01 Two answers to the same question
Screenpipe and Pixel Dust both record your screen locally and make it searchable, and both take privacy seriously. The difference is who they are for. Screenpipe is open source, cross-platform, and built as a foundation: a recorder with an API and a plugin system, for people who want to build on top of their own data. Pixel Dust is a finished Mac app for people who want to open it, search, and get on with their day.
Neither is the wrong choice. This page is for working out which one is yours.
02 Side by side
| Pixel Dust | Screenpipe | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Mac | Mac, Windows, Linux |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Built for | Using it | Building on it |
| Setup | Install, grant two permissions, done | Install, then configure; comfortable with a terminal helps |
| What it records | Screen stills | Screen and audio |
| Encrypted at rest | Opt-in, images and index, key only you hold | Relies on disk encryption |
| Redaction | Apps, private windows, keywords, card and secret patterns | Configurable |
| Extensibility | Automation triggers | Plugins and an API |
| Ask questions of your history | Yes, your choice of model or none | Yes, bring your own model |
| Price | Free during beta | Free and open source; paid tiers for some features |
03 How to choose
Pick Screenpipe if you want the raw stream — to pipe your screen into your own scripts, run it on Linux, or extend it in ways an app would never expose. It is the better tool for building things.
Pick Pixel Dust if you want the finished thing: a timeline you scrub, a search box that finds the sentence you half-remember, redaction that already knows what a card number looks like, and encryption where you hold the only key. It is the better tool for finding what you saw and moving on.
We respect what Screenpipe is doing. Open source in this category is good for everyone, including us; it means the architecture is inspectable and the standard for "local" is public. We chose to make a product instead of a platform. If that is what you want, we would like to show it to you.
Pixel Dust is free during the beta. Everything stays on your Mac.
Request beta access