Screenshot Tools That Also Record Video (2026 Guide)
Most people don't actually want two tools. They want one icon in the tray that grabs a quick still when a still is enough, and rolls a short clip when a picture won't explain it. A bug report, a hand-off to a colleague, a how-to for a teammate, a clip to drop into an AI assistant — half the time you decide which one you need after you've already started capturing.
So this guide is narrow on purpose. Not "best screen recorders" and not "best screenshot apps" — but the smaller set of tools that genuinely do both well, so you can stop juggling. We'll cover Maxisnap, ShareX, Snagit, Monosnap, and the macOS built-ins, then give an honest recommendation by use case.
Why one app for both beats juggling two
Running a dedicated screenshot tool next to a separate recorder sounds harmless until you live with it. You end up with two tray icons, two sets of hotkeys to remember, two output folders, and two different "share" flows. Worse, the muscle memory collides: you reach for your screenshot hotkey mid-recording, or you start a recording when you only needed a crop.
A single tool fixes the seams. The same hotkey language ("region" vs "fullscreen") applies to both stills and clips. Captures land in one place. The annotation editor you already know for screenshots is right there, and the trim controls for video sit in the same result window. Less context-switching, fewer apps loading at startup, one thing to update.
The shortlist: tools that do screenshots AND video
Maxisnap (Windows) — the lightweight both-in-one
Maxisnap started as a fast, Monosnap-style screenshot tool and, as of v2.4, records screen video too — on Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11 (64-bit). Stills use Ctrl+Alt+5 (region), Ctrl+Alt+6 (fullscreen), and Ctrl+Alt+7 (region + instant upload). Video adds Ctrl+Alt+3 for a selected region and Ctrl+Alt+4 for the full screen (the monitor under your cursor). Every hotkey remaps.
The recording side is deliberately driver-free: it captures system/desktop audio and your microphone, mixed into one track by default, using WASAPI loopback — no virtual audio cable, no Stereo Mix hunting. Hardware encoding (NVENC / Intel QuickSync / AMD AMF) is optional with a libx264 software fallback, and ffmpeg ships inside the installer, so there's nothing else to download. A small badge shows while you record and is excluded from its own capture. When you stop, a result window opens with an inline player, Save / Copy / Upload / Drag-out, start/end trim, and export formats: MP4, GIF, WebM, and an AI-optimized MP4 (~1280px, 24fps, CRF28, mono) that produces a tiny aioptimized_*.mp4 built to drop straight into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.
Recording is free, with no watermark and no time limit. On the stills side you still get 11 annotation tools, 50-level undo, native OCR (Extract Text), Pin to Desktop, multi-monitor and high-DPI support, ~35 MB idle RAM, and an under-70 MB download. The honest caveat: it's Windows today. A native Apple-Silicon macOS build is in active development — there's no Mac download or Mac video recording yet, and you can ask to be notified via the contact page.
ShareX (Windows) — free, powerful, steep
ShareX is the open-source heavyweight. It does screenshots, video recording, and GIF, plus OCR, color picking, custom workflows, and 80+ upload destinations. If raw feature count is the metric, ShareX wins. The cost is the interface: a dense grid of options, settings nested inside settings, and a real learning curve before the power pays off. For a deeper head-to-head, see Maxisnap vs ShareX.
Snagit (Windows + Mac) — polished and paid
Snagit by TechSmith is the long-standing commercial option. It captures stills and records video, has a refined editor, and works on both Windows and Mac. It's the most "finished" feeling of the bunch — and it's paid, around US$62.99 for a license. If budget isn't a constraint and you want a single polished product with vendor support, it's a reasonable pick. We break down the trade-offs in Maxisnap vs Snagit.
Monosnap — both, with a memory caveat
Monosnap is the tool many people in this space are coming from. It does screenshots and screen recording across platforms, with cloud sharing baked in. The recurring complaint we've documented elsewhere is resource behavior — background memory growth over long sessions on some setups. If that's your experience, it's worth reading our notes on the Monosnap memory issue before committing.
macOS built-ins (QuickTime + Cmd+Shift+5) — free, with audio gaps
On a Mac you already have two screen recorders: QuickTime Player's "New Screen Recording" and the system Cmd+Shift+5 toolbar (which also does stills). Both are free and capture the screen and microphone fine. The catch most people hit: capturing internal/system audio — the sound your apps make — isn't supported out of the box and needs an extra driver like BlackHole or Soundflower. There's also no built-in annotation on the recording side. They're a solid baseline; they're just not an all-in-one annotate-and-share workflow.
