Private and open-source alternatives to Xbox Game Bar
11 screenshots and screen recording rated against the same public privacy criteria as Xbox Game Bar, with our picks first.
Why look for an alternative?
- Open source: no. Closed source.
- No trackers or telemetry: no. Required Windows diagnostic data is sent to Microsoft and can only be turned off on Enterprise, Education and Server editions.
- Independent audit: no. No independent audit is published.
- No account needed: partial. Recording and screenshots work without signing in. Xbox social features such as friends and chat need a Microsoft account.
See the full Xbox Game Bar rating.
The alternatives
Flameshot Grade B
Open-source screenshot tool for Linux, Windows and macOS with in-app annotation tools such as arrows, text, blur and highlighting, plus a command-line interface.
Flameshot scores 85 out of 100 (grade B) on the screenshots and screen recording criteria. It meets 5 of 6 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, saved locally by default and no account needed.
Kooha Grade B
Open-source screen recorder for Linux built with GTK and GStreamer. It records the screen or a region with audio to WebM, MP4, GIF or Matroska files.
Kooha scores 85 out of 100 (grade B) on the screenshots and screen recording criteria. It meets 5 of 6 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, saved locally by default and no account needed.
SimpleScreenRecorder Grade B
Open-source screen recorder for Linux, built on FFmpeg, that records the screen, a window or a region with audio to video files and can also live stream.
SimpleScreenRecorder scores 85 out of 100 (grade B) on the screenshots and screen recording criteria. It meets 5 of 6 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, saved locally by default and no account needed.
Spectacle Grade B
KDE's screenshot and screen recording app for Linux. It captures the desktop, a monitor, a window or a region, with annotation tools, and saves, copies or shares the result.
Based in Germany (Fourteen Eyes). Spectacle scores 85 out of 100 (grade B) on the screenshots and screen recording criteria. It meets 5 of 6 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, saved locally by default and no account needed.
ScreenToGif Grade C
Open-source screen, webcam and sketchboard recorder for Windows with a built-in editor. Recordings can be saved as GIF, APNG, video or image files.
ScreenToGif scores 73 out of 100 (grade C) on the screenshots and screen recording criteria. It meets 4 of 6 criteria: open source, no ads or data sales, saved locally by default and no account needed.
Cap Grade C
Open-source screen recorder for macOS, Windows and Linux. Recordings can be edited locally, or uploaded to Cap's cloud, a self-hosted server, S3-compatible storage or Google Drive and shared as a link.
Cap scores 69 out of 100 (grade C) on the screenshots and screen recording criteria. It meets 2 of 6 criteria: open source and no ads or data sales.
Kap Grade C
Open-source screen recorder for macOS built with Electron. It exports recordings as GIF, MP4, WebM or APNG and supports plugins for sharing to other services.
Kap scores 62 out of 100 (grade C) on the screenshots and screen recording criteria. It meets 4 of 6 criteria: open source, no ads or data sales, saved locally by default and no account needed.
CleanShot X Grade D
Screenshot and screen recording app for macOS with annotation, scrolling capture, text recognition and optional upload to the CleanShot Cloud sharing service.
Based in Poland. CleanShot X scores 58 out of 100 (grade D) on the screenshots and screen recording criteria. It meets 3 of 6 criteria: no ads or data sales, saved locally by default and no account needed.
Shottr Grade D
Screenshot tool for macOS with annotation, scrolling capture, on-device text recognition, pixel measurement and optional image upload.
Shottr scores 50 out of 100 (grade D) on the screenshots and screen recording criteria. It meets 3 of 6 criteria: no ads or data sales, saved locally by default and no account needed.
Greenshot Grade D
Open-source screenshot tool for Windows that captures a region, window or full screen and adds annotations, highlighting and redaction before saving, printing or exporting.
Greenshot scores 46 out of 100 (grade D) on the screenshots and screen recording criteria. It meets 3 of 6 criteria: open source, saved locally by default and no account needed.
Screen Studio Grade F
Screen recorder for macOS that adds automatic zoom, smooth cursor movement and styling to recordings for product demos and tutorials. Recordings are edited locally, with optional shareable links.
Based in Poland. Screen Studio scores 31 out of 100 (grade F) on the screenshots and screen recording criteria. It meets 2 of 6 criteria: no ads or data sales and saved locally by default.