The Cap Insider’s Guide
Everything we know about Cap in one document: what it costs, its grades, getting a refund, getting help and what else to look at. Read it here, or keep a copy.
Cap
The Insider’s Guide
Open-source screen recorder with instant share links and an editor
Every plan, grade, refund rule and rival among screen recording and video tools, read from Cap’s own pages.
Made by Cap Software, Inc. · checked Oct 6, 2026 · toolgpa.com
Contents
- 01WelcomeWhat it is, who it suits, its grades and the ten things to know first
- 02What it costsEvery plan, the free plan, ways to pay less and how prices have moved
- 03What it doesIts main features, where it runs, what it works with and who makes it
- 04Where it standsIts grades against its category, and whether to keep it or make your own
- 05The alternativesThe tools it is most often weighed against, side by side
- 06Quick answersThe questions people ask about it, each answered in a line or two
- 07About ToolGPAWho made this guide, what else is on the site, and how to cite it
ToolGPA put this guide together from Cap’s own pages, its app-store listings and our grades. Every fact in it is on Cap’s page too, where it is kept up to date. Checked Oct 6, 2026.
Part 01 · Overview
Welcome
What it is, who it suits, its grades and the ten things to know first
3.2
GPA, above 50 of the 52 other screen recording and video tools we grade
Cap is an open-source screen recorder with three modes. Instant Mode uploads while you record and copies a share link when you stop, Studio Mode records locally in 4K and opens an editor with backgrounds, automatic zoom and cursor effects, and Screenshot Mode captures and styles still images. Recordings can be shared through Cap's cloud, kept in your own S3 bucket or Google Drive, or served from a self-hosted copy of the platform.
To get you started, here are 9 things to know about Cap, taken from its own pages and our grades.
Self-hosting is there if you want it, and nobody has to.
- 1
Best for an open-source screen recorder you can host yourself
It's free for personal use only, so work needs a paid license.
- 2
Paid plans start at $2.42 a month when paid by the year for each person
As its pricing page puts it: $29 per year for a Desktop License; Cap Pro is $8.16 per user / month, billed annually.
- 3
There is a free plan
Free for personal use: Studio Mode with the full editor, 4K 60fps export and share links for recordings of up to 5 minutes. Commercial use needs a paid license.
- 4
It runs on 3 platforms
macOS, Windows and Linux, with a browser extension too.
- 5
Instant Mode
Uploads in the background while you record, so a share link is on the clipboard the moment you stop. Viewers watch in a browser with no account or download.
- 6
Studio Mode and editor
Records locally at up to 4K and 60fps with separate screen, camera and microphone tracks, then opens an editor with backgrounds, automatic zoom, cursor effects, blur masks and scenes.
- 7
Screenshot Mode
A hotkey captures a window or an area, and the image can be given a background, padding and a shadow before it is copied to the clipboard or shared as a link.
- 8
A 3.2 GPA, above 50 of 52
That is against the other screen recording and video tools we grade, on value, the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
- 9
Keep it
To replace Cap you would be making a video editor. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.
Cap at a glance
- Pricing
- Free plan, from $29 per year for a Desktop License; Cap Pro is $8.16 per user / month, billed annually
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free trial
- None stated
- Runs on
- macOS, Windows, Linux, Browser extension
- Made by
- Cap Software, Inc., since 2023
- Category
- Screen Recording & Video
- Our grade
- 3.2 GPA, very good
The report card
Best for an open-source screen recorder you can host yourself
Cap is an open-source screen recorder in the Loom mould: Instant Mode puts a share link on your clipboard, Studio Mode records locally in 4K with an editor, and you can host it yourself. It's free for personal use only, so work needs a paid license. Share links stop at 5 minutes until Cap Pro at $8.16 a user a month, the Windows build is still beta, and there's no phone app.
| Subject | Grade | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | A | A Desktop License is $29 a year, about $2.42 a month, or $58 once for life, and that covers commercial use with unlimited local recording and editing. That's well under the $10 middle for video tools here. Cap Pro is $8.16 a user a month billed annually. |
| Free plan and trial | B | Free for personal use with Studio Mode, the full editor and 4K 60fps export, so someone recording for themselves could really live on it. Two walls: share links stop at 5 minutes, and using it for work needs a paid license. |
| Features | B | Instant share links, a local editor with automatic zoom, blur masks and scenes, styled screenshots, share pages with comments and chapters, and captions transcribed on the device in 19 languages. The recording job is covered. The gap the listing names: the Windows build is still labelled beta. |
| Ease of use | B | No store rating on record, but there's nothing to set up: record, stop, paste the link, and whoever you send it to needs no account or download. Self-hosting is there if you want it, and nobody has to. |
| Platforms and integrations | B | Mac, Windows and Linux apps plus a Chrome extension, with a CLI and a local MCP server so coding agents like Claude Code and Cursor can drive it. No iOS or Android app, so nothing on a phone. |
An A is worth 4 points, a B 3, a C 2, a D 1 and an F nothing. The GPA is the average of the five.
