Epic Pen's free version covers a pen, a highlighter and screenshots. Text, shapes and the whiteboard come with Epic Pen Pro, which costs $24 a year billed annually or $3 a month billed monthly, after a 14 day free trial.
If that is why you're looking around, ppInk gives you shapes and text for free on Windows, and Presentify is a one time $14.99 on the Mac.
The 15 tools below are grouped by who they suit, not ranked.
Pricing and features verified 29 September 2026 from each tool's official pages.
Prices are US prices and exclude tax, and other countries can differ.
Where Epic Pen Falls Short
Three things push people to look elsewhere.
First, the price of Pro. Epic Pen Pro is $2.00 a month when billed annually, which is $24 a year, or $3.00 a month when billed monthly. That's low, but it's still a subscription for a drawing overlay, and several free tools below cover the same ground.
Second, the free version. Epic Pen's features page lists a pen, a highlighter, screenshots, 16 colors, and hotkeys as the free set.
Text, shapes (lines, ellipses, rectangles and arrows) and the whiteboard are Pro features.
Third, the platforms. The same page says Epic Pen draws over applications on Windows and Mac. Linux users need something else.
Epic Pen Alternatives for Windows Users Who Want Free
gInk
Platform: Windows | Pricing: Free, open source | Standout: A simpler take on Epic Pen.
gInk's GitHub page says it was inspired by Epic Pen and built to stay simple during a presentation. You pick from preset pens instead of adjusting color, transparency, and tip width each time.
It supports hotkeys, snapshots, pen pressure, and stylus, touch, and mouse input, and it has a click through mode for reaching the app underneath.
The limit is in the README itself: gInk has no shapes or text. The developer writes that people have asked for lines, arrows, squares, and text, and that he hasn't found a way to add them while keeping the interface simple.
That makes it a match for Epic Pen's free version, not for Pro. The last change to the repository dates to February 2025.
ppInk
Platform: Windows | Pricing: Free, open source | Standout: The shapes and text gInk leaves out.
ppInk is derived from gInk and adds the missing tools. Its README lists lines and polylines, rectangles, ellipses, arrows, numbered tags, left and right aligned text, cliparts and a measurement readout, and it works with a mouse, touch screen or drawing tablet. That covers the shape and text tools Epic Pen keeps behind Pro.
It's still maintained: version 1.9.100 came out in October 2025. As of 29 September 2026, the README also carries a notice that a Windows 24H2 update from August 2025 broke part of the ink library ppInk relies on.
The developer supplies a script that restores the older file, and it needs admin rights, so read the notice before installing on a work machine.
Pointofix
Platform: Windows | Pricing: Free | Standout: Freezes the screen and lets you mark up the still image.
Pointofix is freeware for Windows, currently at version 1.8.0. Its help page explains that the toolbar freezes the screen and turns it into a drawing area.
The tools include a freehand pencil, line, arrow, rectangle, ellipse, text input and checkmarks, plus a screen magnifier and zoom, and you can print or save what you drew.
Because the screen freezes while you draw, it suits slides and other still content better than live video.
ShareX
Platform: Windows | Pricing: Free, open source | Standout: Capture, annotate, record and upload in one tool.
ShareX is a screen capture and recording tool with an annotation editor that offers rectangles, ellipses, freehand lines, arrows, text, speech balloons, step numbers, highlights, blur and pixelation.
It captures first and annotates afterward, so it doesn't draw over your live screen the way Epic Pen does.
What it adds is automation: you assign hotkeys to capture methods and choose what happens after a capture and after an upload. It needs no account, and release 21.0.0 is dated July 2026 on its releases page. If you only annotate live, it's more than you need.
Read Also: reWASD alternatives
Epic Pen Alternatives for Presenters and Technical Demos
ZoomIt
Platform: Windows, Mac | Pricing: Free download from Microsoft | Standout: Zoom, draw, break timer and screen recording on hotkeys.
ZoomIt is a Sysinternals tool from Microsoft built for technical presentations.
The Sysinternals page lists the default hotkeys: Ctrl+1 for zoom, Ctrl+2 to draw without zooming, Ctrl+3 for a break countdown and Ctrl+5 to record the screen.
It shows version 12.22, published 10 September 2026, and says ZoomIt works on all versions of Windows, though recording needs the Windows 10 May 2019 Update or later.
