head to head · open source
OBS Studio vs Kap
OBS Studio has 78,841 GitHub stars, 11,037 forks, 1,148 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kap has 19,412 stars, 902 forks, 256 open issues and last shipped 2.0 years ago. OBS Studio leads on adoption by 306% (78,841 vs 19,412 stars). OBS Studio is written in C under GPL-2.0; Kap is written in TypeScript under MIT. OBS Studio has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Kap 5%. OBS Studio was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| OBS Studio | Kap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 19K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2024-11-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 902 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OBS Studio if
- You weight community size — 79K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Kap if
- You want the Kap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Kap fits your workflow better
About OBS Studio
OBS Studio =================================== .. image:: :alt: OBS Studio Build Status GitHub Actions :target: .. image:: :alt: OBS Studio Translation Project Progress :target: .. image:: :alt: OBS Studio Discord Server :target: What is OBS Studio? OBS Studio is software designed for capturing, compositing, encoding, recording, and streaming video content, efficiently. It's distributed under the GNU General Public License v2 (or any later version) see the accompanying COPYING file for more details. Quick Links Website: Help/Documentation/Guides: Forums: Build Instructions: Developer/API Documentation…
read the full OBS Studio overview →
About Kap
Kap An open source screen recorder built with web technology Get Kap Download the latest release: Apple silicon Intel Or install with Homebrew Cask: How To Use Kap Click the menu bar icon to bring up the screen recorder. After selecting what portion of the screen you'd like to record, hit the record button to start recording. Click the menu bar icon again to stop the recording. Tip: While recording, Option click the menu bar icon to pause or right click for more options. Contribute Read the contribution guide. Plugins For more info on how to create plugins, read the plugins docs. Dev builds Download main or…
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Frequently asked questions
Is OBS Studio or Kap more popular?
OBS Studio has 78,841 GitHub stars and Kap has 19,412. OBS Studio has the larger community by that measure.
Are OBS Studio and Kap free?
Both are open source. OBS Studio is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Kap under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OBS Studio and Kap?
OBS Studio is written in C and Kap in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OBS Studio or Kap?
Choose OBS Studio if you want the larger community (78,841 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Kap if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.