Open source alternatives to Tella

By GitHub stars it is OBS Studio, with 79,517 stars and a commit on 11 Nov. Choose OBS Studio when you want to record locally with full control of scenes and sources, without a per-user subscription. Next come ShareX (41,017 stars) and Cap (24,989 stars).

Yes. The code of all 5 is public under GPL 2.0 or later, GPL 3.0 or AGPL 3.0, so you can use them with no licence fee. Running one yourself costs the server and your time to look after it, and some makers also sell a hosted plan.

Start from the job you use Tella for. Choose ShareX when you want to record a clip, upload it to your own S3 or R2 bucket and copy the link from one hotkey. Choose Cap when you want a desktop licence you can buy once for $58 rather than a monthly subscription for recording.

All 5: OBS Studio, ShareX, Cap, Screenity and BlitzRecorder. Each tool's page says what it needs to run.

All 5 we track had a commit in the last 30 days, among them OBS Studio, ShareX, Cap and Screenity. A recent commit shows the project is kept up, not that it will stay that way.

GPL 3.0 (2), AGPL 3.0 (2), GPL 2.0 or later (1). GPL and AGPL ask you to share your changes under the same licence when you give the software to others, and AGPL also counts letting people use it over a network.

The hosting. Tella's maker runs the servers for you; with an open source tool the updates, backups, security fixes and support are yours, unless you take the maker's hosted plan. Features differ too, so check what each one imports and exports before you move your data.