Greenshot & Windows Snipping Tool vs SnapLocal:
Three local options, one privacy trap

“Local” is a loaded word in the screenshot-tool world. Snipping Tool saves your captures to a local folder — which OneDrive then syncs to Microsoft's servers. Greenshot saves to a local folder and leaves it there. SnapLocal saves to chrome.storage.local, sandboxed inside your browser profile, with no network path at all. This article compares the three on the dimensions that actually matter: where your pixels end up, what you can do to them before they leave, and how much friction the tool adds to your day.

Snipping Tool: the default that isn't really local

Since Windows 11, Snipping Tool has shipped with an auto-save-to-OneDrive behavior that catches most people off guard. On machines with OneDrive signed in, this is on by default: every Win+Shift+S capture lands in a folder that OneDrive then uploads to Microsoft's servers. If you've ever screenshotted a bank statement, a work dashboard, or a private message, those images are now in cloud storage tied to your Microsoft account — searchable, syncable to every device you own.

You can turn this off. Most people don't know to.

Snipping Tool also has a very basic annotation set: pen, highlighter, eraser. No shapes, no arrows, no text boxes, no mosaic. For quick markups it's fine; for anything you plan to redact before sharing, it falls short.

Greenshot: the open-source standby

Greenshot has been the go-to free screenshot tool on Windows for over a decade. Open source (GPLv3), lightweight, and — critically — local by default. Captures go to a folder you choose, or to the clipboard, or to its built-in image editor. There is no cloud sync path unless you explicitly configure an external destination.

Where Greenshot shows its age is the editor. The annotation tools are functional but dated: rectangles, ellipses, arrows, text, freehand, highlighter, and a “blur” effect. The blur is a Gaussian softening, not a true pixel-destructive mosaic — with enough effort, blurred content can sometimes be reconstructed. Greenshot also hasn't seen a major release in years; the feature set is essentially frozen. If you need system-wide capture of native desktop apps, it's still the right choice in this trio.

SnapLocal: browser-native, zero-upload

SnapLocal is a Chrome Manifest V3 extension. Its manifest declares no host_permissions — Chrome itself would block any network request. Captures, annotations, and history all live in chrome.storage.local on your device. No cloud sync, no account, no telemetry. Airplane mode changes nothing. Full details in the privacy policy.

The annotation set is modern and free: arrow, rectangle, ellipse, text, brush, and a real pixel-destructive mosaic tool — the kind that replaces the selected region with coarse blocks, not a blur that can be partially reversed. Export is PNG, JPG, or clipboard, all free, no watermark.

The trade-off is scope: SnapLocal captures browser content. It can't screenshot a native desktop app or a game. For most knowledge workers, whose screenshots are overwhelmingly browser-based, this is a non-issue. For system-wide capture, Greenshot or ShareX is the better fit — see our ShareX vs SnapLocal comparison for that power-user case.

Pro is a one-time $19 payment: unlimited history (free keeps the last 20), full-page scrolling capture, custom hotkeys, watermark removal, themes. No subscription.

Side by side

The annotation gap

If your only goal is “capture a rectangle and save it,” all three tools work. The moment you need to redact something before sharing, the gap opens:

• Snipping Tool gives you a highlighter and a pen. Scribbles are trivially reversible in any image editor.
• Greenshot gives you a Gaussian blur. Better, but partially reconstructable on high-contrast text.
• SnapLocal gives you a true mosaic: the selected pixels are replaced with coarse blocks. The original data is gone, not obscured.

If you screenshot anything containing account numbers, addresses, names, balances, or tokens, this difference matters. Our tutorial on how to redact sensitive info in screenshots without uploading them walks through the full local workflow.

Verdict: which one should you use

Snipping Tool is fine for one-off captures of non-sensitive content, provided you've disabled OneDrive auto-sync. If you haven't, fix that first — or use something else.

Greenshot is the right choice if you need system-wide capture (native apps, games, anything outside the browser), you're comfortable with its dated editor, and you want open-source software with no cloud path by default.

SnapLocal is the right choice if your screenshots are mostly browser content, you want a real mosaic redactor, and you'd rather not audit OS-level sync settings to know where your captures end up. It's the only one of the three whose “no upload” property is enforced by the browser rather than by a configuration toggle.

For the broader category, see our roundup of the best private screenshot tools for Chrome in 2026, or the step-by-step Windows screenshot workflow without uploading anything.