Creative & mediaOriginal Reddit post
Debut.sh v2: My lifetime screen studio alternative that actually acts like a Mac app.
I just launched Debut v2. It’s written in Swift, it’s 28mb, and it’s really fast. Around January this year I launched the first version of Debut. I am so proud of this product, it has become significantly more mature, and I’ve learned a ton about creating modern Mac apps. Debut is like screen(.)studio, but it’s $59. It records your screen, adds subtitles, applies smooth cursor movements, automatic zooming where you click or type, and makes genuinely engaging videos (in my opinion). I originally released Debut at $25, and it allowed me to get some super valuable user insight. I have infact bumped the price, but it is totally reflected in the quality of the product now. Anyway, check it out: https://debut.sh/
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and just one year updates? OP you need to seriously explore the market if you want to keep this sustainable
I chose this pricing model for this exact reason. It's a one-time $59 and the app you buy keeps working forever — the "1 year of updates" is what funds ongoing development so it doesn't become abandonware. After the year you keep your version and can renew for new features if you want, never forced to. I'd much rather charge fairly and keep shipping than do a cheap lifetime deal and vanish, which is the exact failure mode worth worrying about with other projects right now!
How does that differ from https://github.com/CapSoftware/cap ?
Cap is awesome, and tbh it’s a super similar product. This one is built only for Mac, using Mac-native APIs so it is genuinely fast and lightweight, with hardware acceleration. If you are not bothered by any of that, I’d recommend Cap: it’s great, and they’ve got a team that build for free. I personally prefer the auto editing in Debut, but of course I’d say that lol
I would suggest being clear about the difference, because Cap is a 20k-starred open-source initiative, which is not easy to compete against. Unless you have a proper feature that is so innovative we cannot find it elsewhere in other OSS, then I’ll stay with Cap, of course. Now I’m open ears. If you talk about being “genuinely fast and lightweight” using “hardware acceleration” — have you properly benchmarked that? Could I see some stats? Everyone is building their own native screen-recording apps in this thread every month or so. Convince us; don’t just repeat the same speech, please. Otherwise, I won’t give it a shot! Once again, I am more than happy to be open ears! Cheers
There are now dozens of ScreenStudio competitors, many are Mac native and several are free. Can you clarify how yours stands out from the crowd?
I agree, with this comment, so many out there and they are lifetime and very buggy, to me its like after a year how much would the creator actually take care of the app if its lifetime?
Agreed, that's the trap with cheap lifetime deals - the dev has no reason to keep maintaining it. So Debut isn't lifetime-updates: you own your version forever, updates run a year and are renewable (for half price). That recurring piece is what keeps me building it. Changelog's public if you want to see the cadence: debut.sh/changelog
came here to…
What stands out with Debut vs. Screen Studio? I see screen recording app released often and was wondering if there’s innovative features that I am missing? Great work on developing this and sticking with it.
To be honest the build moat is gone, and lots of people in tech can ship a recorder now. So I'm not pretending the novelty is "it records your screen." The bet is that the auto-editing is good enough you stop reaching for a timeline, plus the stuff that's annoying to build well: native performance, AI voiceover, device-framed App Store previews. If that's not worth $59 to you, free tools are a genuinely good call!
I see so many screen recording apps being pushed the public, these days. I’m genuinely curious what’s going on.
For me, we’ve entered a world where thousands of products are being vibe-coded and released every day. The moat for products is no longer the ability to build, but ability to market. If I can help produce content for marketing, I figure it would be useful for people. The next update will be MCP support for Debut, so agents can autonomously create product demos…
Looks great OP. Any alternatives to Screen Studio are always nice to see. I appreciated the lifetime license option.
Good
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Valid, this really is for product demos tho. I hate editing videos, adding animations, backgrounds etc., so built this to do it for me