ZipCaptions Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

ZipCaptions hosting on xCloud lets you deploy ZipCaptions, a free, open-source browser tool that turns speech into live captions for presentations, meetings and events, on your own domain. xCloud runs the pinned web client as a static page over HTTPS. The server stores nothing: captions and transcripts stay in each visitor's browser, and the sharing and sign-in features use upstream's hosted service.

Deploy your ZipCaptions

No terminal
No technical skills needed
No lock-in, cancel anytime

What is ZipCaptions?

ZipCaptions is a free, open-source browser tool for speech-to-text captions, described by its project as free speech-to-text in your browser. It generates live captions from a microphone in a web browser, lets you choose a language in Settings, shows captions full-screen and can send captions to OBS Studio. A self-hosted ZipCaptions puts live captions in your browser from your own domain. It is GPL-3.0 licensed.

On xCloud it is the ZipCaptions develop build, 0.3.4 from 2025-05-20, as the community image educoder/zip-captions pinned by digest, because upstream publishes no release tags. It is a static page served by nginx, with no database, no account system and no volume. Speech recognition needs a browser that supports it, and Chrome and Edge send microphone audio to their vendor's cloud speech service.

From Sign-Up to Live Captions In Just 3 Easy Steps

Self-hosting a captioning app normally means standing up a static site and HTTPS before a single caption appears on screen. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account, pick ZipCaptions from the OneClick catalog, and choose a domain. There are no extra fields and no credentials to generate.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the pinned ZipCaptions develop build in a single nginx container and publish it over HTTPS on your domain.
Step 03
Start Captioning
Open the HTTPS ZipCaptions URL in Chrome or Edge, accept the cookie notice, start a captioning session and allow microphone access when the browser asks.

Everything ZipCaptions Does, On Your Own Server

ZipCaptions runs in full here — its live-captioning web client, served from infrastructure you control.

Live Speech-To-Caption
Turn speech from a microphone into on-screen captions for talks, meetings and events.
Full-Screen Presentation Mode
Captions can be shown full-screen so an audience can follow along from a distance.
Multiple Caption Languages
Choose a caption language in Settings to match your audience.
Free And Open Source
GPL-3.0 licensed, built with an accessibility-first approach for presenters and event organisers.
A Tiny Static Footprint
Served by nginx with about 6 MiB of RAM idle on QA and no server-side data to manage.
Nothing Lost On Restart
Nothing is stored on the server, so an xCloud Restart loses nothing — the app came back healthy in about 5 seconds in QA.

Everything You Need To Run Your Captions, Any Time

Managed hosting for ZipCaptions, so the parts that keep it online are not your problem.

ZipCaptions 0.3.4 develop build deployed instantly
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
30+ server locations
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With ZipCaptions

Caption a talk or presentation live
Show live captions full-screen beside your slides, so people who are deaf or hard of hearing, or who sit at the back, can follow the speaker.
Keep a transcript in the browser
Save the transcript of a session in your own browser storage, so the text of a talk stays available afterwards while the server stores nothing.
Send captions into a stream
Connect ZipCaptions to OBS Studio and send it the captions for a live stream, so remote viewers can follow the speaker as well.
Offer a captioning page on your own domain
Give your organisation a captioning address with no account and no stored data, so a meeting room or event can open it on any laptop.

ZipCaptions vs Alternatives

Hosted live captioning services: A hosted captioning service processes your audio on the vendor's servers. ZipCaptions runs the captioning in the visitor's browser, and this server only serves the page and stores nothing.
OBS Studio: This build includes an OBS Studio connection, so ZipCaptions can send captions to OBS and the two work together for streamed events.
Jitsi: Jitsi has its own OneClick page. It runs video meetings, while ZipCaptions generates captions from a microphone in a browser tab, which you can show during a meeting.
Owncast: Owncast has its own OneClick page. It hosts a live stream, and ZipCaptions can supply captions for one through its OBS output.

Simple Pricing. Everything Included.

