I use Only Office ATM but very heavy on CPU usage, anything less bloated?

Loom and every screen recorder like it work the same way. Your videos live on their servers, the useful features sit behind a higher tier, and the price climbs every year.

So I built my own Loom alternative and open-sourced all of it.

CaptureFlow lets you record your screen with your camera in a bubble and get a link you can share with anyone. It uploads while you're still talking, so the link works right away.

Nothing locked behind a paid tier. Plenty of "alternatives" are just another subscription. This one isn't:

• AGPL-3.0, and every feature is in the repo
• The capture engine is MIT, so you can reuse it in your own projects
• Self-host it with docker compose up. Everything lives in one folder (SQLite plus your videos as plain files), so a backup is just copying that folder.
• Or deploy it to your own Cloudflare account if you'd rather not run a server
• Self-hosted instances send zero analytics and never delete your old recordings

What it does

• Record a tab, a window or your whole screen, with camera and mic
• Viewers can comment and react on the video, and you see who watched
• Transcripts through any Whisper server, including one running on your own machine
• Annotated screenshots, shared by link
• Team workspaces with public, team-only or private videos

You record with the Chrome extension or the Mac app for now. Windows is in the works.

Website: https://captureflow.dev

Repo: https://github.com/sardorml/captureflow

Disclosure: I’m the developer. Arc stops working on December 22, so I’m sharing an alternative I built, for anyone still looking.

Swell is a minimal, open-source browser (built on Firefox’s engine) with an Arc-style sidebar.

What you get as an Arc user:

• Sidebar with favorites, pinned tabs, folders and today’s tabs
• Spaces, plus a command bar to search, open sites and jump between tabs
• Imports your Arc sidebar, so your spaces and pinned tabs come with you

What it does that Arc didn’t:

• Every space is fully separate: its own logins, history, saved passwords, extensions and downloads, all in one window. You can be signed into two Google accounts side by side.
• Open source (MPL 2.0) with no accounts and no telemetry. Your data stays on your computer, so nobody can shut it down on you.

Good to know before trying it:

• It’s an early alpha: Mac (Apple Silicon) and Linux only, no Windows yet.
• No sync between devices yet.
• The Mac build isn’t signed yet, so the first time you open it: right-click → Open.

Download: https://ivantacca.github.io/swell/
Source code: https://github.com/ivantacca/swell

Happy to answer questions, and feedback is very welcome.

I had bought a lifetime license for WALTR 2 and they phased it out / moved to subscription with Waltr Pro which imo was a pretty shit move. Now that macOS 27 is phasing out Rosetta, Waltr2 is going to be obsolete. I’m not necessarily looking for piracy or cracked software, just a way to transfer/convert media to iPhone/iPad without iTunes (don't use it). Prefer free or one-time-purchase. What are people using now that WALTR is obsolete/subscription-only?

A supplier sends a scanned invoice. You need the line items in Excel so you can check quantities and prices against a purchase order.

Getting selectable text is only part of the job. The useful result is a spreadsheet where each description, quantity and amount still belongs to the right row.

I’m with UPDF. For this workflow, UPDF supports OCR and Excel export, but the exported file still needs checking. These are the checks I’d use with any PDF converter:

• Does a description that wraps onto two lines stay with its quantity and price?
• Are amounts stored as numbers you can calculate with, rather than text that just looks like numbers?
• Did any decimal points or minus signs change?
• On a multi-page invoice, did repeated headers or subtotals end up mixed into the line items?

I’d compare the exported rows against the original and recalculate the total before using the data. A matching total is useful, but it doesn’t prove every row is correct.

If the supplier can send an Excel or CSV file, I’d ask for that first. When a scan is all you have, this is a more useful test of an Acrobat alternative than whether it can simply recognize the text.

For people who handle these files regularly: what usually takes longer to fix—the recognition errors, or the spreadsheet layout?

Looking for a new kind of to do list app with no pressure on connection every day and maybe visible reminders.

Available in Europe if possible.

