Free Screen Recording and Screenshot Software — The 10 Best Tools
Search for a free screen recorder and you get lists where some tools add a watermark, stop after one or five minutes, or are really a one-week trial. We read the main comparison pages on the web — TechRadar, Dupple, Codersera, Toolradar, the ShareX blog, the ScreenSnap Pro blog, It’s FOSS and Help Desk Geek — and in October 2026 we checked every tool ourselves: licence, platforms, maintenance status and what free use really allows. Two sources are vendor blogs.
Engineers need two kinds of tools. The first is screenshots with markup: an arrow on a detail in a drawing, blurring client data, numbering the steps of a work instruction or documenting a bug in calculation software. The second is video recording: a tutorial on design software, a recording of a running simulation or a short GIF for an email. What matters here: no watermark and no length limit, microphone and system audio, reliable behaviour on Linux with Wayland, and a licence that allows use at work, not just at home.
Comparison table: the top 10
| Tool | Platforms | Licence in plain words | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| OBS Studio | Windows, macOS, Linux | Open source, free for any use | High-quality tutorials and recorded lectures |
| ShareX | Windows | Open source, free for any use | Every capture mode, OCR and automation |
| Greenshot | Windows | Open source, free for any use | Quick captures with markup, sent to Office |
| Flameshot | Windows, macOS, Linux | Open source, free for any use | Fast in-place markup on drawings |
| ScreenToGif | Windows | Open source, free for any use | Short GIFs with a frame editor |
| ksnip | Windows, macOS, Linux | Open source, free for any use | The same capture tool on every computer |
| vokoscreenNG | Windows, Linux | Open source, free for any use | Simple tutorial recording without learning OBS |
| Snipaste | Windows, macOS, Linux | Free for personal use only (2.x) | Pinning a table or a clause of a standard beside the model |
| Screenity | Browser (Chrome) | Extension open source and free; editor and sharing paid | Quick recording with no software install |
| ZoomIt | Windows (plus a more limited macOS version) | Free, including at work | Zooming and drawing on screen in design reviews |
The top 10
1. OBS Studio
A screen recording and live streaming program that combines several sources in one frame: screen, webcam, microphone, system audio and images. It suits tutorials on engineering software, model presentations and recorded lectures, with scenes you switch in one click.
Advantages: open source (GPLv2), free for any use including commercial, with no watermark, no time limit and no registration. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux and also works on Wayland.
Disadvantages: a steep learning curve — scenes, sources and encoder settings are confusing at first. There is no built-in video editor, so you need a separate editing program.
2. ShareX
A capture and recording tool for Windows: a region, a window or a full scrolling page, video and GIF recording, and an editor for arrows, text and hiding information. It includes OCR to pull text from an image, a colour picker and an on-screen ruler, plus automated after-capture workflows.
Advantages: open source (GPLv3), free for any use. Almost every capture mode there is, scrolling included,. Toolradar ranks it the best free screenshot tool.
Disadvantages: Windows only. The settings screens are very dense.
3. Greenshot
A lightweight tool for capturing a region, window or full screen, with a built-in editor for arrows, shapes, text, highlights and hiding sensitive information. The result goes to a file, the clipboard, a printer, an email or straight into Office.
Advantages: open source (GPL-3.0), free for any use. Fast and stable, and especially good for marking up screenshots of drawings and preparing guides.
Disadvantages: the free version is Windows only (the Mac version is paid). Screenshots only, no video recording.
4. Flameshot
A screenshot tool where markup happens directly on the area you selected, without opening a separate window: arrows, lines, text, rectangles, blur and step numbering. A command-line interface allows scripting.
Advantages: open source (GPL-3.0), free for any use, and it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. The quick markup bar saves time on many captures.
Disadvantages: the Windows version is less stable than the Linux one. No video recording.
5. ScreenToGif
A Windows tool that records a screen area, a webcam or a sketch board and opens the recording in a frame editor. You delete and trim frames, add text, keystroke display and effects, and export to GIF, APNG, video or images.
