I Built OpenKap — A Loom Alternative for Small Teams Who Just Want to Ship

The article introduces OpenKap, a screen recording tool created as a faster, simpler alternative to Loom for small, async-first teams. It emphasizes speed over features, allowing users to record and share a link in under 60 seconds without needing a full video platform. OpenKap offers a generous free tier and a flat $8/month Pro plan with unlimited recordings, and it uniquely integrates with Claude AI for transcription and summaries.

Have you ever spent 15 minutes scheduling a meeting just to explain something that could have been a 90-second screen recording? Yeah. That was my everyday reality — and the reason I built OpenKap. I was working with a small, async-first team. We were distributed across time zones, moving fast, and constantly needed to share context — bug reproductions, quick design feedback, "hey, look at this weird behavior" moments, product demos for stakeholders. The obvious solution was Loom. We tried it. And sure, it works. But over time, the friction piled up: We didn't need a video platform. We needed a fast, frictionless way to record our screen and share a link. That's it. OpenKap is a screen recording tool built for small teams who want to communicate faster without adding more meetings to the calendar. Here's the core loop: That's it. Record, link, done. Under 60 seconds from idea to shared video. Speed over features. Loom has evolved into a full async video platform. That's great for enterprises, but small teams don't need a dashboard full of engagement stats. OpenKap does one thing really well: get your recording shareable as fast as possible. Generous free tier. You get 5 recordings with shareable links right out of the box, no credit card required. For many small teams or solo devs, that covers everyday needs. Flat, honest Pro pricing. The Pro plan is $8/month for unlimited recordings, unlimited length, unlimited workspaces, and team collaboration. No per-seat pricing surprises. No "contact sales" walls. Infinite storage on Pro. No more worrying about your library filling up or having to delete old recordings to make space. Screenshot annotation. Beyond video, you can annotate and highlight screenshots before sharing — great for quick UI feedback without recording a full video. This is where things get genuinely interesting. OpenKap integrates with Claude AI via the Model Context Protocol MCP . You can connect OpenKap to Claude Code or any MCP-compatible tool and literally talk to your videos. Ask things like: For engineering teams already using Claude Code, this is a game-changer. You can reference a video URL in your Claude session and get instant transcription, summaries, and comment threads without ever leaving your workflow. claude mcp add openkap -- npx tsx mcp-server/server.ts One command. Done. OpenKap is built for: It's trusted by developers, designers, and PMs at companies like Notion, Linear, Vercel, Stripe, Figma, Railway, and Supabase. I believe meetings are a tax on momentum. Every time someone schedules a 30-minute call to explain something visual, they're burning time — for themselves and everyone else on the call. A well-made screen recording eliminates the need for most of those meetings. But the tool has to be fast enough that it doesn't create its own friction. If recording and sharing takes more than a minute, people won't do it. They'll just schedule the meeting. OpenKap is designed around that constraint: the time from "I need to show someone this" to "link is in their Slack" should be under 60 seconds. If you're on a small team and you're looking for a lighter, faster alternative to Loom, give OpenKap a shot. The free plan requires no credit card, and you can be recording and sharing in under a minute. If you have feedback, I'd genuinely love to hear it — drop a comment below or reach out directly. What's your current async communication setup? Are you on Loom, something else, or still just scheduling calls? Let me know in the comments.