Snow ShotSnipping Tool vs ShareX vs Snow Shot: Which Free Screenshot Tool Should You Use?
Three free screenshot tools dominate Windows: the built-in Snipping Tool, the power-user favourite ShareX, and Snow Shot, an open-source capture tool with built-in OCR. They overlap on the basics and diverge sharply everywhere else. Here is an honest comparison by workflow, not by feature count.
The 30-second answer
Use the Snipping Tool for one-off crops. Use ShareX if you want maximum automation and do not mind configuration. Use Snow Shot if you want scrolling capture, OCR and annotation in one pass without building a workflow first.
Capture modes
Snipping Tool: rectangle, freeform, window, full screen, and video. ShareX: every mode plus scrolling capture, region-to-file automation and screen recording. Snow Shot: rectangle, freeform, window, full screen, scrolling capture, plus recording and pin-to-screen. ShareX and Snow Shot both cover the cases the built-in tool does not.
Scrolling capture
This is the feature that decides the tool for most people. Snipping Tool cannot do it at all. ShareX can, through a scrolling window capture mode that works best on classic Win32 windows. Snow Shot's implementation scrolls the selected region and stops automatically when the content repeats, which handles both browsers and desktop apps.
OCR and text extraction
Snipping Tool has no OCR. ShareX has OCR actions that call Windows' built-in engine or an external one, configured per task. Snow Shot ships OCR in the annotation toolbar with translation as a follow-up action — one click from capture to clipboard text. For anyone who regularly pulls text out of images, this is the biggest practical difference.
Annotation and sharing
Snipping Tool offers pen, highlighter and basic shapes. ShareX has a full editor and an extensive upload/destination system — its strength and its complexity. Snow Shot's editor covers arrows, numbering, blur, mosaic and text, and saves to a local history you can search.
Learning curve and configuration
Snipping Tool: none. ShareX: real — it is a workflow engine, and the first hour goes into settings. Snow Shot: low; defaults are sensible, and the hotkeys are discoverable. If you value a tool you never have to configure, ShareX is the wrong pick no matter how capable it is.
Privacy and licensing
Snipping Tool is closed source but local. ShareX is open source (GPL-3.0) and local by default, with optional uploads you configure yourself. Snow Shot is open source (GPL-3.0), captures and OCR locally, and only sends data when you explicitly use a cloud feature such as translation.
Which one should you install
Keep the Snipping Tool — it costs nothing and starts instantly. Add ShareX if your job is producing and uploading screenshots at volume and you enjoy tuning automation. Add Snow Shot if you want scrolling capture, OCR and a clean annotation flow in a single lightweight app.
Performance and footprint
The Snipping Tool is a UWP app that starts with the system and stays resident. ShareX idles at a few tens of megabytes and only wakes on a hotkey. Snow Shot is a native app with a small idle footprint; the OCR engine is loaded on demand rather than at startup, which keeps the first capture fast on older machines.
What each tool is actually bad at
Snipping Tool: no OCR, no scrolling capture, no history, no automation. ShareX: configuration-heavy, the UI feels like a 2012 utility, and scrolling capture is unreliable on modern Chromium windows. Snow Shot: fewer integrations than ShareX, no plugin ecosystem, and its automation options are deliberately limited — if you need post-capture upload workflows, ShareX wins.
A workflow that combines them
You do not have to pick one. Many people keep the Snipping Tool bound to PrtSc for instant throwaway crops, and install Snow Shot for OCR and scrolling capture. The tools coexist without conflicts as long as each has its own hotkey. Reserve ShareX for batch automation, if you need it at all.
What about macOS
On macOS the built-in option is Cmd + Shift + 5, which covers rectangles, windows and screen recording but has no OCR and no scrolling capture. ShareX does not run on macOS at all, which removes it from the comparison for Mac users. Snow Shot ships a macOS build, so the scrolling-capture and OCR arguments apply there unchanged.
How to decide in five minutes
Install nothing for a day and note every time you need a capture. If every capture is a single rectangle pasted into chat, the built-in tool is enough. If you find yourself scrolling and stitching by hand, or retyping text from images, install the tool that removes those two steps and keep everything else as it was.
Want the condensed version? See the full Snipping Tool alternative comparison.