Search "what is the best free screenshot app" and you'll mostly land on a single tool's homepage telling you it's the best. That's not a comparison, it's a pitch. Here's an actual one: several named tools, weighed against each other, so you can pick the right one for what you're actually trying to capture.
What makes a screenshot app "best" (and free)
Before comparing tools, it helps to know what you're actually judging. A free screenshot app earns the "best" label on a few things:
- Capture flexibility — full screen, a window, a region, or a scrolling page.
- Editing built in — arrows, blur, text, crop, without opening a separate app.
- Sharing or export — a way to save, copy, or upload the result quickly.
- No catch — no watermark stamped on your image, no feature locked behind a paid tier, no forced account just to save a file.
- Platform fit — a tool that actually runs where you work. A Windows-only app doesn't help a Mac user, and a heavyweight desktop app is overkill if you just need one quick capture.
That last point is where most "best of" lists fall apart: they compare tools on features alone and ignore who each one is actually for.
Best free screenshot apps compared
| Tool | Platform | Price | Standout feature | Limitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShareX | Windows | Free, open source | Region/window/full-screen capture, scrolling screenshot, built-in OCR, upload options | Steep learning curve; the sheer number of settings can overwhelm someone who just wants a quick capture |
| Greenshot | Windows | Free, open source | Region/window/full-screen capture with a built-in image editor and upload/sharing | Fewer advanced features than ShareX — no scrolling capture or OCR |
| Windows Snipping Tool | Windows | Built into Windows, no download needed | Simple region and window capture with basic markup, already installed | Not built for advanced editing, batch capture, or scrolling pages |
| macOS built-in shortcuts | Mac | Built into macOS, no download needed | Instant full-screen, window, or region capture with basic markup right after | Limited editing depth compared to a dedicated app |
Two things worth noticing. First, ShareX and Greenshot are both free and open source — that's the real reason they show up everywhere on "best free screenshot tool" lists, not because one is objectively better than the other. Second, neither one is available outside Windows, which is a bigger limitation than either tool's own homepage will tell you.
Beyond these four, you'll also see lighter, browser-friendly tools mentioned in the same breath — quick-capture-and-share utilities that trade ShareX's depth for speed. If all you need is "grab this, mark it up, send it," a tool like that can be enough; if you need scrolling capture, OCR, or heavy automation, you'll outgrow it fast.
Best for Windows
For Windows, the real choice is between ShareX, Greenshot, and the Snipping Tool that's already on your machine.
- Pick Snipping Tool if you take the occasional screenshot and don't want to install anything.
- Pick Greenshot if you want a proper editor attached to your capture — cropping, annotation, and export — without a steep setup.
- Pick ShareX if you're capturing often, need scrolling screenshots or OCR, or want to script your capture-and-upload workflow. It does more than any tool on this list, at the cost of a busier interface.
For most people who just want reliable captures with light editing, Greenshot is the better starting point. Power users who capture constantly and want every feature available will get more out of ShareX.
Best for Mac
macOS ships with its own screenshot shortcuts that cover the basics: full screen, a specific window, or a dragged region, with a small markup pass available right after you capture. For a quick screenshot with a note scribbled on it, that's genuinely enough — there's no install, no account, and no learning curve.
Where the built-in shortcuts fall short is depth: they're capture-and-mark-up, not a full editor. If you're producing screenshots that need real design work — consistent framing, callouts, backgrounds, text — a native shortcut isn't the tool for that job, and that's a different question than "which app takes the screenshot."
Best if you also need to edit or polish screenshots
This is where most "best screenshot app" lists stop short. Capturing a screenshot is one job. Turning it into something you'd actually publish — in an app store listing, a set of docs, a social post — is another, and none of the tools above were built primarily for that second job.
ShareX and Greenshot both include a basic editor for crop, annotate, and blur. That covers casual sharing. It doesn't cover framing a screenshot in a device mockup, adding a headline or feature callout, matching a background and layout across a whole set of images, or exporting at the exact sizes an app store requires.
That's a different category of tool. AppShots, for example, is built specifically for that step: it takes a raw phone screenshot and turns it into a store-ready marketing screenshot — device mockup, headline, feature callouts, background, layout, and export sizes for the app stores — without needing Photoshop, Figma, or a designer on hand. If your screenshots are ending up in an app store listing rather than a quick Slack message, that's a more useful comparison than which capture tool has the most keyboard shortcuts.
Best for mobile or app screenshots
Everything above assumes you're capturing from a desktop. Mobile is its own case. Capturing a screenshot on a phone is trivial — every iOS and Android device has a built-in shortcut for it. The actual problem shows up after: a raw phone screenshot, at whatever size and shape your device happens to produce, isn't what an app store listing or a marketing image needs.
That's a separate problem from "which app takes the best screenshot," and it's worth treating as one. If you're preparing app screenshots for a store listing specifically, look for a tool built around that use case — one that handles device framing, headlines, and store export sizes — rather than a general capture utility.
FAQ
Is ShareX really free? Yes. ShareX is free and open source, with no paid tier gating its core features.
Is Greenshot safe? Greenshot is free and open source software, which means its code is publicly available to review rather than hidden behind a closed product. As with any download, get it from its official source and check what permissions it asks for before installing.
Do I need an account? Not for basic capture and editing — that part of these tools runs locally. Some include optional upload or sharing features, and those may ask you to sign in when you use them, but the core screenshot-taking doesn't require one.
Best free screenshot app with no watermark? ShareX, Greenshot, Windows Snipping Tool, and macOS's built-in shortcuts all export images with no watermark and no paid tier attached — they're free in full, not a limited trial of a paid product. Watermarks and export limits tend to show up more with web-based tools running a free plan, where removing them is usually the reason to upgrade.