PrintScreen.ly vs Snagit — honest comparison
Looking for a Snagit alternative? Here's an honest PrintScreen.ly vs Snagit comparison — what each one does well, and where the other one wins. The headline difference is the license: TechSmith stopped selling new perpetual Snagit licenses (Snagit 2025 onward is subscription-only at $39/year), while PrintScreen.ly still sells a one-time $399 lifetime that covers Mac, Windows, and the web. PrintScreen.ly now also records screen video to MP4 on both desktops. But Snagit is a deep, twenty-year-old capture suite, and on several features — webcam recording, step capture, animated GIF, its enterprise story — it is genuinely the stronger tool. This page lays out both sides plainly so you can pick correctly.
| At a glance | PrintScreen.ly | Snagit |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $9.99/mo | $39/yr (Individual subscription) |
| Most popular plan | $95.99/yr | $39/yr (Individual subscription) |
| Lifetime license | $399 | Not available — new perpetual licenses discontinued; Snagit 2025 onward is subscription only |
| Platforms | Mac · Windows · Web · iOS (companion) · Android (companion) | Mac · Windows |
Pick Snagit if
- ·Webcam recording and animated GIF export. PrintScreen.ly records to MP4 with system audio and mic, but does not ship webcam capture or GIF export.
- ·Step capture auto-numbers every click into a numbered tutorial, and templates plus the Simplify tools turn raw shots into polished step-by-step documentation. PrintScreen.ly has none of this.
- ·A built-in video and image editor: trim recordings, add callouts, build tutorials. PrintScreen.ly saves recordings straight to your local Movies / Videos folder with no editor.
- ·Twenty years of maturity: the Camtasia ecosystem, deep Office/browser integrations, volume licensing, MSI deployment, and dedicated enterprise support that a small indie tool cannot match.
- ·A far deeper annotation toolset — stamps, effects, callout styles, and step counters that go well beyond PrintScreen.ly's fixed 8-tool editor.
Pick PrintScreen.ly if
- +A real one-time lifetime: $399 once, never renews, and it unlocks 9 other Bravely utilities too. TechSmith stopped selling new perpetual Snagit licenses — Snagit 2025 onward is $39 every year, indefinitely.
- +A 7-day free trial of the full app: region/window/scrolling/fullscreen capture and the full 8-tool markup editor, before you decide between $9.99/mo and the $399 lifetime. Snagit gates everything behind its own trial.
- +One identity across Mac and Windows with a private synced library, plus cross-device clipboard so a capture on one machine pastes on another. Snagit's library is a per-machine local file.
- +A personal library with no seats, no team admin, and no per-user pricing — it's yours, not a workspace.
Full feature comparison
Verified 2026-05-20. Source linked at the bottom.
| Feature | PrintScreen.ly | Snagit |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $9.99/mo (7-day free trial) | Paid only — no free tier, trial then $39/yr subscription |
| One-time lifetime license | Yes ($399, all platforms, all updates) | No — new perpetual licenses discontinued; subscription only |
| Region / window / fullscreen capture | Yes | Yes |
| Scrolling capture | Yes (desktop) | Yes (panoramic) |
| Markup editor | Yes (8 tools, fixed cross-device palette) | Yes (deeper — stamps, effects, step counters) |
| Blur / solid redact | Yes (toggle on Windows/web/mobile; Mac has blur, redact-toggle pending) | Yes |
| Non-destructive crop | Yes | Yes |
| OCR / grab text | Yes (on-device, all desktops + web) | Yes |
| Screen recording (MP4) | Yes (Mac + Windows, region or fullscreen, system audio + mic, 30/60 fps) | Yes (with webcam + audio) |
| Webcam recording | No | Yes |
| Animated GIF | No | Yes |
| Built-in video editor | No (recordings save direct to disk) | Yes |
| Step capture / numbered steps | No | Yes |
| Templates / Simplify graphics | No | Yes |
| Synced cross-device library | Yes (Pro, fixed 2 GB) | Limited — share-link hosting via separate Screencast service |
| Cross-device clipboard | Yes (Pro) | No |
| Web dashboard for your library | Yes (Pro) | No |
| Mac / Windows | Yes / Yes | Yes / Yes |
Bottom line
If your work is producing numbered step-by-step tutorials, recording webcam walkthroughs, exporting animated GIFs, or living inside an enterprise documentation pipeline, Snagit is the better tool and it isn't close — that's its category and it has owned it for two decades. PrintScreen.ly is a focused capture tool: fast region/window/fullscreen screenshots, a strong 8-tool markup editor, on-device text grab, screen recording to MP4 with system audio and mic on Mac and Windows, and a private synced library across all three. We do not ship a video editor; recordings save straight to your local Movies / Videos folder and stay there. The place we clearly beat Snagit is ownership — TechSmith ended new perpetual licenses, and we still sell a $399 lifetime. If you're an ex-perpetual Snagit user who wants to buy a capable capture-and-record tool once and never see a renewal again, that's exactly who we built this for.
FAQ
Does Snagit still offer a perpetual license?+
Not for new purchases. TechSmith stopped selling new perpetual Snagit licenses; Snagit 2025 and later are subscription-only at $39/year for an individual. PrintScreen.ly still sells a one-time $399 lifetime.
Can PrintScreen.ly record my screen?+
Yes — region or fullscreen screen recording to MP4 on Mac and Windows, with system audio and microphone, at 30 or 60 fps. Hotkeys are ⌘⇧R on Mac and Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows. Recordings save to your local Movies / Videos folder and stay on your machine — there is no cloud sync for videos and no built-in editor. If you need webcam recording, animated GIF, or a trim-and-annotate video editor, Snagit is the better buy.
Is there a free trial of PrintScreen.ly?+
Yes — a 7-day free trial of the full app on Mac and Windows: capture, the complete 8-tool markup editor, on-device text grab (OCR), local save, and clipboard copy, plus the synced cross-device library, shareable links, and cross-device clipboard. After the trial it's $9.99/mo, $95.99/yr, or a $399 lifetime.
Can I move my Snagit screenshots over?+
Yes. Snagit exports standard PNG and JPEG; you can upload an existing library into the PrintScreen.ly synced library from any device. Annotations baked into the image come along; Snagit's native editable-edit history does not transfer.
More PrintScreen.ly comparisons
Pricing verified 2026-05-20. Snagit pricing source. Subject to change.