Capturing your screen is a necessity in today’s business world.
Constant emailing can lead to confusion and let important details slip through the cracks.
In-person meetings can be draining and take up too much precious time.
And humans are visual creatures.
If you want to supercharge your team collaboration, you need to be able to communicate visually, quickly and effectively.
Below are the top 5 free screen capture software tools we recommend you use to streamline your workflow, improve productivity, and make sharing information seamless.
Let’s check them out.
The 5 Best Free Screen Capture Software Tools
1. Zight (formerly CloudApp)
Zight (formerly CloudApp) is one of the premier free screen capture software tools that gives you a ton of options for capturing videos and images.
The most popular feature is the screen recorder.
You can capture everything on your screen in HD video whether you’re scrolling the page, clicking through links, or moving from tab to tab in your web browser. Zight (formerly CloudApp) records uninterrupted video.
Plus, you can record your webcam, either exclusively or at the same time as you’re recording your screen to personalize and narrate your recordings.
Zight (formerly CloudApp) lets you sign up and create a free account where all of your videos and images will automatically be saved. It also generates an easy-to-share link that’s instantly copied to your clipboard after your recording ends for fast sharing and collaboration.
Zight (formerly CloudApp) doesn’t require any browser extensions. It doesn’t have limits on file storage. And you get all of its features at no cost.
You can create HD GIFs or screen snippets instead of videos for repeatable walkthroughs and tutorials.
You can annotate images and videos for added clarity, even blurring out parts of your recording for extra privacy and security.
And you can add call-to-action buttons for getting viewers to take the next step.
You can also add circles, arrows, lines, drawings and emojis to your screen recordings and screenshots to bring attention to certain details.
After you’re finished recording your screen, you can easily share a link with your team or drag and drop the file into any collaboration app, social media platform, and more.
Not only do you get all the top features of expensive screen captures tools for free…
But Zight (formerly CloudApp) makes team collaboration easier than almost any other option out there.
2. Debut
Debut is one of the top free screen capture software tools that comes loaded with a lot of features.
Many other screen capture options set severe restrictions on use, force you to have watermarks on what you capture, and even sometimes bundle junk software with your download.
Debut Video Capture does away with many of those restrictions and provides a much better screen capture experience as a result.
You can use it to capture your screen, webcam, or even other connected devices such as security cameras.
For screen recordings, you can capture the entire display, a selected window, or a custom region you choose. You can show or hide your mouse cursor. Debut even lets you highlight your cursor when you click on something, which is very useful if you’re recording a demo or tutorial.
Debut allows you to record audio coming from your PC (like in a video) or externally from a microphone, or both, giving you plenty of flexibility.
You can also execute a webcam overlay, allowing you to record your screen and your face on a webcam simultaneously.
While Debut doesn’t offer editing tools for the video you create, you can adjust color settings and certain effects that can be applied instantly.
3. ShareX
ShareX is an all-around screen capturing, file sharing, productivity-improving software tool.
You can download it directly or find it in the Microsoft Store if you’re using Windows OS.
It comes with all the top screen capture options: full screen, window, specific region, scrolling capture, and plenty more.
Screen recordings can be kept as videos or turned into GIF files. All the options available to capture your screen or record video are conveniently kept in a drop-down menu within the free software.
After using the capture function, you’re taken to the editor where you’re presented with different options to manipulate your videos and images, such as color picker and screen color picker to enhance your captures. You can even add your own watermark or scan QR codes.
The sharing options you get after capturing your screen are what set ShareX apart from other free tools on this list.
Images and videos captured with ShareX can be uploaded to a variety of cloud services and social media. You can upload individual files or entire folders across many platforms, including Flickr, Imgur, ImageShack, Google Photos, and more. You can also upload directly to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and similar sites.
4. Droplr
Droplr is one of the sleekest free screen capture software tools on this list, and like ShareX, is focused on making sharing as easy as possible without involving too many steps or systems.
Droplr integrates with Slack, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, and many others allowing you to record videos or screenshot images and instantly share them with your team. Plus, it runs in the background, so it’s unobtrusive and takes up minimal computing power.
The screenshot function lets you capture your entire screen or just a select part of it, and can also capture full web pages.
It also lets you annotate what you capture with text or color highlights for providing extra direction, important notes, or any other message. Plus, you can add lines, circles, arrows, and boxes to get your point across in a visually effective way.
The screen recorder allows you to create HD and GIF videos of your webcam or screen. Screen recordings can encompass the entire screen or one part of it. And Droplr lets you create as many GIFs as you like.
Here’s where Droplr really shines.
The moment after you use the screenshot tool or screen recorder, it’s automatically saved to the cloud in your own personal Droplr account and a link is generated and automatically saved to your clipboard for instant sharing.
Files up to 10GB can be dragged and dropped for seamless collaboration.
One of the most unique Droplr features that was recently added is a “self-destructing drop.” This lets you share a file and have it disappear in a specified amount of time – a day, a week, or longer. What this means is the file will be deleted from your Droplr account and won’t be viewable by anyone after it “destructs.” This is handy for files that are important to share once but don’t need to be saved.
5. Loom
Loom is one of the newest and most popular free screen capture software tools in the market and its use is only growing.
They tell you the exact problem they set out to solve right away: replacing long emails and constant in-person meetings.
Loom lets “you capture your screen, face, and voice and instantly share your video.”
Making quick videos allows you to communicate with your team much faster and do it any time of day for flexible collaboration.
Loom’s main function is fast, HD screen and video recordings.
The screen recording function comes with 3 different options:
- Record just your screen.
- Record just your webcam.
- Record your screen and your webcam at the same time.
One interesting aspect of webcam recording is that instead of a square shape outlining the video, Loom records within a circle. This unique feature to Loom adds a nice aesthetic to your videos.
One of the reasons Loom has been widely adopted is because of how intuitive and easy it is to get started, especially for beginners. You basically choose one of the options above and start recording.
There’s nothing to download with Loom.
After you sign up, you get a free account where all your videos will be saved immediately after recording them.
After recording videos, you’ll be given the option to share them or download them locally.
The best part about sharing a Loom video is that the recipient can have instant access to it the minute you stop recording to share a link with them, unlike other free screen capture software tools that require you to download the file then upload it again to share it.
Before sharing your video, Loom gives you the option to edit it.
You can trim parts of the video to make it more concise, add calls-to-action within the video if you want viewers to do something after watching it, and you can customize the thumbnail.
Also, viewers can “react” to your videos using emojis or comments for fun and easy collaboration.
Get the Free Screen Capture Software Tool That Makes Collaboration as Easy as Walking to a Coworker’s Desk
Zight (formerly CloudApp) helps everyone in your company communicate with each other faster and easier.
Product managers can quickly send A and B options for decision-makers to decide between with screenshots or videos, ask for changes using annotations, and provide clear instructions with GIFs.
Executives and managers in other departments can provide quick feedback on projects by recording webcam videos.
Product Marketers can use Zight (formerly CloudApp) to screenshot performance metrics, communicate revisions, and quickly provide essential feedback.
And the list goes on.
Zight (formerly CloudApp) makes this possible through an easy-to-use, enterprise-grade app that’s been ranked by G2 Crowd as one of the top sales enablement tools.
Discover why Zight (formerly CloudApp) is an essential free screen capture software tool for collaboration today.