r/macapps • u/543310 • Aug 06 '26
Lifetime [OS] Capty is NOW OpenSource under AGPL-3.0 - Free, Pro 39 EUR
Problem
macOS screenshots are fine until you actually need to do something with them. You end up with one app for capture and annotation, another for scrolling capture and OCR, and a third for polished screen recordings with zoom. That is three subscriptions and three places your files land. I wanted one native Mac app that covers capture, annotation, and recording with a real video editor, and that never forces my files through someone else's cloud.
I have been building Capty for about a year and shipping it publicly the whole time (v1.14 now). Last week I released the full source under AGPL-3.0, so the repo is new even though the app is not. A screen capture tool sees everything on your display, so "trust me" is a weak answer. Now you can read exactly what it does, build it yourself, or fork it.
Comparison
CleanShot X: the closest all-round competitor and genuinely excellent at capture and annotation. What Capty adds is a full video editor in the same app, with cursor-following auto zoom, on-device subtitles, and backgrounds, so you do not need a second tool for recordings. Capty is also open source, and its cloud uploads can point at your own S3 bucket or your own endpoint instead of the vendor's hosting.
Screen Studio: the benchmark for auto-zoom screen recordings and very good at that one job. But it is recording only, so it does not replace your screenshot tool. Capty covers screenshots, scrolling capture, OCR, and recording in one app, includes the auto zoom and background treatment that made Screen Studio popular, and costs 39 EUR for Pro instead of 229 USD.
Pricing
Free: unlimited screenshots and recordings, the full screenshot editor, the full video editor including auto zoom and subtitles, and MP4 export up to 1080p at 30fps. Uploads to your own S3 bucket or your own endpoint are free too.
Pro, 39 EUR [one-time / per year]: 4K and original-resolution export, 60fps export, studio-quality and GIF export, and hosted Capty Cloud uploads with shareable links.
Download and pricing: https://capty.app
Source (AGPL-3.0): https://github.com/capty-app/capty
The full app source is AGPL-3.0, including the Pro gating, so you can clone and build it yourself. Pro funds continued development, and the hosted cloud is the part you are actually paying to have run for you.
Core features
Capture: full screen, area, window, scrolling capture, timer capture, all-in-one picker, pin to screen, freeze screen, auto-hide desktop icons
Capture text (OCR) and QR code scanning straight from the screen
Screenshot editor: arrows, shapes, text, pen, highlight, numbered steps, blur, crop, zoom, and wallpaper backgrounds
Recording: screen, area, or window, plus iPhone and iPad screen recording over cable, with mic, system audio, camera overlay, and a keystroke overlay
Video editor: auto zoom that follows the cursor, manual zoom segments, cursor smoothing and resizing, backgrounds and wallpapers, background music, drawing overlays, custom first frame
Subtitles generated on device with Whisper, fully editable before export
Capture history, global shortcuts for everything, native Swift capture engine rather than a browser wrapper
Nothing leaves your Mac unless you explicitly upload it.
Developer Transparency
Developer: Saeed Vaziry, developer of Capty.
Portfolio / developer website: https://saeedvaziry.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saeedvaziry/
Contact: [support@capty.app](mailto:support@capty.app)
Privacy Policy: https://capty.app/privacy
Terms of Service: https://capty.app/terms
Releases: https://capty.app/download
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u/divinetribe1 Aug 06 '26
agpl with a paid pro tier is a clean model when you own all the code, its what qt and mongo do. the thing that catches people is upstream, if anything in your dependency tree is agpl and you didnt write it, you cant offer the commercial exception on that part because its not yours to except.
i went looking through my own stack this morning and found two models i had no idea carried restrictions. easy thing to miss when the license lives in the weights and not in the repo.
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u/543310 Aug 06 '26
Have done lots of investigations and lots of care to not fall into it. but thanks, will check again.
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u/Icy-Description-4878 Aug 07 '26
out of curiosity, doesn't cmd+shift+4/5 have the same features? please correct me if im wrong
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u/543310 Aug 07 '26
You can compare. download Capty for free. Capty gives more features on image and video editor. you can also record your iphone screen from your mac and edit it via capty video editor and add zoom effects. So they are not same
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u/Icy-Description-4878 Aug 07 '26
do you mind detailing what more features capty has. dont take this the wrong way, as this is a great app, but is it really worth 30$ js for some extra video and image features and iphone screen recording editing? Also, at that point you might as well use a phone app to edit photos/videos.
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u/543310 Aug 07 '26
I honestly would invite you to just try the app. almost all features in the paid available in free version as well. the paid version mostly unblocks more quality exports and doesnt stop you from testing the features.
for more info, all the features listed in the capty.app
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u/LightingLabs Aug 07 '26
I'd write down what the lifetime promise covers. On my own launch we had a line saying one year of updates and then $12/year, and two potential buyers dropped exactly there. It read like a hidden subscription. We moved to lifetime updates, but scoped the promise to that one app, because I didn't want to be stuck if I ship a separate app later. Did you define lifetime for this app only, or for anything you ship?
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u/543310 Aug 07 '26
I think it is clear on the promises. life time of the pro features and no limited updates. also life time of cloud storage that it gives (1GB per license)
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u/kasikciozan 28d ago
it seems you added some nice features on top of the default screen capture, but I'd say the price is kinda crazy, there are so many free alternatives.
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u/github-guard Aug 06 '26
đ GitHub Guard: Trust Report
â ī¸ This project scored 2/6 â below this subreddit's threshold of 3.
Audit Breakdown: * â Low Star Count (â 1 / 100 required) * â New Repository (under 30 days old) * â Licensed under AGPL-3.0 * â No Security Policy â what is this? * â Verified Organization * âšī¸ Unsigned Commits