DejaShot and CleanShot X: capture and find

If you searched for a CleanShot X alternative or for a way to search your CleanShot X screenshots, the first thing to know is that the two apps are built around different jobs. CleanShot X is how you take, annotate and share a screenshot, and its cloud can search the captures you upload. DejaShot is how you find any screenshot on your Mac again months later. This page compares them fairly, using CleanShot X’s own site, which I read on 1 October 2026.

Is DejaShot a CleanShot X alternative?

Only partly. If you want something to replace CleanShot X as your capture tool, DejaShot isn’t it. DejaShot doesn’t capture, annotate or record your screen. It reads the screenshots that other tools save, and it makes them searchable by the words inside them, and new ones by the app they came from.

If what you want is to find old screenshots on your Mac, DejaShot is built for that and sits beside CleanShot X rather than instead of it. The guide to searching the text in screenshots on a Mac covers what macOS can do on its own.

How do they compare?

What does CleanShot X do well?

On its site CleanShot X is described as a Mac-native app for capturing and sharing. The list is long, and all of it is about making the capture itself good:

• Capture. Screenshots, including scrolling capture across vertical and horizontal content, and an all-in-one mode that puts every capture type behind one shortcut.
• Recording. Screen recording with MP4 or GIF export, a webcam overlay, click highlighting, keystroke display and audio capture.
• Annotation. An editor with arrows, shapes, text, a pencil, counters, blur, pixelate and a highlighter, plus backgrounds and redaction.
• Cloud. One-click upload with a shareable link, search across uploaded captures, password protection, link expiry, comments and team features such as SSO.
• Small utilities. Text recognition on a selected area, QR code reading, pinned screenshots and hiding desktop icons.

These are things DejaShot doesn’t try to do, and CleanShot X does them as its whole purpose.

What about search in CleanShot X?

It’s worth being exact here, because this is the question that brought you to this page.

CleanShot X has text recognition. Per its features page, you select an area and the recognised text is copied to your clipboard, in more than 30 languages, on the device. That is a way to pull words out of an image you are looking at right now.

It also has a capture history, described as a way to access and restore recent captures, which you can filter by capture type. The site says the history spans up to one month. And CleanShot Cloud keeps every screenshot and recording you upload in one searchable place, where you can find captures by transcript, screenshot content and tag.

So CleanShot X can search the content of screenshots you upload to its cloud. What its site doesn’t describe is a search across the screenshots on your Mac that you haven’t uploaded, or a record of which app each one came from. That isn’t proof the app can’t do it. It means I can’t say it does, so I haven’t. If CleanShot Cloud’s search covers what you need, you may not need anything else.

Choose CleanShot X if…

• You want a better way to take screenshots, with scrolling capture, annotation and backgrounds.
• You record your screen and want a video editor, a webcam bubble and click highlighting.
• You share captures by link and want comments, expiry or a custom domain.
• You work in a team and want shared storage with SSO.
• You’re happy to upload your captures, and want them in one cloud library you can search by transcript, screenshot content and tag.
• You mostly need a screenshot for the next few minutes, and finding old ones isn’t a problem.

Choose DejaShot if…

• You already have hundreds or thousands of screenshots on your Mac and can’t find the one you need.
• You remember a word in the screenshot rather than the date, or, for ones taken since you installed DejaShot, the app you were in.
• You want filters like app:figma or after:march and an exact phrase search.
• You want to search every screenshot without uploading it, with no account and no cloud.
• You want a search panel you can open from any app with ⇧⌘Space, or a different shortcut if that one is taken.

DejaShot reads the text with the text recognition built into macOS and notes the app for screenshots you take while it’s running. Older screenshots get their text, not their app. Window titles need the optional Accessibility permission, and it reads every screenshot without it. The first 200 are searchable in under a minute after you choose your folders.

Can you use both?

Yes, and for many people that’s the best fit. CleanShot X captures, annotates and shares, and DejaShot finds what’s already on your Mac.

1. Capture with CleanShot X and set it to save into a folder you choose.
2. Point DejaShot at that folder. macOS asks you to confirm each folder, and DejaShot reads nothing else.
3. Annotate and share in CleanShot X as you do now.
4. Weeks or months later, press ⇧⌘Space and type what you remember.

DejaShot reads the saved image files, so it doesn’t matter which app made them. Your CleanShot X shortcuts and settings stay as they are. If your CleanShot X captures live only in its own history or cloud, save them to a folder first so DejaShot can see them.

What does each cost?

CleanShot X’s pricing page, as of 2026-10-01, lists a Basic plan at $35 once, which includes one year of updates and 1 GB of cloud storage, with updates after that at $19 a year. Its Pro plan is $10 a month per user, billed annually, with unlimited cloud storage and team features. It states a 30-day money-back guarantee.

DejaShot is a one-time purchase for one Mac. Every 1.x update is included, and there’s a 14-day refund. The current price is always on the pricing page.

Questions

Can CleanShot X search the text inside my screenshots?

CleanShot X can recognise text in an area you select and copy it, and it keeps up to a month of capture history. Its cloud lets you find uploaded captures by transcript, screenshot content and tag. Its site doesn’t describe searching the text of screenshots that stay on your Mac. DejaShot is built for that, and nothing is uploaded.

Does DejaShot work with CleanShot X screenshots?

Yes, if they are saved as image files in a folder you give DejaShot. It reads the files, whatever app took them. It doesn’t depend on CleanShot X and doesn’t change it.

Is DejaShot cheaper than CleanShot X?

They sell different things, so the prices aren’t a like-for-like choice. CleanShot X costs $35 once with a year of updates, or $10 a month per user, billed annually. DejaShot is a one-time price with every 1.x update, shown on the pricing page. Most people who want both pay for both.