Outgrown Kinovea? What team coaches move to
Kinovea is free, open source, actively maintained, and genuinely good at what it was built for. Whether you should replace it depends entirely on whether you are analysing one athlete’s technique or trying to coach eighteen people through a season.
What Kinovea is genuinely good at
Frame-by-frame playback, angle and distance measurement, tracking a point across frames, comparing two clips side by side. For biomechanics, technique work and anything where the question is "what exactly did that limb do", it is a serious tool that happens to be free.
It is also not abandoned, which is the first thing people assume about free software. The current release is 2025.2.0, released 21 March 2026.
If frame-by-frame technique analysis is your actual job, stop reading. Nothing on this page is better at it, and most things that try cost money.
Where it runs out for team coaches
None of these are flaws. They are consequences of what it was designed to do, which is analyse a movement rather than manage a squad.
- It is Windows only. Windows 7 to 11 with .NET Framework 4.8. No macOS or Linux build. The project also states it will not run on Macs with Apple Silicon chips, including under virtualisation — so a coach on a modern MacBook has no route in at all.
- It analyses one athlete at a time. There is no concept of a squad, a season, or who you have already spoken to about what. That is fine for a sprint start and impossible for a Tuesday night with twenty kids.
- It is a desktop, not a touchline. The work happens later, sitting down, on a machine. Most of what a team coach notices happens standing up, in the rain, while something else is going on.
- Nothing reaches the athlete. You can export a video with your annotations on it. Getting that to twenty players and knowing who has seen theirs is your problem, and it is usually the problem that actually decides whether anything changes.
What to use instead, depending on the job
There is no single replacement, because "Kinovea alternative" covers at least three different needs.
- Still technique, but on a Mac or a phoneLook at OnForm, Coach’s Eye-style apps, or Hudl Technique. Same frame-by-frame job, different platform, usually paid.
- Tagging and breaking down matchesLongoMatch is the closest open-source relative. Catapult and Hudl are the paid, heavier options built for squads.
- Recording matches without a camera operatorVeo, Trace, Spiideo and Pixellot solve capture rather than analysis. Different layer entirely.
- Getting feedback to each player during the weekThis is the gap Sidetalk fills — and it is the one none of the above address.
Where Sidetalk fits
Sidetalk is not a Kinovea replacement and would be a poor one — it does not open a video file, draw on a frame, or measure an angle.
It solves the other half of the coaching week. You put your phone in your pocket, coach as normal, and it transcribes what you said, works out which player each observation was about, and writes individual feedback for every one of them. If you also film, it lines those notes up with the match video so each one carries the footage’s own timestamp.
The honest summary: Kinovea tells you exactly what a movement did. Sidetalk makes sure the player hears about it before the next session.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Kinovea still maintained?
- Yes. 2025.2.0, released 21 March 2026.
- Does Kinovea work on Mac?
- No. Windows 7 to 11 with .NET Framework 4.8. No macOS or Linux build. The project states it will not work on Macs with Apple Silicon chips (M1, M2 and later), including under virtualisation. Running it under Parallels on an Intel Mac was the old workaround; on Apple Silicon that route is closed.
- Is Kinovea free?
- Yes — free and open source, with no paid tier and no account. That is not a trial or a freemium hook; it genuinely costs nothing.
- Is there a free alternative to Kinovea for teams?
- For tagging and match breakdown, LongoMatch is open source and the nearest equivalent. For per-player feedback there is no established free option, though Sidetalk is free during its pilot. Be sceptical of anything else advertising itself as free for squads — usually the free tier stops at the point the tool becomes useful.
- Should I replace Kinovea with Sidetalk?
- Probably not — use both, if you need both. They do not overlap. If you are doing frame-by-frame technique work, keep Kinovea; nothing here replaces it.