Take vs CleanShot X: which one are you actually missing?
These two get compared because they are both one-time Mac purchases at almost the same price, and both can record your screen. In practice they overlap far less than the price suggests: CleanShot X is the finest screenshot tool on the Mac that also records, and Take is a recorder that finishes the recording for you.
Last updated: July 2026
Full disclosure: this page is published by the makers of Take. CleanShot X's prices and limits below are taken from CleanShot X's own pages, checked in July 2026, and the things it genuinely does better are listed as plainly as our own side.
The short version
Pick CleanShot X if most of what you send is a still: a screenshot with an arrow on it, a scrolling capture, some text pulled out of an image. Its recording is a bonus on top of the best capture tool on the platform.
Pick Take if most of what you send is video, and you are tired of raw captures where the cursor jitters, nothing is zoomed, and half of it is you finding the right window.
Side by side
| Take | CleanShot X | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $24.99 one-time | $29 one-time, or $8 per user per month |
| Updates included | Free for the life of the app | One year, then $19 a year to keep getting them |
| Screenshots | Not what it is for | The best on the Mac |
| Scrolling capture and OCR | ||
| Screen recording | ||
| Automatic staging | Zooms from your clicks, smoothed cursor, backdrop, idle skips | |
| Timeline editing | Live: the preview IS the export | Trimming |
| Camera bubble | ||
| Cloud sharing | You keep the file | CleanShot Cloud, 1 GB on Basic |
| Licence | 2 Macs, free updates for life | 1 Mac, transferable |
| macOS requirement | macOS 14+ | macOS 10.15+ |
Where CleanShot X is better
- Screenshots, properly. Annotation, scrolling capture, pinning a shot to the desktop, OCR to lift text out of an image. Take does not do any of it and is not trying to.
- It runs older Macs. macOS 10.15 and up, against Take's macOS 14.
- Cloud links. Capture and get a shareable link back, with your own domain on the paid tier.
- It is enormous value. Around fifty features for $29, from a team that has shipped it for years. If you only sometimes record video, it may be all you ever need.
Where Take is better
- The recording arrives finished. Zooms land where you clicked, the cursor is redrawn so it glides, dead air is sped up rather than cut, and the frame sits on a real backdrop. CleanShot records faithfully, which means it records the jitter too.
- Editing is live. Move a zoom and the canvas updates immediately, because the preview and the export run the same compositor. There is no render step in the middle of thinking.
- Updates do not expire. CleanShot X Basic includes one year of updates, then $19 a year if you want more. Take's updates are free for the life of the app.
- Two Macs. One purchase covers a laptop and a desktop. CleanShot X Basic is a single Mac, transferable.
The pricing math
CleanShot X is $29 once for the app with a year of updates and 1 GB of cloud, then optionally $19 a year to keep updating, or $8 per user per month on the Pro plan. Take is $24.99 once, two Macs, updates free for life.
They are close enough in price that cost should not decide it. Buy the one that matches what you send most days, and if that is genuinely both, they sit beside each other without conflict.
They work well together
This is one of the few comparisons where the honest recommendation is often both. CleanShot X takes the screenshot and the quick clip; Take takes the demo, the tutorial and the walkthrough that somebody is going to watch to the end. They do not compete for the same shortcut and neither one gets in the other's way.
FAQ
How much is CleanShot X?
$29 once for the app plus a year of updates and 1 GB of cloud storage, with an optional $19 a year to keep receiving updates, or $8 per user per month billed annually on the Pro plan. Prices from cleanshot.com/pricing, July 2026.
Does CleanShot X record video?
Yes, including a camera bubble, and it trims. What it does not do is stage the recording: no automatic zooms, no smoothed cursor, no backdrop.
Does Take take screenshots?
No. It is a recorder. If screenshots are most of your day, CleanShot X is the better buy.
Do Take's updates expire?
No. Updates are free for the life of the app, and one purchase covers two Macs.
Can I use both?
Yes, and many people should. They cover different halves of the same job.
For the ones people watch to the end
Stop the capture and it is already staged: zooms where you clicked, dead air trimmed, a real backdrop, and a plain .mov you own. $24.99 once.
Get Take, $24.99 Try free for 7 daysmacOS 14 or later · Universal · no watermark, ever · 7-day trial, no card up front
More comparisons: Best Mac screen recorders in 2026 · vs Screen Studio · vs Loom · vs Descript · vs Camtasia · vs ScreenFlow · No watermark, no time limit · Record a demo that looks edited · Take overview