Who Cap is for
- Fits if your team wants an open-source Loom alternative it can host itself
- Works for developers sending bug reports and updates as video links
Who it is not for
- Skip it if you record for work and won't pay, as the free version is for personal use only
- Tight if you share long recordings, since links stop at 5 minutes on Free and on the Desktop License
- Not for you if you record from your phone, because no iOS or Android app is listed
- Watch out: the Windows build is still beta, and AI summaries, the Loom importer and S3 storage are Cap Pro only
- Pricey if you need SSO, which is a flat $199 a month on top of Cap Pro, or a BAA at $99 a month
Good to know
Good for
- Teams that want an open-source Loom alternative they can self-host
- Developers sending bug reports and async updates as video links
- Product demos and tutorials that need zooms, backgrounds and captions
Worth knowing
- The free version is licensed for personal use only; commercial use needs a Desktop License or Cap Pro.
- Share links on the Free plan and the Desktop License are limited to recordings of up to 5 minutes; unlimited cloud sharing needs Cap Pro.
- AI titles, summaries and chapters, cloud transcriptions, the Loom importer and custom S3 or Google Drive storage are Cap Pro only.
- The Windows build is labeled beta on the download page, and no iOS or Android app is listed.
Part 02 · Pricing
What it costs
Every plan, the free plan, ways to pay less and how prices have moved
$2.42
A month to start, paid by the year, for each person. There is a free plan too
Cap has a free plan. Paid plans start at $29 per year for a Desktop License; Cap Pro is $8.16 per user / month, billed annually.
Free
$0
Personal use only: Studio Mode with the full editor, 4K 60fps export and share links for recordings of up to 5 minutes.
Desktop License
$29
per license / year, or $58 once for a lifetime license
Commercial use for one user, unlimited local recording and editing, and 20 cloud share links a month of up to 5 minutes each.
Cap Pro
$8.16
per user / month, billed annually ($12 billed monthly)
Unlimited cloud storage and sharing, AI titles, summaries, chapters and transcripts, custom domain, password protection and viewer analytics.
Enterprise
Cap Pro price + add-ons
Cap Pro for large organizations, with optional SAML SSO at a flat $199 a month and a signed BAA at $99 a month per organization.
The free plan
Free for personal use: Studio Mode with the full editor, 4K 60fps export and share links for recordings of up to 5 minutes. Commercial use needs a paid license.
Read from cap.so on Oct 6, 2026.
Ways to pay less
Annual discount
Save 32% on Cap Pro with annual billing
The pricing page lists Cap Pro at $8.16 per user a month when billed annually, against $12 per user billed monthly.
Stated on cap.soLifetime license
Lifetime Desktop License for $58
The Desktop License can be bought once for $58 as a license that never renews, instead of paying $29 per license each year.
Stated on cap.soEducation
30% student discount
Cap's student discount page offers students 30% off any premium plan, applied with a discount code at checkout.
Stated on cap.so
Part 03 · Features
What it does
Its main features, where it runs, what it works with and who makes it
4
Places it runs: macOS, Windows, Linux and Browser extension
Open-source screen recorder with instant share links and an editor. Here is what it does, as its own site describes it, and what it covers: open source, self-hostable, AI features, transcription, screen recording, video editing, screenshots.
The gap the listing names: the Windows build is still labelled beta.
- Instant Mode
- Uploads in the background while you record, so a share link is on the clipboard the moment you stop. Viewers watch in a browser with no account or download.
- Studio Mode and editor
- Records locally at up to 4K and 60fps with separate screen, camera and microphone tracks, then opens an editor with backgrounds, automatic zoom, cursor effects, blur masks and scenes.
- Screenshot Mode
- A hotkey captures a window or an area, and the image can be given a background, padding and a shadow before it is copied to the clipboard or shared as a link.
- Share pages
- Each capture gets a page with comments, reactions, a transcript and chapters. Password protection, a custom domain and viewer analytics are part of Cap Pro.
- Cap AI and captions
- Cap Pro generates titles, summaries, clickable chapters and transcriptions for every recording with no usage limit. Studio Mode can also transcribe captions on the device in 19 languages.
- Own storage, self-hosting and agents
- Cap Pro can store recordings in a custom S3 bucket or Google Drive, and the whole platform can be self-hosted. A CLI and local MCP server let AI coding agents record and manage videos.