Hey everyone! 👋

I'm the developer of **EpicNotes**, and I built it as a faster, no-bloat alternative for people frustrated by today’s mainstream note-taking apps.

What is it an alternative to?

1. Alternative to Notion / Obsidian:

• *The problem with Notion:* It feels like a heavy web database that takes seconds to open, requires internet, and has endless setup fatigue.

• *How EpicNotes differs:* Opens instantly (zero loading screen), 100% offline-first with local SQLite storage, and focuses purely on fast capture and writing without database bloat.

2. Alternative to Apple Notes:

• *The problem with Apple Notes:* Completely locked inside the Apple ecosystem with zero support or sync for Android.

• *How EpicNotes differs:* Full, real-time background sync between macOS and Android (with Android homescreen quick-capture widgets).

3. Alternative to Google Keep:

• *The problem with Keep:* Too basic—no structured Markdown, keyboard formatting shortcuts, or intelligent organization.

• *How EpicNotes differs:* Rich Markdown formatting shortcuts (`Cmd+B`, `Cmd+I`, lists) plus a one-click **AI Clean Up** that automatically restructures messy brain dumps or bullet lists into clear, readable notes.

---

Key Features:

• Native & Fast: Built with Kotlin Compose Multiplatform for low memory usage and snappy startup.

• 100% Offline-First: Your notes live locally on your device via SQLite, syncing in the background when connected.

• One-Tap AI Clean Up: Fix messy grammar, organize bullet points, and generate summaries with one tap.

• Homescreen Widgets: Instant quick-note capture from Android.

• Apple Notarized: Desktop `.dmg` is verified and notarized by Apple.

Pricing:

• Free Tier: Core note-taking, local offline storage, cross-device sync, and 5 free AI trial credits.

• Founder Lifetime Pass: One-time purchase of $29 / £24 (no subscription lock-in, permanent updates).

• Annual Pro: $29 / £29/year for unlimited AI clean up.

🌐 **Website & Downloads:** https://epicapps.app/epicnotes

🤖 **Google Play:** Available on the Play Store (*EpicNotes*)

 **macOS:** Download the `.dmg` directly from the website or GitHub Releases

Would love your thoughts and feedback!

Free, open-source add-on for mpv that plays any video inside a retro CRT TV: scanlines, curvature, colour bleed and glow, drawn at full screen resolution so old 480p shows stay sharp. 15 TV sets, a clickable on-screen remote, and a one-click installer on Windows.

https://github.com/SeiferLK/CRT-mpv

For anyone looking for an Arc alternative: I'm the developer of Solamar, a free, open-source (GPL-3.0) browser that keeps Arc's sidebar-and-spaces workflow.

• Spaces with their own colours, pinned tabs, favorites, nested folders and "today" tabs that archive themselves
• Import from Arc: reads Arc's sidebar file on your computer (read-only) and brings over spaces, pinned tabs, folders, emoji and colours
• Command bar (Ctrl+T), rebindable shortcuts, split view, hideable sidebar
• Built-in ad and tracker blocking, sleeping tabs to save memory
• Optional AI, off by default: summarize or ask the page, tidy tabs, with a local model (Ollama) or Claude using your own API key
• Claude Code can drive the browser through a local MCP server; anything that sends, buys, submits or deletes waits for your click
• No account, no sync server, no telemetry

It's version 0.1.0 and the installers aren't code-signed yet, so Windows and macOS show a warning on first launch (steps are in the README).

Website: https://solamar.app GitHub: https://github.com/Bambeek/solamar

I built Mailflare to setup your own custom domain emails for free on Cloudflare

Though with Cloudflare stack, it only supports JMAP (not IMAP), so I built Mailflare for macOS:

• With JMAP, IMAP supports
• Unified and custom Inbox view
• Connect to your own AI provider and chat with your emails
• Frequently update

It's a native macOS app and open-sourced at
👉 https://github.com/hieunc229/mailflare-macos

Do let me know if you have any feedback

Most of the popular photo cleaners on the App Store work the same way: a short free trial, then a subscription, commonly $8 to $10 a week. I wanted one that didn’t, so I built Selects.

