CleanShot X vs Tella

CleanShot X

• Mac users who take and annotate many screenshots
• Buyers who prefer a one-time license to a subscription
• Support and product teams sharing quick captures by link

Tella

• Product demos and tutorials that need more polish than a raw screen capture
• People who want to record in the browser without installing an app
• Teams that want hosted video links with viewer analytics

CleanShot X

• macOS only, requiring macOS 13.0 or newer. The vendor says there are no plans for a Windows version.
• There is no free trial; purchases are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
• The $35 Basic license includes one year of updates; later updates need an optional $19 per year renewal.
• Unlimited cloud storage, custom domains, team features, SSO and SCIM need the Pro subscription.

Tella

• There is no free plan: once the trial ends, existing videos can be viewed and shared, but recording, editing and export need a subscription.
• Monthly billing costs about twice the yearly rate: $26 versus $13 per user / month on Pro.
• There is no mobile app, and editing is desktop-only; phones and tablets can record quick camera videos in the browser.
• Custom domains, branding removal, advanced analytics and 60 FPS export beyond 5 minutes need Premium.

CleanShot X

Screenshots and scrolling capture

Capture an area, a window, the full screen or scrolling content in either direction, with a self-timer, crosshair and magnifier.

Screen recording

Record to MP4 or GIF with microphone and computer audio, a camera overlay, and keystrokes and clicks shown on screen.

Built-in video editor

Add zooms, refine cursor movement and adjust backgrounds on a screen recording without leaving the app.

Annotation and backgrounds

Highlight or hide parts of a screenshot, add annotations, and place captures on styled backgrounds from 20 presets.

Text recognition

Copy text out of any image and read QR codes, with on-device recognition in more than 30 languages.

CleanShot Cloud

Upload a capture to get a share link with password protection, self-destruct timers and video transcription. Basic has 1 GB; Pro is unlimited.

Tella

Separate screen and camera tracks

Screen and camera are recorded as separate tracks, so you can change the layout, resize the camera or hide either source afterwards.

Editor with layouts and zooms

Trim and split clips, switch between side-by-side, picture-in-picture and full-screen layouts, and add zoom effects and backgrounds.

Transcript-based editing

Remove mistakes and filler words by deleting them from the transcript. Transcription covers 106 languages and can be shown as captions.

AI assistance

AI generates titles, chapters and automatic layouts from the transcript, and can turn a video into a summary or document.

Link sharing and analytics

Share a video by link or embed it and track viewers. Paid plans have no storage or bandwidth limits and no cap on video count.

API, webhooks and MCP server

A public REST API, webhooks and an MCP server for assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT are included on every plan.

CleanShot X

• CleanShot Basic$35

  one-time payment; optional update renewal at $19 per year

  The Mac app to keep, with one year of updates and 1 GB of CleanShot Cloud storage. A license is active on one Mac at a time.

• CleanShot Pro$10

  per user / month, billed annually

  Always up to date, with unlimited cloud storage, custom domain and branding, team features, SSO and SCIM.

Tella

• Pro$13

  per user / month, billed yearly ($26 monthly)

  Unlimited recordings up to 6 hours per clip, unlimited storage, the full editor, 4K export, sharing and analytics.

• Premium$19

  per user / month, billed yearly ($39 monthly)

  Adds a custom domain, domain restriction for embeds, Tella branding removal, 60 FPS export at any length and advanced analytics.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Everything in Premium plus SSO and SCIM, a shared Slack channel, personalized onboarding and volume discounts.

CleanShot X

• Lifetime license

  One-time license for $35

  CleanShot Basic is a pay-once license that keeps working indefinitely. It includes one year of updates, and renewing updates afterwards is optional at $19 per year.

• Annual discount

  17% off Pro with yearly billing

  The pricing page marks yearly billing for CleanShot Pro as 17% cheaper than monthly, at $10 per user per month billed annually.

• Education

  30% educational discount

  Entering a university-issued email address gives 30% off. For Cloud Pro or update renewals, CleanShot asks students to email from their university address.

• Other savings

  20% off for PixelSnap customers

  Existing PixelSnap 2 customers get 20% off CleanShot, according to the pricing page.

• Other savings

  Included with Setapp

  CleanShot is also available through a Setapp subscription, which bundles it with more than 200 other apps.

Tella

• Annual discount

  About 50% off with yearly billing

  Pro is $13 per user per month billed yearly versus $26 billed monthly, and Premium is $19 versus $39. Tella's pricing page labels the annual option as 50% off.

• Education

  Tella for Education: 6 months free

  Teachers, professors and students at accredited institutions can get Tella Pro free for 6 months, then 50% off for as long as they qualify. The free term covers one user per workspace.

• Nonprofit

  50% off for verified nonprofits

  Verified nonprofits, including US 501(c)(3) organizations and registered charities elsewhere, get 50% off Pro or Premium with no expiry while their status holds.