Snagit moved to an annual subscription for new customers with its 2025 release. Perpetual licences bought before that still run, but they stay on the version they were bought for. For a lot of people this changed nothing. For some it changed everything, because they were using perhaps a fifth of the product and now that fifth renews every year.
If you are in the second group, the useful question is not "what is cheaper" — it is which half of Snagit you actually use.
The two-question test.
1. In the last three months, did you record a video? If yes, stop reading — stay with Snagit. Nothing here replaces the recorder.
2. Do you need it on a Mac? If yes, same answer. Screen Slinger is Windows only.
If both answers are no, you have been paying a subscription for a capture-and-annotate tool, and that is a thing you can buy once.
What you give up
Stated first, because it is the part that matters and the part most comparison pages bury.
Not in Screen Slinger, and not planned
- Screen and video recording. Snagit records; Screen Slinger takes still images only.
- macOS. Windows 10 and 11 only.
- Cloud sharing and the hosted library. There is no server; captures live on your disk.
- Your existing .snag files. They cannot be opened. Exported PNGs open fine, but their annotations are already flattened.
What you get instead
- One payment. $15, once, for a lifetime licence covering version 3. Not a subscription, and no annual decision to make again.
- Automatic scrolling capture. Pick the region; it scrolls the window itself, stops at the bottom, and detects sticky headers so they appear only once.
- Copy text out of a capture (OCR) — using the engine built into Windows, so it costs nothing extra and depends on the installed language packs. One click can also find and hide detected e-mails and long numbers before you share.
- Annotations that stay editable indefinitely. Arrows, callouts and auto-numbered steps remain objects. Reopen a file next month and they are still movable, because the undo history is saved alongside the image.
- Redaction that replaces the exported pixels rather than covering them — with the caveat, which we spell out in our guide, that pixelated text is reconstructable in any tool and solid fill is the right choice for text.
- Nothing leaves the machine. No account, no upload, no telemetry; the only network call is the licence check at activation.
- A Hebrew interface with full right-to-left layout. Snagit supports six interface languages and Hebrew is not among them.
- A portable option. Alongside the installer there is one signed executable that needs no installation — which matters more than it sounds on a locked-down work machine.
Side by side
| Snagit | Screen Slinger | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Annual subscription (new customers) | Once |
| Region & scrolling capture | Yes | Yes — scrolling is automatic, with sticky-header detection |
| Annotation | Deep, broad toolkit | Narrower, objects stay editable after reopening |
| Video recording | Yes | No |
| OCR | Yes | Yes — Windows' built-in engine, per installed language packs |
| Cloud library & sharing | Yes | No — local only |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS | Windows 10/11 |
| Interface languages | Six; no Hebrew | English, French, German, Hebrew (full RTL) |
| Install | Installer | Signed installer, or a portable .exe |
Checked against TechSmith's own documentation in August 2026. Licensing changes — verify on their site before deciding.
How to try it without committing
The trial is 30 days with every feature unlocked, no account and no card. The honest way to evaluate a switch is not to read a comparison table: take the next five screenshots you would have taken in Snagit, and take them here instead. If by the fifth you are reaching for something that is not there, you have your answer, and it cost you nothing.
Snagit is a trademark of TechSmith Corporation. The name is used here solely to identify the product being compared; Screen Slinger is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by TechSmith. If free tools are also on your list, the wider comparison — including ShareX, Greenshot, Lightshot and PicPick — is here.