
78% of workplace professionals report spending over 5 hours per week creating training documentation and tutorial content, yet 64% say their current tools force them to choose between video or text-based guides—a limitation that costs companies an average of $1,200 per employee annually in lost productivity.
Scribe specializes in AI-powered text-based documentation with automatic screenshot capture, while Cap focuses on open-source screen recording with local-first privacy. Scribe excels at creating step-by-step process guides, Cap at video communication. However, if you need a unified platform that delivers both capabilities with 11x faster creation speed and enterprise-grade AI, Guidde combines the best of both worlds without forcing you to choose between formats.
Choosing between documentation and video tools fundamentally shapes how your team captures, shares, and scales knowledge. The wrong choice forces you into a single content format, creates workflow friction, and often requires purchasing multiple tools to cover all your communication needs. With remote and hybrid work becoming permanent for 58% of knowledge workers in 2026, the ability to create both written guides and video tutorials quickly—without switching platforms—directly impacts training efficiency, customer success outcomes, and operational scalability.
Scribe and Cap represent two fundamentally different approaches to workplace knowledge sharing. Scribe has built its reputation on transforming manual screenshot-and-annotation workflows into AI-automated process documentation, capturing over 5 million users who need to create SOPs, training materials, and how-to guides. Cap emerged as an open-source challenger to Loom, prioritizing privacy, data ownership, and high-quality video recording for visual communication.
By 2026, both platforms have matured significantly—Scribe has expanded from browser-only to desktop capture with advanced AI redaction capabilities, while Cap has evolved from a simple screen recorder to a full collaboration platform with AI-generated summaries and team workspaces. Yet they remain fundamentally siloed: Scribe produces text-based guides with embedded screenshots, Cap creates video recordings. This comparison examines their feature sets across documentation, video, collaboration, and AI capabilities to help you determine which tool—or whether a unified alternative—best serves your organization's needs.
Scribe is an AI-powered documentation platform that automatically generates step-by-step guides by capturing user workflows across web, desktop, and mobile applications. Launched in 2019 and serving over 5 million users by 2026, Scribe's core innovation is eliminating the manual work of creating process documentation—users simply perform a task while Scribe's browser extension or desktop app captures every click, input, and navigation, then automatically assembles annotated screenshots into a shareable guide.
Core Feature Set:
Scribe positions itself as the 'Workflow AI Platform'—not just capturing processes, but analyzing how work happens across teams and suggesting improvements. By 2026, their enterprise tier includes auto-redaction of sensitive data, guide verification workflows for compliance, and AI-driven workflow optimization that identifies inefficiencies across documented processes.
Cap is an open-source screen recording platform that positions itself as the privacy-first, data-sovereignty alternative to Loom. Launched in 2023 and reaching 25,000+ users by 2026, Cap's core philosophy is giving users complete control over their recordings—whether stored locally, in their own S3 buckets, or on Cap's cloud infrastructure. Built with native macOS and Windows apps (not Electron), Cap emphasizes performance, cross-platform consistency, and transparency through its open-source codebase.
Core Feature Set:
Cap's unique value proposition is data ownership—teams with strict compliance requirements (healthcare, finance, government) can self-host entirely or route recordings through their own infrastructure. By 2026, Cap has evolved from a simple Loom alternative into a full-featured collaboration platform while maintaining its open-source roots and local-first architecture.
| Tier | Scribe | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Free | ✓ Basic (web app capture, unlimited guides, link sharing) | ✓ Free (unlimited local recordings, limited cloud sharing up to 5 min) |
| Individual | Pro Personal: $23/user/month (annual) or $29/month (monthly) Desktop capture, branding, PDF export, redaction |
Desktop License: $58 lifetime or $29/year Commercial use, unlimited local recordings, 5-min cloud shares, editor |
| Team | Pro Team: $59/month base (5 users), $12/user/month additional (annual) $15/user/month (monthly) Minimum 5 seats = $720/year minimum |
Cap Pro: $8.16/user/month (annual) or $12/user/month (monthly) Unlimited cloud, AI features, custom domain, team spaces No seat minimum |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing SSO, SCIM, auto-redaction, multi-team governance, API, role-based access |
Custom pricing SAML SSO, SLAs, priority support, managed self-hosting, bulk discounts |
| Annual Cost (5 users) | $720/year (team minimum) | $489.60/year ($8.16 × 12 × 5) |
Scribe and Cap represent fundamentally different content creation philosophies. Scribe automates written documentation—you perform a task once, and Scribe generates a step-by-step guide with annotated screenshots, editable text, and shareable links. The output is structured, searchable, and optimized for knowledge retention. Users report creating guides in 15-20 minutes that previously took hours of manual screenshotting and writing.
