Conan vs Screencap: Features, Pricing & Which Is Better (2026)

A side-by-side comparison of Conan and Screencap — features, pricing, and ideal use cases — to help you decide which AI tool fits your workflow.

Conan

Paid

Conan is a native macOS app that wraps Claude Code in a live HUD, surfacing every prompt, tool call, skill, and token in real time.

Live Timeline: Every command, edit, and tool call streams onto a living timeline as it happens.
Context Window Meter: Watch the context window fill across system, tools, memory, skills, and messages while tokens burn in real time.
Session Pulse: A live throughput pulse that spikes when Claude works and calms when it waits.
Skills & MCP Visibility: See every skill and MCP server in play, surfaced and observable as they fire.
Native macOS App: A native HUD for Apple silicon Macs running macOS 13+, with no subscription required.
Claude Radio: Built-in curated audio stations to score your coding sessions.

Monitoring Claude Code Sessions: Watch every prompt, tool call, and skill execution in real time without scrolling logs.
Token Budget Management: Track context window usage and token burn to avoid context rot and surprise costs.
Debugging Agent Behavior: Observe which skills and MCP servers fire to understand and debug agentic workflows.
Staying In Flow: Keep a glanceable HUD of session activity while focusing on the work itself.

Proteus Computer Use

Freemium

Local-first macOS screen recorder that captures, labels, and indexes team workflows so knowledge stays searchable and private.

Local-First Capture: Recordings live in ~/.screencap on your Mac and never leave unless you explicitly share them.
On-Device Task Segmentation: An on-device model breaks long recordings into labeled tasks like payroll runs, expense approvals, or CRM data entry.
Full-Text Search of Workflows: Every spoken word and on-screen moment is indexed so any past workflow can be surfaced months later by search.
Privacy-Enforced Recording: Password managers and banking apps are cut before a frame is written; email and chat are masked in real time.
MCP Context Snapshots: While recording, Screencap queries connected MCP servers to capture the exact Gusto/Attio/Linear/Notion record on screen inside the video.
Deliberate Sharing With PII Scrubbing: Every shared copy is scrubbed of names, secrets, and PII, and only the recordings you pick ever leave the machine.
Source-Available Codebase: The full capture engine, encryption, agent, and anonymizer are public on GitHub under PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0.

Team Onboarding: Assemble ordered collections of real workflow recordings so new teammates learn exactly how work is actually done.
Institutional Knowledge Capture: Preserve the tacit steps behind payroll runs, reconciliations, and quarterly reports as searchable video.
Ops Documentation: Replace stale wikis by pointing teammates at labeled task recordings that stay current with the real system.
Compliance-Sensitive Recording: Capture back-office work in banking, finance, and HR without leaking passwords, account balances, or PII.
Computer-Use Dataset Contribution: Optionally donate reviewed, scrubbed recordings to a public dataset for training open computer-use models.