, or data concerns. Whether you are creating tutorials, documenting bugs, sending async updates to your team, or building product demos, Cap delivers the speed and simplicity of Loom with the freedom and privacy of open-source software.