Cap automates video communication—you record your screen, and Cap generates a shareable video with AI-generated title, transcription, summary, and clickable chapters. The output is personal, nuanced, and better for demonstrating complex UI interactions or troubleshooting in real-time. Cap's dual-mode architecture (Instant vs. Studio) lets users choose between speed (instant upload during recording) or control (local editing before sharing).
Both platforms leverage AI, but for different purposes:
Scribe's AI focuses on workflow intelligence:
Cap's AI focuses on video accessibility:
By 2026, Scribe's AI has matured into a 'Workflow Optimization' engine—it not only documents processes but analyzes them across teams to recommend improvements. Cap's AI remains focused on enhancing video discoverability and accessibility rather than analyzing content.
Scribe's collaboration model: Guides are web-based, embeddable, and exportable. Teams can comment on guides, workspace admins can enforce approval workflows before publishing (enterprise tier), and guides integrate into existing tools (Confluence, wikis, LMS) via embed codes or exports. Scribe's 'Pages' feature allows combining multiple guides, videos, links, and text into comprehensive training documents.
Cap's collaboration model: Videos live in team workspaces with comments, reactions, and viewer analytics. Cap's unique advantage is where videos are stored—teams can use Cap's cloud, their own S3 buckets, or keep recordings entirely local. Password protection and custom domains (cap.yourdomain.com) provide additional control over access and branding.
Both platforms address enterprise security, but with different approaches:
Scribe's security model: Centralized, cloud-based with robust data governance. By 2026, Scribe offers SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, CCPA compliance, with enforced auto-redaction of sensitive data, SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, configurable sharing policies per team, and role-based access control. Critical for industries handling protected data where documentation might capture sensitive information.
Cap's security model: Decentralized, data-sovereignty focused. Cap's open-source codebase allows full auditing, self-hosting eliminates third-party data exposure, and S3 integration lets enterprises route recordings through their own infrastructure. By 2026, Cap enterprise tier includes SAML SSO and managed self-hosting. Critical for organizations with strict data residency requirements or zero-trust architectures.
Scribe: Browser extensions (Chrome, Edge), desktop apps (Windows, Mac), mobile capture (iOS, Android). Integrations via embed codes, exports (PDF, HTML, Markdown, Word), and enterprise API for Confluence, Slack, Copilot, and custom AI assistants.
Cap: Native desktop apps (macOS, Windows), no browser extension. Focus is on recording quality and editing rather than widespread integration. Limited export options (MP4, GIF) but strong API for custom workflows and self-hosted deployments.
Scribe: Extremely low learning curve for basic use—install extension, click record, perform task, stop recording, share link. Advanced features (Pages, branding, redaction policies, multi-team governance) require admin configuration. Users praise the 'set it and forget it' nature of automatic capture.
Cap: Low learning curve for recording, moderate for editing. Dual-mode selection (Instant vs. Studio) adds one decision point but provides valuable flexibility. Native app design feels more polished than browser extensions, and the open-source community provides extensive documentation and customization guides.
Many organizations find themselves purchasing both tools—Scribe for documentation and SOPs, Cap for video communication. This creates workflow friction (switching between platforms), duplicated costs, and content silos (guides in Scribe, videos in Cap, neither searchable together). If your team regularly needs both text guides and video tutorials, consider whether a unified platform like Guidde better serves your needs by combining automated documentation and AI-powered video creation in a single workflow.
Scribe Pro Team: $720/year base (5 seats minimum at $12/user/month, annual billing). Monthly billing increases to $900/year ($15/user/month × 12 months × 5 users). Adding a 6th user costs an additional $144/year.
Cap Pro: $489.60/year ($8.16/user/month × 12 months × 5 users, annual billing). Monthly billing is $720/year ($12/user/month × 12 × 5). No seat minimum—teams of 2-3 pay only for active users. Alternatively, one-time Desktop License at $58/user ($290 for 5 users) provides commercial use rights but limits cloud sharing to 5-minute videos.
Cost Difference: Cap Pro is 32% cheaper than Scribe Pro Team annually ($489.60 vs. $720). However, they serve fundamentally different use cases—comparing costs only makes sense if they're truly interchangeable for your workflows.
Scribe:
Cap:
Scribe's ROI: Customer survey data (2025) shows 75% faster documentation time, 35 hours saved per person per month, and 98% reduction in process errors. For knowledge-intensive teams spending significant time creating training materials or SOPs, Scribe's automation delivers measurable time savings. The $12-23/user/month cost amortizes quickly if it saves even 2-3 hours of manual documentation work monthly.
