When comparing OBS vs ShareX, the Slant community recommends ShareX for most people. In the question“What are the best screen capture tools for Windows?” ShareX is ranked 1st while OBS is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose ShareX is:
Designed as file uploader in the first place, ShareX supports overhelming amount of services for you to upload your files to and the list is expanding.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Records to many popular formats
You can record videos in formats such as mp4, flv, mkv, and more. You also have control over the bitrate used.
Pro Free and open source
No subscriptions or payments or licenses.
Pro Available for Linux, Mac, Windows
Pro Live streams
Can be used to stream.
Pro Fast
From the website: "GPU-based game capture for high performance game streaming."
Pro Extendable
OBS has an API allowing developers to create their own unique plugins, giving them and others complete control of their streaming experience.
Pro Encoding using H264 (x264) and AAC and file output to MP4 or FLV
Pro Unlimited number of scenes and sources
Pro Allows uploading to a vast number of different services
Designed as file uploader in the first place, ShareX supports overhelming amount of services for you to upload your files to and the list is expanding.
Pro Free and open source
ShareX is licensed under GPL with source code available on GitHub.
Pro Customizable
You can choose what shortcut key to bind your command to, as well what host it uploads the file to.
Pro Freezes screen when you capture
When you enter a capture mode, the screen content is preserved as it was when you started capturing by default. However there is a special "Light" mode where the screen does not freeze.
Pro Can capture video too
Apart from still images, ShareX allows the user to record unlimited video with all the options available for normal image capture.
Pro Capturing (screen, video, a window, etc.) with annotation + automation
Capturing (screen, video, a window, etc.) with annotation + automation makes for some powerful workflows.
Annotation is key for research on any project size. Capturing screenshots, editing them ("annotating"), converting to a PNG, removing the background to make a transparent version, saving to google drive, creating large+med+sm sizes, uploading thumbnails, is an example of a workflow you could create. The list goes on...
You'll find the same strength & depth in features for image handling also for text, videos, other files by type, and on and on..
Pro Has an editor
It has its own screen editing tool.
Pro It has a dead simple way for creating animated GIFs
It is great for creating software tutorials or highlighting new features in a sales function - nothing beats a well-placed animated GIF in an email.
Cons
Con Recording a window will not record the menu bar, popup menus or child dialogs
Con Overkill for simple projects
Plus the interface is a bit intimidating.
Con Needs tutorial to get started
Otherwise it's hard to find out how to record a screen or window.
Con Too complicated
This is extremely customizable, but extremely complex! If you want something simple and intuitive out of the box, stay away from ShareX.
Con Privacy concern
Can upload screenshots to web without you realizing, unable to delete or reverse process.
Con Scrolling window capture doesn't work always as expected
Sometimes might need to use another screen capture software to capture a scrolling page.