Start here
- Windows, and you want the most capable free option → ShareX
- Windows, and ShareX is too much → Greenshot
- macOS, and you want the Gyazo workflow without Gyazo → CleanShot X
- Linux → Flameshot
- You need a shareable link, not a file → Gyazo, Droplr or Zight
Capture is solved everywhere. The decision is whether the image leaves your machine.
Compare
| Tool | Platforms | Uploads by default | Licence | Cost | Score | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShareX | Windows | No, configurable | GPL-3.0 | Free | 52.2 | 0.32 |
| Greenshot | Windows | No | GPL-3.0 | Free | 46.8 | 0.29 |
| Flameshot | Linux, Windows, macOS | No | GPL-3.0 | Free | 44.3 | 0.28 |
| CleanShot X | macOS | On demand | Proprietary | From $10/user/mo | 56.3 | 0.55 |
| Gyazo | Win, macOS | Yes | Proprietary | Free tier, 30-day trial | 53.4 | 0.30 |
| Droplr | Win, macOS | Yes | Proprietary | Subscription, free tier | 44.9 | 0.30 |
| Zight | Win, macOS | Yes | Proprietary | Not published | 48.2 | 0.05 |
| Monosnap | Win, macOS | Yes | Proprietary | Freemium, 30-day trial | 35.8 | 0.26 |
| PicPick | Windows | No | Proprietary | Commercial | 46.7 | 0.04 |
Every free tool here is local-only. Every uploading tool is paid or freemium. That is not a coincidence: hosting costs money, so a free hosted tier is funded by retention limits that quietly expire your older links.
The three worth reading about
ShareX
Free, GPL-3.0. 39,478 stars. Shipped 2026-07-03. No known advisories.
Captures anything, uploads to any destination you configure or none at all. Its scope is closer to a workflow automation tool than a screenshot utility, which is both the appeal and the complaint.
Pick it ifyou are on Windows and want the most capable free option. Don't if you want something that works without configuration.
Greenshot
Free, GPL-3.0. 5,133 stars. Shipped 2026-09-23, the most recent release in this category.
The quieter Windows choice. Annotate, save, done.
Pick it ifShareX feels like too much. Don't if you need upload destinations beyond the basics.
Flameshot
Free, GPL-3.0. 30,702 stars. Shipped 2026-06-19. No known advisories.
The Linux default, with good annotation and no upload unless you ask for it.
Pick it ifyou are on Linux. Don't if you are on Wayland and have not verified compositor support. Search interest in hyprland and arch screenshot tools is real and the compositor story is genuinely underserved. Check against the current release rather than trusting any comparison, this one included.
Gyazo alternatives
gyazo alternatives is our most-clicked query here, and the reason is almost always the upload rather than the capture.
| Leaving because | Go to |
|---|---|
| You do not want images on someone else's server | ShareX, Greenshot, Flameshot |
| Links expire on the free tier | any local tool above, or a paid tier |
| You want the same workflow, on a Mac | CleanShot X |
| You want hosted, just cheaper | Droplr, Monosnap |
Also in this category
| Tool | Notes |
|---|---|
| CleanShot X | Mac-first, local capture with optional upload. Best-evidenced entry here at confidence 0.55 |
| Gyazo | Hosted-first. The upload is the product |
| Droplr | Hosted-first, 6 integrations |
| Zight | Confidence 0.05. Treat as unmeasured |
| Monosnap | Freemium with a hosted component |
| PicPick | Windows-only, commercial, 7 integrations. Confidence 0.04, so evaluate directly |
Three GPL tools, one thing to check
ShareX, Greenshot and Flameshot are all GPL-licensed. For a desktop utility that is almost always fine and requires nothing of you as an end user. Worth knowing only if your employer has a policy on copyleft software on work machines.
How we scored this
Signals are properties of the software: licence, release cadence, published advisories, integrations, pricing transparency. No reviews, no company size, no web traffic, no vendor ad spend. Facts retrieved 2026-09-11, pricing observed 2026-09-14. Full method · Independence
This category is thinly measured and we would rather say so. Confidence runs 0.04 to 0.55 against 0.75 for the categories we measure best, because six of nine are closed-source desktop apps with no repository, no package registry presence and no advisory feed. A low score with low confidence here means we could not measure it, not that it is poor.
We could not verify Wayland compositor support, or the retention policies on the hosted free tiers. That second one is the most decision-relevant fact on this page and the reason it opens with the question rather than an answer.