Cap's ROI: Users report replacing 5-10 'quick sync' meetings per week with async video updates—saving 3-5 hours of meeting time weekly. At $8.16/user/month, Cap pays for itself if it eliminates just one unnecessary meeting per month. The open-source nature and self-hosting options provide additional value for compliance-heavy industries where alternatives (Loom at $12.50/user/month minimum) don't offer data sovereignty.
This depends entirely on your primary use case:
Scribe optimizes for structured knowledge at scale—searchable, compliant, and integrated into existing enterprise knowledge systems. Cap optimizes for visual communication and data control—nuanced, high-quality video without vendor lock-in. Neither tool attempts to be both, forcing organizations to either accept the limitations of their chosen format or purchase multiple tools to cover all use cases.
Choose Scribe if: Your primary goal is creating scalable, searchable process documentation (SOPs, training materials, knowledge base content) that integrates into existing enterprise systems. Scribe's automation, compliance features, and workflow intelligence make it the superior choice for regulated industries, operations teams, and organizations building comprehensive knowledge repositories. Accept that you'll need a separate tool for video communication.
Choose Cap if: Your primary goal is async video communication (status updates, bug reports, design reviews, demos) with complete data ownership and no vendor lock-in. Cap's cost-effectiveness, open-source transparency, and self-hosting options make it ideal for security-conscious teams, budget-limited startups, and organizations with strict data sovereignty requirements. Accept that you'll need a separate tool for structured documentation.
The Real Challenge: Most modern teams don't have a single 'primary need'—they need both documentation and video regularly. L&D teams creating training programs need SOPs and tutorial videos. Customer success teams need help articles and troubleshooting screencasts. Product teams need feature specs and demo recordings. Purchasing both Scribe and Cap solves the format problem but creates new challenges: workflow friction (switching platforms mid-task), cost duplication ($1,209+/year for 5 users), content silos (guides in one system, videos in another, neither searchable together), and training overhead (learning and maintaining two separate tools).
The Emerging Alternative: By 2026, next-generation platforms like Guidde have emerged to solve this exact problem—combining automated documentation and AI-powered video creation in a single workflow. Rather than forcing teams to choose between Scribe's documentation strength and Cap's video capabilities, unified platforms deliver both formats from the same recording, with shared AI intelligence, integrated analytics, and a single subscription. For organizations that regularly need both text guides and video tutorials, the 'two specialized tools' approach of Scribe + Cap increasingly looks inefficient compared to purpose-built convergence platforms.
While Scribe excels at documentation and Cap excels at video, both platforms share critical limitations that impact modern knowledge work:
1. Forced Format Decisions: Scribe produces text guides with screenshots. Cap produces videos. Real-world knowledge transfer needs both—quick reference guides for experienced users, video walkthroughs for visual learners, documentation for compliance, and video for nuanced troubleshooting. Scribe and Cap force you to choose your format before creating content, then stick with it.
2. No Cross-Format Intelligence: Neither platform helps you decide which format serves your audience best. Create a Scribe guide, and you're locked into text. Record a Cap video, and you're locked into video. There's no AI recommendation of 'this workflow is better as a video' or 'this process should be documented as an SOP.'
3. Duplicated Effort for Multi-Format Needs: Need the same content as both a quick reference guide AND a video tutorial? You'll create it twice—once in Scribe, once in Cap—doubling your work and creating version control nightmares when the process changes.
4. Content Silos and Discovery Problems: Scribe guides live in Scribe. Cap videos live in Cap. Teams searching for 'how to process refunds' might find the Scribe guide but miss the Cap video showing edge cases, or vice versa. Knowledge becomes fragmented across platforms.
5. Limited AI Capabilities: Scribe's AI focuses on redaction and workflow optimization. Cap's AI focuses on transcription and summaries. Neither leverages AI to truly transform how content is created—you still manually perform tasks while tools passively record.
Guidde is the AI-first knowledge platform that combines documentation and video in a single, unified workflow—delivering what Scribe and Cap cannot: format flexibility, intelligent automation, and true content convergence.
Record a workflow once with Guidde, and AI automatically generates:
Unlike Scribe (text-only) or Cap (video-only), Guidde doesn't force format decisions—it delivers all formats simultaneously, letting you choose distribution method based on audience, not platform limitation.
