Best tools for capturing your screen: screenshots and recordings

Choose a screen capture tool by what you need to show. A screenshot captures one moment and lets you mark it up, while a recording shows motion and narration. Many tools do both, so the practical choice comes down to platform, price, and where your captures end up after you take them.

Screenshots, recordings and annotation

A screenshot is a still image of a window, a region or the whole screen. Annotation adds arrows, text, blur or highlights. Screenshots suit bug reports, documentation and quick questions in chat. The screenshot ranking's leaders focus on region capture and markup. ShareX offers region capture, annotation tools and uploads to online services. Flameshot is a free annotation tool for Windows, macOS and Linux. CleanShot X covers screenshots and recordings in one Mac app.

A recording shows motion, clicks and narration, which suits tutorials, product demos and walkthroughs. Loom records screen and camera for quick video messages that you share as links. ScreenFlow records and edits in one Mac app, with a timeline for cuts and titles. OBS Studio records the screen with scenes and multiple sources, which suits streams and complex setups. Camtasia ranks third in the screen recorders ranking, and it records and edits in one application with text-based editing of recordings. Its individual licenses are subscriptions, and its editing features go further than a quick capture needs.

Some jobs need both. A short tutorial may need a few annotated screenshots and a recording with narration. If you already know you will edit the recording, choose a tool with a timeline editor. If you only need a quick video message, a share-link tool is usually faster. Snagit, a paid option in the ranking, combines scrolling capture, recording with audio and webcam, and a searchable library of captures.

Annotation matters most when the reader has to act on the image. An arrow and a short label often explain a bug faster than a paragraph of text, and a cropped region keeps the reader's attention on the part that matters. Keep the captured area as small as the point requires, because a full-screen capture invites questions about what else is on the screen.

Platform comes first

Platform support rules out options before you compare features:

• Mac only: ScreenFlow and CleanShot X. Both are paid.
• Windows only: ShareX, which is free and open source under GPL-3.0 and has many capture modes.
• Windows, macOS and Linux: OBS Studio and Flameshot. ksnip covers the same three systems, with X11 and Wayland support on Linux.
• Desktop, mobile and browser: Loom has apps for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, plus a Chrome extension.

If you work on Linux, the screen recorders ranking has two entries that run there. OBS Studio also runs on Windows and macOS. SimpleScreenRecorder is Linux only, and it records programs and games.

Free, paid and open-source options

Free and paid tools differ mostly in what they add on top of capture:

• OBS Studio is free and open source under GPL-2.0, but its setup takes longer than a one-click recorder.
• ShareX and Flameshot are free and open source under GPL-3.0. ShareX's listing notes that it has no advertisements.
• Loom has a free Starter plan with 25 videos, according to its pricing page. Its Business plan is listed there at $18 per user a month.
• ScreenFlow is a paid Mac license starting at $199, and it offers a free trial.
• CleanShot X is a paid license, and additional seats are sold for teams.

A free plan is only useful if its limits fit your work. The Starter plan includes 25 videos, so count how many clips you expect to keep before you rely on it.

Privacy of cloud uploads

Many capture tools offer share links, and that is where privacy questions start. Loom's listing says its recordings are stored on Loom's servers. ShareX can upload captures to online services that you choose. CleanShot X also sells a Cloud product, so confirm that captures reach it only when you choose.

Before you share a capture, check three things: whether the link is public or limited to your team, how long the service keeps the file, and whether you can delete the copy stored there. Screenshots often contain sensitive details such as email addresses, account numbers or internal URLs, so blur or redact them before you upload. Snagit's smart redact feature is one example of a tool built for that step. If the material is confidential, keep it on your own storage and share it through a system your organization already controls.

Our picks from the rankings

Recording tools, in order of their score in the screen recorders ranking:

• OBS Studio (93.0): free and open source, for streams and multi-source recordings.
• Loom (88.5): quick shareable video messages with a free Starter plan.
• ScreenFlow (87.0): recording and timeline editing in one Mac app.

The ranking also includes Camtasia (87.5), a screen recorder and video editor for Windows and macOS, sold on subscription licenses, and Screen Studio (86.0), a paid Mac recorder that smooths cursor movement for product demos and tutorials.

Screenshot tools, in order of their score in the screenshot tools ranking:

• ShareX (92.0): the most options for free on Windows.
• CleanShot X (89.0): screenshots and recordings with a webcam bubble, on Mac.
• Flameshot (86.5): free annotation across Windows, macOS and Linux.

The ranking also includes Greenshot (85.0), a lightweight, free, open-source screenshot tool for Windows under GPL-3.0, and Xnapper (84.0), a Mac screenshot app that styles captures for sharing, with a free download and one-time paid licenses that remove the watermark.

What to do next

List the captures you make most often and the platform you use. If you mostly send screenshots with notes, start with a screenshot tool. If you record walkthroughs, start with a recorder that matches your platform and editing needs. Then check how the tool stores and shares files before you use it for anything confidential. Install the free option first, make three or four real captures in your usual workflow, and only then decide whether a paid license is worth the money.