Advantages: open source (MS-PL), free for any use. The built-in editor lets you clean up the recording before sending it, with no extra software.
Disadvantages: Windows only, and it needs the .NET desktop runtime. GIFs of long recordings get large. The old website redirects to N-Studio, but ScreenToGif itself is still maintained on GitHub.
6. ksnip
A Qt-based screenshot tool that works the same way on all three operating systems: area, last area, full screen, active window or the window under the cursor. You add arrows, shapes, text, numbered stickers, blur or pixelation, and save as an image or PDF.
Advantages: open source (GPL-3.0), free for any use including commercial, with no registration. The same tool on Windows, macOS and Linux, Wayland included, with PDF export and command-line capture.
Disadvantages: maintained by a single developer who is looking for co-maintainers, and updates are slow. Some capture modes are restricted on Wayland and macOS.
7. vokoscreenNG
Records the full screen, an area or a window, with a webcam and several audio sources at once, and saves to MKV, MP4 or GIF. On Windows and Linux X11 it adds a magnifier, mouse-click highlighting, a timer and a countdown.
Advantages: open source (GPL-2.0), free for any use. Far simpler than OBS Studio, in 80+ languages.
Disadvantages: on Wayland the magnifier and click highlighting are not available, and audio options are narrower. There is no macOS version.
8. Snipaste
Area capture with automatic detection of windows and UI elements at pixel precision, a colour picker and capture history. Its stand-out feature is pinning: any capture becomes a floating window above all programs, so you can pin a table or a clause of a standard next to an open model and type values without switching windows.
Advantages: pinning saves a lot of window switching in engineering work. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, with shapes, text and blur markup.
Disadvantages: not free for every use: Snipaste 2.x is free for personal use, and business use needs a paid Pro licence (priced per number of devices); version 1.x remains free for business use too. No video recording.
9. Screenity
A Chrome extension that records a tab, an area, the desktop, an application or the camera, with microphone or internal audio. While recording you draw on screen, highlight clicks and blur sensitive content, and export to MP4, GIF, WebM or Google Drive.
Advantages: the extension is free and open source (GPL-3.0), with no sign-up, and recordings stay on your computer. Good for a bug report when you cannot install software.
Disadvantages: it works only in Chrome-based browsers. The advanced editor, captions, share links and cloud library belong to the paid Screenity Pro.
10. ZoomIt
A small Microsoft Sysinternals tool that sits in the system tray and works with hotkeys: it zooms into part of the screen, lets you draw lines, arrows and rectangles and add text, shows a break timer, captures a region and records video. Ideal for showing a small detail of a drawing in a design review.
Advantages: free, and you may install and use any number of copies, including at work. Tiny, and it works live inside a presentation or recording.
Disadvantages: not open source, and you may not redistribute it. Recording is very basic, and the macOS version is separate and more limited.
More free tools worth knowing
Linux and Wayland: Kooha is a minimalist recorder that works well on Wayland, with system and microphone audio and MP4 or GIF output, but no webcam and no editing. GPU Screen Recorder encodes on the graphics card, so a heavy simulation is not slowed down, and it can save the last few minutes on demand. Shutter is a veteran capture tool with auto-numbered markers, mainly for X11.
Kooha
Dave Patrick Caberto
Minimalist Linux screen recorder that works well on Wayland, with system and microphone audio and MP4 or GIF output.
Get it from the vendor
GPU Screen Recorder
dec05eba
Linux screen recorder that encodes on the graphics card, with a replay buffer that saves the last few minutes.
Get it from the vendor
Shutter
Shutter project
Linux screenshot tool with a built-in editor: arrows, text, pixelation and auto-numbered markers on the capture.
Get it from the vendorGIFs and measuring tools: LICEcap records a screen area straight to GIF on Windows and macOS, with no audio and no editing; its latest version was released in June 2022. PicPick for Windows adds a pixel ruler, a protractor and a magnifier, but it is free for personal, non-commercial use only, and use at work needs a paid annual Professional licence.
