CleanShot X vs Zight Comparison 2026
CleanShot X captures and annotates a Mac screen for a single $29 payment, tidying the desktop first and hiding the cursor on request. Zight, the tool formerly called CloudApp, puts a share link in your clipboard before the upload even finishes, with a free tier and a $9.95-a-month Pro plan that runs on Mac, Windows, iOS and the web. The split is platform reach against depth: Zight goes wherever you work, CleanShot goes deeper on a Mac alone.
Mac screen capture that replaces the built-in
Screenshots and screen recordings with links
At a glance
- Zight starts cheaper, at $9.95.
- Only Zight has a free tier.
Side by side
CleanShot X | Zight | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $29 | From $9.95 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | One-time purchase | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing (they differ) | One-time purchase | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated |
CleanShot X
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
- Covers design & graphics
Zight
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.
Why people weigh these two
- Zight instead of CleanShot X
- Zight pairs screenshots and recordings with share links from $9.95 and a free tier, bundling the cloud sharing CleanShot sells as a separate subscription.
- CleanShot X instead of Zight
- CleanShot X is a single $29 payment rather than a subscription, no free tier, and replaces the Mac built-in capture rather than routing through Zight's own uploads.
Which one should you pick
Buy CleanShot X if you live on a Mac and want the strongest annotation overlay and desktop tidying available, for one $29 payment rather than a subscription. There is no free tier to try it against, and no version for Windows or iOS.
Buy Zight if you need the same capture-and-share habit across a Windows machine, an iPhone or a browser, or want to try it free before paying. Its free plan caps recording length and storage sooner than expected, so a heavy user will land on the $9.95-a-month Pro tier before long. Anybody recording long tutorials rather than quick clips should look past both of these at a dedicated screen recorder.
Common questions
- Is Zight free to use?
- There is a free plan with limits on recording length and history. Pro is $9.95 a user a month and adds five AI smart actions, ten video requests and custom branding. CleanShot X has no free tier at all, only the $29 one-time purchase.
- Does CleanShot X run on Windows?
- No, it is Mac only. Zight covers Mac, Windows, iOS and the web from the same account, which is the main reason to pick it over CleanShot X on a mixed-platform team.
- Which one shares a link faster?
- Zight is built around that moment specifically: the share link lands in your clipboard before the upload has even finished. CleanShot X can do the same through its separate Cloud Pro subscription at $8 a user a month, but it is not the default free behaviour.
- Do both tools support GIF capture?
- Yes. CleanShot X exports GIF or MP4 from the same capture flow, and Zight's GIF capture is one of the features people name most often for showing a bug or a quick step.
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.