CleanShot X Alternative
CleanShot X set the standard for polished screenshot tools on Mac — floating previews, quick annotation, clean workflow. Quick Gen brings that same philosophy to Windows. And it's free.
The feature that made CleanShot X famous — captures that float on your screen for quick reference. Quick Gen has the same concept: always-on-top preview cards that you can pin, stack, drag, and resize.
Like CleanShot X, every capture goes straight to your clipboard. No extra steps, no file dialogs. Capture, paste, done.
Open Studio from any preview card. Arrows, text, shapes, numbered callouts, freehand and redaction, each on a single key, and every mark stays editable after you place it. Fast enough to use in the middle of a conversation.
The other thing CleanShot X is loved for. Quick Gen's Compose mode frames a capture on one of ten gradients or six wallpapers, wraps it in a window or browser frame, and gives you padding, rounding, shadow and six aspect ratios.
Clicks during a take become zoom keyframes automatically, and Studio layers a styled cursor with click ripples over the result. Trim on the timeline, then export to MP4, WebM, GIF or animated WebP faster than the clip's own length.
CleanShot X costs $29 one-time or $8/month for the cloud plan. Quick Gen is completely free under the MIT license. No trial periods, no feature gates, no subscription.
CleanShot X has scrolling capture and OCR text recognition. Quick Gen doesn't have those features yet. If those are essential to your workflow, CleanShot X (on Mac) is still the more complete tool.
But if you're on Windows and want the core CleanShot experience — fast capture, floating previews, quick annotation, and clean design — Quick Gen delivers that for free.
Download Quick Gen and start capturing in seconds. Free, open source, no account needed.
Free · Open source · Windows 10+ · <100 MB