COMPARISON
CleanShot X for Windows
What to use when the Mac app you want does not exist on Windows. Checked August 2026.
The short version: CleanShot X is Mac only and always has been. There is no Windows version to download and no port coming that anyone has announced. If you moved to Windows and miss it, you are looking for a different app that works the same way. Clarus is built around the same idea.
Why there is no Windows build
CleanShot X is a native macOS application. Its capture pipeline, its overlay and its editor are built on Apple frameworks, so it is not a matter of flipping a switch — a Windows version would be a rewrite. Their site lists Apple Silicon and macOS support and nothing else.
So the honest answer to "how do I get CleanShot X on Windows" is that you cannot, and anyone offering you a download is offering you something else.
What people actually miss about it
When someone asks for CleanShot X on Windows they usually mean a specific set of habits rather than the whole feature list:
- The capture card. A shot lands in the corner of the screen instead of vanishing into a folder, and you drag it straight into whatever you were doing.
- Annotating immediately, without opening a separate editor.
- Scrolling capture for pages taller than the screen.
- A link instead of a file, in one click.
- Pinning a shot on top of everything while you work from it.
Clarus does all five. It is the reason the app exists.
Side by side
| CleanShot X | Clarus | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | macOS only | Windows only |
| Capture card after a shot | Yes | Yes |
| Annotation editor | Yes | Yes, 15 tools, editable after saving |
| Scrolling capture | Yes | Yes, vertical and horizontal |
| Screen recording | Yes | Yes, with a timeline editor |
| Text recognition (OCR) | Yes | Yes, offline |
| Search the text inside old captures | No | Yes, free |
| Share links with expiry and password | Yes | Yes |
| Pin on top | Yes | Yes |
| Price | $29 once, +$19/yr for updates; Pro $8/mo annually | Free core, $5.99/mo, $39/yr, or $99 once |
| Free tier | No, trial only | Yes, plus one month of everything free |
Where CleanShot X is the better product
It is older, it is polished, and on a Mac it is excellent — if you have the choice of machine, it is a completely reasonable reason to stay on one. Its Pro plan includes unlimited cloud storage and a custom domain for your share links, which Clarus does not offer. Their one-time $29 is also cheaper than the $99 Clarus asks for a lifetime licence, though theirs buys only a year of updates before the optional $19 renewal.
We would rather say that than pretend a newer Windows app beats it on every axis.
Where Clarus goes further
One thing genuinely has no equivalent: Clarus indexes the text inside every capture you take and lets you search it months later. Not just filenames — the words that were on screen. That is free, it runs offline, and it is the feature people keep for.
Trying it
Every new account gets one month with everything unlocked, no card and nothing to cancel. After that the core stays free. See what is free and what is Pro.