If you’ve had it with Snagit, then look no further!
We’re here to tell you what’s good, bad, and ugly about Techsmith’s veteran screenshot and screen recording software - and what you should be using instead.
We’ve lined up four Snagit competitors to put through their paces and give you our recommendations on which use cases they win out on.
Snagit’s been around forever, just like Techsmith’s other video tool, Camtasia.
It’s best known for its screenshot capabilities, but it also includes a video screen recorder.
Snagit gives you a massive range of options to create and edit screenshots.
As well as full-screen, window, scrolling, time-delay, and many other capture types, it lets you add effects and share the file to other applications directly from the recording tool.
Then, in the editor, you can go to town with the effects.
And with OCR image-to-text capabilities, those screenshots can be put to good use. Other noteworthy features include:
Summing up, Snagit’s not the best-looking or most intuitive screenshot tool (more on that later), but it’s one of the most comprehensive.
You can download Snagit free and try it out for 15 days, without giving credit card details.
Snagit 2022 is currently priced at £56.12 per user per year (around $75). That includes in-year updates and maintenance. The price has gone up by around £12/$16 since the 2021 version.
That works out at around $6.25 per month, which is pretty cheap, and if you work in the Education, Government, or Non-Profit sectors, there are discounted offers as well. But there is no option of a month-by-month payment. After the free trial, you’re in for the whole year.
Snagit is a desktop app, so you don’t need to be online to use it.
As we’ll see in the next section, Snagit’s video recorder is its Achilles heel. But having said that, it has a few cool features:
Those positives are offset by some pretty significant drawbacks. Let’s look at those now.
SaaS tools usually look better than downloadable software, but come on Techsmith! Snagit still looks like a throwback to the early era of the web - despite getting a refresh every year.
The recorder looks like this, for example.
Too many sharp edges, too many different UI elements, and a “Windows” look that most software has moved on from.
We’ve already mentioned that Snagit is a desktop app. That means your screenshots and video files are saved to your computer - in turn, that means:
Snagit tries to get around this problem by allowing easy file-sharing directly from the recorder and from the editor to a wide range of applications (eg Slack, Google Drive, Twitter, DropBox, YouTube, etc).
But for all these options, you will be transferring potentially very large files. This is a particular problem with email, which is not a one-click option in Snagit. You have to download a file and attach it to send via email - or upload it to a web service and share a URL from that instead.
The options Snagit provides for creating and editing screenshots are significantly more impressive than those it offers for video.
With just basic trimming capabilities in terms of editing and file-sharing, the video element looks distinctly tacked on to the superior screenshot offering.
For what it’s worth, the video capture seemed to be of lower quality than the other recorders tested for this blog - but that is just one writer’s experience!
Sendspark is a SaaS screen and webcam recording tool that’s been designed for sharing sales and marketing video content. If Snagit is a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none, Sendspark reigns supreme in its niche.
Sendspark is purely a video tool. There’s no screenshotting functionality, so if that’s something you need, you should consider Droplr or Nimbus rather than Sendspark or Loom.
It’s also a web application (so no offline version) and there are no options for editing your recordings.
Where Sendspark excels is in video sharing and video messaging.
Unlike Snagit, you won’t have to wait a year for the next update with Sendspark: new features are regularly being added. For example:
Sendspark is getting better and better!
As Sendspark is a SaaS tool, it’s slightly tricky to compare pricing with a download like Snagit. So, we’ll compare them on the total cost for a year.
One Pro Sendspark license costs $12 per month or $144 for a year compared to $75 for Snagit.
But Sendspark does offer:
Given their very different strengths, this is a bit of an “apples and oranges” comparison. It’s probably best to compare Snagit and Sendspark on their features and your needs rather than price.
Nimbus is primarily positioned as a note-taking application - but we’ve included it here because it has screenshot and screen recording capabilities just like Snagit.
Nimbus’ browser extension - Source: nimbusweb.me
Hey, if you like the way Snagit looks, you’ll **love** Nimbus! 🤣🤣🤣 If anything, it’s even more old school. Check out these editing controls:
Takes you right back, doesn’t it?
But looks aren’t everything. What has Nimbus got that Snagit hasn’t?
Beyond that, Nimbus can match Snagit on most of its functionality: basic video trimming; video file-sharing options; OCR image-to-text conversion, etc.
But be warned: each Nimbus user can only upload a fixed amount of data per month (5GB per Pro user; 10GB per Business user). Snagit is only restricted by your device’s storage space limits.
Nimbus is exceptionally cheap. One Pro license for a year would cost you just $48 compared to Snagit’s $75.
Nimbus also offers payment monthly, at $5 for a single user. Of course, a solo user won’t be able to make use of Nimbus’ sharing workspace but those links can be shared - displaying a very basic playback landing page.
Loom is a SaaS screen and webcam recording app that claims to be “an essential tool for hybrid workplaces”.
Like Sendspark, it doesn’t feature screenshot functionality - but for many video use cases, it’s a better option than Snagit.
Loom is designed for capturing and sharing videos - through links to cloud-hosted landing pages, through social uploads, or by file download. In this respect, it’s very much like Sendspark.
Like Snagit, Loom offers basic video trimming. Like Nimbus, it has a load of in-recording drawing tools. What it has that the other Snagit competitors don’t have are:
If you want to share quick videos across your organization, Loom is great. But if you’re looking to send them to third parties, Sendspark is better suited to your needs:
Loom is better than Snagit for the video-sharing use case. By cloud-hosting your recordings, Loom saves you the need to download and upload large files - and it can provide you with data on views and clicks.
