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Open-source screenshot and screen recording for macOS.
A native, feature-rich alternative to CleanShot X. Built with Swift 6.0 and SwiftUI, targeting macOS 15.0+.
Download → • Website • Features • Build from Source
Grab the latest signed, notarized DMG from GitHub Releases →
Or install via Homebrew:
brew tap lzhgus/tap
brew install --cask capsoScreen recording, camera, and microphone permissions are required. The app will prompt on first use.
Every macOS screenshot tool worth using costs money — CleanShot X is $29, Cap is $58. They're excellent apps, but a core productivity feature shouldn't be locked behind a paywall.
Capso is our answer: a fully native, feature-complete alternative that's free forever, built in the open, and architected so the underlying pieces (CaptureKit, AnnotationKit, OCRKit…) are reusable SPM packages you can drop into your own app.
We make our money from other tools. Capso exists to give back to the macOS community and to show what a modern, modular Swift 6 app can look like.
- Area capture — drag to select with dimension display
- Fullscreen capture — one-click full screen
- Window capture — click any window to capture
- Quick Access — floating preview with copy, save, annotate, OCR, pin, and drag-and-drop
- Video (MP4) and GIF recording
- Webcam PiP — 4 shapes (circle, square, portrait, landscape), drag-resize, snap-to-corners
- Camera presentation mode — click PiP to expand fullscreen, click again to restore
- System audio + microphone capture
- Recording controls — pause, stop, restart, delete, timer
- Countdown overlay — 3-2-1 before recording starts
- Export quality presets — Maximum, Social, Web
- Arrow, rectangle, ellipse, text, freehand drawing, pixelate/blur, crop
- Highlighter and counter (numbered markers) tools
- Color picker, stroke controls, undo/redo
- Screenshot beautification — background color, padding, rounded corners, shadow
- Instant OCR — select area, text copied to clipboard
- Visual OCR — highlighted text regions, click to select individual blocks
- Pin to Screen — float screenshots as always-on-top windows with lock/click-through mode
- Global keyboard shortcuts — fully configurable
- Preferences — comprehensive settings with Apple Liquid Glass design
- Localization — English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean
Annotation editor with drawing tools, counters, and markers
Screenshot beautification — background, padding, corners, shadow
Screen recording with webcam PiP and GIF/Video options
See more screenshots and a full walkthrough on the Capso website →
| CleanShot X | Shottr | Cap | Capso | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screenshots | Full | Full | Basic | Full |
| Recording | Video + GIF | No | Video + GIF | Video + GIF |
| Webcam PiP | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (4 shapes) |
| OCR | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Annotation | Advanced | Advanced | Basic | Advanced |
| Pin to Screen | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Beautification | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Native Swift | Yes | Yes | No (Tauri) | Yes (Swift 6) |
| Open Source | No | No | Partial | Yes |
| Price | $29 | $8 | $58 | Free |
Requirements: Xcode 16+, macOS 15.0+, XcodeGen
# Install XcodeGen if you don't have it
brew install xcodegen
# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/lzhgus/Capso.git
cd Capso
xcodegen generate
open Capso.xcodeproj
# Build and run in Xcode (Cmd+R)Or build from the command line:
xcodegen generate
xcodebuild -project Capso.xcodeproj -scheme Capso -configuration Release buildCapso uses a modular SPM (Swift Package Manager) architecture. The app is a thin SwiftUI + AppKit shell; all core capabilities live in 8 independent packages.
Capso/
├── App/ # Main app target (thin shell)
│ ├── CapsoApp.swift # @main entry point
│ ├── MenuBar/ # Menu bar controller
│ ├── Capture/ # Capture overlay, pinned screenshots
│ ├── Recording/ # Recording coordinator, controls, toolbar
│ ├── Camera/ # Webcam PiP window
│ ├── AnnotationEditor/ # Annotation editor + beautify
│ ├── OCR/ # OCR coordinator, overlay, toast
│ ├── QuickAccess/ # Floating preview window
│ └── Preferences/ # Settings window
├── Packages/
│ ├── SharedKit/ # Settings, permissions, utilities
│ ├── CaptureKit/ # ScreenCaptureKit wrapper
│ ├── RecordingKit/ # Screen recording engine
│ ├── CameraKit/ # AVFoundation webcam capture
│ ├── AnnotationKit/ # Drawing/annotation system
│ ├── OCRKit/ # Vision framework OCR
│ ├── ExportKit/ # Video/GIF/image export
│ └── EffectsKit/ # Cursor effects, click highlights
└── project.yml # XcodeGen project definition
Each package can be tested independently:
swift test --package-path Packages/SharedKit
swift test --package-path Packages/AnnotationKit
# etc.The package split means you can embed, for example, CaptureKit or AnnotationKit in your own app without pulling in the entire Capso shell — something no Electron- or Tauri-based alternative can offer.
- Spotlight, magnifier, ruler, image overlay annotation tools
- Screenshot history browser
- Video trimmer/editor
- Cursor smoothing (spring-physics during export)
- Zoom animation on recorded video
- Scrolling capture (Accessibility API + Vision stitching)
- URL scheme API for automation
- Raycast / Shortcuts integration
See open issues for current priorities and GitHub Releases for version history. Contributions welcome!
See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines.
Capso is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1.
TL;DR:
| What you want to do | Allowed? |
|---|---|
| Use Capso personally | ✅ |
| Use Capso inside your company | ✅ |
| Read, modify, and build from source | ✅ |
| Fork it and ship a free derivative | ✅ |
| Fork it and sell a competing screen-capture product | ❌ |
| Any use after 2029-04-08 | ✅ Becomes Apache 2.0 |
The license auto-converts to Apache 2.0 three years after each release — so every version eventually becomes fully permissive open source.
- Report a bug
- Request a feature
- GitHub Sponsors — if Capso is useful to you, consider supporting development
Built by Awesome Mac Apps — check out our other macOS tools.