Where it runs
- macOS
- Windows
- Linux
- Browser extension
What it works with
- Google Drive
- Amazon S3
- Claude Code
- Cursor
- Codex
Who makes Cap
Cap is made by Cap Software, Inc., which publishes most of the code on GitHub under AGPLv3. The app can be downloaded and used for free, and the money comes from Cap Pro subscriptions and the paid sharing and storage on cap.so.
- Founded
- 2023cap.so
- Ownership
- Privately held. Privately held. The footer names Cap Software, Inc. as the owner and the terms put the company under the law of Delaware. No parent company and no investors are named anywhere on its pages.cap.so
- Founders and leaders
- Richie McIlroy, Foundercap.so
- Lately
- Cap v0.6 is here · Sep 15, 2026
- HIPAA compliance · Aug 13, 2026
- MacBook Notch Overlay & Recording Reliability Fixes · Aug 9, 2026
- CLI API Keys, No-Mic Confirmation & macOS Memory Leak Fixes · Aug 5, 2026
Read on Oct 18, 2026 from the company’s own pages and from news reports. What is not stated there is left out.
Part 04 · Standing
Where it stands
Its grades against its category, and whether to keep it or make your own
50/52
Other screen recording and video tools it is graded above
Cap's GPA of 3.2 is higher than 50 of the 52 other screen recording and video tools we grade.
It stands best on value for money (A, above 39 of 52) and worst on platforms and integrations (B, above 15).
Its paid plans start at $2.42 a month when paid by the year for each person, against a middle price of $10 for the category: 0 of the 41 others that charge start lower.
On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.0 out of 4, and no tool on the category's chart scores higher without costing more.
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 53 screen recording and video tools we grade, cut by the letter each got. Cap’s own letter is outlined.
- AValue for moneyAbove 39 of 52
- BFree plan and trialAbove 40 of 52
- BFeaturesAbove 26 of 52
- BEase of useAbove 20 of 52
- BPlatforms and integrationsAbove 15 of 52
Price against what you get
Each dot is one of 46 screen recording and video tools. Further left costs less; higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. Cap is the marked dot.
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
Keep it, or make your own?
Whether this is something you could build for yourself with an AI app builder, and what you would give up.
Keep it
To replace Cap you would be making a video editor. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.
It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 3.2 is higher than 50 of the 52 other screen recording and video tools we grade. It costs $29 a year. Cap is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself.
What you could not
- A video editor.
- Recording the screen with its sound, and somewhere to keep the video.
- Capture tools hooked into the operating system.
- Speech turned into text you can trust.
- Apps for macOS, Windows and Linux that stay in step with each other.
- It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team.
- It plugs into other products, Google Drive, Amazon S3 and Claude Code among them.
- AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.
What this rests on. Cap’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
Part 05 · Alternatives
The alternatives
The tools it is most often weighed against, side by side
Loom, Screen Studio, Tella, OBS Studio and Screenity
The 5 tools Cap is most often weighed against, with where each one differs from it.
- 2.8GPA
Loom
Free plan · from $18/mo
Screen and camera recorder for shareable video messages.
- Only Cap lists a Linux app.
- Only Loom lists iOS and Android apps.
- Cap is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- 1.6GPA
Screen Studio
From $9/mo
Mac screen recorder with automatic zooms and cursor smoothing.
- Cap has a free plan. Screen Studio does not.
- Only Cap lists Windows and Linux apps.
- Only Cap lists a browser extension.
- 2.6GPA
Tella
Free trial · from $13/mo
Screen recorder with a built-in editor, layouts and 4K export.
- Cap has a free plan. Tella does not, though it has a free trial.
- Only Cap lists a Linux app.
- Only Tella lists a web app.
- 2.8GPA
OBS Studio
Free
Free, open-source software for video recording and live streaming.
- Only Cap lists a browser extension.
- Cap is self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Cap also covers transcription, video editing and screenshots.
- 2.4GPA
Screenity
Free plan · from $10/mo
Open-source Chrome screen recorder with a scene-based editor.
- Only Cap lists macOS, Windows and Linux apps.
- Only Screenity lists a web app.
- Cap is self-hostable, according to its own site.
Part 06 · Questions
Quick answers
The questions people ask about it, each answered in a line or two
14
Questions, each answered in a line or two
The short version of everything above, for when you only need the answer. Each one is told in full in its part of the guide.
Is Cap free?
Cap has a free plan. Free for personal use: Studio Mode with the full editor, 4K 60fps export and share links for recordings of up to 5 minutes.
How much does Cap cost?
Cap lists 4 plans. Free: $0.
What platforms does Cap work on?
Cap is available on macOS, Windows and Linux. It also has a browser extension.
