ScreenJournal vs OpenRecall

Updated on 10 July 2026

OpenRecall is an open-source, local screen memory for one person: it snapshots your own screen and makes it searchable on your machine. ScreenJournal is a team work visibility tool: it reads on-screen work across a whole team, writes a timeline of what each person did, then deletes the raw screen data.

Both read the screen, which is where the similarity ends. OpenRecall archives your screen so you can look back through it. ScreenJournal understands the work, keeps the understanding, and throws the pictures away.

ScreenJournal is an AI work visibility tool that reads on-screen work as it happens, turns it into a detailed timeline of what each person actually did, and then deletes the raw screen data. Timelines accumulate into a searchable chronicle of everyone's work history, and from them ScreenJournal generates timesheets and reports automatically and drafts standup summaries on request, answering questions about any of it in plain English.

One is a private rewind button for your own computer. The other is a managed record of a team's work.

What is OpenRecall?

OpenRecall is a free, open-source Python tool, licensed under AGPL-3.0, that its maintainers publicly describe as a privacy-first alternative to Microsoft Recall and Rewind.ai. It saves snapshots of your screen when the content changes, rather than at a published fixed interval, extracts text with OCR running locally, and lets you search your history by keyword or meaning, or scroll back through a timeline, in a local web interface. Everything stays on the device: a local database and image files in a per-user folder, with no cloud and no account. Encryption is not built in; the project recommends storing data on a user-created encrypted volume. It works on Windows, macOS and Linux and is installed from the repository with Python tooling. It is also a small community project: as of July 2026 its only published release is version 0.1 from June 2024, four contributors are listed, and the repository shows no substantive code changes since April 2025.

How do OpenRecall and ScreenJournal compare?

Both read the screen, so the comparison comes down to what survives afterwards and who can use it.

Personal recall vs team visibility

OpenRecall answers "what was on my screen last Tuesday?"; ScreenJournal answers "what did my team produce, and where is it going wrong?". OpenRecall is single-user by design: it runs locally, writes to a personal folder, serves its interface on localhost, and documents no accounts, roles, central deployment or aggregate analytics. That is the correct shape for a personal memory aid. It also means it has nothing to offer a manager, and applying a personal screen archive across a team raises exactly the storage and privacy questions it was never built to answer. ScreenJournal starts from the team: per-person timelines written from the work, roles and permissions, a role-normalised Effort Score, weekly AI reports, and plain-English answers across everyone's work through chat and MCP.

What happens to the raw screen data?

OpenRecall keeps your screenshots; ScreenJournal keeps what it learned and deletes them. OpenRecall's value is the archive itself: snapshots accumulate in a local database, no automatic deletion or retention policy is documented, and securing that growing store of screen images is left to the user. On one enthusiast's machine that is a reasonable trade. Across a team it becomes a liability: every machine holds an unencrypted-by-default archive of everything seen on screen, including private and sensitive content. ScreenJournal is built the other way round: the screen is recorded as short-lived video, the work is read from it, and the video is deleted immediately during processing. What remains is the derived timeline, retained as the most recent 12 months of derived work history in the chronicle. The principle is described in derive and discard.

What does open source get you here?

Auditability, control and zero cost, and OpenRecall delivers all three honestly. You can read every line that touches your data, point the storage anywhere, and never pay for it. The trade-off is that nobody is on the hook: version 0.1 is the only release, activity has been quiet since April 2025 as of July 2026, and there is no support, no packaged installer and no roadmap commitment. None of that is a criticism of a community project; it is what a community project is. It does mean the comparison with a maintained commercial product is less about features and more about what you are relying on. If your screen memory matters to your business, the maintenance model is part of the decision.

When is OpenRecall the right choice?

OpenRecall is the right choice when you want a free, auditable personal memory on your own machine.

• You are an individual who wants to search your own screen history and pay nothing for it.
• Being able to read and modify the source matters to you, and AGPL-3.0 suits your use.
• You are comfortable installing Python tooling, managing storage and encrypting the volume yourself.
• You accept the maintenance state of a small community project, checked against the repository.

When is ScreenJournal the right choice?

ScreenJournal is the right choice when the job is team visibility rather than personal recall.

• You manage a team and need to know what was produced, across everyone.
• You want timesheets, weekly reports and plain-English answers generated from the work itself.
• You run a call centre or outsourcing operation where voice is part of the work.
• You do not want screenshot archives accumulating on every machine; you want a derived record and nothing to breach.
• You need a supported product with roles, permissions and a maintenance commitment.

Frequently asked questions

Is ScreenJournal built on OpenRecall or open source?

No on both counts. OpenRecall is an independent, open-source (AGPL-3.0) Python project that stores a personal screen history locally. ScreenJournal is a separate, team-scale commercial product, is not open source, and shares no code with OpenRecall. This is a comparison between two unrelated tools built for different jobs.

Does ScreenJournal store screenshots the way OpenRecall does?

No. OpenRecall saves snapshots of your screen to a local database so you can search them later, and no automatic deletion or retention policy is documented. ScreenJournal records the screen only as short-lived video, reads the work from it, and deletes that raw screen data immediately during processing, keeping only the derived timeline. There is no screenshot archive to store or breach.

Can OpenRecall be used to monitor a team?

No. OpenRecall runs as a local process on one machine, stores data in a per-user folder, and serves its interface on localhost. No accounts, roles, permissions, central deployment or aggregate analytics are documented. It is a personal memory aid. ScreenJournal is the team tool: it reads work across everyone, writes per-person timelines and reports across the team.

Is OpenRecall still maintained?

Check the repository before adopting it. As of July 2026, OpenRecall's only published release is version 0.1 on PyPI from June 2024, the project lists four contributors, and the repository shows no substantive code changes since April 2025. It remains free and auditable, but it is a small community project rather than a supported product.

An archive you audit, or answers you can use

OpenRecall does what it promises: a free, local, open-source memory of your own screen, with nothing leaving your machine. For a single technically-minded user, that is a fair deal. But a team needs a record it can rely on, not an archive on every laptop. ScreenJournal reads the work, writes the timeline, deletes the raw screen data and gives a manager the timesheets, reports and answers the job requires. For the wider market view, see ScreenJournal vs the alternatives.