The Best Gyazo Alternatives: 5 Screenshot-to-Link Apps Compared

The best Gyazo alternative keeps the habit people love (take a screenshot, get a link, paste) and fixes whatever pushed you away. On Windows, Sleekshot does that for free. Press PrtSc, add your arrows right on the screenshot, press Ctrl + U and paste the link. There's no account and no 7-second video limit, and you get drawing tools that Gyazo only has in Pro. The big difference is how they work: Sleekshot keeps screenshots on your PC until you choose to upload, while Gyazo uploads everything.

If you want automatic uploads to your own storage, ShareX is the free power tool. On a Mac, CleanShot X is the strongest choice, and Monosnap covers Windows and Mac with its own cloud. Below are the options with prices as of October 2026, plus what the September 2026 Gyazo breach means for you. You'll also see how to switch without losing old screenshots. We make Sleekshot, so we list its gaps as plainly as everyone else's.

Quick verdict: which Gyazo alternative to choose

• Free screenshots, arrows and links on Windows: Sleekshot. Ctrl + U for a link, all the drawing tools, MP4 recording with no time limit, copying text on your PC.
• Automatic uploads to your own storage: ShareX. Free and open source. It uploads to dozens of services or your own FTP or S3 server and keeps a history on your PC.
• On a Mac: CleanShot X. Cloud links, scrolling screenshots, GIF and MP4 recording for a one-time $35. The free Sleekshot for Mac also uploads for a link and records MP4 or GIF.
• Windows and Mac with one cloud: Monosnap. Free for non-commercial use with 2 GB of storage; paid plans from $3 a month.
• Avoid for anything private: Lightshot. Its own privacy policy says every upload to prnt.sc is public.
• Stay with Gyazo if you take screenshots from your phone or the browser extension, search old screenshots by text, or your team relies on Gyazo Teams.

Gyazo alternatives compared: 5 apps like Gyazo

Prices are from the official sites as of October 2026.

The September 2026 Gyazo breach: what was confirmed

If you're here because of the breach, these are the facts from Helpfeel's own notices, as of October 1, 2026 (dates in Japan time).

• What happened. On September 11, 2026, an outside party exploited a flaw in Gyazo's image upload server, got into its systems and reached the database. Helpfeel says it closed off the access by the early hours of September 12 and fixed the flaw.
• User data. About 23.62 million user records were exposed. Depending on the user, they include a name or nickname, email address, password hash, user, device and session IDs, X integration tokens and Google sign-in email. About 18 million of those records belong to anonymous accounts with no email address. Helpfeel says no payment card data was exposed.
• Image metadata. About 490 million metadata records leaked, mostly for images uploaded in or before January 2019. About 174 million more cover images deleted in or before February 2023. The metadata includes the image IDs used to build Gyazo URLs, upload IP addresses, EXIF location data, recognized text and source URLs. Helpfeel says the outside party also got a list of which images were private, and it can't rule out that some were viewed.
• Service status. Gyazo was shut down and came back on September 27, 2026. Images uploaded before the incident are only visible to their owners until you review them and choose Resume delivery. Helpfeel asks every user to change their password, and any other password you reused.

The full details are in Helpfeel's notice on the Gyazo updates site. If your old Gyazo screenshots showed API keys, passwords or customer data, treat those secrets as exposed and change them, whatever tool you use next.

Why people look for a Gyazo replacement

The breach is the newest reason, but most people were already running into the free plan's limits. As of October 2026, Gyazo's pricing page lists unlimited uploads on the free plan. But you can only open your 10 latest screenshots, and video stops at 7 seconds. There are no drawing tools, text search or passwords. Video downloads without a watermark are a Pro feature, and Pro also removes ads.

Gyazo Pro costs $5.99 a month billed yearly ($71.88) or $6.99 month to month, and raises video to 10 minutes. Gyazo Teams is $10 per person per month, billed monthly only, with a 5-person minimum ($50 a month).

The other reason is how Gyazo works: it uploads every screenshot by default. That's what makes it fast. It's also why a breach at Gyazo touches screenshots people forgot they ever took.

1. Sleekshot: free screenshots, arrows and links on Windows

Sleekshot is a free screenshot and screen recording app for Windows 10 and 11. It works much like Gyazo, with one extra step. The screen dims and you can add arrows and blur right on the screenshot. Then you decide whether it becomes a link, a file or just something to paste.

Where it replaces Gyazo well:

• A link with one key: press PrtSc, select, press Ctrl + U. A small window shows the short link with Open and Copy buttons. No account. See share links.
• Free drawing tools: 7 arrow styles, step numbers, a blur rectangle for emails and tokens, a highlighter, text and shapes in 20 colors. Gyazo keeps tools like these in Pro. See all the drawing tools.
• Video without the 7-second wall: MP4 recording with your mic, computer sound, a webcam bubble and highlighted clicks, with no time limit and no watermark. You can copy the finished MP4 and paste it into a chat. See the screen recorder.
• Text from screenshots: Ctrl + O copies the text in the selection, recognized on your PC, so nothing goes to a server.
• Stays on your PC by default: nothing is uploaded unless you press Ctrl + U, and you can hide the upload button completely.

