ShareXfor Windows

ShareX is a free, open-source screen capture program developed by the ShareX Team under the GPL-3.0 license. It captures the full screen, a window, a region or a scrolling page and records video or animated GIFs, then runs follow-up steps such as opening the editor, copying to the clipboard, saving, uploading to an image host and shortening the link—all from a single hotkey. More than 30 extra tools are included, among them OCR (turning text in images into editable text), a color picker and a hash checker.

It suits developers, technical writers and community moderators who share screenshots often and want to automate repetitive steps. There are no ads and no restrictions on commercial use, so it can be installed on work PCs without licensing concerns. On the other hand, its many menus and settings can overwhelm someone who just wants to take a quick screenshot, and it runs only on 64-bit Windows 10 and 11.

12 capture methods

ShareX offers 12 capture methods, including full screen, active window, active monitor, region, last region, custom region, scrolling capture and auto capture.

Screen and GIF recording

Any selected area can be recorded as a video or an animated GIF. This is handy for short how-to clips or for capturing a bug as it happens and sharing it immediately.

After-capture tasks

After each capture, ShareX can run any of 22 tasks in sequence, such as applying image effects, opening the editor, pinning to screen, saving, uploading, running OCR or scanning a QR code. Link shortening and URL copying after upload are handled automatically.

Image editor

The editor provides annotation tools such as rectangles, arrows, text, blur and pixelate, along with crop, background and image effects. Version 21.0.0 added a customizable toolbar, a pick-color-from-screen button and rotation for several annotation tools.

Upload destinations

ShareX supports a wide range of destinations, including image hosts, cloud storage and FTP/SFTP, and uploads can start from eight sources such as files, folders, the clipboard, text, URLs or a watched folder. Custom uploaders let you send files to your own server.

36 productivity tools

A color picker, screen ruler, OCR, QR code generator and reader, hash checker, video converter and monitor test are among its 36 tools. Version 21.0.0 added a background remover and an Image Comparer for comparing two images.

Features

Capture, recording, editing, uploading and extra tools give ShareX one of the broadest feature sets of any free screenshot program. Its ability to chain after-capture steps into workflows is hard to find in other free capture tools.

Ease of Use

The interface is fully translated into 23 languages, and the default hotkeys work right away. The settings and menus are deep and numerous, however, so building a custom workflow takes some time to learn.

Stability & Safety

The official site states there are no advertisements, the source code is public on GitHub, and SHA256 hashes are published with every release. The required .NET runtime is bundled, so nothing else needs to be installed, but this makes the installer about 139 MB.

• PicPick — A ribbon-based capture and editing tool with a simpler interface, but free only for personal, non-commercial use.
• Greenshot — A lightweight open-source tool focused on region capture and quick annotations, with far fewer settings than ShareX.
• OBS Studio — Open-source software built for long recordings and live streaming, better suited than ShareX to extended screen recording.

Is ShareX free for commercial use?

Yes. ShareX is completely free and open source under the GPL-3.0 license, contains no ads and can be used at work at no cost.

Can ShareX take scrolling screenshots?

Yes. Scrolling capture scrolls through a long web page or document automatically and stitches it into a single image.

Does ShareX work on Windows 7?

No. Windows 7 support ended with version 18.0.0, when ShareX moved to .NET 9, and current versions require 64-bit Windows 10 or later.

Can ShareX extract text from images?

Yes. The OCR feature converts text in a captured image into copyable text, and offline OCR is supported on Windows 10 and later.

Is there a portable version of ShareX?

Yes. A portable ZIP is available on the GitHub releases page; extract it and run ShareX without installation.

ShareX is an excellent choice for Windows users who want to automate how screenshots are edited and shared. Its ad-free open-source license and wide range of features stand out, but the complex settings for newcomers and the large installer lead to our editor rating of 4 out of 5.

Editor rating 4/5