Guidde's AI doesn't just capture—it creates:
Organizations report creating training content in 5-7 minutes with Guidde that took 60+ minutes with Scribe (manual editing and annotation) or Cap (recording, reviewing, editing, re-recording mistakes).
Unified Analytics: Guidde tracks engagement across video and documentation in one dashboard—see who watched videos, who read guides, and where users drop off. Scribe and Cap offer separate, siloed analytics.
AI-Powered Personalization: Guidde's 'Magic Capture' asks viewers their role and experience level, then adapts content complexity in real-time—something neither Scribe nor Cap attempt.
Centralized Governance: Manage all knowledge content—videos, guides, SOPs, tutorials—in one platform with unified access controls, approval workflows, and compliance features. Scribe + Cap requires managing two separate systems.
Smart Playlists and Learning Paths: Guidde automatically organizes content into learning sequences based on user role, department, or skill level—turning individual guides and videos into structured training programs without manual curation.
Guidde combines Cap's data sovereignty options (custom hosting, SSO, compliance certifications) with Scribe's enterprise governance (auto-redaction, role-based access, audit trails). Organizations get the control of Cap's self-hosting with the compliance maturity of Scribe's enterprise tier—without purchasing two platforms.
Organizations switching from Scribe + Cap to Guidde report:
Scribe and Cap are excellent at their respective specializations—if your organization exclusively needs documentation OR exclusively needs video, they're strong choices. But in 2026, most organizations need both, and the 'two specialized tools' approach creates inefficiencies that next-generation AI platforms eliminate.
Guidde represents the convergence of documentation and video in an AI-first platform designed for how modern teams actually work—not forcing format choices, not doubling content creation effort, not fragmenting knowledge across systems. If you're currently using Scribe, Cap, or considering either, explore how Guidde delivers both capabilities with greater speed, intelligence, and business impact.
Try Guidde free and experience the first platform that truly combines the best of documentation and video—without the limitations of either.
No. Scribe creates text-based step-by-step guides with annotated screenshots. You can embed external videos (YouTube, Vimeo, Loom) into Scribe Pages, but Scribe does not record or produce video content natively. For video, you'd need a separate tool like Cap or Loom.
Not in the traditional sense. Cap produces video recordings with AI-generated transcriptions, which are text-based but optimized for video navigation rather than standalone documentation. Cap does not automatically extract step-by-step instructions or create structured guides like Scribe—it's fundamentally a video platform.
It depends on your support model. Scribe is better for creating scalable help center articles and knowledge base content that customers can search and reference independently. Cap is better for one-on-one troubleshooting videos, personalized walkthroughs, or demonstrating complex issues where video context is critical. Many support teams use both or switch to unified platforms like Guidde that generate both formats.
Yes. Cap's self-hosting and S3 bucket integration require DevOps knowledge to configure infrastructure, manage storage, and handle backups. Non-technical teams should use Cap's cloud storage option. By 2026, Cap offers 'Managed Self-Hosting' in their Enterprise tier, where Cap handles technical setup while hosting runs on your infrastructure.
Not for standard Pro Team plans. Scribe enforces a 5-user minimum ($60/month base, annual billing) to access team features. Smaller teams must either pay for unused seats, use Pro Personal ($23/user/month with no collaboration features), or explore alternatives without seat minimums like Cap Pro or Guidde.
Yes. Cap's Enterprise tier includes a Loom Video Importer that transfers existing Loom videos into Cap. This addresses a common pain point for teams wanting to switch from Loom's higher pricing ($12.50/user/month minimum) to Cap's lower cost ($8.16/user/month) while preserving existing content.
Scribe typically delivers better ROI for training teams creating large libraries of reusable SOPs, onboarding guides, and software tutorials—the text format scales better, integrates into LMS platforms, and is easier to update. Cap delivers better ROI for teams creating personalized video coaching, live demo recordings, or visual skill demonstrations. For comprehensive training programs requiring both formats, Guidde eliminates the 'choose one or buy both' dilemma.
Guidde is the superior alternative to both platforms. While Scribe forces you into text-only documentation and Cap locks you into video-only communication, Guidde combines both capabilities in a single AI-first platform. Record once, and Guidde automatically generates interactive video tutorials with AI voiceovers (like Cap's output) AND step-by-step text guides (like Scribe's output) simultaneously. You get format flexibility, 11x faster creation speed, unified analytics, and enterprise features that surpass both tools—without paying for two separate platforms. Organizations switching from Scribe + Cap to Guidde report 67% faster content creation, 43% higher engagement, and $18,000+ annual savings per 10 users. Try Guidde free to experience the next generation of knowledge capture that doesn't force format compromises.