What’s Captura?

Captura was a screen capture (screenshot, recording) app for Windows which could capture screen, webcam, audio and keystrokes. It is no longer maintained, but the source-code is still archived on GitHub with 8k+ stars and 1.5k+ forks.

Status / TL;DR

• Maintained? No. Development stopped around 2019.
• Download: Releases are still available on GitHub. In the Assets section of the release you want, download either the Portable or Setup package.
• Support: No bug fixes, feature requests, or security patches will be issued.
• Safety: Captura has not received updates in several years. Use it at your own risk, especially on sensitive systems or newer versions of Windows.

Some history

In 2015, while I was a high school student, I started Captura as a “toy project” — a practical way to learn C#. Over time it grew into something much larger: a full-featured screen capture tool that attracted a community and over 20 language translations. As it was not driven by any commercial motive, I kept it completely ad-free, though I later began accepting donations from generous users.

Timeline

• 2015 — Project started as a personal learning exercise in C#.
• 2016–2018 — Significant growth; community translations, user donations, and active feature development.
• 2018–2019 — Burnout set in; unauthorized rebrands appeared on the Windows Store, violating the MIT license attribution requirement.
• ~2019 — Project archived; development stopped.
• 2023 — This post written to document the history.

Why I stopped maintaining it

As the sole contributor, I was struggling with burnout from balancing feature development and bug fixes. I also started receiving threatening emails demanding that I remove the source code.

Around the same time, I discovered that individuals had taken the application, stripped out all license information, and were selling it on platforms including the Windows Store under a different name — without crediting me. The MIT license permits selling the application, but it requires that the original license notice and attribution be retained. Removing that information is a violation of the license terms (see #405: Illegal Rebrand).

Efforts to get the Microsoft Store to remove these listings took nearly a year and left me feeling overwhelmed. Eventually, I shut down the project. The infringing listings were later removed, but by that point I had already moved on.

Safety & expectations

Captura has not received any updates since approximately 2019. What this means in practice:

• No bug fixes — known issues will not be resolved.
• No new features — the application is feature-frozen.
• No security patches — vulnerabilities discovered after 2019 will not be fixed.
• Compatibility — Captura may not work correctly on newer versions of Windows.

If it still meets your needs for light, non-sensitive use, feel free to continue using it. For anything involving sensitive content or a production environment, consider a maintained alternative.

Alternatives

A few well-known tools for common use cases:

• Screen recording: OBS Studio — free, open-source, Windows / macOS / Linux.
• Screenshots & recording: ShareX — free, open-source, Windows.
• GIF capture: ScreenToGif — free, open-source, Windows.

Lessons learned

• Burnout is real in solo open-source projects. Without a co-maintainer or clear scope boundaries, the maintenance load compounds quickly.
• License enforcement is hard. MIT is permissive, but attribution requirements are routinely ignored, and platforms like the Microsoft Store are slow to act on violations.
• Language enthusiasm alone doesn’t sustain a project. My interest in C# faded; had I built Captura in a language I still use today, I might have maintained it longer.
• Monetization is worth thinking about upfront. Writing code for free is rewarding early on, but sustainable projects often need a funding model. After this experience, I would explore monetization options before starting something new.
• I have since worked on another open-source project with a narrower scope and a different community dynamic — and found it far less draining. My current full-time role at a major tech company leaves limited time for open source, so any future contributions would more likely be to existing projects than to new ones I create.

References

#405: Illegal Rebrand

Donations

The table below lists donations received while Captura was active. I have not accepted any donations since discontinuing the project, and I am grateful to everyone who supported Captura during its run.