Clowd vs Lightshot.
Lightshot is the two-click screenshot tool. Clowd is free too, and adds a full image editor, screen recording and a video editor.
- Price
- FreeFree. No trial, no tiers, no watermark.
- Status
- Very active4.10.0 released Oct 19, 2026. In development since 2015.
- Best for
- Links in storage you controlA real editorRecording and OCR
- Price
- FreeFree and closed source. No paid tier is listed.
- Status
- UnmaintainedThe Mac app was last updated in 2019, and the Windows download has no changelog.
- Best for
- The simplest possible screenshotAnonymous quick linksBrowser capture
Feature by feature.
Every Lightshot verdict comes from its own documentation.
| Feature | Clowd | Lightshot |
|---|---|---|
| Capture | ||
| Region capture | YesPress PrtScn and drag. Edges can be placed to the pixel while zoomed. | Yes |
| Window snapping | YesHover a window and click, or press W. | No |
| Full-screen capture | YesF for the monitor under the cursor, A for all monitors, Ctrl+PrtScn for the active screen. | Yes'Fullscreen' option from the selection (double-click or right-click), plus an optional, user-assigned 'instant save of the fullscreen' hotkey on Windows. |
| Magnifier | YesScroll to zoom the frozen screen from 1× to 256×. | No |
| Color picker | YesPress H on any pixel. The Color Editor copies HEX, RGB or HSL and has an eyedropper. | No |
| Scrolling capture | YesRewinds to the top first, and sticky headers appear once. Scrolls whole windows, not panes inside them. Needs Accessibility permission on macOS. | No |
| Text recognition (OCR) | YesOn-device. The text lifts off the capture so you can check it, then copy, search or share it. OCR and the AI effects need Windows or a Mac with Apple Silicon. Latin, Greek, Chinese and Japanese kana. Cyrillic and Korean aren’t supported yet. | No |
| Annotate | ||
| Image editor | YesEvery capture opens in the image editor. Objects stay editable and sessions autosave. | PartialTiny in-place toolbar during selection, plus an online editor. |
| Shapes, arrows and text | YesCurved arrows and lines, a Bezier pen, text, sticky notes and a highlighter. | YesPen, line, arrow, rectangle, marker, text. |
| Blur and pixelate | YesMosaic, blur or solid. It only affects the image underneath, never your annotations. | No |
| Record | ||
| Screen recording | YesRegion, window or screen, with a live frame-rate meter. | No |
| Share | ||
| Upload and share | YesCaptures, recordings, text, files and folders. Image and video uploads need a storage destination; text pastes work out of the box. | YesTo prntscr.com / prnt.sc only. |
| Instant link | YesThe link is copied automatically. With accelerated uploads, the moment the upload starts. | YesA short prnt.sc link right after upload. |
| Your own storage | YesAmazon S3 and S3-compatible, Azure Blob, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2 and more. | No |
| Platform & price | ||
| Windows | YesWindows 10 and later, x64 and ARM64. | Yes |
| macOS | YesmacOS 13 and later, Apple Silicon and Intel. OCR and the AI effects need Windows or a Mac with Apple Silicon. Default hotkeys use PrtScn. Rebind them in Settings → Hotkeys on a Mac keyboard. | YesApp Store build from 2019. Apple Silicon support is not stated. |
| Linux | NoNot available yet. | PartialWine only. |
| Free | YesFree. No trial, no tiers, no watermark. | Yes |
| Open source | YesMIT licensed. The part that runs text recognition and the AI effects is GPL-3.0. | No |
Sources8Checked Oct 19, 2026
- app.prntscr.com/en/index.html
- app.prntscr.com/en/faq.html
- app.prntscr.com/en/download.html
- lightshot.app/en/hotkeys.html
- betanews.com/article/lightshot-capture-edit-and-share-your-screengrabs-online
- apps.apple.com/us/app/lightshot-screenshot/id526298438
- addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lightshot
- blog.nocturn9x.space/heres-how-i-got-your-credit-card-number-or-why-sequential-identifiers-are-a-bad-idea
Product names are trademarks of their owners and are used only to identify them. Spotted something out of date? Open an issue.
Where Lightshot wins.
If these matter most to you, Lightshot may be the better pick.
The simplest flow there is: drag, then copy, save or upload.
Browser extensions for capturing in the browser.
Anonymous uploads with no setup.
Where Clowd goes further.
Upload & Share
Links you control.
Lightshot's prnt.sc links are short and sequential, and deleting one means contacting support. Clowd uploads to storage you choose, and you can delete any file from Recents.
More about uploads
Capture Overlay
More than a rectangle.
Both capture a region or the screen. Clowd also snaps to windows, zooms up to 256× for exact edges and picks colors.
More about the capture overlay
Image Editor
An editor, not just a pen.
Lightshot's toolbar has a pen, shapes, a marker and text. Clowd's editor adds blur, numbered steps, curved arrows, measuring and layers.
More about the image editor
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Clowd vs Flameshot
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Clowd vs Snipping Tool
Already on every Windows 11 PC: snips, basic markup, text actions and simple recording.