About
Why we built Glidesmith
Demo videos that look deliberate, without a video editor, and without sending your screen to anyone.
The problem
Every demo video was an afternoon in an editor
We ship Mac apps, which means a steady stream of demo videos: a landing page loop, a changelog clip, a launch post, a how-to for support. Recording one takes a minute. Making it watchable took hours of hand-placed zooms, trimmed pauses, and a cursor that would not sit still.
The tools that automate that polish either upload your recording to run their AI features, or charge like professional software. For anything recorded from a pre-release build or a client project under NDA, the first is a non-starter.
So Glidesmith does one job: record software on a Mac and hand back a finished-looking video, with every step running on your machine. The name is the idea: motion that glides, made with a craftsman's care.
In short
- Recordings never leave your Mac
- No account, ever. A licence key only
- Free to record and edit, pay once to export clean
- Typed characters are never logged
- Native on Apple Silicon and Intel
Who it is for
People who record software, not faces
That focus is what lets Glidesmith skip most of a general recorder's surface area.
Indie devs and SaaS teams
Demo videos for a landing page, a changelog entry, or a launch post, made in minutes.
Technical writers and support
How-to videos and docs GIFs that point at exactly the right button.
Course creators
Software tutorials where the viewer can always see what you clicked.
On purpose
What we will not build
These are decisions, not gaps on a roadmap. Each one protects the reason Glidesmith exists.
Hosted share links
They need a server and an account. Glidesmith gives you the file.
Accounts
A licence key pasted into Settings is all there is.
Cloud AI
AI features will run on your Mac or not at all.
Subscriptions
A tool you buy once, like our other Mac apps.
Logging keystrokes
Shortcuts like ⌘S for callouts. Never the letters you type.
Mac App Store
The Accessibility permission click-tracking needs makes it impractical. Direct download, signed and notarised.
The stack
Native where it counts
Glidesmith is written in Rust on top of Apple's own media frameworks. The screen is captured with ScreenCaptureKit, composited on the GPU through Metal, and encoded by the Mac's hardware H.264 encoder. No FFmpeg is bundled, which keeps the app small and the licensing clean.
- ScreenCaptureKit capture, up to 4K at 60 fps
- One GPU compositor for both preview and export
- Hardware H.264 encoding through VideoToolbox
- Crash-safe segmented writing while you record
Questions, ideas, or a demo you are proud of?
We read every message. Tell us what you are recording and what would make it easier.