The same page links a Mac version on GitHub. It's a menu bar app with zoom, live zoom, drawing, screenshots and recording.
Markury
Platform: macOS 12 or later, Windows 10 or later | Pricing: $29 a year or $79 once | Standout: A paid overlay with a laser pointer and a lifetime option.
Markury's site lists a Pro Yearly plan at $29 a year with a 7 day free trial and a Pro Lifetime plan at $79 one time. Both include all features and future updates, and one license covers two devices.
The toolset includes freehand drawing, a highlighter, shapes, text, a laser pointer with a fading trail, a whiteboard mode, screenshots and a click through mode.
It supports styluses, including Apple Pencil through Sidecar, Surface Pen and Wacom tablets.
The site says the app has no accounts, analytics or cloud, and that the internet is only needed once, to activate the license.
The lifetime plan costs less than three years of the yearly one, which would be $87.
CreaLesson
Platform: Windows 10 and 11 only | Pricing: Free Freemium version, paid version $19 | Standout: Screen marking, lesson recording and a multi page blackboard.
CreaLesson is built for video teachers and course creators.
Its Gumroad page lists an on screen mouse and keyboard display, screen marking, zoom, drawing and cropping, lesson video recording, a teacher camera display and a multi page blackboard.
The paid version is $19, and there is a free Freemium version to try first.
The seller mentions pro and institutional versions without listing what differs, so start with the free one.
For Mac Users
Presentify
Platform: macOS 13 or later | Pricing: $14.99 on the Mac App Store (US) | Standout: Draw, cursor highlight and zoom in one app.
Presentify's Mac App Store listing describes a screen annotation app for drawing, cursor highlighting and zoom, from developer Softal Limited.
You can hold Shift to draw a straight line and fill rectangles and circles with semi transparent color. The app is 2.9 MB and supports Family Sharing.
At $14.99 it costs less than Epic Pen Pro's $24 a year after about seven and a half months.
App Store prices in other countries can differ.
CleanShot X
Platform: macOS 13 or later | Pricing: $35 with one year of updates, then $19 a year | Standout: Capture first, annotate afterward.
CleanShot X is a screenshot and screen recording app, so it complements a live overlay rather than replacing one.
Its pricing page lists CleanShot Basic at $35 as a one time purchase with a year of updates and 1 GB of cloud storage, with optional renewals at $19 a year.
CleanShot Pro is $10 per user a month billed annually. The page also says the app is available through Setapp.
The editor covers markup, redaction, backgrounds, cropping, a spotlight, outline steps and highlighted text, and it records video or GIFs.
For Teachers and Classroom Use
OpenBoard
Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux | Pricing: Free, open source | Standout: A full interactive whiteboard for schools.
OpenBoard is a community maintained interactive whiteboard for schools and universities, released under the GPLv3 license.
According to its site, it's a fork of Open-Sankore 2.0, which is in turn based on Uniboard, and it works with a pen tablet, an interactive whiteboard or a mouse.
It's a whiteboard app, not an overlay, so it replaces the board at the front of the room, not Epic Pen on top of a slide deck.
IPEVO Annotator
Platform: Windows, Mac | Pricing: Free | Standout: Ruler, protractor, scissors, spotlight and magnifier.
IPEVO Annotator is free software for drawing over what's projected on screen, made for interactive whiteboard setups. Its tools include a ruler, protractor, scissors, spotlight and magnifying lens.
Its multi pen feature works only with IPEVO's IW2 whiteboard system.
The Windows version listed on the page, 4.6.151.0, dates from November 2022, so test it on your machine before a class.
For Linux Users
Gromit-MPX
Platform: Linux and other Unix desktops | Pricing: Free, open source | Standout: Hotkey driven drawing on any desktop environment.
Gromit-MPX draws on the screen under any Unix desktop, including GNOME, KDE and XFCE, on X11 or on Wayland through XWayland.
It's hotkey based, with a tray icon as its only interface, so no toolbar sits on your screen. It is released under the GPL, and version 1.9.0 came out in March 2026.
ScreenPen
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux (Python) | Pricing: Free, open source | Standout: Runs wherever Python does.
