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Both cover screen recording. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| CleanShot X | Screen Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $29 | From $29 |
| Pricing model | One-time purchase | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | One-time purchase | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | macOS | macOS |
| Covers | Screen Recording, Design & Graphics | Screen Recording, Video Editing |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Mac screen capture that replaces the built-in
CleanShot X is the tool Mac users buy once and then cannot work without: scrolling captures, an annotation layer, a cursor you can hide, and a desktop it tidies before the shot. Recordings export as GIF or MP4 without a round trip through an editor. It is macOS only, and the cloud sharing that competes with Loom is a separate subscription.
Our note
Buy the $29 licence and ignore the cloud tier unless you are sharing captures with a team every day. Loom is the better answer for anything that needs to be watched rather than looked at.
Only on this side
Screen recordings that zoom themselves
Screen Studio records a screen and then does the editing nobody wants to do: it zooms towards whatever was clicked, smooths the cursor and animates the transitions, so a first take looks edited. Vertical export is built in for short-form. It is macOS only, which decides the question for a lot of people.
Our note
Loom is free and sends a link; this makes a file that looks like somebody edited it. If the recording is going on a sales page or a course, the difference shows immediately.
Only on this side
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.