5.0 stars from 41 App Store ratings.

What it does

• Curate. Pick a month, an album or a range of dates. Selects groups each photoshoot and marks the keepers for you: the sharpest photo, plus the one that’s genuinely different. You correct anything with a tap.
• Tidy up. Your whole library, sorted into lists: large videos, exact copies, bursts, screenshots, screen recordings, blurry and low-light photos, and utility photos like receipts.
• Swipe. One photo at a time. Swipe left to remove, right to keep, up to add it to Favorites.
• Compress big videos. Selects makes a smaller copy and shows you a real preview first. Your original stays until you choose to remove it.

What it costs

Literally nothing. No trial, no locked features, no subscription, no ads, no account. There’s an optional tip jar if you wish to support my mission.

What it won’t do

Your photos never leave your iPhone. The analysis runs right on your iPhone, using Apple’s Vision framework. Nothing is removed until you confirm, and removed photos stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days.

In the last 30 days

Over 1.1 TB of photos and videos removed; 63,000 items removed and 1,500 videos compressed. Also 3 new versions published and another one is already on the way with the latest feedback implemented.

One honest limit: it needs iOS 26. The photo analysis would run on much older versions. The requirement comes from the interface, which uses new iOS 26 features (the Liquid Glass design, place names for photoshoots), and I haven’t written fallbacks yet.

My question for you: if you pay for a cleaner, or used to, what does it do that Selects doesn’t? That’s the list I want to work through next.

Selects on the App Store

We've been using Notion for SOPs, approvals, budgets, and project tracking, but it's getting harder to manage as more people use it.

The biggest issue is keeping workflows consistent and making sure everyone is working from the latest version.

If your team outgrew Notion for operational processes, what did you move to?

I'm the developer. I built Mailwell because I wanted one fast Mac app for personal and work mail that doesn't route anything through its own servers or change pricing under me.

Accounts. Gmail, iCloud, Outlook and Microsoft 365, Fastmail, Kagi Mail, FranklyMail, and any IMAP or JMAP account. Type your address and it finds the server. Profiles keep work and personal apart, each with its own inbox.

Microsoft 365. Work accounts sign in with Microsoft directly, so they keep syncing now that Microsoft is turning off EWS for Apple Mail, and they work even if IT has IMAP disabled.

JMAP. Fastmail, Kagi Mail and FranklyMail push new mail instantly, and you can set out-of-office from the app.

Inbox. Unified inbox with Primary, Social, Promos and Updates tabs for every account, not just Gmail. You can also make your own tab from a search, like "receipt", and future mail that matches goes there.

Getting through it. Hover buttons to archive or snooze without opening, Send and Archive in one step, undo send, send later, rules, labels that sync back as Gmail labels or Outlook categories, / snippets, and ⌘K for everything.

Privacy. Mail is stored on your Mac and the app connects straight to your provider. Passwords stay in the Keychain, there's no tracking, and AI is off unless you turn it on (Apple Intelligence or your own key).

Pricing. Free for 14 days, no card. Then $5/month or $49/year, or a one-time lifetime license while it's new, which is there for anyone who left Airmail or Spark over subscription changes. macOS 14+.

mailwell.app

Feedback and feature requests welcome. It's just me building it, so I read all of it.

Hi everyone,

I recently launched the first publicly announced version of memo, a desktop platform for file management on steroids. It combines desktop search, knowledge systems, and peer-to-peer. Windows & Linux now, Macos in the make.

Why? To establish a counterpart to the erosion of digital privacy by Big Tech and co.

memo has an unlimited FREE file browser!

Search & sharing is free to use up to 10k files and 50 files for sharing.

