Features

Everything Recast records.

A focused recorder for solo founders, indie hackers, and product engineers who'd rather ship than fiddle. Auto-polish for the 80% case, a minimal timeline for the moments you want to control.

  • Windows Stable
  • macOS Beta
  • Linux Beta

Auto-polish on the way in

Smart zoom, cursor smoothing, silence cuts happen while you record. The demo is mostly done by the time you stop.

  • Smart zoom
  • Cursor smoothing
  • Silence cuts

Recording profiles + pause / resume

Save capture presets, switch with one shortcut. Pause mid-take when the door knocks. Paused spans trim out cleanly.

  • Profiles
  • Pause and resume
  • Multi-source

Local-first, Drive-shareable

Recordings live on your machine until you share. Export straight to your own Google Drive. You own the file, Recast servers never see it.

  • Local files
  • Drive upload
  • Own your data
Side by side

Free here. Paid in the others.

Most of what Recast ships in the free desktop app is either paywalled or missing in the products we get compared to most. The honest version.

Feature
Recast
Loom
Cap
Recording profiles (capture presets)
Built in
Not available
Limited
Hardware-accelerated export
Built in
Cloud render only
Partial
Files stay on your machine
Default
Cloud only
Local first
Share to your own storage (Drive today)
Built in, free
Not supported
Pro only
No account required to record
Never asks
Required
Required
Open source
GPLv3
Closed
AGPL
Per-seat pricing
None
Per seat
Per seat

Comparison is based on the publicly documented tiers of each product. Got a correction? Open an issue on GitHub.

Built in

The full catalog.

Every affordance worth naming, in one grid. All shipping in the free desktop app today.

Auto

Smart auto-zoom

Reads clicks and dwell, zooms toward the action. Zero keyframes.

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Cursor

Cursor smoothing

Velocity-aware easing, optional snap-to-target, motion damping.

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Audio

Silence detection

Finds dead-air spans, offers one-click cuts.

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Capture

Pause and resume

Pause mid-take, pick up where you left off. Paused spans trim out cleanly.

Learn more
Capture

Recording profiles

Save capture presets for each context. One shortcut to switch.

Learn more
Edit

Annotations and blur

Arrows, rectangles, text, privacy blur on the frame. Layers on the timeline.

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Capture

Camera bubble

Draggable webcam with shape, border, and follow-the-cursor motion.

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Layout

Smart layouts

Auto padding, gradient backgrounds, aspect framing applied as you record.

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Edit

Trim, split, replace

Lightweight editor, no hidden timeline tax.

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Store

Drive uploads

OAuth scoped to files Recast creates. Your account, your storage bill.

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Export

Hardware-encoded export

NVENC, AMD, and Intel where available. Seconds, not minutes.

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Capture

Native capture

Platform APIs end to end. ScreenCaptureKit on macOS, Wayland-native on Linux.

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Capture

Region and window

Capture a window, region, or full screen. Hot-swap mid-take.

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Files

.recast project files

Re-editable artifacts that travel with your repo.

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Offline

Offline first

Recordings and exports stay on your machine.

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Privacy

No telemetry

No phone-home. Only contacts servers when you opt in.

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UX

Shortcut-first

Every essential action is one keystroke away.

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OSS

GPLv3 open source

Source on GitHub. Dual licensing for closed-source redistribution.

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ready when you are

Skip the editor. Ship the demo.

Free forever. No account. Windows is daily-driver stable, macOS and Linux are in active beta.

Download for Windows Stable Download for macOS Beta Download for Linux Beta
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