What Gyazo does that it doesn't: there's no online history, no collections and no search across old screenshots. There's no phone app or browser extension, and the Windows app has no GIF export. Links have no password or expiry date, so anyone with the link can open it. Links use a random 12-character code, and search engines are told not to index them. Uploads need no account, so no email or password is tied to them. But uploaded images do live on our server, so blur or crop anything private first. Sleekshot for Mac, a free menu bar app (screenshots on macOS 12 or later), uploads too: press ⌘ + U to send a screenshot to Sleekshot or Imgur for a link. On macOS 13 Ventura or later it also records the screen to MP4 or GIF, and it has no history either.

2. ShareX: automatic uploads to your own storage

ShareX is a free, open-source screenshot app for Windows. It can work exactly like Gyazo (take a screenshot, upload it, copy the link), but to the place you choose. That can be Imgur, a cloud drive, or your own FTP, SFTP or S3-compatible storage. It keeps a history of uploads on your PC, records MP4 and GIF, takes scrolling screenshots, copies text from images and has a full editor.

If the breach made you want control over where your screenshots live, uploading to your own storage with ShareX is the most direct answer. The price is setup time, because ShareX has hundreds of options. Version 21.0 came out in July 2026. More in our ShareX alternative guide.

3. Monosnap: one cloud on Windows and Mac

Monosnap runs on Windows and macOS and as a Chrome extension, with its own cloud storage and short links. The free plan is for non-commercial use: 2 GB of storage, 100 MB per file, 1,000 uploads a month and video up to 5 minutes. Short links require you to log in. Paid plans start at $3 a month (Non-Commercial) and $10 a month per seat (Commercial).

It's the closest match if you liked Gyazo's library and need it on both Windows and Mac. Full comparison in our Monosnap alternative guide.

4. CleanShot X: the best Gyazo alternative on a Mac

CleanShot X is a Mac-only app for macOS 13 or later. It has scrolling screenshots, MP4 and GIF recording, drawing tools, text recognition and a screenshot history, plus CleanShot Cloud for share links. It costs $35 once with one year of updates and 1 GB of cloud storage. Cloud Pro, with unlimited storage and team features, is $10 per user per month billed yearly. For more Mac options, see the best screenshot apps for Mac and our CleanShot X alternatives.

5. Lightshot: fast, but not for anything private

Lightshot is a free screenshot tool for Windows and Mac that uploads like Gyazo: press Ctrl + D and the screenshot goes to prnt.sc. The editor has a pen, line, arrow, rectangle, marker and text, but no blur and no video.

The catch is privacy. Lightshot's own privacy policy says every image uploaded to prnt.sc is public, and for years prnt.sc addresses were short and close to sequential. If you're leaving Gyazo over privacy, Lightshot's uploads are a step backward. We explain why in Is Lightshot safe?, and compare tools in our Lightshot alternative guide.

Gyazo vs Sleekshot, side by side

Here's how the two compare on what Gyazo users bring up most.

Speed. Gyazo is one step faster for a plain screenshot, because the upload starts the moment you let go of the mouse. Sleekshot adds a pause to mark things up and a key press to upload. That pause is where the arrow and the blur go, which usually saves a follow-up message.

Privacy. This is the real difference. Gyazo is a cloud service with a desktop app. Sleekshot is a desktop app that can upload if you ask. If you take a lot of screenshots of internal dashboards and only share some of them, keeping everything on your PC by default leaves far less behind on someone else's server.

What you give up. Sleekshot has nothing like Gyazo's searchable history, collections, phone apps or browser extension. If you rely on them, Gyazo Pro or Monosnap is a better fit. Our guide to sharing a screenshot as a link covers private options like OneDrive and Google Drive links with restricted access.

How to switch from Gyazo to Sleekshot

Clean up Gyazo first, then set up the replacement.

1. Change your Gyazo password, as Helpfeel asks all users to, and change it anywhere you reused it.
2. Download what you want to keep. Gyazo Pro has Export all uploads. On the free plan, Gyazo has temporarily opened access to all images uploaded before the incident so you can review them. Save the ones you need now.
3. Decide what stays public. Old Gyazo links stay owner-only until you choose Resume delivery. Only resume the screenshots coworkers still need, and delete the ones that showed anything private.
4. Install Sleekshot from the download page or the Microsoft Store. If Gyazo uses the same shortcut, quit it and stop it from starting with Windows.
5. Set up the PrtSc key. On Windows 11, Snipping Tool usually has PrtSc. Press Bind PrtSc to Sleekshot in Sleekshot's settings to take it back in one click. To do it by hand, the switch is Use the Print screen key to open screen capture in Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Keyboard (on older builds, Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard). Or pick any other key. Details in how to change the Print Screen key.
6. Swap the cloud history for one on your PC. In Settings → Screenshots, turn on Auto-save screenshots and pick a folder. Every screenshot you copy, save or upload also lands on your PC.

7. Practice the new habit: PrtSc, select, add arrows if needed, Ctrl + U, Copy.

Which Gyazo alternative should you use?

Did you use Gyazo to drop screenshots into chats and tickets on Windows? Sleekshot keeps that habit, adds free drawing tools and long recordings, and only uploads what you choose. Pick ShareX for uploads to your own storage, and CleanShot X on a Mac (or the free Sleekshot for Mac). Monosnap fits if you need one cloud across Windows and Mac. Whatever you choose, change your Gyazo password and review your old screenshots before you make them public again.