head to head · open source
OBS Studio vs ShareX
OBS Studio has 76,325 GitHub stars, 10,217 forks, 1,148 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ShareX has 39,618 stars, 3,916 forks, 646 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. OBS Studio leads on adoption by 93% (76,325 vs 39,618 stars). OBS Studio is written in C under GPL-2.0; ShareX is written in C# under GPL-3.0. OBS Studio has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, ShareX 10%. OBS Studio was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| OBS Studio | ShareX | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 40K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 3.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OBS Studio if
- You weight community size — 76K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ShareX if
- You want the ShareX feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and ShareX fits your workflow better
About OBS Studio
OBS Studio is a free, open source C application for capturing, compositing, encoding, recording, and streaming video content, built for streamers, screen recorders, and anyone who needs to produce live or recorded video without paying for a commercial suite.
read the full OBS Studio overview →
About ShareX
ShareX is a free and open source Windows application written in C that combines screen capture, screen recording, image annotation, file uploading, and productivity utilities into a single lightweight tool. It lives in the Windows desktop productivity ecosystem and is distributed under the GPL 3.0 license with over 39,000 GitHub stars.
read the full ShareX overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OBS Studio or ShareX more popular?
OBS Studio has 76,325 GitHub stars and ShareX has 39,618. OBS Studio has the larger community by that measure.
Are OBS Studio and ShareX free?
Both are open source. OBS Studio is licensed under GPL-2.0 and ShareX under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OBS Studio and ShareX?
OBS Studio is written in C and ShareX in C#. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OBS Studio or ShareX?
Choose OBS Studio if you want the larger community (76,325 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose ShareX if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.