Website Screenshot Software for Professionals

Change is certainly the constant of the Internet. Whether you own a website or are looking at one right now, its current content and design are about to become obsolete very soon. There is, however, one thing that makes all website changes a part of the history that won’t be erased: screenshots. 

Screenshots are the ideal method for documenting website changes for a long time, as well as for sharing problems and ideas with stakeholders who cannot see your screen immediately. Stillio is the most popular website screenshot service.

Who Needs Screenshot Software?

Every Internet user needs a screenshot generator, and this tool has a nearly infinite number of use cases.
The Internet generally accommodates two types of people: information publishers and information recipients. The people who need screenshots are:

• Entrepreneurs
• Researchers
• Marketers
• Finance professionals
• Lawyers
• Students
• Operations professionals
• Coders
• QA professionals

Almost everybody needs to capture website screenshots for different purposes and at different stages of their life.

How to Decide Which Kind of Screenshots You Need?

Based on their use cases, screenshots can be:

One-time screenshots

One-time screenshots are helpful when you need to capture data once. Generally, one-time screenshots are convenient when the data is not going to change for a while and you just need a single copy. 

The ideal types of one-time screenshot use cases are:

• Communication
  When you want to share the info on your screen with someone else;
• Bug reporting
  When you would want to report a problem to support or development teams (as well as to a customer, bounty hunter, or even a QA manager);
• Documentation
  When you want to include a screenshot in an article, blog, tutorial, or other publication.

Recurring screenshots

Recurring screenshots are helpful when you need to keep track and preserve the content of a page over a longer period. These screenshots are especially relevant for: 

• Content verification
  As an entrepreneur/marketer, you might want to verify the content/design displayed with the conceptualized content;
• Compliance verification
  To make sure your policy documents are visible on your website, confirming your business meets all regulatory compliances;
• Trend tracking
  To track how the website is changing over time, or to archive pages that show real-time data like weather forecasts, traffic jams, and other sorts of statistical data;
• Competitor analysis
  To keep track of competitors’ discounts, offers, content, designs, etc;
• KPI/Business Intelligence (BI) dashboards
  To keep track of revenue, website uptime, support desk performance, employees timesheets, efforts, etc;
• Financial market tracking
  To keep track of your business growth in the financial/crypto market;
• Research
  For storing your research in one place, as well as taking screenshots of research papers.

Above-the-Fold or Full-Page Screenshots?

What kind of screenshot is required for your specific use case?

Above-the-fold screenshot

Above-the-fold screenshots are helpful when you intend to verify only the Hero Section of the website.

Full-page screenshot

A full-page screenshot lets you track information across the entire Web page. 

Generally, full-page screenshots are more valuable than above-the-fold screenshots because:

1. You get the whole page;
2. You get a screenshot of the SEO information on the website;
3. You can do a more in-depth analysis of the Web page;
4. You can analyze if the order of sections has been changed on the website (especially when you are looking at a competitor’s website).

Setting Up Screenshot Software

Now that you've learned about different types of screenshots and how they can be used to take website screenshots, here’s what you should know about additional parameters when creating your own use cases.

1. Desktop/Mobile/Tablet. Before capturing a page, you can choose a device type by changing the capture span. Most websites are created to be responsive, so they will automatically adjust to a mobile/tablet/desktop layout based on the browser width. If you want to capture both the desktop and the mobile view, you should add the same URL twice: one for the desktop version and another one for the mobile layout. 
2. Location. Does your website have unique content across different regions, or blocks visitors from specific countries or continents? In that case, you’ll need to control the geo-location of the IP addresses used for the screen-capturing process. 
3. Delay. If you want to take a screenshot after a popup is activated, or after a particular animation is played, you should set a delay after which the system should take screenshots. This delay is generally considered from the time a page finishes loading.

The Best Software for Taking Screenshots Automatically

Should Stillio be your most trusted partner for any type of screenshot capturing? Yes, and here’s why:

1. It’s easy to set up and to use.
   Stillio is the simplest software-as-a-service (SAAS) to set up: you need no codes, no installations, nothing. All you need to do is create an account, add the URL of the webpage, choose the device you need to take the screenshot from, and pick the desired interval: Stillio will do the rest. You can set it up in 2 minutes flat.
2. Flexible solution for every type of user.
   You can move to Stillio’s expert mode and browse through advanced options such as setting up geo-location, adding a delay, or clicking a cookie policy popup before taking the screenshot.
3. With Stillio, you get the best-quality screenshots only. Stillio delivers high-resolution screenshots and can be zoomed in to read even the most minuscule pieces of information.
4. Long-term storage at your disposal at all times. Stillio allows you to store screenshots in our cloud for a very long time (i.e. 36 months). With our software, you can also sync screenshots to your own cloud provider, like Dropbox or Google Drive, through Zapier, Integromat, Pabbly Connect, and Integrately using webhooks.

How to Automate Screenshot Capturing Using Stillio

1. Create a free trial account;
2. Click on “Add a Web page.” You can add a single page, a list of pages, or a sitemap URL to have all page links fetched and added to your Stillio account;
3. Choose capturing frequency or use the default setting (once per day);
4. Specify whether you want the first screenshot to be taken now or at a specific time and date;
5. You are ready to go!

Click on the “expert mode” button on the top to add more details such as: 

• changing the capture dimensions, 
• selecting a different country (as capture location displays differently across different destinations), 
• adding a delay or hiding certain page elements before taking a screenshot.

Start using Stillio risk-free with our 14-day free trial, or schedule a demo to learn more!