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Cap Hosting
Cap is an open-source screen-recording and sharing site you host yourself, built for teams that do not want Loom holding the videos.
- One click deploy
- 25 GB Disk Space Needed
- 2 GB RAM Memory needed
- From 5 € Price
No setup fees
Official links
Cap’s official links and original website
- Go to Repository
Cap GitHub
- More
Cap Website
What you get
on AvaHost
One-click deployment, a custom domain, free HTTPS, automatic application updates, and scheduled backups come with every Cloud App. You can run multiple apps on one server, and terminal access is included.
A MySQL 8 container is provisioned with the app and remains unmanaged by AvaHost.
Tech
- Docker image
- ghcr.io/capsoftware/cap-web:latest
- Default port
- 0
- Database
- MySQL 8
How Cap works
Cap, from CapSoftware, is an open-source screen recorder and a web app for sharing the clips. The self-host guide's compose file starts the web image ghcr.io/capsoftware/cap-web, a media server that runs FFmpeg, MySQL 8, and MinIO for S3-compatible storage. The project states MySQL 8 is required and that MariaDB is not the supported engine. This baseline therefore records the database as MySQL 8, not as a generic MariaDB label. The desktop app, built with Tauri, can be pointed at your server URL so uploads land on your instance instead of cap.so.
First start needs real secrets. The public compose file ships placeholder passwords, and the production checklist tells you to replace them before a public deploy. Email through Resend is optional and is not part of AvaHost's application-mail offering. Without that external mail path, features that send mail will not send mail.
Key Cap features
People record a screen, a camera, or both in the desktop app, then upload to the server. The web app holds accounts and metadata in MySQL and the bytes in the bucket. MinIO can stay private to the host while a public URL serves playback, which is a pair of settings you must both get right. Ports in the guide include 3000 for the web app and 9000 for the MinIO API, usually behind the proxy rather than published raw.
AvaHost updates the deployment automatically and backs up MySQL and the bucket volumes on a schedule. Video is the heavy part. Application mail is not included with Cap. A dedicated public IP is not required for Cap.
Cap vs Loom
Cap
Cap is the software and the files on infrastructure you operate. Loom is the hosted product, with its own accounts and retention. Choose Loom when you want that service. Choose Cap when the requirement is to hold the videos yourself and you can run MySQL 8 plus object storage.
Loom
The desktop app is part of the workflow. A server without people installing the recorder is only a sharing site.
Who uses Cap
Product and support teams who record walkthroughs and do not want them on Loom use Cap. It is a poor fit if you cannot operate MySQL and a bucket, and it is a poor fit if you expected the recorder to be a website alone. The 2 GB figure is the project's own basic-usage note, which matches Plan 2.
Self-hosting Cap: requirements and cost
The baseline is 2048 MB of RAM and 1 CPU core, web image ghcr.io/capsoftware/cap-web, plus MySQL 8 and object storage as the stack requires. Recordings consume disk faster than the web app: treat 50 GB on Plan 3 as a starting library and 100 GB on Plan 4 when clips accumulate. On AvaHost the recommended minimum for Cap is Plan 2 at €5. The Cap package includes one-click deployment, a hostname, automated HTTPS, automatic updates, and scheduled backups. Replace placeholder secrets before you invite a team.
F.A.Q
Cap starts at €5 on Plan 2. The price covers the basic stack the project describes, including MySQL 8 capacity at this size, not a large video archive and not Resend. A long library of recordings is a disk upgrade. Optional mail through an external provider is billed by that provider, not by this plan.
Yes. Set the public URL to a hostname you control and point DNS at the instance. Automated HTTPS covers the website. Playback also needs the storage URL you configured, which may be a second name. The desktop app should use the same server URL. You manage the zone and the user accounts.
AvaHost updates Cap automatically and backs up the database and the object-storage volume on a schedule. Metadata without the bucket, or the bucket without MySQL, will not restore a working library. After an update, sign in and play one existing clip. Keep the secrets you set, because the sample passwords in the public compose file are not a production setting.
MySQL 8. The project says MariaDB is not the supported engine, so this package follows that line instead of relabelling the database. Object storage is also required. MinIO is the documented local option. Disk for recordings is the growth path: 50 GB on Plan 3 to start, 100 GB on Plan 4 when the library gets large.