Kap
The open-source Mac screen recorder with plugins, built on web tech.
About
Kap is an open-source screen recorder for macOS built with web technology (Electron/TypeScript) by the Wulkano team, with about 19,400 GitHub stars under the MIT license. It lives in the menu bar: click it, select a portion of the screen, hit record, and export to GIF, MP4, WebM, or APNG. The differentiator is the plugin system, with extensions for uploading to S3, Giphy, and other destinations, plus a CLI for scripted captures. It was a darling of the Mac developer crowd, frequently recommended as the free alternative to paid recorders.
The concern is maintenance. The repository's last commit landed in November 2024, and development has effectively stalled since. The app still works, but macOS updates, Electron upgrades, and security patches are not landing. Weigh that against the price (free) and the license (MIT, so anyone can fork it). macOS-only, and Electron means a heavier footprint than native recorders.
What it can do
- Menu-bar screen recording with selectable capture area
- Export to GIF, MP4, WebM, and APNG
- Plugin system: upload to S3, Giphy, and more
- CLI for scripted recordings
- Pause/resume and recording options via menu bar
- Free and open source under MIT
Setup
Download the Apple Silicon or Intel build from getkap.co, or brew install --cask kap; record from the menu bar icon.
Prerequisites
macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel).
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 6/10
Scored 6/10 (metrics tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: GitHub API confirms 19,400 stars under MIT with the last push in November 2024, and documentation confirms the menu-bar workflow, export formats, plugin system, and CLI. Strengths: beloved open-source Mac recorder with a plugin ecosystem, permissive license. Docked for: (1) development stalled since November 2024 with no commits landing, a real security and compatibility risk; (2) macOS-only; (3) Electron-based, heavier than native alternatives. License: MIT.
★ 19,400 GitHub stars
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 8.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 4.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 9.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 6.0/10
- · Wulkano; ~19,400 GitHub stars
- · Menu-bar screen recorder for macOS built with Electron/TypeScript
- · Export to GIF, MP4, WebM, APNG
- · Plugin system: S3, Giphy, and more destinations; CLI for scripted captures
- · Last commit November 2024; development effectively stalled
- · macOS-only; Electron means a heavier footprint than native recorders
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.