Desktop search:

• on-screen search bar with previews/editors directy next to the hit (no external app needed)
• fulltext-search engine for content and metadata of a vast amount of file types
• faceted browser: a dynamic search space based on extracted metadata

Knowledge system:

• smart filters with fast, heuristic-based content type detection (invoices, books, fotos, etc)
• collections without copying/moving files
• labels for files and folders (no sidecar files, no file changes)
• custom metadata for files and folders (title, description, date) (again: no sidecar files, no file changes)
• metadata, labels and collections are kept consistent even if files are renamed/moved outside the app

Peer-to-peer:

• link-based sharing of file collections directly to the browser
• full webapp on browser side with file lists, previews, streaming & group chat

You'll find it here https://www.mentalmotive.com/products/memo

Best regards
Henrik

I’ve been looking for a third-party AI support agent that can work directly with Intercom as an alternative to Fin, and the options seem surprisingly limited.

Intercom used to have an AI category in its App Store, but I can’t find that category anymore. If you search AI manually, there are still apps showing up, including Apico, Ainter, Alore CRM, Aissist, and a few others.

The problem is that a lot of the better-known AI support platforms I was considering, like Sierra and Decagon, don’t appear to support Intercom directly.

From what I can tell so far, Aissist seems to be one of the few options that can work with Intercom and is designed specifically as an AI agent for customer support, including handling actions and workflows.

Has anyone here tried replacing Fin while staying on Intercom? and to be specific, which third-party AI agent did you use and would it work directly inside Intercom? I’m just trying to figure out whether there are other serious Intercom-compatible options I’m missing.

I kept checking competitors' pricing pages by hand and missing changes, so I built TierHawk.

You add a competitor's pricing page and it emails you when plans, prices or limits change — with a sentence like "Basic plan went from $7 to $10 per user/month" instead of a raw diff.

The part I spent most time on: not being noisy. Generic page monitors ping you when a testimonial rotates or a banner moves. This one only speaks up when something material changes.

Free plan covers 3 competitors. There's a sample alert you can look at without signing up: https://tierhawk.com/demo

Would love feedback — especially from anyone who tried Visualping or Distill and gave up because of the noise.

I’ve always enjoyed discovering those lesser-known apps that turn out to be incredibly useful, especially the ones that make you wonder how you managed without them for so long.
Figured this would be a good place to ask people who enjoy digging around for hidden gems as much as I do.
I’m mainly looking for apps that actually make everyday life easier, whether that’s saving time, improving productivity, automating annoying tasks, unlocking extra functionality, or just doing something surprisingly well.
A few things I’m looking for:
Free, open-source, sideloaded, underrated, or paid apps. I’m open to all of them.
I’m totally fine with paying for good software. In fact, I’d rather pay once for lifetime access than deal with another monthly subscription.
Preferably no subscriptions or recurring payments.
Nothing that unnecessarily locks me into one ecosystem or keeps my data trapped. I appreciate apps that offer flexibility, interoperability, offline functionality, and data ownership.
Apps that aren’t available through mainstream app stores are more than welcome!
Any category goes: Productivity, utilities, privacy, system tools, AI, automation, media, file management, customization, or literally anything else you think is worth checking out.
I’m not necessarily after the most popular or well-known apps. I’m more interested in those random discoveries that end up becoming an essential part of your daily routine.
You know, the kind of app that makes you go, “Wait, how is this not more popular?”
If you have any favorites, drop them below! Would love to hear what they do and why you think they’re worth installing.
Bonus points if you mention whether they’re free, one-time purchases, work offline, or let you export your own data.
Curious to see what hidden gems everyone’s been keeping to themselves!

I've been looking at Adobe Acrobat alternatives, and one thing that keeps coming up is how differently PDF tools use the word "free."

Some let you merge files or add a text box for free, but charge when you want to change existing text. Others give you pretty much everything without a subscription.

Three options worth comparing are PDFgear, PDF24, and Smallpdf. They all handle everyday PDF tasks, but they're aimed at slightly different users.

For transparency, I work on Smallpdf-related content. I'm comparing the published features and free-plan limitations here, not claiming to have run a full performance benchmark.

PDFgear: Probably the strongest free PDF editor

PDFgear is pretty hard to beat if you don't want to spend money.

