Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

LightShot VS Clarus.dev

Compare LightShot VS Clarus.dev and see what are their differences

LightShot logo LightShot

The fastest way to take a customizable screenshot.

Clarus.dev logo Clarus.dev

Screenshots, scrolling capture and screen recording for Windows, with a real video timeline and annotation editor. Offline text recognition makes every capture searchable by the words inside it. Free tier is permanent, no account needed.
  • LightShot Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-26
  • Clarus.dev
    Image date //
    2026-08-22
  • Clarus.dev
    Image date //
    2026-08-22
  • Clarus.dev
    Image date //
    2026-08-22

Clarus is a Windows screenshot and screen-recording app built around one idea: a capture should still be useful a month later.

Take a shot with Win+Shift+S โ€” Clarus takes over the Snipping Tool's shortcut โ€” and a capture card appears in the corner. Drag it straight into any app, copy it, annotate it, or pin it on top of everything else.

Recordings open in an editor with a real timeline: trim, split, move clips, add zoom segments, blur anything sensitive, and export.

Everything is searchable by the text inside it. Text recognition runs entirely on your machine, so you can search "invoice" and get the screenshot of an invoice you took in March. Nothing is uploaded unless you choose to share it.

Free forever, no account: area, window and fullscreen screenshots, screen recording with audio, the annotation editor for both, pin on top, the screen colour picker, and capture history with search.

Pro adds: scrolling capture for whole pages, Copy Text extraction, webcam in recordings, backgrounds, capture folders and multi-drag, Instant Replay, and 5 GB of cloud storage with expiring, password-protected share links.

$5.99/month, $39/year or $99 once. 30-day trial, no card required.

LightShot

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Clarus.dev

$ Details
freemium $3.25 / Monthly (Pro, billed annually at $39)
Platforms
Windows
Release Date
2026 August
Startup details
State
Sharjah
City
Sharjah
Founder(s)
Tarik Al-Hadethi
Employees
1 - 9

LightShot features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    LightShot provides a user-friendly interface that allows users to take screenshots quickly with minimal effort.
  • Editing Tools
    The app includes built-in editing tools that allow users to annotate, highlight, and make quick adjustments to their screenshots immediately after capturing them.
  • Cloud Storage
    LightShot offers the option to upload screenshots to the cloud, making them accessible from any device and easy to share via a link.
  • Speed
    The application runs smoothly and captures screenshots very quickly, making it efficient for users who need rapid results.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    LightShot is available for both Windows and Mac, providing flexibility for users operating on different platforms.
  • Free to Use
    The application is free to download and use, making it accessible to users without any financial investment.

Possible disadvantages of LightShot

  • Limited Advanced Features
    While LightShot offers basic editing tools, it lacks more advanced features and options found in more comprehensive screenshot and image editing software.
  • Security Concerns
    Storing screenshots in the cloud can potentially raise security and privacy issues, as sensitive information could be exposed if the cloud storage is compromised.
  • Dependency on Internet
    The cloud upload feature depends on an internet connection, which can be inconvenient for users who need to share screenshots while offline.
  • Ads
    The free version of LightShot may contain ads, which can be distracting and detract from the user experience.
  • Lack of Integrations
    LightShot lacks integration with other productivity tools and services, limiting its utility for users who need seamless workflows with their existing software.
  • Platform Limitation
    LightShot does not support mobile platforms, so users cannot utilize the tool on smartphones or tablets.

Clarus.dev features and specs

  • Capture modes
    Area, window, fullscreen, and scrolling capture for whole pages
  • Screen Recording
    System and microphone audio, webcam, on a real video timeline
  • Search inside captures
    Every capture is indexed by the text in it and findable months later
  • Text Recognition
    Runs entirely on your machine โ€” nothing is sent to a server
  • Annotation editor
    Arrows, shapes, text, step numbers, highlighter, blur and pixelate
  • Video Editing
    Trim, split, move clips, zoom segments, redaction baked into the export
  • Instant Replay
    Rolling buffer โ€” save the last few minutes after something happens
  • Pin on top
    Keep a screenshot floating above every other window
  • Colour picker
    Screen-wide picker with HEX, RGB and HSL
  • Cloud sharing
    Expiring, password-protected links. 250 MB free, 5 GB on Pro
  • Shortcut takeover
    Replaces Win+Shift+S, so it's where your hand already goes
  • Free plan
    Permanent, no account required

Analysis of LightShot

Overall verdict

  • Overall, LightShot is a reliable and effective screen capture tool that meets the needs of most users looking for a simple solution. However, some users may prefer more advanced features available in other applications if they have specific needs.

Why this product is good

  • LightShot is considered good because it is user-friendly and allows for quick screen captures with minimal effort. It offers different annotation tools, easy uploading options to share links quickly, and is compatible with multiple operating systems. Many users find it efficient for collaborative work or simply for personal use due to its straightforward interface and functionality.

Recommended for

  • Casual users looking for a quick and easy way to take screenshots.
  • Professionals who need to share visual information rapidly.
  • Teams that require a collaborative tool for quick feedback through annotated screenshots.

LightShot videos

How to Take Screenshots Fast with Lightshot on Windows & Mac

More videos:

  • Review - [HD] Google Chrome Extension Review : Lightshot
  • Tutorial - How to Take Screenshots Fast with Lightshot | lightshot review Hindi

Clarus.dev videos

No Clarus.dev videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to LightShot and Clarus.dev)
Screenshots
97 97%
3% 3
Screenshot Tools / Image Annotation
Screenshot Annotation
100 100%
0% 0
Image Annotation
100 100%
0% 0

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing LightShot and Clarus.dev.

What makes your product unique?

