CleanShot vs Shottr: Choosing the Screenshot App for Productivity & Workflow

06Jan

Once you have established that the built-in screenshot utility of macOS doesn’t cut it, you need to find one of the better options. CleanShot X and Shottr are two options you would probably come across. While both of these tools are great, you ultimately need to choose one.

We were in the same spot once, especially after testing both CleanShot X and Shottr. Inspired by what we’d gone through, we decided to offer a comprehensive comparison between these two lightweight screen capture utilities for macOS.

We have been testing the latest versions of CleanShot X and Shottr on our M2 MacBook Air, which is running the newest version of macOS Tahoe. Based on this lengthy testing, we have prepared a comparison guide that incorporates our personal insights as well.

TheSweetBits Takeaways

Go for CleanShot X if you want:

A professional workflow
Rich features and interface
Screen recording and GIFs
Cloud sharing integration

Go for Shottr if you need a:

Lean and minimal footprint
Focused tools for developers/designers
Rich features like magnifier, zoom, color picker
Advanced OCR support

What Is CleanShot X?

CleanShot X is a professional-grade screen capture utility available for macOS. It lets you capture screenshots or record screen videos from your Mac and share them instantly. In addition to supporting a variety of screen capture modes, CleanShot X also packs some impressive editing/annotation features. Users seem to love the app for its lightweight nature and reliability as well.

Key Features

Full-screen, window, area, and scrolling screenshots
Powerful annotation suite (arrows, shapes, blur, highlight, counters, freehand)
Screen recording with webcam, mic, and system audio
Cloud storage and shareable links
OCR/text recognition
Quick-access overlay for instant editing or sharing
Option to hide desktop icons during capture

Pros

Extremely versatile: screenshots, recording, editing, and sharing in one tool
Polished, intuitive UI
Excellent for professional documentation and content creation
Strong annotation and editing workflow
Cloud integration streamlines sharing

Cons

Slight learning curve due to feature breadth
Not as precise for pixel-level developer tasks

What Is Shottr?

Shottr is a multipurpose screen capture utility available for macOS. Compared to CleanShot X, Shottr offers a minimalistic experience when it comes to capturing screenshots. The app provides more capture and editing tools than the built-in screenshot utility on your Mac. It also allows you to annotate captured screenshots with the help of backgrounds and other elements.

Key Features

Ultra-fast screenshot capture
Full-screen, window, area, and scrolling screenshots
Lightweight annotation tools (arrows, shapes, blur, pixelate)
OCR/text recognition and QR reading
Pixel-level zoom/magnifier and measurement tools
Minimal app size and low resource usage

Pros

Incredibly fast and lightweight
Excellent for developers and designers needing pixel-level precision
Great for quick documentation and sensitive info redaction
Free or very low-cost
Minimalistic, distraction-free interface

Cons

No screen recording or GIF creation
No built-in cloud storage or sharing system

CleanShot X vs Shottr: Direct Feature Comparison

You now have a basic understanding of CleanShot X and Shottr. We shall now compare how these tools work when it comes to features:

Capture Speed and Performance

CleanShot X is heavily optimized for performance, and it is evident when you use it for work. The app takes barely a second to capture the content and display a preview via the Quick Access interface. We also love its customizability. The real-world speeds from CleanShot X will also depend on the shortcuts you configure. In the end, CleanShot X doesn’t hold you back when it comes to accessing or sharing your screenshots.

Shottr is also exceptionally fast when it comes to capturing screenshots. We should also highlight that Shottr has a pretty minimal footprint. Therefore, it’s not surprising that the tool can show you the screen-captured content in just 165 milliseconds. Because it lacks options like Quick Access, Shottr will open the edit and annotation interface immediately after capture.

Annotation Tools

You get ample annotation tools from CleanShot X and Shottr. However, there are differences.

We are generally satisfied with the annotation tools in CleanShot X. We tested a variety of annotation tools, including text, pixelate, focus, shapes, and cropping. All of them are accurate and provide room for customization as well. We also felt that the annotation interface is an upgrade from other screen capture tools we’ve tested before.

CleanShot also offers some amazing gradients for creating publication-ready screenshots. During our testing, CleanShot X (full review) provided some impressive screenshots for documentation as well. The custom options for padding, inset, and even the auto-balance function felt nice to have. As people dealing with tens of screen captures a day, the Auto-Balance and Presets are pretty handy.

It essentially lets us create stunning captures in just a few clicks.

Shottr offers an equally impressive, if not more extensive, collection of annotation tools. We were surprised to find a few rare tools that are optimized for common workflows. For instance, the Magnifier tool adds an impressive touch to your screenshots, especially while developing support documentation or how-to guides. You can also add backdrops or attach another capture to the current one.

That you get all these superb features from a minimal app is the icing on the cake. We also found a handful of features that appeal to design professionals. For instance, you can use the Ruler function to measure distance or the color picker to identify colors from the current capture. Shottr also offers some nifty features for resizing an image.

Overall, we felt the annotation features of CleanShot X and Shottr appeal to different types of users.

Scrolling & Advanced Capture

We tested the advanced capture options from CleanShot X and Shottr, and they performed exceptionally well. The options are:

Capture Area
Scrolling Capture
Self-Timer
OCR

However, with Shottr, you get some additional options like:

Capture Active Window
Capture Any Window

On the other hand, you get some additional features with CleanShot X:

All-in-One Capture that captures multiple screens/desktops
GIF Recording

Both screenshot apps let you open content from the clipboard or open a file and edit it.

Screen Recording

Screen recording is an area where we see a stark difference between Shottr and CleanShot X. While not comparable to tools like Snagit, CleanShot X offers a very powerful screen recording feature that allows you to record high-quality video or GIFs, along with webcam and audio support.