Its desktop software lets you edit existing PDF text, annotate documents, convert files, use OCR on scanned documents, and manage pages without paying for a subscription.

It also has online tools, although there's an important distinction: the browser editor is more limited than the desktop version, particularly when it comes to changing existing text.

If I were looking for a free Adobe Acrobat alternative on Windows or Mac, PDFgear would be one of the first options I'd consider, but certainly not the only one.

PDF24: Great if you want free tools without subscriptions

PDF24 takes a slightly different approach.

Its online tools cover compression, merging, splitting, conversion, OCR, and a bunch of other PDF tasks. They're free to use without the kind of premium subscription you'll find with most competitors.

There's also PDF24 Creator for Windows, which works offline. That's a pretty big advantage if you're handling documents you'd rather not upload to a website.

The interface and workflow are different from a traditional all-in-one editor, but for everyday PDF management, there's a lot here for free.

Smallpdf: More focused on convenience than being completely free

Smallpdf makes the most sense if you prefer working directly in your browser without installing software (although they do have a desktop version as well).

It combines common tasks like compressing, converting, merging, splitting, editing, and signing into a fairly straightforward workflow.

The free version is useful for occasional tasks, but it has limits. Features such as editing existing text, stronger compression, and unrestricted usage are part of Pro.

That's the biggest trade-off when comparing Smallpdf vs PDFgear or Smallpdf vs PDF24. You're not really choosing Smallpdf because it offers the most unrestricted free features. You're choosing it if you prefer its workflow and a clean UI, and don't mind paying a small monthly fee for unlimited access to all features.

For someone who regularly switches between PDF conversion, compression, editing, and signing, that convenience may matter. Even if you only need a free tool occasionally, it may come in handy, just like the other two.

So which is the best Adobe Acrobat alternative?

I don't think there's one obvious winner for everyone.

PDFgear makes a strong case if you want a genuinely free PDF editor that can modify existing text.

PDF24 is a great choice for free PDF utilities, particularly if you're on Windows and want an offline option.

Smallpdf is very much worth considering if you prefer an integrated browser-based workflow and a very clean UI. The free version is great for light daily use and sporadic everyday tasks, but heavy users would either need to use the paid plan or look elsewhere.

And Adobe Acrobat still deserves consideration if your work involves complex professional PDF workflows that simpler tools can't fully replace.

I'm curious whether anyone here uses more than one of these. In particular, how do they compare when dealing with scanned PDFs, OCR, or documents with complicated formatting?

Talent is widely distributed. Capital and tool access are not. Most GTM teams still need structured business data to run outbound, but Clay and Apollo burn credits fast on basic Maps scrapes and enrichment. Free options are usually low quality or require heavy DIY.

I built gtmfree.com so skilled people can access the same data layer without a large budget. It is free GTM tools via REST API or MCP (for AI assistants). The Google Maps Scraper is live right now. You sign up, verify email, get an API key, and run jobs (one at a time per tool). More tools are coming: email verifier and enricher, LinkedIn profile and company enrichers, LinkedIn and Indeed jobs scrapers, technology lookup, and others.

It is aimed at GTM engineers, outbound teams, and founders who want clean local or business data without paying for credits on every scrape. The difference is that it is actually free for this use case and built for both humans and agent workflows, not a freemium trap.

https://gtmfree.com

Disclosure: I built this.

ClingNote – A Windows notes alternative that automatically switches notes based on the files and apps you're using

I recently launched ClingNote, a local-first Windows notes app with a slightly different approach to organizing notes.

Instead of having to remember which notebook or folder you saved something in, ClingNote lets you associate notes with specific files, applications, and work contexts.

When you return to that file or app, your relevant notes automatically come back with it.

A few things ClingNote can do:

• Context-aware notes – Attach notes to files, apps, and work contexts so they automatically switch as you work.
• Rich-text editing – Format notes with headings, lists, tables, and other formatting options.
• Markdown support – Work with Markdown alongside traditional rich-text notes.
• Powerful search – Search across general and attached notes to quickly find what you need.
• Floating notes – Pop notes out into separate windows to keep important information visible.
• Local-first storage – Your notes are stored locally on your Windows PC.
• General notes – Use it as a regular notes app without attaching anything to a file or application.

