Free alternative to CleanShot X

The main alternative

Snapzy

Snapzy is a real Mac app, light and living in the menu bar, that brings two paid tools together. On the screenshot side, CleanShot X style: an area, a window or the whole screen, a scrolling capture for a full page, the text in an image copied with one shortcut, a cut out subject, then an editor to add arrows, shapes, text, highlighter, counters, blur (it even spots sensitive info by itself), and a nice background in one click. On the video side, Screen Studio style: recording as video or GIF with your computer's sound and the microphone, your webcam as an overlay (your iPhone can be the camera), your clicks and keyboard shortcuts highlighted. The editor adds zooms that follow your mouse or that you place by hand, speed ups, a background, padding, a shadow, rounded corners and the dimensions you want, vertical format included. After each capture, a small panel lets you copy, edit or drag the file into another app, and the history keeps everything. The interface speaks French, link sharing goes through your own Amazon S3 or Cloudflare R2 storage, and nothing leaves your Mac without your consent. The project is BSD licensed, with more than 3,000 stars on GitHub in under a year, funded by donations: there is no paid version at all. It runs on macOS 13 or later, on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, and the app is signed and notarized by Apple. What it does not do yet compared to Screen Studio: smoothing the cursor and enlarging it after recording, motion blur, automatic subtitles and audio clean up.