If you want a one-time-purchase, macOS-native capture tool — not a subscription, not cloud-locked — two names come up: CleanShot X and Screentack. They overlap, but they are aimed at different jobs. Here is a straight comparison so you can pick the right one.
The short version
- CleanShot X is the polished, mature, general-purpose capture tool. If you want the best all-round screenshot-and-markup experience on macOS, this is it.
- Screentack is the specialist. It is built so your AI coding agent can read your screen — annotated regions, OCR, and a manifest delivered over MCP. If that is your workflow, nothing else targets it.
They are not really competitors so much as tools for adjacent jobs. Many developers will happily own both.
Where CleanShot X wins
CleanShot X has years of polish behind it:
- Maturity and breadth — scrolling capture, a deep annotation toolbox, pinned overlays, GIF export, a self-timer, and more.
- General-purpose feel — it is the tool you reach for whether you are filing a bug, writing docs, or grabbing a quick clip.
- Optional cloud — share links when you want them, without being forced into the cloud by default.
If your need is "the best everyday screenshot tool for a Mac," CleanShot X is the safe, excellent answer.
Where Screentack wins
Screentack is narrower on purpose. It is built around one belief: capture should be input for your tools, not just images for people.
- Agent-readable output — every capture comes with a structured manifest (region labels + spatial coordinates) that an AI model can reason over, not just look at.
- 12 MCP tools — Claude Code, Cursor, or any MCP agent can capture a window, zoom into a region, record, and run OCR itself — closing the visual feedback loop without you screenshotting by hand.
- Region-first annotation — drag the exact areas that matter, label them, and the crops plus full frame arrive together with their spatial relationship preserved.
- On-device OCR in many languages, straight to your clipboard.
- Spotlight redaction — blur everything outside your pins before sharing, so the bug stays sharp and the secrets stay hidden.
Like CleanShot X, it is one-time purchase, macOS-native, and private/on-device by default.
Feature-by-feature
| Capability | CleanShot X | Screentack |
|---|---|---|
| One-time purchase | Yes | Yes |
| Private / on-device | Yes | Yes |
| Annotation | Excellent, general | Region-first, labeled |
| Scrolling capture | Yes | On roadmap |
| OCR | Yes | Yes (on-device, multilingual) |
| Screen recording | Yes | Yes (window or full screen) |
| Camera overlay | No | Yes |
| Agent-readable manifest | No | Yes |
| MCP agent tools | No | Yes (12) |
How to choose
Ask one question: who is going to read the capture?
- A human — a teammate, a bug tracker, your docs. Reach for CleanShot X. It is more mature and broader today.
- An AI coding agent — Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Zed. Reach for Screentack. It is the only one that hands the model a manifest and lets it capture on its own.
We will be honest about the gaps: Screentack is in early access and CleanShot X is more feature-complete for general use right now (scrolling capture, for one, is still on our roadmap). But for the specific, growing job of giving an AI agent eyes on your screen, that is the niche Screentack was built for.
If you are specifically comparing AI-coding screenshot tools, also see LazyScreenshots vs Screentack — the closest head-to-head.
Building with an AI coding agent? Join the Screentack waitlist for founding-user pricing.