v0.9.8 · out now for macOS and Windows
Clip your streams. Upload nothing.
Klyssa is a full short-form editor that runs on your machine. It's free — no trial, no account, no watermark. Download it and look at the real thing.
- No subscription
- No watermark
- No upload
- No account
Get the editor
Free forever. Install it, open a recording, and see every feature yourself.
No account, no card. Other platforms.
01 — The editor
A full editor, built for short-form
Everything you need to turn an OBS recording, a Shadowplay clip, or a stream VOD into something publishable — on your own hardware. Download it and open a file; the app is the demo.
01
Multi-Track Timeline
Trim, split, snap, and layer clips across multiple tracks with typed lanes for video, overlays, and text.
02
Vertical-First
9:16, 1:1, and 16:9 with TikTok safe-zone overlays. Built for short-form.
03
Effect Library
25 stackable looks — B&W, Vintage, Cinematic, plus animated glitch, VHS, light leak and more. Stack, reorder, and tune them per clip; the preview matches the export.
04
Keyframe Animation
Per-clip opacity, scale, rotation, and color grading. Animate movement with position keyframes.
05
Stickers & Templates
Giphy search, built-in stickers, animated intro/outro packs, plus custom templates you build yourself (upload or AI background) that stay on your device.
06
Royalty-Free Export
WebM VP9/Opus default, hardware H.264 available. 1080p presets. No watermark.
Full catalog on the Features page. How to use it is in the guide.
02 — No lock-in
No subscription, no traps
You know the move: edit for an hour, hit Export, and that's when the watermark, the locked resolution, or the “Pro asset” upsell shows up. Klyssa doesn't do that — at the export button or anywhere else.
01
No subscription, ever
The editor is free. There's no monthly plan to cancel and no Pro tier holding features hostage.
02
No export traps
No watermark, no locked 1080p, no “premium asset” surprise when you hit Export. What you make is yours.
03
No account needed to start
Download and edit with zero sign-up. An account is only needed for optional Klyssa credits.
04
Pay only for optional AI
If you want AI, top up pay-as-you-go credits or plug in your own key. Never a subscription.
03 — Local-first
Why no upload?
Your footage is huge and it's already on your machine. Cloud editors make you push gigabytes up a pipe before you can make the first cut. Klyssa just opens the file.
01
Start cutting instantly
Your recording is already on your disk. Open it and edit — no upload bar, no processing queue.
02
No multi-gigabyte uploads
Gameplay recordings and stream VODs are huge. Klyssa edits them where they live instead of pushing them to a server.
03
No per-minute cloud fees
Nothing renders on someone else's server, so nobody meters your timeline or charges by the minute.
04
Private by default
Your footage never leaves your disk, and we don't track what you edit.
04 — How we compare
The only column that's all green
Cloud editors make you upload everything, charge monthly, and save the catch for the export screen. Free desktop editors don't trap you, but they aren't built for short-form.
| KlyssaThis app | Cloud AI editorsCapCut, Descript | Free desktop editorsKdenlive, DaVinci Resolve | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No subscription | Yes | No | Yes |
| No upload required (edit files where they are) | Yes | No | Yes |
| No watermark, no export traps | Yes | No | Yes |
| No account needed to start | Yes | No | Yes |
| Vertical / short-form first | Yes | Yes | No |
| Runs 100% locally | Yes | No | Yes |
| Optional AI: credits or bring your own key | Yes | No | No |
| Stackable effects with matching export | Yes | Partial | Partial |
| AI assistant, captions, voiceover and music | Yes | Partial | Partial |
Comparison reflects typical 2026 free-tier configurations; desktop editor capabilities vary by version and plugins.
05 — Pricing
Free editor. Optional AI.
Two things to understand, and then you're done: the editor costs nothing, and the only thing you can pay for is cloud AI you never have to touch.
The editor
Free
forever, and that isn't a trial
Every editing feature, every export preset, no watermark and no account.
- Multi-track timeline, effects, colour, keyframes
- Local Whisper captions and background removal
- 1080p export, no watermark, no locked resolution
- No subscription and nothing to cancel
Optional AI
Pay as you go
credits, bought only if you want them
Cloud generation — assistant, image, video, voiceover, music, and SFX — metered by the job.
- Top up a pack of credits; they don't expire monthly
- New accounts start with free welcome credits
- Or bring your own provider key and pay nobody here
- Never a subscription — the editor works untouched without it
Credit packs and their exact prices live in the app, under Settings → Credits — so you can see what a job costs before you run it.
06 — Optional AI
AI on your terms, or not at all
If you want it, it's there — an assistant, captions, voiceover, image generation, and royalty-free music & SFX, powered by pay-as-you-go credits or your own provider key. Never a subscription. If you don't, the editor never asks.
- ai assistantEdit your timeline with natural language. The assistant reads your project and makes changes through tool-calls.
- ai image generationGenerate images and stickers from prompts directly into your media library.
- ai voiceoverText-to-speech narration in multiple voices, placed directly on your timeline.
- ai music & sfxDescribe a track or a sound effect and get royalty-free audio dropped straight onto your timeline.
- local ai captionsWhisper transcription running offline. Accurate, editable caption clips — no upload needed.
- background removalOn-device segmentation via ONNX + WebGPU. Real-time, no cloud processing.
07 — FAQ
Questions, answered
Is it actually free, or free until I hit Export?
Actually free. The editor, every effect, and every export preset cost nothing, and there is no watermark or resolution lock waiting at the end. The only thing that ever costs money is optional cloud AI generation, which you can ignore entirely.
Does my footage get uploaded anywhere?
No. Klyssa opens the file where it already sits on your disk and renders with a bundled FFmpeg on your own machine. Captions and background removal run on-device too. The only time anything leaves your computer is if you deliberately use a cloud AI generation feature.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Import, editing, captions, background removal, and export all work with the network off. Only the optional cloud AI features need a connection.
When is Linux coming?
Later. The current release is macOS on Apple Silicon (M1–M4) and Windows 10/11.
What are credits, and do they expire?
Credits meter the optional cloud AI: generating an image or a video clip, a voiceover, music, or a sound effect. You buy a pack once and draw it down as you use it — there is no monthly plan and no auto-renew. You can also plug in your own provider API key and skip credits altogether.
Do I need an account?
Not to download, and not to edit or export. An account only comes into it if you decide to buy AI credits.
How does it compare to CapCut or DaVinci Resolve?
CapCut gives you short-form ergonomics but wants your footage in its cloud and your card on file. Resolve and Kdenlive are free and local but built for long-form, so vertical work fights the tool. Klyssa is the short-form workflow, running entirely on your machine.
What formats can it export?
WebM (VP9 + Opus) by default because it is royalty-free, or MP4 with hardware-accelerated H.264 for maximum compatibility. Also animated GIF, alpha-channel overlays via ProRes 4444 or VP9, and SRT/VTT caption sidecars.
Download Klyssa
Free, no account, no card. The app is the demo — install it and look.
- macOS — Apple SiliconM1 / M2 / M3 / M4 · ~55 MByours
- WindowsWindows 10 / 11 · 64-bit · ~90 MB
- Linuxin the works
System requirements
- macOS
- 13 Ventura or later, Apple Silicon
- Windows
- Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
- Memory
- 8 GB RAM recommended
- Disk
- ~1 GB, plus room for your projects
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