LICEcap
Cockos
Records a screen area straight to an animated GIF, in a tiny program for Windows and macOS.
Get it from the vendor
PicPick
NGWIN
Windows screen capture suite with scrolling capture, screen recording, an image editor, pixel ruler and protractor.
Get it from the vendorSharing by link: Loom creates a viewing link the moment recording ends, but the free Starter plan is limited to 25 videos per person, 5 minutes per video and 720p, an account is required, and videos are stored in the company’s cloud.
Loom
Atlassian
Screen and camera recording with an instant share link, on a free Starter plan of up to 25 videos of 5 minutes each.
Get it from the vendorEditing the recording: OBS Studio and most recorders do not edit video. Shotcut and Kdenlive cut and join clips, and HandBrake or FFmpeg compress a long recording.
Shotcut
Meltytech
A free video editor — cut, caption, add callouts and export tutorial and site-inspection videos.
Get it from the vendor
Kdenlive
KDE
A multi-track non-linear video editor — for longer training videos and project presentations, with automatic subtitles.
Get it from the vendor
HandBrake
HandBrake team
Compress and convert large video files — screen recordings and site videos down to a shareable size.
Get it from the vendor
FFmpeg
FFmpeg project
A command-line engine for encoding, converting, cutting and compressing video and audio in almost any format, and the basis of most free video tools.
Get it from the vendorBuilt-in tools: for a short clip, Snipping Tool or Xbox Game Bar on Windows and Cmd+Shift+5 on macOS are sometimes enough.
Outdated and misleading advice you will find online
- Peek — still listed by It’s FOSS, but its repository was archived in September 2025 and the project is declared deprecated.
- Captura — appears in many round-ups, but according to its project page it is no longer maintained.
- Kazam — the original project is abandoned, a fork has had no releases since August 2024, and there is no Wayland support.
- SimpleScreenRecorder — the latest version is from 2022, and on Wayland it records a black screen. Beware of simplescreenrecorder.com, a fake site that spreads malware.
- Kap for macOS — the latest release came out in October 2022, almost four years without an update.
- “Loom is generous for free” — the limit is 25 videos per person in total, not per month, up to 5 minutes each and at 720p.
- ScreenPal — the sources contradict each other: Dupple says there is no watermark, while TechRadar and Codersera report a branded outro and a 15-minute cap.
- Screenpresso — the free version watermarks video.
- EaseUS RecExperts — the free version is capped at one minute of recording.
- Clipy — ranked first by Codersera, which is the vendor’s own blog, but it is a 7-day trial.
- Lightshot — uploaded captures are public by default; not for client drawings.
Which tool to choose, by need
A tutorial or recorded lecture with webcam: OBS Studio, with Shotcut or Kdenlive for editing. If you want something simpler, choose vokoscreenNG.
Annotated screenshots for work instructions and reports: on Windows, ShareX for every feature or Greenshot for speed; on every system, Flameshot or ksnip.
A short GIF for an email or a bug ticket: ScreenToGif on Windows, LICEcap on macOS.
Linux with Wayland: OBS Studio or Kooha for recording, GPU Screen Recorder for heavy simulations, ksnip or Flameshot for screenshots.
No install rights: Screenity in the browser.
A design review or live presentation: ZoomIt for zooming and drawing on screen in real time.
At a company: all the open-source tools allow commercial use; Snipaste 2.x and PicPick need a paid licence at work.
Sources
- TechRadar — Best free screen recorder of 2025
- Dupple — Best Free Screen Recorders in 2026 (No Watermark)
- Codersera — Best Free Screen Recorder 2026
- Toolradar — Best Free Screenshot Tools in 2026
- ShareX — 7 Best Screenshot Tools for Windows in 2026
- ScreenSnap Pro — 9 Best ShareX Alternatives for Windows (2026)
- It’s FOSS — 10 Best Screen Recorders for Linux in 2025
- Help Desk Geek — 11 Best Free Screenshot Software for Windows
All the tools in one place: free screen recording and screenshot software.