Last verified on 26 April 2026. Pricing, features, and policies change – check the source if anything looks off.
Rewind (Limitless) has been acquired by Meta and is sunsetting. Subscriptions have been eliminated and the product is now free before shutdown. If you are a Rewind user looking for a replacement, Ostler is the local-first alternative.
Ostler: $49.99 + $24.99/mo – replaces $87/mo of cloud AI subscriptions.
Rewind/Limitless: Free (sunsetting) – formerly $30/mo. Acquired by Meta, shutting down.
Rewind – now Limitless – recorded everything on your screen and made it searchable with AI. The product has been acquired by Meta and is being discontinued. Ostler imports your digital history from 20 platforms and builds a knowledge graph of your relationships. One recorded pixels. The other understands people.
| Ostler | Rewind / Limitless | |
|---|---|---|
| Your data | Stays on your Mac | Stored locally, cloud for search |
| AI inference | Local (Ollama) | Cloud (for AI search) |
| Price | $49.99 once + $24.99/mo | Free (sunsetting) |
| Capture method | Structured import (GDPR, contacts, conversations) | Screen recording (everything) |
| Relationship intelligence | Yes (warmth, reciprocity, history) | No |
| Personal wiki | Auto-generated, 21 page types | No |
| Conversation coaching | Longitudinal analysis | No |
| AI assistant | iMessage, WhatsApp, email | Search interface only |
| Browsing history | Safari + Chrome (structured) | Screen recording (visual) |
| Works offline | Yes | Recording yes, search no |
| Enterprise-friendly | No screen recording | Often banned by employers |
Rewind records everything on your screen. Every email, every Slack message, every website, every document. It OCRs the screenshots and makes them searchable. It is technically impressive – but it is a brute-force approach to memory.
Ostler takes a structured approach. It imports data you already have – GDPR exports from 20 platforms, your contacts, your calendar, your conversations – and builds a knowledge graph that understands entities, relationships, and context. It does not screenshot your banking app or record your password entry.
The difference is precision versus volume. Rewind captures everything and hopes you can find what you need. Ostler captures the right things and organises them intelligently.
Screen recording captures everything indiscriminately. Passwords as you type them. Private messages from your partner. Medical information. Banking details. Sensitive work documents. All of it, stored as screenshots.
Rewind stores recordings locally, which is good. But AI search features involve cloud processing, which means some of your most sensitive data – the contents of your screen – goes to their servers for analysis.
Ostler does not record your screen. It imports structured data that you explicitly choose to provide. There is nothing indiscriminate about it. And everything – storage, processing, AI inference – stays on your Mac.
Many employers ban screen recording software. Rewind captures Slack messages, internal documents, and proprietary information. IT departments and legal teams have legitimate concerns about this.
Ostler does not record screens or capture workplace communications unless you explicitly import them. It focuses on personal data – your contacts, your conversations, your social media history. There is no conflict with workplace IT policies.
Rewind was $30/month. Following the Meta acquisition, subscriptions have been eliminated and the product is now free before shutdown. If you are a Rewind user, you need a migration plan.
Ostler is $24.99/month (plus a one-time $49.99 for the base product). $24.99/mo replaces $87/mo of cloud AI subscriptions. And if you cancel Ostler, your entire knowledge graph stays – searchable, browsable, exportable. Your data is yours regardless of subscription status. No Meta acquisition will take it away.
Rewind is best when you need to find something visual: "What was on my screen at 2pm on Tuesday?" It is a time machine for your display.
Ostler is best when you need to understand context: "What is my history with this person?" "Who introduced me to James?" "When did my relationship with this client start cooling?" These are questions about meaning, not pixels.
Rewind is sunsetting after its acquisition by Meta. If you relied on screen recording for memory, Ostler offers a better alternative: structured knowledge that understands your relationships, running locally on your Mac, with no cloud dependency and no corporate acquisition risk. Your data stays yours.