Does Cap offer any discounts?
Cap publicly lists the following: Save 32% on Cap Pro with annual billing; Lifetime Desktop License for $58; 30% student discount.
Does Cap have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Oct 6, 2026. Cap is listed for macOS, Windows and Linux.
Does Cap have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Oct 6, 2026. Cap is listed for macOS, Windows and Linux.
Is Cap open source?
Yes. Cap is open source, according to its own site.
What does Cap integrate with?
Cap's listing names Google Drive, Amazon S3, Claude Code, Cursor and Codex.
Does Cap have a student discount?
30% student discount. Cap's student discount page offers students 30% off any premium plan, applied with a discount code at checkout.
Who makes Cap?
Cap is made by Cap Software, Inc. Privately held.
What are the alternatives to Cap?
The closest alternatives to Cap in our directory are Loom, Screen Studio, Tella, OBS Studio and Screenity.
How does Cap compare with other screen recording and video tools?
Cap's GPA of 3.2 is higher than 50 of the 52 other screen recording and video tools we grade.
Is Cap good value for money?
ToolGPA grades Cap A for value for money. Its paid plans start at $2.42 a month when paid by the year for each person, against a middle price of $10 for the category: 0 of the 41 others that charge start lower.
Could I make my own version of Cap?
To replace Cap you would be making a video editor. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.
Where this guide comes from
The prices, plans, platforms and features were read from Cap’s own pages on Oct 6, 2026, and the grades were given on Oct 10, 2026. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Cap's own pages on 6 October 2026. Also tested with a demo account on 2026-05-22.
Every tool we list gets five grades, A to F, each with its reason, and a GPA that averages them. How each is decided is at toolgpa.com/grades. This guide is ToolGPA’s own work; it is not made, paid for or approved by Cap Software, Inc. Prices change, so check cap.so before you buy.
Part 07 · About
About ToolGPA
Who made this guide, what else is on the site, and how to cite it
3,189
Tools graded, in 94 categories
ToolGPA grades software the way a school report grades a pupil: five subjects, a letter for each with the reason written beside it, and a GPA that averages them. Prices, plans and platforms are read from each maker’s own pages and dated, so you always know how fresh a figure is.
Every grade, review and ranking on ToolGPA is our own judgement. No company can pay for a grade or change one. Every tool on the site has a guide like this one, free to download and pass on. It all lives at toolgpa.com.
3,189
tools graded
94
categories
426
price changes on record
579
apps priced in 12 countries
What else is on toolgpa.com
- Cap, kept up to dateEverything in this guide, with prices and grades as they are todaytoolgpa.com/tools/cap
- How grades are givenThe rules behind every letter and every GPAtoolgpa.com/grades
- Value chartsWhat each tool costs against what it scores, for every categorytoolgpa.com/charts
- CompareAny two tools side by side, plan by plantoolgpa.com/compare
- Price changesEvery price rise and cut on record, each with its sourcetoolgpa.com/price-changes
- Prices by countryWhat apps cost on the App Store in 12 countriestoolgpa.com/prices-by-country
- Pay lessEvery public discount: yearly billing, students, nonprofitstoolgpa.com/save
- Keep or makeWhich tools are worth paying for, and which you could build yourselftoolgpa.com/keep-or-make
Scan for the live page
Prices and grades as they are today
Quoting this guide?
Please name ToolGPA and link to the live page, so readers can check the figures for themselves:
ToolGPA, "Cap: The Insider's Guide", checked Oct 6, 2026. https://toolgpa.com/tools/cap
Know someone choosing between screen recording and video tools?
Send them this guide: toolgpa.com/tools/cap/guide
ToolGPA elsewhere: youtube.com/@toolgpa
See our other guides
The best-graded screen recording and video tools after Cap, each with an Insider's Guide of its own.
- Screen Recording & Video Insider's GuideEvery one of the 53 screen recording and video tools we grade, compared
- DaVinci Resolve Insider's GuideVideo editing, color, effects and audio post-production in one app3.4 GPA
- Zencastr Insider's GuideFree podcast recording, chat-based editing and hosting in one app3.4 GPA
- Cursorful Insider's GuideScreen recorder that adds zooms and pans automatically3.0 GPA
Choosing software? Every tool graded, every price dated.
Compare tools at toolgpa.com ›Everything in this guide is ToolGPA’s own summary of what Cap’s pages, its app-store listings and public reviews said on the dates shown. Grades are our judgement under the rules at toolgpa.com/grades. Every grade, review and ranking on ToolGPA is our own judgement. No company can pay for a grade or change one. Cap is a trademark of its owner, and this guide is not made, paid for or approved by Cap Software, Inc. Prices and plans change: check cap.so before you buy.