COMPARISON
Clarus vs Snagit
An honest comparison, including where Snagit is the better buy. Prices checked August 2026.
The short version: Snagit is a mature, serious tool that has been developed for over twenty years, and for a team that needs templates, Mac and Windows, and volume licensing it is the safer choice. Clarus is lighter, has a genuinely free core, and costs a quarter as much if you only need it for a month or two.
Annually, they cost exactly the same
Both are $39 a year. So if you use a capture tool every day, year after year, price is not what should decide this — pick on the features you actually need.
Where the two genuinely differ:
- Monthly. Clarus is $5.99 a month. Snagit has no monthly option at all, so someone who needs a capture tool for one project pays for a whole year.
- Free tier. Clarus keeps a real free tier forever — capture, recording, the annotation editor, and search inside captures. Snagit has a trial, not a free tier.
- Buying it outright. Both offer it, and Snagit’s is cheaper up front: $62.99 against $99 for a Clarus lifetime licence. The difference is what happens next — Snagit’s perpetual licence includes one year of maintenance and then stops receiving new versions, while the Clarus lifetime includes every future update. Cheaper today, or never paying again; both are reasonable.
Side by side
| Snagit | Clarus | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Windows and Mac | Windows only |
| Screenshots and scrolling capture | Yes | Yes |
| Screen recording | Yes | Yes, with a timeline editor |
| Annotation editor | Yes, extensive | Yes, 15 tools, editable after saving |
| Text recognition (OCR) | Yes | Yes, offline |
| Search the text inside old captures | No | Yes, free |
| Share links with expiry and password | Via Screencast | Built in |
| Templates and layouts | Yes | No |
| Volume and enterprise licensing | Yes | No |
| Free tier | Trial only | Yes, plus one month of everything free |
| Price | $39/yr, or $62.99 perpetual | Free core, $5.99/mo, $39/yr, or $99 lifetime |
Choose Snagit if
You are on a Mac as well as Windows, you need templates or step-by-step documentation layouts, you buy for a team and need volume licensing, or you want to buy it outright for less than the Clarus lifetime costs. Those are real needs and Clarus does not serve any of them today.
Choose Clarus if
You are on Windows, you want the core for free, you would rather pay monthly than commit to a year, or you want the two things Snagit does not do: a real video timeline for editing recordings, and search across the text inside every capture you have ever taken.
Trying it
Every new account gets one month with everything unlocked, no card and nothing to cancel. See what is free and what is Pro.