Building ScreenSense: An Open-Source Loom Alternative (While Working Full-Time)

Hey everyone! I'm Gurpreet, a full-stack developer, and I want to share the story behind ScreenSense — an open-source screen recording tool I've been building in my spare time.

Why I Built This Thing

Okay, let me be honest. Loom is great. I've used it. You've probably used it. Everyone's used it.

But here's what kept bugging me:

The pricing. For solo developers and small teams, those subscription costs add up fast. And the moment you stop paying? Your videos are basically held hostage.

The lock-in. All your recordings live on their servers. You can't self-host. You can't truly own your content.

It's closed source. As a developer, I wanted something I could peek into, modify, and make my own.

So one weekend, instead of doom-scrolling Twitter, I thought — what if I just... built one?

How I Built This With a Full-Time Job

Here's the unsexy truth: I have a full-time job. I'm not some indie hacker with unlimited runway. ScreenSense was built in stolen moments — early mornings, late nights, weekends when I probably should've been touching grass.

The tech stack I went with:

- Laravel 12 for the backend (PHP is my comfort zone, fight me)

- Vue 3 for the frontend

- FFmpeg for all the video processing magic

- Tailwind CSS because I can't design but I can copy-paste utility classes

The hardest part wasn't the code. It was staying consistent. Some weeks I'd ship three features. Other weeks? Nothing. Life happens. Work gets crazy. You lose momentum.

But I kept coming back to it. Slowly, it went from a janky prototype to something I actually wanted to use myself. That's when I knew I was onto something.

The key for me was keeping scope small. I didn't try to build "Loom but better." I built "Loom, but simpler and open-source." Record the screen, get the link, and share. That's it. No fancy AI features (yet), no complex team management. Just the core workflow, done well.

Who Is This For?

Developers who want to self-host and own their data. You can literally run this on your own server. Fork it, modify it, go wild.

Founders and indie hackers who are tired of paying $15/month/seat for screen recording. ScreenSense is free to self-host, or $7/month if you want us to handle the hosting.

Small teams that need a quick way to share screen recordings without enterprise sales calls.

Basically, if you've ever looked at your Loom bill and thought "this feels expensive for what it is," — ScreenSense is for you.

What's Next?

The Chrome extension is almost ready. Mobile apps are on the roadmap. And I'm working on some video editing features so you can trim your "umms" and awkward pauses.

But honestly? The best part has been shipping something open-source. Every GitHub star, every PR, every piece of feedback — it makes those late-night coding sessions worth it.

If you want to check it out: https://screensense.in

And if you're a developer who wants to contribute, the code is on https://github.com/gurpreetkaits/screensense. PRs welcome. Roasts of my code are also welcome (please be gentle).

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Built with Laravel, Vue, too much coffee, and the stubborn belief that screen recording shouldn't cost a fortune.

— Gurpreet