This is particularly handy when you want to create a quick video with minimal editing. Once again, you can use the annotation panel to make simple changes to the video as well. This felt nice. We also believe that CleanShot X can, at times, replace platforms like Loom, especially when you utilize the sharing option.

Shottr, on the other hand, does not support screen recording or GIFs. Therefore, if your work requires you to create GIFs or tutorial videos at times, you may want to consider CleanShot X.

Cloud Storage and Sharing

CleanShot X offers advanced cloud storage and sharing options. In our workflow, we set up CleanShot X to automatically upload all captured screenshots to cloud storage. We found it impressive that you can even get CleanShot Cloud to copy the image sharing link to the clipboard. There were advanced options for custom domain branding and team management, but we haven’t checked those.

The latest version of Shottr has introduced options for uploading and sharing screenshots. When you purchase the premium version, you get an upload token for Shottr Cloud. Alternatively, you can use services like Amazon S3 or Backblaze. You will need to set up these services manually. Compared to CleanShot X, you don’t get much control over the uploading/sharing process, though.

OCR Accuracy

During our testing, we compared the accuracy of OCR capture on both of these screen capture tools.

First, we attempted to capture something from the web, and in both cases, the performance was impressive, particularly in terms of detecting the text. However, the actual performance will vary, especially when attempting to OCR a scanned document with handwritten content or other types of text. This is, of course, expected from non-professional OCR software. However, compared to CleanShot X, Shottr offers advanced control over OCR, including the ability to interact with scanned content.

Nevertheless, when you come across an image, and you want to capture the text instead of basically writing it down all by yourself, either of these tools can help you.

Workflow and Integrations

When you use a screenshot tool frequently, the workflow and integrations also matter.

We have always liked the way CleanShot X arranges the screen capture process. After a few times, it becomes a part of a familiar process, mainly thanks to the Quick Access overlay. In our testing, CleanShot X does a great job of organizing everything without consuming a significant amount of resources. It also helps that it has an intuitive UI altogether.

Shottr, on the other hand, is a bit too focused on the workflow. You capture, and the editing window shows up—that’s it. The app lacks an overlay function and customization options. We understand that Shottr has been targeting minimalism; however, it wouldn’t hurt to see some UI improvements. As things stand now, however, we’d have to side with CleanShot X.

It is also difficult to ignore the difference in customization. For one, CleanShot X offers numerous options for capturing, editing, and managing screenshots. Shottr, on the other hand, focuses only on capturing and annotation.

User Experience and Interface

Here’s what we think about the UX overall.

We found that CleanShot X has a modern UI that offers a superior User Experience. It also provides a balanced workflow, thanks to features such as Quick Overlay, Capture History, and a well-integrated editor. Its makers have done an impressive job of improving the UI with every iteration as well. We often felt that CleanShot X offers more in terms of UX, despite what it may lack in terms of speed.

This is not to say that Shottr has a problematic UX design. On the contrary, the UI is pretty nice and sleek, but it lacks that modern touch. Additionally, there isn’t much to assist or improve your workflow, which could be a problem. Regardless, when you want to capture hundreds of screenshots every month, raw speed isn’t just enough.

Pricing Comparison

Here’s how they are priced:

CleanShot X Pricing

CleanShot X offers several purchasing options.

You can go for the one-time purchase option, which costs $29. This plan provides you with access to the app and includes 1GB of cloud storage. Please note that you will receive updates for only one year. Regardless, it is a value-for-money option for basic needs.

If you require the complete cloud package, consider the App + Cloud Pro version, which costs $8 per user per month (when billed annually) or $10 per user per month (when billed monthly). In addition to unlimited cloud storage, the plan includes features such as custom branding, SSO login, and all future updates.

Shottr Pricing

Shottr is essentially a free tool with optional upgrades.

You can use the free version of Shottr for as long as you like, but you need to deal with that occasional pop-up requesting a purchase. We don’t think that’s a hindrance, considering the features you get for free. The free version, however, lacks a few features, such as backgrounds and uploads.

To access all features of Shottr, you can opt for the paid plan, which costs $12. You can also opt for a $30 plan if you’d like to support the developer.

Value for Money

We really like that both apps offer a one-time purchase option. It is nice to see this when every other app is turning into a subscription.

As things stand, both CleanShot X and Shottr offer considerable value for money. However, if you ask us to pick one, Shottr will be the option for obvious reasons.

Alternatives to CleanShot X and Shottr

You can consider the following options if you need alternatives for CleanShot X and Shottr:

Snagit 2026: Consider Snagit if you need a comprehensive screen capture and recording suite. This app from TechSmith also offers a professional-grade editor for creating videos.
Xnapper: Xnapper enables you to create stunning images for marketing and social sharing, thanks to its amazing capturing and annotation tools.
LightShot: LightShot is one of the lightest and free screenshot utilities available for Mac. It doesn’t consume a lot of resources; you can access it from the menu-bar interface.

You may also want to check out our coverage of the best screenshot apps for Mac.

Final Verdict

Here are our recommendations:

You should go for CleanShot X if you prioritize having a reliable workflow and valuable features. It is suitable for those who need granular control over aspects of capture, editing, annotation, and sharing. While it costs a bit, the plans are reasonably priced. It is nice that even the one-time purchase option gives you lifetime access to 1GB of cloud storage space.

Shottr is a more focused option that professional designers and developers will love. This almost free tool is packed with impressive features for capturing, editing, and professional-grade OCR. Moreover, Shottr requires minimal space and resources on your Mac. The premium plan offers excellent value, considering the features it provides. It could use some UI improvements, though.

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CleanShot vs Shottr: Choosing the Screenshot App for Productivity & Workflow

TheSweetBits Takeaways

What Is CleanShot X?

What Is Shottr?