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Kapture vs Cap
Both are independent takes on the same itch: screen recordings should come out looking finished. Cap's bet is openness — open source, Mac and Windows, bring-your-own storage, share links. Kapture's bet is the event log — recording what you did, and editing from it: zooms that place themselves, a drawn cursor, key-caps, and an editor your AI agent can drive.
| Kapture | Cap | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | macOS, Apple silicon | macOS (Apple silicon & Intel), Windows, Linux, Chrome extension |
| Open source | — | Yes — on GitHub |
| Price model | Free to record and edit; one licence removes the export watermark | Free personal use (5-minute limit); Desktop licence $29/year; Cap Pro $12/user/mo |
| Recording | Screen, camera, mic, system audio + input event log | 4K at 60fps; Instant, Studio and Screenshot modes |
| Automatic zooms | Yes — from recorded clicks and typing | — |
| Cursor treatment | Drawn from the event log: smooth, resizable, restyleable after | Cursor effects, motion blur |
| Keystroke overlay | Yes | — |
| Captions | On-device, word-timed | Auto transcriptions, titles, summaries, chapters |
| Multi-format cuts | Separate timelines per format over one recording | — |
| AI-agent editing (MCP) | Yes — Claude Code, Codex, Cursor | — |
| Hosting & share links | — (you own the files) | Yes — cloud links, custom domains, or your own S3/Drive |
Competitor details from cap.so as of August 26, 2026. Spotted something stale? Tell us and we'll correct it.
Pick Cap when
You need Windows or Linux, you want the code auditable, or share links with your own storage matter. Those are genuine differentiators and Kapture has none of them.
Pick Kapture when
You're on a Mac and want the edit to do the work: zooms from your actual activity, a cursor drawn after the fact, keystrokes on screen, one recording cut for every platform, takes appended into the same timeline — and an editor you can hand to an AI agent over MCP.
Questions
Both have free tiers — what's the difference?
Cap's free tier caps recordings at 5 minutes for personal use. Kapture's free tier has no time or count limits; free exports are 1080p30 and carry a watermark until a licence removes it.
Is Kapture open source?
No. If auditability is a requirement, Cap has it and we don't.