ScreenPen is a Python screen marker with lines, rectangles, matplotlib charts and a whiteboard or blackboard option, and it saves drawings as PNG files. Its project page says it works on Windows, Linux and Mac.
The README adds that the developer made it for his own use case and it may contain bugs.
On systems without live transparency, it draws on a screenshot instead of the live screen.
For Team Collaboration
Microsoft Whiteboard
Platform: Web, Teams, Windows, iOS, Android, Surface Hub | Pricing: Free with a Microsoft account | Standout: A shared canvas for meetings.
Microsoft Whiteboard is a shared canvas, not a screen overlay. Microsoft's support page lists those six platforms and says you can sign in with a free Microsoft account or a Microsoft 365 account.
No Mac app is listed, but Mac users can use the web version.
Snagit
Platform: Windows, Mac | Pricing: $39 a year | Standout: Capture first, then mark up with callouts and step numbers.
TechSmith's store page lists Snagit Individual at US$39 per user per year, billed yearly, with no license keys, only a sign in. Snagit captures first and edits afterward, and its product page lists arrows, callouts, step numbers and Smart Redact for blurring sensitive information, with a 15 day free trial.
Over three years it costs $117 against $72 for Epic Pen Pro, so it fits when the output goes into documentation and less well when you only need a live pen.
What the Paid Options Cost Over Three Years
Tool | Billing (US, checked 29 September 2026) | Three year cost |
|---|---|---|
Epic Pen Pro | $24 a year | $72 |
Markury yearly | $29 a year | $87 |
Markury lifetime | $79 once | $79 |
Presentify | $14.99 once | $14.99 |
CleanShot X Basic | $35 with one year of updates, then $19 a year | $73 with updates every year, $35 without renewals |
Snagit Individual | $39 a year | $117 |
CreaLesson | $19 once | $19 |
Every other tool in this list is free. Prices exclude tax, and store prices outside the US can differ.
How to Pick One
Windows, free, pen and highlighter only: gInk.
Windows, free, with shapes and text: ppInk, or Pointofix if a frozen screen is fine for your slides.
Presenting or demoing software: ZoomIt, on Windows or Mac.
Mac: Presentify at $14.99 once, or Markury at $29 a year or $79 once.
Linux: Gromit-MPX, or ScreenPen if you already run Python.
Capture, annotate, send: Snagit on Windows or Mac, CleanShot X on Mac, ShareX on Windows.
Teaching: OpenBoard or IPEVO Annotator, and CreaLesson for recorded video lessons on Windows.
Drawing together as a team: Microsoft Whiteboard.
FAQs: Epic Pen Alternative
Which Epic Pen alternative is the simplest to start with?
gInk on Windows. Its README says the interface is kept as simple as possible on purpose, and the feature list is small to match.
On a Mac, Presentify's App Store listing describes three jobs: drawing, cursor highlighting and zoom.
What does the free version of Epic Pen include?
A pen, a highlighter, screenshots, 16 colors and hotkeys, according to Epic Pen's features page. Text, shapes and the whiteboard need Epic Pen Pro.
Which free tools have the shapes and text that Epic Pen Pro charges for?
On Windows, ppInk and Pointofix both list arrows, rectangles, ellipses and text. ScreenPen offers lines and rectangles on any system that runs Python.
ZoomIt for Mac lists a pen, line, rectangle, ellipse, arrow, highlighter and typed annotations.
Is there an Epic Pen alternative for Linux?
Yes. Gromit-MPX works under X11 and under Wayland through XWayland, and ScreenPen runs anywhere Python does. Epic Pen itself lists Windows and Mac only.
Can I run two annotation tools at the same time?
Only if their hotkeys don't collide. ZoomIt's defaults are Ctrl+1 to zoom, Ctrl+2 to draw, Ctrl+3 for the break timer and Ctrl+5 to record, so set different hotkeys in the second tool before you use both in a live demo.
Where to Start
If you only use Epic Pen's free features on Windows, start with gInk. If you miss the shapes and text in Pro, install ppInk instead, which costs nothing. Add ZoomIt if you present or demo software.
On a Mac, Presentify at $14.99 once is the lowest cost paid option in this list, and Markury adds a lifetime plan and a free trial.
Pick one, draw with it for a day, and keep it only if it covers the tools you used in Epic Pen.