Alternatives to Greenshot
Lightweight Windows screenshot classic
Greenshot ranks #4 of 8 in Screenshot tools, with an Alt Score of 70. It is licensed under GPL-3.0, free from Free and available on Windows and macOS. 8 of 9 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Windows users who regularly capture screenshots for work, such as project managers, developers, technical writers, and testers; a paid version is also available for macOS users.
A lightweight tool for capturing a selected region, a specific window, the full screen, or an entire scrolling web page. Built-in editor lets you annotate, highlight, and obscure parts of the image before sharing. Captures can be saved to file, copied to the clipboard, printed, emailed, inserted into Office documents, or uploaded to photo-sharing services.
Trigger a capture with a hotkey or the system tray icon, select the capture mode (region, window, full screen, or scrolling page), then edit the image in the built-in editor and export it to your destination of choice.
Where Greenshot stands out
Verified capabilities most alternatives don't have.
Why people leave Greenshot
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
Sign in to add a reason — new reasons go through moderation before appearing.
Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the Screenshot tools checklist (13 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| Screenshot tools checklist | Greenshot | Shottr | CleanShot X | ksnip | Monosnap | Snagit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Region / window / scrolling capture | ||||||
| Annotations | ||||||
| OCR text extraction | ||||||
| Instant share link | ||||||
| Cloud upload | ||||||
| Pixel measure & color picker | ||||||
| Self-hosted upload target | ||||||
| One-time purchase option | ||||||
| Open source |
Every fact and feature listed for Greenshot is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
-
Starts at Free verified 2026-07-10
Windows free; macOS $1.99 one-time.
Greenshot for Windows is free and open source!
https://getgreenshot.org/downloads/ -
License GPL-3.0 verified 2026-07-10
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3, 29 June 2007
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/greenshot/greenshot/main/LICENSE -
Pricing model Free verified 2026-07-10
Windows build free/GPL; macOS build is a $1.99 one-time App Store purchase.
Greenshot for Windows is free and open source!
https://getgreenshot.org/downloads/ -
Platforms Windows, macOS verified 2026-07-10
Windows via README ('light-weight screenshot software tool for Windows'); macOS via this App Store listing.
NOTE FOR CATALINA AND ABOVE: MacOS Catalina introduced major security changes
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/greenshot/id1103915944?mt=12 -
Status active verified 2026-07-10
Tagged release 2026-07-06.
Greenshot 1.4.193-g8495966551 (continuous build) Greenshot-INSTALLER-1.4.193-g8495966551-UNSTABLE-UNSIGNED.exe (06 Jul 2026)
https://getgreenshot.org/version-history/ -
Region / window / scrolling capture Partial verified 2026-07-10
Region/window/fullscreen capture all supported; scrolling capture only for legacy IE.
Comfortably creates a screenshot of a web page currently opened in Internet Explorer.
https://getgreenshot.org/help/ -
Annotations Yes verified 2026-07-10
Greenshot comes with an easy-to-use image editor, providing a handy featureset to add annotations or shapes to a screenshot. It even allows to highlight or obfuscate parts of your screenshot.
https://getgreenshot.org/help/ -
OCR text extraction Partial verified 2026-07-10
OCR via a plugin needing legacy Microsoft MODI; not built-in.
For the Greenshot OCR (Optical Character Recognition) plug-in to work we are depending on a component from Microsoft called MODI (Microsoft Office Document Imaging).
https://getgreenshot.org/faq/how-can-i-use-greenshot-for-ocr/ -
Cloud upload Yes verified 2026-07-10
Dedicated Imgur/Dropbox/Box upload plugins in the source tree.
Export the screenshot in various ways: save to file, send to printer, copy to clipboard, attach to e-mail, send Office programs or upload to photo sites like Flickr or Picasa, and others.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/greenshot/greenshot/main/README.md -
Pixel measure & color picker Partial verified 2026-07-10
On-screen color picker (pipette); no dedicated pixel/distance measure tool.
To select a color at the color picker with the pipette, press the pipette and move the mouse around while still holding down the left mouse button. That way you can select a color somewhere from the w
https://getgreenshot.org/help/ -
Self-hosted upload target Partial verified 2026-07-10
Indirect via External Command Plugin + WinSCP, not a native one-click destination.
Ever needed to upload screenshots directly to a server using the FTP, SCP or SFTP protocol? Actually it is quite easy to harness WinSCP's great scripting capabilities with Greenshot's flexible externa
https://getgreenshot.org/2013/11/07/how-to-upload-screenshots-to-a-web-server-via-ftp-scp-or-sftp/ -
One-time purchase option Yes verified 2026-07-10
One-time price for the macOS App Store build; Windows is free.
Only $1.99 to cover our own costs!
https://getgreenshot.org/downloads/ -
Open source Yes verified 2026-07-10
Greenshot for Windows is free and open source!
https://getgreenshot.org/downloads/
FAQ
Yes. Shottr, ksnip and Monosnap have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
ksnip and Flameshot — every license claim links its source.