I take a lot of screenshots on a daily basis for various uses, so I make sure I use the best tools for this purpose.
I’ve been updating my toolkit over the years and have settled on a combination that covers everything from quick screen grabs to polished screencasts. Here are the tools I recommend.
Mac Built-in Screenshot Tools
Your Mac comes with solid screenshot tools out of the box. If your needs are basic, you might not need anything else.
The key shortcuts:
- Cmd + Shift + 3: Capture the entire screen
- Cmd + Shift + 4: Select a specific area to capture
- Cmd + Shift + 4, then Space: Capture a specific window (with a nice drop shadow)
- Cmd + Shift + 5: Opens the Screenshot toolbar with all options, including screen recording
After taking a screenshot, a thumbnail appears in the corner of your screen. Click it and you get basic markup tools: text, shapes, arrows, signatures. It’s enough for simple annotations.
If you use Dropbox, you can set it to automatically save screenshots to a “Screenshots” folder and copy a share link to your clipboard. Handy if you frequently need to share grabs with others.
The built-in tools have improved over the years but still lack some features I rely on daily: scrolling capture, blur/pixelation for sensitive info, and proper annotation tools. That’s where third-party apps come in.
CleanShot X: The Best All-Rounder
After years of using Snagit, I switched to CleanShot X and it’s now my primary screenshot tool. It does everything I need in one app: screenshots, annotations, screen recording, GIF creation, OCR, and cloud sharing.
What I use most:
- All-In-One shortcut: One keyboard shortcut opens every capture mode. Area, window, fullscreen, scrolling, you name it.
- Annotation editor: Arrows, shapes, text, numbered steps, blur/pixelate for redacting sensitive data. Annotations are saved in editable project files, so you can go back and change them later.
- Scrolling capture: Capture entire web pages or long documents in a single image.
- OCR: Select any area on screen and extract the text. Processed entirely on your Mac.
- Background tool: Wrap your screenshots in polished backgrounds with padding and shadows. Great for blog posts and social media.
- Screen recording: Record as MP4 or GIF with mic and system audio, click highlighting, keystroke display, and webcam overlay.
- Cloud sharing: Upload directly and get an instant link. Useful when you need to share something quickly in a chat.
The pricing is straightforward: $29 one-time for the app with 1 GB of cloud storage. You get one year of updates included, and after that you can optionally pay $19/year for continued updates. If you don’t renew, the app keeps working, you just won’t get new features. It’s also available through Setapp if you already subscribe to that.
For anyone on a Mac who takes screenshots regularly, CleanShot X is the obvious choice. It replaced what would otherwise require several separate apps.
Shottr: Best for Designers and Developers
Shottr is a different kind of screenshot tool. It’s tiny (about 1.2 MB), extremely fast, and built specifically for macOS, but the reason to use it isn’t as a general screenshot app — CleanShot X already covers that. Shottr earns its place with design-specific tools that are hard to find elsewhere.
It has a pixel ruler for measuring distances between UI elements, a color picker that gives you hex codes (plus OKLCH and APCA contrast values), and a smart select mode that auto-balances padding. If you’re a designer or developer regularly checking layouts and spacing, these are genuinely useful and not something CleanShot X offers.
It also covers the screenshot basics well: area capture, window capture, scrolling capture, OCR, annotations (arrows, shapes, text, blur), and the ability to pin screenshots as floating windows. So if you don’t want to pay for CleanShot X, Shottr is a capable free alternative on its own.
Shottr is free to use with nag screens appearing after 30 days. A basic license to remove those costs $12 one-time. There’s also a “Friends Club” tier at $30 that gets you experimental features and priority support. Both are one-time purchases, not subscriptions.
Screen Studio: Best for Screencasts
For screen recordings that need to look polished, Screen Studio is the tool I use. I covered it in more detail in my post on the fastest video creation stack, but the short version: it automatically adds smooth zooms, cursor highlights, and motion framing to your recordings without any manual editing.
You record your screen as normal, and Screen Studio handles the polish after the fact. Adjust zoom speed, change the background, add a webcam overlay, tweak cursor effects. Everything is non-destructive, so you can change your mind about any setting after recording.
It exports as MP4 (up to 4K at 60fps) or GIF, with aspect ratio presets for different platforms. It also does automatic AI-generated subtitles, processed locally on your Mac.
The pricing is $108/year, which is steep for occasional use. But if you regularly create product demos, tutorials, or social media content, the time savings are significant. What used to take me an hour of manual editing in Camtasia now takes a few minutes.
What About Snagit?
I used Snagit for years and recommended it in the original version of this post. It’s still a capable tool with deep annotation features and a useful Step Capture mode for creating documentation.
However, TechSmith moved Snagit to a subscription-only model in 2025 at $39/year. If you stop paying, the app stops working. Combined with reports of sluggish performance on Apple Silicon Macs and a UI that feels more at home on Windows, it’s hard to recommend over CleanShot X, which costs $29 once and feels native on macOS.
If you’re already paying for Snagit and rely on its Step Capture or template features, it still works fine. But for anyone choosing fresh, I’d go with CleanShot X.
My Current Setup
For reference, here’s what I’m currently using:
- Screenshots and annotations: CleanShot X (handles everything for most people)
- UI measurements and color picking: Shottr (only if you do design or front-end development work)
- Polished screencasts: Screen Studio
This covers everything from a quick screen grab shared in a team chat to a polished tutorial video. The total cost is about $29 up front for CleanShot X plus $108/year for Screen Studio if you need screencasts. Shottr is only necessary if you need its design-specific tools — most people won’t.
Related
Did you already try Teampaper Snap?
I was using Lightshot for years but, after I upgraded to Big Sur, some bugs started to bothered me so much that made me open to test a few other options “in the market”.
Btw.. very nice personal blog! Learning so much from different topics here!
Kudos from another expat in bcn
Andre
Thanks for your comments Andre, I will check out Teampaper Snap.