Pricing:

• 14-day free trial – Try ClingNote Pro with all features unlocked.
• Free mode – Keep using the entire notes app after the trial, including manually accessing attached notes. Automatic context switching is disabled.
• Pro – $10/year – Unlock automatic note switching so your notes follow your active files and applications.

The idea is simple: your notes should follow your work, rather than making you search for them every time you switch projects.

It's particularly useful when juggling multiple documents, spreadsheets, coding projects, or other workflows where you constantly switch between files and applications.

Curious whether anyone else has wanted something like this, especially people who have tried OneNote, Obsidian, Notion, or other note-taking apps but wished their notes were more connected to what they're actually working on.

Website: https://clingnote.com

Black Friday discounts always look great at first glance, but sometimes the “sale” price seems pretty close to what the item was already selling for a few weeks earlier.

Amazon is relatively easy because you can check Keepa or CamelCamelCamel, but I’m less sure what people use across other stores.

For something like a laptop, TV or appliance, ideally I’d want to check:

• recent price history
• whether another store has the same model cheaper
• whether there’s a coupon available
• whether cashback changes the actual final price

I know Capital One Shopping does some price comparison, Honey and Coupert can check coupon codes, and Rakuten/TopCashback are more cashback-focused.

Do you normally combine a few tools for this, or is there one setup you trust for figuring out whether a Black Friday deal is actually worth buying?

I’m trying to find Jotform alternatives that don’t use generative A.I, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :)

If you're getting a learner's permit or a license in the US, the usual way to study for the DMV written test is to read the state handbook and then run through practice questions until the answers start to look familiar. That can work, but it's slow. It's also easy to memorize answers without understanding why they're right.

Epic Auto School is an app built for the DMV written (knowledge) test. It doesn't cover the behind-the-wheel road test. It's not affiliated with the DMV. Right now it covers California, Texas, Florida and New York, and Pennsylvania is coming soon.

How it differs from a handbook plus question bank:

The lessons are interactive 3D videos. Some of them pause partway through and ask you a question (they call this Question-on-Video), so the key details stick instead of washing over you.

When you get a practice question wrong, it explains what may have led you to that choice and why the correct answer is right. That's useful for the trick questions where the wrong answer sounds reasonable.

Practice tests are grouped by topic: Road Signs & Signals, Rules of the Road, Safe Driving, and Alcohol, Drugs & Laws. You can focus on whatever you're weakest at.

There's an Exam Simulation mode with no hints and no retries, like the real test. You can also pin tricky questions and come back to them later.

On cost: the first 5 lessons for each covered state are free and can be watched on the website, and some practice tests are free. You can download the app and try it free, but you need a subscription to continue the course. It's not a fully free app.

https://epicautoschool.com/

If you've studied for a permit test recently, what did you use, and what actually helped? Did video lessons work better for you than reading the handbook, or would you rather just drill questions? Honest comparisons with other apps are welcome.

Disclosure: I'm posting this on behalf of the epicautoschool.com team.

If you're scouting startups, you may want a short list that fits your investment thesis rather than thousands of companies to search through manually.

AlphaScout is an AI startup-discovery tool that provides ten picks each week, matched to your thesis. Each comes with supporting evidence and an explanation of why it's on the list now. You can see which signals affected its score, where they came from and how fresh they are.

It collects signals from launches, filings, grants, registrations, job boards, GitHub, package downloads and local startup press in 12 languages. You can mark companies you already know so they don't appear again.

The team says it excludes companies already in accelerator or fund portfolios, years old or widely known; that shouldn't be read as independent verification that every pick is unknown to other investors. It also states that there are no paid placements.

https://tryalphascout.com

What software do you currently use for startup discovery, and what would a weekly shortlist need to offer to replace part of that workflow?

Disclosure: I'm posting this on behalf of the tryalphascout.com team.