Side-by-side comparison
| Capability | Maxisnap | ShareX | Snagit | Monosnap | Mac built-ins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screenshots | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Video recording | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GIF export | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| System audio (no extra driver) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Varies | Needs driver |
| Annotation editor | 11 tools | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Watermark-free recording | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ease of use | High | Steep | High | High | High |
| Price | Free | Free | ~US$62.99 | Free / paid | Free |
| Platform | Windows | Windows | Win + Mac | Win + Mac | Mac only |
A note on fairness: every tool here is good at something. "Steep" is not "bad" — ShareX's complexity is the price of its depth, and power users love it. Snagit's price buys polish and support. The table is about fit, not winners.
Picking by use case
You're on Windows and want both without the complexity. Maxisnap is the recommendation: one tray app, the same region/fullscreen logic for stills and clips, no watermark, no time limit, and an AI-optimized export when you need to feed a clip into a chatbot. Start at the screenshot-and-recorder overview or jump to the download.
You want maximum control and don't mind a learning curve. ShareX. If you'd rather have its capabilities with a gentler interface, the ShareX alternative page lays out the contrast.
You want a single polished commercial product. Snagit, if the license cost fits.
You mostly need quick async videos to send people. Loom is the usual cloud-first choice, though its free plan has historically limited video length and added branding, and it wants an account and uploads everything to its cloud. If you'd rather record locally and keep the file, see the Loom alternative comparison.
You're on a Mac right now. Use Cmd+Shift+5 or QuickTime today, and add BlackHole if you need system audio. A native Maxisnap Mac build is on the way — leave your email on the contact page to hear when it lands.
Where Maxisnap's free recorder fits
The reason Maxisnap leads this list for Windows isn't that it out-features everything — ShareX has more switches and Snagit feels more finished. It's that the combination is rare: a genuinely small app that does fast annotated screenshots and clean, watermark-free, no-time-limit recording with mixed system + mic audio and no driver fuss, and then hands you a tidy result window to trim and export. For most "just capture my screen" moments — still or moving — that's the whole job, done in one place. See the full free Windows screen recorder breakdown for the recording specifics.
Frequently asked questions
Below are the questions people ask most when they're trying to consolidate down to a single capture tool.
FAQ
Which screenshot tools also record video?
On Windows, Maxisnap, ShareX, Snagit, and Monosnap all do both. On macOS, the built-in Cmd+Shift+5 toolbar and QuickTime Player record video and take stills, though capturing system audio needs an extra driver. Maxisnap is the lightweight Windows pick that adds recording on top of a fast annotated-screenshot workflow.
Is there a free tool that does screenshots and screen recording?
Yes. Maxisnap and ShareX are both free on Windows and do stills plus video — Maxisnap with no watermark and no time limit on recordings. On Mac, the system Cmd+Shift+5 recorder and QuickTime are free for both, with the system-audio caveat above.
Does Maxisnap record video on Mac?
Not yet. Maxisnap's screen recording is available on Windows today (v2.4.x). A native Apple-Silicon macOS build is in active development; there's no Mac download or Mac recording at the moment. For Mac recording right now, use Cmd+Shift+5 or QuickTime, and add BlackHole for system audio. You can ask to be notified about the Mac release on the contact page.
Why use one app instead of a separate screenshot tool and recorder?
One app means one set of hotkeys, one output location, one share flow, and one program loading at startup. You also avoid the muscle-memory collisions that happen when stills and clips live in different tools — handy because you often decide which you need after you've started capturing.
Can these tools capture system (desktop) audio?
On Windows, Maxisnap, ShareX, and Snagit can capture system audio without an extra driver — Maxisnap uses driver-free WASAPI loopback and mixes desktop audio with your mic into one track. On macOS, the built-in recorders cannot capture internal audio without a helper like BlackHole or Soundflower.