Lightshot vs ShareX (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Lightshot grades higher than ShareX: 3.0 against 2.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 6, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Lightshot grades higher on ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan and features.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Which one is for you
Pick Lightshot if
- Fits if you want a free screenshot tool that makes a link
- Works for people who take a screenshot a few times a day
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: sharing uploads your image to the vendor's server
- Not for you if you want screen recording, as none is listed
- Skip it if you use Linux, as no app is listed
- Watch out: the footer shows 2009 to 2022, which suggests updates are rare
Pick ShareX if
- Fits if you capture, mark up and share screenshots many times a day on Windows
- Works for bug reports and how-to docs that need a short clip or a GIF
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you're on a Mac or Linux, as it's Windows only
- Not for you if you want sharing to work with no setup, since you choose and configure each upload destination
- Tight if you need OCR in many languages, because it only reads the ones installed in Windows
- Watch out: scrolling capture can fail or come out wrong on pages with animated or hover-triggered parts
- Watch out: uploads go to third-party services you pick, so each one's own terms and privacy policy apply
How we grade them
| 3.0GPALightshotVery good | 2.6GPAShareXGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree on Windows and Mac, under 60% of the category's cheaper quarter. | AIt costs nothing and anyone can download and run it. Free and open source under the GPL-3.0 licence, with no advertisements, and the team says donations are its only source of income. |
| Free plan and trial | AFree outright with no cap listed and nothing locked. | AThe complete app is free and needs no account, as a setup or portable download, or from the Microsoft Store or Steam. There's no paid edition to grow into and no cap. |
| Features | CArea capture, quick edit, upload with a short link and similar-image search. There is no listed scrolling capture or screen recording, so it covers a narrow job. | CScreen capture is its job: region, window, monitor and scrolling captures, video and GIF recording, an editor with arrows and blur, task chains ending in an upload, plus OCR and a ruler. Its docs admit scrolling capture can fail on animated pages. |
| Ease of use | BNo rating on record. You press a key, drag, and save or share. | CNo store rating on record, and much of it is what you set up: the after-capture chain and custom uploaders, shared as .sxcu files, are yours to configure. A plain screenshot is a hotkey away, but the rest takes configuring. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWindows, Mac and browser extensions. All computers, with no phone app and no listed integrations. | DWindows only. It uploads to Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Cloudflare R2 and YouTube, and custom uploaders reach services that aren't built in. Nothing for Mac or Linux. |
| Best for | quick area screenshots shared as a link | free screenshots on Windows that file and share themselves |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Lightshot and ShareX. How we grade
Price against what you get
Lightshot has no paid plan and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. ShareX has no paid plan and scores 1.7.
Lightshot scores higher for the same starting price. Of the other desktop utilities on the chart, none scores higher than Lightshot for less, and none scores higher than ShareX for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- ShareX is open source, according to its own site.
- ShareX also covers screen recording.
In commonFree planWindowsScreenshotsFile sharing
At a glance
| Lightshot | ShareX | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | None | The whole app is free and open source, with no advertisements and no account. The team says donations are its only source of income. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Skillbrains | ShareX Team |
| Price read from | app.prntscr.com | getsharex.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Lightshot
- Sharing uploads the image to the vendor's server.
- The site's footer shows a 2009-2022 copyright, which suggests updates are infrequent.
- No Linux app is listed on the page.
ShareX
- Windows only: the site describes it as a screenshot tool for Windows, with downloads on the website, GitHub, Microsoft Store and Steam.
- Files are uploaded to third-party services the user chooses and configures, so each destination's own terms and privacy policy apply.
- OCR can only use the recognizer languages installed in Windows.
- The docs say scrolling capture can fail or produce inaccurate results on pages with static, animated or hover-triggered elements.
Key features
Lightshot
- Area capture
- Select any region of the desktop and capture it in two clicks.
- Instant edit
- Edit a capture while taking it, or later in the online editor.
- Upload and short link
- Uploads the image to the vendor's server and returns a short link right away.
- Similar image search
- Select an image on screen to find similar images.
- Gallery
- A signed-in My Gallery page keeps your uploaded screenshots.
- Browser extensions
- Extensions for Chrome and Firefox are linked from the site, alongside the desktop apps.
ShareX
- Capture methods
- Captures the full screen, the active window or monitor, a drawn region, the last or a custom region, or a scrolling page, and has an auto capture mode.
- Screen recording and GIFs
- Records the screen as video or as an animated GIF. Bundled tools include a video converter, a video trimmer and an animated GIF trimmer.
- Annotation and image editor
- Region capture and the built-in editor add arrows, text, step numbers, highlights and speech balloons, and hide details with blur, pixelate or a smart eraser.
- After-capture and after-upload tasks
- Each capture can run a set chain of tasks: copy to the clipboard, save to a file, open in the editor, run an action, upload, then shorten or copy the resulting URL.
- Uploads and custom uploaders
- Uploads images, text, files, folders and URLs to a chosen destination. Custom uploaders, shared as .sxcu files, send uploads to services that are not built in.
- OCR and other tools
- OCR uses the engine included with Windows and runs locally. Other tools include a color picker, ruler, QR code scanner, hash checker and pin to screen.
Plans
Lightshot
Lightshot$0
The download page offers the app for free on Windows and Mac.
ShareX
ShareX$0
The complete app as a setup or portable download, or from the Microsoft Store or Steam. Open source under the GPL-3.0 license.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Lightshot or ShareX?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Lightshot and ShareX are free to use.
Which has a free plan, Lightshot or ShareX?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Lightshot and ShareX have a free plan.
Which platforms do Lightshot and ShareX run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Lightshot lists a macOS app and a browser extension. Both list a Windows app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.