But if you’re planning on sharing outside of your organization, it’s worth spending the extra money (see next section!) to get Sendspark’s advanced capabilities.
Loom will cost you $96 per Business user per year, making it more expensive than Snagit.
Having said that, Loom does offer a pay monthly option at $10 per user per month. And like Sendspark, it offers a free-forever version. (Read more about Loom alternatives)
Droplr is very similar to Snagit in terms of its features and its pricing. But as a SaaS tool, like Nimbus, it supports some very different use cases.
To be honest, there’s not much between these two tools:
Droplr’s big advantage is a cloud-based sharing ecosystem, that helps you to organize your files and collaborate with team members. These “Boards” are a great feature - looking and functioning more like Pinterest than Nimbus’ Windows Explorer vibe.
Sharing outside of the workspace is easy: either as downloads, direct to social media or as short links to a landing page for the cloud-hosted video. However, there are no options to customize the landing pages - making it a pretty rough and ready experience for viewers.
Nevertheless, that’s an option Snagit just doesn’t have at all.
On the other hand, Droplr doesn’t have OCR capabilities, so it’s not all one-way traffic.
Droplr’s Pro Plus plan costs $6 per month, or $72 per year - almost the same as Snagit.
If you don’t want to commit to a full year, you can get Droplr on a month-by-month basis at $8 for a solo user, or $9 per user when you buy multiple licenses. There’s no free-forever version and only a three-day free trial.
Bear in mind: if you want analytics comparable to Sendspark’s or Loom’s, Droplr will charge you another $2 per month for it!
CloudApp is close to Snagit considering it has the same core features: a screenshot maker and a video screen recorder. The video recorder is best used for short GIFs of up to 60 seconds in length. But a key area CloudApp outshines Snagit is…
Choose CloudApp if you want to store your GIFs and images on the cloud. The app uploads everything automatically, kind of like Sendspark does with videos. You can then share uploads in seconds by copying a link and sending it to the recipient.
Another reason to choose CloudApp is if you want to annotate, clip, and otherwise edit images often. There’s a nice editor built into the app; you can easily add text, arrows, boxes, and other shapes. Helpful if you work with visual content often.
Specific reasons go with CloudApp…
CloudApp Dashboard - Source: getcloudapp.com
While Snagit does offer some editing features, CloudApp’s are better. CloudApp also offers video workflows, analytics, and team management functions. These features help you and your team stay connected whether you’re working with images or not.
Snagit's individual and business plans are both $63 per year. CloudApp is $120 per year, but the extra utility and unlimited storage make it worth it. The goodies - cloud hosting, high-definition screenshots, and more - add a lot of value.
Snagit forces you to pay for a whole year, which won’t work for everyone. CloudApp has monthly subscriptions (which we quite like).
In terms of free options, CloudApp gives you 25 free uploads plus basic analytics in theirs. Snagit has a free trial, but that only lasts 15 days, which we weren’t crazy about.
Greenshot is a free, open-source tool for taking screenshots. There isn't much to the program, but it offers a no-cost option to Snagit and the other apps on this page.
Greenshot in Action - Source: Chris' Tutorials, "Learn Greenshot in 10 Minutes" video
Greenshot is a good option because it is free and easy-to-use. Snagit has more editing features and the ability to record videos. But believe it or not, Greenshot has a couple tricks that Snagit can't match. The main differences are…
One quirk that you have to get used to with Greenshot is its hotkeys. They’re tricky to remember at first because they’re non-standard.
Snagit and Greenshot both require software downloads to use. This seems a bit outdated in 2023. But Greenshot gets some points for its imugr.com sharing feature; we loved that.
Snagit has an individual and a business plan that are both $63 per year. Greenshot is free for Windows users and $2 for Mac users (one-time fee).
If you just need to capture screenshots, there is no comparison, Greenshot wins easily; it’s free! If you are looking for more editing features and the ability to record videos, Snagit is the pick for you.
Since Greenshot is free and open source, there is no risk to trying it.
These two are very close with similar prices and core features. In our opinion, Screencast-o-Matic is a bit better - if clunkier - to use.
Screencast-o-Matic is a screen capture app that was popular in the past. Screencast-o-Matic is easy to start using, but difficult and clunky to use well. Its price point is similar to Snagit’s, with more features but a worse interface.
The differences in editing features are pretty noticeable. Snagit has more editing options, like a special effects library. Screencast-o-Matic has some cool features like being able to draw and annotate while recording.
Screencast-o-Matic has 3 primary subscriptions that range in price from $3-$10 per month. The pricing is around the same as Snagit; the difference is that you can choose to pay monthly.
Both have free trials; the difference is that Screencast-o-Matic’s is available indefinitely, whereas Snagit’s is time-limited.
So there you have it. Snagit is a fantastic screenshotting tool but a mediocre screen recorder, that is outclassed by tools that specialize in video use cases.
And being a download rather than a SaaS product has pros and cons: on the one hand, Snagit can be used offline. On the other, your recordings are only available on one device.
The Snagit competitors we looked at are best for the following needs:
Sendspark makes it easy to create or import videos and distribute them across email, social, and the web. Sign up now and start recording and sharing videos for free.