Camtasia vs ShareX Comparison 2026
Camtasia pairs a recorder with an editor: callouts, zooms and cursor effects for training that repeats every week, for $179.88 a year, about $15 a month, billed annually with no free plan. ShareX captures a region, a window or the whole screen and chains steps afterward, annotate, upload, copy the link, and costs nothing at all: free, open source and eighteen years in development, with no account required. ShareX is Windows only and, by its own account, the wrong tool the moment a recording needs to look edited rather than raw. Camtasia is the one that edits; ShareX is the one that captures and ships fast.
At a glance
- Only ShareX has a free tier.
Side by side
Camtasia | ShareX | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $39 | Free |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Annual only | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
Camtasia
Screen recording and editing in one suite
Camtasia has been the default answer for recorded training and software walkthroughs for about two decades, and the reason is the editor rather than the recorder: callouts, zooms and cursor effects are built in rather than assembled by hand. TechSmith sells it by the year and bundles Snagit with it. There is still a perpetual licence for people who would rather buy a version and keep it.
Our note
Ignore the $39 tier unless you genuinely only want Snagit, because the editor that makes Camtasia worth buying is on the plan above. Against DaVinci Resolve, which is free, this earns its price on the demo-specific tooling and nothing else.
Only on this side
- Covers video editing
ShareX
Screen capture and recording, open source
ShareX captures a region, a window, a scrolling page or the whole screen, records video and GIFs, and then runs whatever steps you set afterwards: annotate, upload, copy the link back. It has been in development for eighteen years and it uploads to a long list of destinations, including one you host yourself. Windows only, free, and it wants no account.
Why people weigh these two
- ShareX instead of Camtasia
- ShareX captures and records for free as open source, the no-budget answer when Camtasia's built-in editor is more than the job needs.
- Camtasia instead of ShareX
- Camtasia bundles a full video editor with the recorder, starting at $39, for someone who wants to cut and polish the recording in the same app rather than pair ShareX with another editor.
Which one should you pick
Take Camtasia when the recording needs to look edited: callouts, zooms and cursor effects assembled for training or a software walkthrough. The plan a step above the $39 Starter tier is $179.88 a year, about $15 a month, and that Starter tier is really just the capture product with Snagit bundled in. There is no free plan and no monthly billing option, only a fourteen-day money-back guarantee.
Take ShareX for capture and share on Windows, where its own brief says nothing paid does the job better. It is free with no account and no paid tier at all, with custom uploaders that send a capture straight to your own server rather than somebody else's cloud. The moment a recording needs editing rather than raw capture, its own brief admits it is the wrong tool, which is exactly where Camtasia starts.
Common questions
- Does ShareX cost anything?
- No. It is free and open source, funded by donations, with no paid tier, no account and no advertising. Camtasia has no free plan; its real product is $179.88 a year.
- Can ShareX edit a recording after capturing it?
- Not in the way Camtasia does. Its own brief says the moment a recording has to look edited rather than raw, it is the wrong tool. Camtasia's whole price buys that editing pass: callouts, zooms and cursor effects.
- Does ShareX run on a Mac?
- No, it is Windows only. Camtasia runs on both Windows and macOS.
- What does ShareX do that Camtasia's listing does not mention?
- Custom uploaders, sending a capture straight to your own server or bucket rather than a cloud you do not control, plus after-capture workflows that chain annotate, save and upload without touching the mouse again.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.