qgn / vs / sharex
A ShareX alternative for people who just want the screenshot.
ShareX can do almost anything. That is its strength and its cost. QGN does a handful of things, with almost nothing to configure.
ShareX is one of the best pieces of free software on Windows. It has been in active development for well over a decade, it is open source under GPL-3.0, and version 21.0.0 shipped in July 2026. If you live in its workflows, with after-capture tasks that watermark, upload and shorten a link in one go, nothing here will replace that. Keep it.
But plenty of people install ShareX, open the settings once, see the tree of capture modes, tasks, destinations and hotkeys, and close it again. They wanted a screenshot on the clipboard. QGN is for them.
QGN has one hotkey for stills and one for recordings. Release the mouse and the picture is on your clipboard. A small card shows it in the corner. That is the whole default flow. There is no destination to pick, because there is no destination at all.
side by side
| ShareX | QGN | |
|---|---|---|
| capture | region, window, monitor, full screen, scrolling, auto capture | region, window, or full display |
| to clipboard | yes, as an after-capture task | always, the moment you release |
| editor | yes, with many tools | arrows, shapes, text, callouts, redaction, crop, all editable later |
| screen recording | yes, video and GIF | yes, with mic and system audio, MP4, WebM, GIF, WebP |
| OCR, scrolling capture | yes | no |
| upload destinations | a long list, plus custom uploaders | none |
| settings | hundreds | a short page |
| source | open, GPL-3.0 | open, MIT |
| price | free | free |
| platforms | Windows | Windows |
what you gain
- Nothing to set up. Install, press ctrl+q, drag. The defaults are the product.
- Floating cards. Each capture waits in the corner. Drag it into Slack, pin it so it survives a reboot, copy it again. The last twelve stay in the tray menu. See floating previews.
- A calmer editor. Studio has two modes. Markup draws on the pixels. Compose frames the capture on a background for a README or a tweet. Every mark stays editable. See Studio.
- Recordings that look edited. Trim, then let QGN make zoom keyframes from where you clicked. Export MP4 or WebM faster than real time, or a GIF for the pull request. See screen recording.
what you give up
- Uploading. No Imgur, no S3, no custom uploader, no short links.
- Scrolling capture and OCR. ShareX has both. QGN has neither.
- Automation. ShareX can chain tasks after every capture. QGN copies, and optionally saves to a folder.
- Size. QGN is an Electron app, and the installer is about 85 MB.
- Age. ShareX has years of edge cases behind it. QGN is younger and still at 0.1.x.
who should switch
If you use ShareX for region to clipboard and the odd arrow, QGN does that with less in the way. If you use ShareX as a pipeline, stay. Try both: they can run side by side, since QGN's hotkeys are ctrl+q and ctrl+shift+q, and both can be rebound.
questions
Is QGN as powerful as ShareX?
No, and it is not trying to be. ShareX has scrolling capture, OCR, workflows and dozens of upload destinations. QGN does capture, recording, a few good editing tools and nothing else.
Are both free and open source?
Yes. ShareX is GPL-3.0. QGN is MIT. Neither has a paid tier.
Can QGN upload to Imgur, S3 or a custom server like ShareX?
No. QGN has no upload feature. Captures go to your clipboard, and to a folder if you turn on auto-save.
Can I run QGN next to ShareX?
Yes. QGN uses Ctrl+Q and Ctrl+Shift+Q, which ShareX does not take by default, and both hotkeys can be rebound.