The open-source, local-first alternative to Medal.tv.
Medal.tv built one of the most popular cloud-first clipping platforms, but its free tier is funded by ads and watermarks, and clips you care about are stored on its servers, not yours. Segra is a local-first, fully open-source alternative that captures up to 4K at 144 FPS without paying anything.
TL;DR
Medal is great if you want a social network for clips and don't mind ads, watermarks, and tracking on the free plan. Segra records to your own disk at higher quality, costs nothing on any tier, and never adds a watermark or ad.
Segra vs Medal.tv
Facts verified against the Medal.tv documentation as of 2026-05-22.
Price
- Segra
- Free (all features)
- Medal
- Free with ads + watermark, or Premium ~$4.99/mo
Source code
- Segra
- Open source (GPLv2)
- Medal
- Proprietary
Platform
- Segra
- Windows 10/11
- Medal
- Windows + iOS/Android companion apps
Watermark on free tier
- Segra
- No
- Medal
- Yes
Ads
- Segra
- No
- Medal
- Yes on free tier
Max resolution
- Segra
- 4K
- Medal
- 1440p (requires Premium)
Max frame rate
- Segra
- 144 FPS
- Medal
- 120 FPS (requires Premium)
Codecs
- Segra
- H.264, H.265, AV1 (NVENC / AMF / QSV)
- Medal
- H.264 (H.265 on Premium)
Auto-clipping titles
- Segra
- 9 (CS2, Dota 2, LoL, Minecraft, PUBG, Rocket League, Rust, RuneScape: Dragonwilds, War Thunder)
- Medal
- ~14 titles (Valorant, CS2, Fortnite, Rocket League, LoL, GTA V, Dota 2, Roblox, PUBG, War Thunder, EA FC and more)
Clip length cap
- Segra
- No cap (your disk)
- Medal
- 10 min free / 30 min Premium
Cloud storage
- Segra
- Optional upload to segra.tv (free)
- Medal
- Required for sharing; auto-upload is Premium-only
Built-in editor
- Segra
- Timeline with segments, multi-clip combine, multi-track audio
- Medal
- Trim + Montages stitching
Analytics / ad SDKs
- Segra
- None
- Medal
- Yes (per privacy policy)
GPU vendor lock-in
- Segra
- None (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel)
- Medal
- None
| Feature | Segra | Medal |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (all features) | Free with ads + watermark, or Premium ~$4.99/mo |
| Source code | Open source (GPLv2) | Proprietary |
| Platform | Windows 10/11 | Windows + iOS/Android companion apps |
| Watermark on free tier | No | Yes |
| Ads | No | Yes on free tier |
| Max resolution | 4K | 1440p (requires Premium) |
| Max frame rate | 144 FPS | 120 FPS (requires Premium) |
| Codecs | H.264, H.265, AV1 (NVENC / AMF / QSV) | H.264 (H.265 on Premium) |
| Auto-clipping titles | 9 (CS2, Dota 2, LoL, Minecraft, PUBG, Rocket League, Rust, RuneScape: Dragonwilds, War Thunder) | ~14 titles (Valorant, CS2, Fortnite, Rocket League, LoL, GTA V, Dota 2, Roblox, PUBG, War Thunder, EA FC and more) |
| Clip length cap | No cap (your disk) | 10 min free / 30 min Premium |
| Cloud storage | Optional upload to segra.tv (free) | Required for sharing; auto-upload is Premium-only |
| Built-in editor | Timeline with segments, multi-clip combine, multi-track audio | Trim + Montages stitching |
| Analytics / ad SDKs | None | Yes (per privacy policy) |
| GPU vendor lock-in | None (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel) | None |
Why pick Segra
- Free at every level. No watermarks, no ads, no Premium tier.
- Records at 4K up to 144 FPS without paying anything (Medal caps free recording lower and locks higher quality behind Premium).
- Source code is on GitHub under GPLv2. Anyone can audit, fork, or self-host.
- Local-first by default. Your clips sit in your Videos folder. Upload to segra.tv is optional, free, and watermark-free.
- No analytics or ad SDKs running in the background.
- Higher-quality editor for putting clips together: timeline with segments, multi-clip combine, multi-track audio.
- Hardware-neutral: NVIDIA NVENC, AMD AMF/VCE, Intel Quick Sync, or CPU.
Where Medal wins
Honest list. If something matters more to you than what Segra offers, you should know.
- •More titles with auto-clipping out of the box (~14 vs Segra's 9).
- •Mobile companion apps for browsing and sharing clips on iOS/Android.
- •Larger social/community network with discovery, follows, and "Clips You're In" suggestions.
- •More mature ecosystem with years of social features and integrations.
- •Mature Discord/TikTok/Twitch share flows.
How to switch from Medal
- Install Segra (free) from segra.tv/download.
- Set your recording folder and assign clip hotkeys (defaults are F8 to bookmark, F10 to save replay buffer).
- Disable Medal's overlay so the two apps don't both grab the same hotkeys.
- Your old Medal clips stay on medal.tv until you decide to delete them.
Frequently asked questions
Is Segra really free? What's the catch?
+
Yes, free. Segra is GPLv2 open source and there is no paid tier. The cost of hosting segra.tv is covered by optional GitHub Sponsors. There are no ads, watermarks, or feature locks.
Can I still upload my clips to share online?
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Yes. You can upload to segra.tv for a public clip URL without paying or installing anything extra. Upload is optional; clips live locally on your disk by default.
Does Segra support every game Medal does?
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Segra records any PC game out of the box (any process you can play). The difference is auto-clipping: Medal has built-in event detection for more titles. Segra ships with 9 fully-integrated games today; the list grows release by release.
Is Segra heavier on system resources than Medal?
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Segra is built on OBS's recording pipeline, which is widely considered the most efficient open-source recorder. With a hardware encoder (NVENC, AMF, or Quick Sync), the performance hit during gameplay is minimal.
Will Medal's features I'm used to break if I install Segra?
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No, they can run side by side. The only real overlap is hotkeys; remap one or the other if both try to listen on the same key.
Try Segra free
Open source, GPLv2, code-signed by SignPath. Records up to 4K at 144 FPS. No ads, no watermarks, no telemetry.