What is ShareX used for?

ShareX is a free, open-source Windows tool for screen capture, screen recording, annotation and file sharing, with OCR, hotkeys and custom upload workflows. It is a good fit for sending quick annotated screenshots, recording short GIFs for bug reports and automating capture-and-upload workflows.

Is ShareX open source?

Yes. ShareX is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at ShareX/ShareX and is written mainly in C#.

Yes. ShareX is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host ShareX?

Yes. ShareX can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is ShareX an alternative to?

ShareX is an open-source alternative to Snagit, CleanShot X, Zight and Camtasia. Other open-source alternatives to Snagit include Screenity, BetterShot and ScreenToGif.

Is ShareX actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to ShareX was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v21.0.0, published on 3 July 2026. The project has 40k stars on GitHub.

ShareX: open-source alternative to Snagit, CleanShot X

About ShareX

ShareX is a free, open-source application for Windows that combines screenshot capture, screen recording, file sharing and productivity utilities. It is built for people who capture and share their screen often and want to do it with a single hotkey and minimal manual steps.

You can capture any region of the screen, record video or GIFs, annotate and edit screenshots, extract text with OCR, scan QR codes and pick colors. Finished captures can be copied, saved, or uploaded to a wide range of destinations such as FTP servers and cloud storage, with shareable links copied for you, and a URL shortener is included. Custom task chains and hotkeys let you build workflows that capture, edit and upload in one go.

ShareX is built on .NET and licensed under GPL-3.0. It runs only on Windows, and as a desktop app there is no hosted service. It is widely used by support staff, developers, educators and content creators who send screenshots and recordings daily and want more control than the built-in Windows tools offer.

Key features

Screen capture of any region
Screen recording to video or GIF
Screenshot annotation and editing
OCR text extraction and QR scanning
Upload to many destinations with shareable links
Hotkeys and custom task workflows

Good fit for

→Sending quick annotated screenshots
→Recording short GIFs for bug reports
→Automating capture-and-upload workflows

Built with: C#
Tags: screenshot; screen-recorder; windows; file-sharing; ocr; productivity; gif; csharp

ShareX: questions and answers

What is ShareX used for?: ShareX is a free, open-source Windows tool for screen capture, screen recording, annotation and file sharing, with OCR, hotkeys and custom upload workflows. It is a good fit for sending quick annotated screenshots, recording short GIFs for bug reports and automating capture-and-upload workflows.
Is ShareX open source?: Yes. ShareX is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at ShareX/ShareX and is written mainly in C#.
Is ShareX free?: Yes. ShareX is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host ShareX?: Yes. ShareX can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is ShareX an alternative to?: ShareX is an open-source alternative to Snagit, CleanShot X, Zight and Camtasia. Other open-source alternatives to Snagit include Screenity, BetterShot and ScreenToGif.
Is ShareX actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to ShareX was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v21.0.0, published on 3 July 2026. The project has 40k stars on GitHub.