Clarus.dev's answer:

Every capture is indexed by the text inside it. Text recognition runs locally the moment you take a screenshot or finish a recording, so months later you can search for a word you remember seeing and get the picture straight back. Most capture tools leave you with a folder of files named by timestamp; Clarus leaves you with something you can actually search.

It also takes over Win+Shift+S, so it lives where your hand already goes rather than asking you to learn a new shortcut.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Clarus.dev's answer:

Most Windows users are really choosing against the Snipping Tool, which they already have. Clarus does everything it does, then keeps the capture useful: a searchable history, screen recording on a real editing timeline, annotation for both screenshots and video, and share links you can expire or password-protect. The Snipping Tool captures and forgets.

Against a paid tool like Snagit, the differences are that text recognition runs entirely on your machine rather than in a cloud, the free tier is permanent and needs no account, and nothing leaves your computer unless you explicitly choose to share it.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Clarus.dev's answer:

People on Windows who take a lot of screenshots as part of their work and keep losing them: developers filing bug reports, support and QA teams, designers collecting references, writers and teachers making documentation, and anyone who screenshots a receipt, a booking confirmation or an error message and needs it again weeks later.

It is built for individuals and small teams rather than large IT-managed rollouts.

What's the story behind your product?

Clarus.dev's answer:

It started as a personal annoyance. I took screenshots constantly and never found them again โ€” a folder of thousands of files named by timestamp is not a record of anything. The obvious fix was to make the pictures searchable by what is written in them, which meant running text recognition locally on every capture instead of shipping them off to a server.

Everything else grew out of using it daily: the annotation editor, then screen recording, then a real video timeline, because trimming a recording in something else was slower than building the tool. Clarus is made by one person in the UAE.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Clarus.dev's answer:

Rust and Tauri 2 for the native Windows layer, React 19 with TypeScript for the interface, and Vite for the build.

Capture uses Windows Graphics Capture and DXGI Desktop Duplication; recording encodes through Media Foundation with hardware H.264 where the GPU supports it. Text recognition is PaddleOCR running locally through tract, a pure-Rust inference engine, with the Windows OCR API as a fast first pass.

The cloud side is Supabase with Cloudflare Pages.

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare LightShot and Clarus.dev

LightShot Reviews

Keeping Mac Screenshots Simple and Helpful
Lightshot: Perfect if you want to share a link fast. It handles capturing and minimal edits, making it suitable for daily communication.
Source: medium.com
5 Best Screenshot Tools for Mac in 2024 (Free & Paid)
In conclusion, these five screenshot apps for Mac offer a range of features to cater to different user needs. Xnapper stands out as the best all-in-one screenshot tool with its automatic beautification and screen recording capabilities. CleanShot X and Snagit are feature-rich and ideal for professionals, while Lightshot is perfect for users who prefer a simple free...
Source: storychief.io
The best screenshot tools for Mac
Users can enjoy added convenience by setting a shortcut key for the tool to activate. Sharing is quite effortless โ€” once you upload your capture on the LightShot server, you receive a direct link that you can share with others. The LightShot website also offers simple tutorials for users to get a grasp of the tool.
Top 13 Free Snagit Alternatives For 2021
Lightshot is yet another free software like Snagit (well, besides the โ€˜freeโ€™ part obviously). Lightshot, available in Google Chrome Web Store , is a browser extension app that not only allows you to easily take a screenshot, but allows you to upload it to the server and creates a short link, similar to Screenrec .
Source: screenrec.com
15 Best Snagit Alternatives in 2020
Lightshot is screen capture tool allows you to take a screenshot quickly. It allows the user to take a screenshot of a selected area which can be resized or moved without any hassle.
Source: www.guru99.com

Clarus.dev Reviews

We have no reviews of Clarus.dev yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, LightShot seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 48 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

LightShot mentions (48)

  • Im curious
    Okay...from now on as soon as I see someone that takes hoi4 pics with PHONE I'm gonna give them this... https://app.prntscr.com/en/index.html download this shit and never use your phone to take pics of your monitor... Source: about 3 years ago
  • Crispy ship after being directly beside a reactor failure ๐ŸคŒ
    Https://app.prntscr.com/en/index.html Do yourself a favor and get a screenshot tool and display your freshly crisped ships in full quality. Source: about 3 years ago
  • underrated internet โ€œhacksโ€
    You can use Lightshot Screenshot in Mac and Windows. Https://app.prntscr.com/en/index.html. Source: over 3 years ago
  • If you use print screen for captures for any reason.
    I came across this tool a few days ago and its pretty awesome so I just wanted to share, im sure there are others out there but for thoes that don't have and could use it's called Farlight. It lets you take a customizable screenshot with a border drag feature and save just the area you want to capture. Before I was using print screen and had to load it in gimp to crop it and scale it to size. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Screenshots from phone cameras are now banned.
    I highly recommend LightShot for Mac and Windows. It lets you choose which part of the screen to capture and adjust if you messed up; save or clipboard it; and doodle, add arrows, highlight, and add text without having to bring it into Paint first! Source: over 3 years ago
View more

Clarus.dev mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Clarus.dev yet. Tracking of Clarus.dev recommendations started around Aug 2026.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing LightShot and Clarus.dev, you can also consider the following products

Greenshot - Greenshot is a free and open source screenshot tool that allows annotation and highlighting using the built-in image editor.

ShareX - ShareX is a free and open source program that lets you capture or record any area of your screen...

Snagit - Screen Capture Software for Windows and Mac

CleanShot X - Capture your Macโ€™s screen like a PRO โšก๏ธ

Snipping Tool - Use Snipping Tool to capture a screen shot, or snip, of any object on your screen, and then annotate, save, or share the image

PicPick - PicPick screen capture software enable you to grab an image on your computer screen, save, print, add effects, and share.