Greenshot for Mac and Linux, and what to use instead

The free, open-source Greenshot is a Windows program. There is a paid Mac App Store listing that shares the name and far less of the software, and there is no Linux build at all. If you searched for Greenshot for Mac or Greenshot for Linux, that gap is real, and this page is one of the alternatives worth knowing about: CobaltCapture runs in the browser, so the same capture, annotate and share flow works on Windows, Mac, Linux and ChromeOS.

What Greenshot does well

Greenshot on Windows deserves its reputation. Capture is instant and keyboard-driven: print-screen for a region, a shortcut for the active window, and the image lands in an editor that is already open and ready. The editor is the part people miss when they leave. Arrows, boxes, ellipses, freehand, text, highlight, and obfuscation for blurring out anything sensitive, all with a fast keyboard path and sensible defaults. Output plugins send the result straight to a file, the clipboard, a printer, an email, Imgur or Office. It is free, it is open source, it is small, and it does not phone home.

For a Windows user producing annotated image files, there is not much wrong with it. This page is not an argument that you should stop.

Where it stops

It stops at the operating system. The Windows build is the real product. The Mac App Store listing is paid, considerably smaller, and has not moved much in a long time, so someone who installs it expecting the Greenshot their colleague described will be disappointed. Linux has nothing.

That matters more than it used to, because teams are rarely on one platform any more. A Windows-only capture tool means your designer on a Mac and your contractor on a Chromebook are each using something different, and nobody's screenshots come out looking like anybody else's.

The second limit is what comes out the other end. Greenshot's output is an image. Everything you understood while you were looking at the screen, why this is wrong, what you expected, which page it was on, lives in your head until you retype it somewhere else. The image is the artifact, and the explanation is a separate job.

The same capture in CobaltCapture

CobaltCapture runs in the browser using its native screen-capture API. Pick a window or a screen, drag a rectangle to crop the frame, and it becomes an item in a review. Nothing to install, no license, no signup to try it, and the flow is identical in Chrome on Windows, Chrome or Safari on a Mac, and Firefox or Chrome on Linux. If a capture is already on your clipboard, paste it straight in.

Then you say what is wrong with it. Each screenshot has its own comment field, and in Chrome or Edge you can dictate into it rather than type. You can drop numbered pins on the image and draw arrows, boxes, circles and text labels over it, and every one of those marks is burned into the exported image so it still makes sense in a PDF or a GitHub issue.

What you send is a link. Every review gets a public URL, plus a cleaner one at /s/<slug> with the editing chrome stripped off for a client or a stakeholder. From there you can export the whole thing as PDF or Word for people, push it to a repository as a GitHub issue, or export it as Markdown, which is the format an AI coding agent can actually read. That last one is the piece no screenshot tool in this category has: an agent handed a Greenshot PNG sees an image it cannot reason about, and an agent handed a CobaltCapture review reads the screens and your notes as text. If you are filing QA bug reports, that is the difference between a ticket and a fix.

Who should stay on Greenshot

If you are on Windows, you take a lot of screenshots, and what you need is a fast local editor that turns a region of your screen into a well-annotated PNG, stay where you are. Greenshot is free, offline, and better at that specific job than a browser tab will ever be. The same goes if you rely on its obfuscation tools for redacting sensitive material before an image leaves your machine, or on its output plugins to drop files into an existing pipeline.

Plenty of people run both: Greenshot for the quick local image on the Windows machine, CobaltCapture when the team is mixed-platform or when the thing being produced is a written review that someone else, or something else, has to read.

Feature comparison

	Greenshot	CobaltCapture
Windows	Yes, free and open source	Yes, in the browser
Mac	Paid App Store build, much reduced	Yes, same as Windows
Linux	No build	Yes, in the browser
Install required	Yes	None
Local annotation editor	Extensive	Pins, arrows, boxes, circles, text
Obfuscation and blur	Yes	No
Scrolling capture	Yes	No
Per-screenshot commentary	No	Yes, typed or dictated
Share link	Via output plugins	Public review URL, plus a stakeholder URL
Export formats	Image files	Markdown, PDF, Word
Readable by an AI coding agent	No	Yes, native Markdown

Category facts change. Check each vendor's own site for the current state of their downloads and pricing.

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cobaltcapture.com. Free to try, no install and no signup. Free reviews stay live for seven days; Pro keeps them live and is $5 a month.

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Frequently asked questions

Is there a Greenshot for Mac?

Partly. There is a Greenshot listing on the Mac App Store, linked from Greenshot's own downloads page, and it is a paid app rather than a free one. It is also a much smaller program than the Windows version: the editor most people mean when they recommend Greenshot, with its arrows, shapes, obfuscation and plugin outputs, is not fully there, and the Mac build has not seen substantial work in years. If you want the Greenshot experience on a Mac, you will not get it from that listing. CobaltCapture is a browser alternative that behaves the same on Mac as it does on Windows.

Is there a Greenshot for Linux?

No. Greenshot's downloads page offers Windows builds and a Mac App Store listing. There is no Linux build and no official plan for one. On Linux you either use a native tool such as Flameshot or Spectacle, or use something browser-based like CobaltCapture, which runs in Chrome, Edge or Firefox on any distribution.

Is Greenshot free?

The Windows version is free and open source, and it stays that way. The Mac App Store listing is a paid download. That split is the thing most 'is Greenshot free' answers leave out, because they are only ever describing the Windows build.

What is the closest thing to Greenshot on a Mac?

It depends on what you liked about it. If you want a local annotation editor that produces a polished image file, look at Shottr, CleanShot X or Snagit. If what you actually needed was to capture a few screens, say what is wrong with each one and send someone a link, CobaltCapture does that in the browser with no install and no license.

Does CobaltCapture need an install or an extension?

No. It uses the browser's own screen-capture API, so there is no desktop app, no browser extension and no signup needed to try it. On a phone or tablet, where no browser can screen-capture, you take a normal device screenshot and add it to a review from the photo picker.

Can CobaltCapture replace Greenshot's editor?

For review work, yes. You can drop numbered pins on a screenshot and draw arrows, boxes, circles and text labels in seven colors, and all of it is burned into the exported image so it survives outside the browser. It does not have Greenshot's plugin outputs, its scrolling capture, or its obfuscation and highlight effects. If a pixel-perfect annotated PNG is the deliverable, keep a local editor.

When should I stay on Greenshot?

Stay on Greenshot if you are on Windows, you capture constantly, and you want a free local tool with a keyboard-driven editor that never touches a network. It is genuinely one of the best free Windows tools ever written and nothing here is an argument against it. The case for switching only starts when your team is not all on Windows, or when the thing you are producing is a written review rather than an image.