Dedicated Cloud VPS sizes, pre-configured for ZipCaptions hosting. Pick the one that fits, and resize any time.

Cloud VPS 6 GB

Cloud VPS 16 GB

More concurrent sessions and events.

$59.99per month

16 GB RAM
6 vCPU cores
200 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Cloud VPS 24 GB

ZipCaptions alongside a whole self-hosted stack.

$84.99per month

24 GB RAM
8 vCPU cores
300 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Every size is a dedicated Cloud VPS we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Billed monthly with no lock-in — delete the server and the unused balance comes back to your account. ZipCaptions itself is free and GPL-3.0 licensed.

Docker hosting

Already Have a Server? Bring Your Own

Connect any VPS — DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, Hetzner or bare metal — and deploy ZipCaptions on it through the same panel, for a per-server management fee instead of a Cloud VPS rental.

Free

Start your journey without cost.

$0forever

1 server
10 sites

Start free

Starter

Professional

The same platform, discounted at 6–10 servers.

$4per server / month

6–10 servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

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Agency

The same platform, discounted at 11+ servers.

$3per server / month

11+ servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

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Priced per connected server, so your rate adjusts automatically as you add or remove servers. You pay your own provider for the server itself.

Self-managed hosting

Ready To Own Your Live Captions?

ZipCaptions on xCloud runs on a dedicated Cloud VPS that we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Deploy faster. Own the server. Stay in control.

Fast Provisioning
Deploy faster using an xCloud Managed Server built with optimized stacks and high-speed SSDs.
Enterprise-grade security
Protect your infrastructure with a free SSL certificate and more advanced security features at no additional cost.
Intuitive Control Panel
From Server creation to application deployment, everything can be managed from our intuitive control panel.

Hear what people are saying about us

See why agencies, developers, startups, and growing businesses choose xCloud to power their projects.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

How much RAM does ZipCaptions need?

Almost none: the template asks for 128 MB of RAM, 1 CPU core and 1 GB of disk, because it only serves a static page with nginx. The 6 GB plan leaves room for many other apps on the same server.

Can you self-host ZipCaptions with Docker?

Yes, and this template is zipcaptions docker hosting without the setup: a single nginx container serving the pre-built web client, pinned by digest, with HTTPS on your own domain and no database, account system or volume.

Which browsers work with ZipCaptions?

Live captions need a browser with speech recognition, which means Chrome or Edge; Firefox does not support it. Use the https address, because speech recognition needs a secure context. No sign-in is needed for local captioning.

Is my audio sent anywhere when I use ZipCaptions?

Chrome and Edge send microphone audio to their vendor's cloud speech service, as any site using the Web Speech API does. Depending on the engine, audio may be processed in the cloud, and this server never receives it.

Does any data leave my ZipCaptions server?

The server stores nothing. But the sharing, account sign-in and broadcast features of this build talk to upstream's hosted service at next-api.zipcaptions.app, an address compiled into the image, so data for those features goes there.

Is ZipCaptions an alternative to hosted live captioning services?

For browser-based captions at an event, yes. Upstream describes a free tool and makes no comparison with hosted services. Accuracy depends on your browser's speech engine, so test with your speaker and room first. Run a rehearsal first.

Is ZipCaptions free?

Yes. ZipCaptions is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence, and its project aims for zero cost where possible. You pay only for the Cloud VPS, which makes this a ZipCaptions cloud install of your own.

Does ZipCaptions need a backup?

No. There is no volume or database: captions, settings and saved transcripts live in each visitor's own browser storage. Export transcripts you want to keep from the browser, since clearing site data removes them. Nothing else needs saving.

Backup and restore Docker apps

How do I upgrade ZipCaptions?

The install stays on its pinned develop build, 0.3.4 from 2025-05-20, until a newer template version is adopted. Upstream publishes no release tags, so check the repository before changing it. With no stored data, a redeploy is low risk.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no lock-in — cancel any time. Hosting is billed monthly and charged for what you actually use, so when you delete the server the unused balance is refunded to your account, less up to 10% in payment-processing fees.