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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 | Zight | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $29 | From $9.95 |
| Pricing model | One-time purchase | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| 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 | Web, macOS, Windows, iOS |
| Covers | Screen Recording, Design & Graphics | Screen Recording, Media Storage & Review |
| 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
Screenshots and screen recordings with links
Zight, which spent years as CloudApp, captures a screenshot or a short recording and hands back a link before the file has finished uploading. Annotation, GIF capture and a searchable library are the reasons people keep it in the menu bar. The free plan caps recording length and storage, and the cap arrives sooner than expected.
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.