If you work on a Mac and need to share screenshots safely, you've probably come across both BlurData and CleanShot X. Both apps can blur parts of a screenshot. But that's roughly where the similarity ends.
CleanShot X is a premium screenshot capture tool that happens to include a manual blur feature. BlurData is a dedicated privacy tool built specifically to find and redact sensitive information automatically. They're designed for fundamentally different jobs — and choosing the wrong one for your use case will leave you either doing a lot of manual work or paying for features you don't need.
This article breaks down exactly what each tool does well, where each one falls short, and how to decide which belongs in your workflow.
| Feature | BlurData | CleanShot X |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-detect sensitive data (PII) | Yes — emails, names, phones, credit cards, addresses | No — manual selection only |
| Screenshot capture | No | Yes — full-featured capture tool |
| PDF redaction | Yes | No |
| Batch processing | Yes | No |
| Fully offline / no cloud | Yes | No — uploads to CleanShot Cloud by default |
| Annotations (arrows, text, boxes) | No | Yes |
| Scrolling capture | No | Yes |
| Custom regex / detection patterns | Yes | No |
| Price | $29 one-time (7-day free trial) | $29 one-time or $8/month |
CleanShot X is one of the best screenshot utilities available for Mac, and it's genuinely worth its price for anyone who captures screenshots regularly. Here's what it does exceptionally well:
Capture features: CleanShot X replaces macOS's default screenshot tool with a far more capable one. You can capture full-screen, windows, regions, or scrolling content (which macOS cannot do natively). It handles multi-display setups well and gives you fine-grained control over timing and capture area.
Annotations: After capturing, you get a rich annotation toolkit — arrows, text labels, numbered callouts, boxes, highlights, and more. For creating tutorial screenshots, documentation, or bug reports, these tools save significant time.
Screenshot history: CleanShot X maintains a history of your recent captures so you can go back and re-edit or re-share screenshots without hunting through folders.
CleanShot Cloud: Screenshots can be instantly uploaded to a personal CleanShot Cloud link and shared via a short URL. Convenient for quick sharing.
Where CleanShot X falls short for privacy work is its blur tool. It exists, and it works — but it requires you to manually draw a selection over whatever you want to blur. There is no detection of email addresses, phone numbers, names, credit card numbers, or any other sensitive data type. Every redaction is a manual operation.
For a screenshot with one or two things to hide, that's fine. But if you're processing screenshots from customer support tickets, medical records, financial documents, or any context where sensitive data appears frequently and in unpredictable locations, manual blurring is a real liability. You will miss things. And CleanShot X has no way to help you find what you missed.
Additionally, CleanShot X does not support PDF files at all — its tools are limited to image-based screenshots.
BlurData approaches the problem from the opposite direction. It doesn't capture screenshots — it processes files you already have and automatically finds sensitive data within them.
Automatic PII detection: BlurData scans images and PDFs for email addresses, full names, phone numbers, credit card numbers, postal addresses, and other personally identifiable information. You drop in a file, and the app highlights what it found. You review, adjust if needed, and export the redacted version. No manual hunting required.
PDF support: Unlike CleanShot X, BlurData works directly on PDF files — not just screenshots. This matters enormously for anyone dealing with documents: contracts, invoices, medical records, legal filings. See also: how to redact a PDF on Mac without Adobe for a full breakdown of your options.
Batch processing: You can process multiple files at once. If you have a folder of screenshots from a customer support session that all need to be sanitized before escalation or archiving, BlurData handles that in one operation rather than requiring you to open each file individually.
Fully offline: BlurData runs entirely on your Mac. No files are uploaded to any server. For anyone handling sensitive client data, HIPAA-adjacent workflows, or legal documents, this is a hard requirement — and CleanShot X's default cloud upload behavior makes it unsuitable for those scenarios.
Custom patterns: If your organization has specific data formats that need redacting (internal employee IDs, proprietary account numbers, or custom reference codes), BlurData supports custom regex patterns so you can extend detection beyond the built-in categories.
The honest limitation of BlurData is that it is not a screenshot tool. If you need to capture a scrolling webpage, annotate a screenshot with arrows, or share something instantly via a link, BlurData doesn't do any of that. It processes files that already exist.
CleanShot X makes sense when your primary need is capturing and annotating screenshots, and privacy redaction is occasional and simple.
Specifically, use CleanShot X if:
For developers writing technical docs, designers sharing mockups, or product managers filing bug reports, CleanShot X is excellent at its primary job. The blur tool is a convenient bonus for those use cases.
BlurData is the right tool when privacy and accurate redaction are the primary concern — not screenshot capture.
Use BlurData if:
For teams in legal, healthcare, financial services, or any business that regularly handles personal client information, the difference between manual and automatic detection isn't a convenience issue — it's a compliance and liability issue. For a broader look at your options, see the best redaction tools for Mac.
Yes — and for many workflows, this is actually the best approach.
CleanShot X is better at capturing screenshots than macOS's built-in tools. BlurData is better at redacting sensitive data than CleanShot X's manual blur. Used together, they complement each other rather than compete:
This workflow gives you the best capture experience and the most reliable redaction. You're not relying on manually spotting every email address or phone number in the image — BlurData handles that systematically.
The same logic applies if you use other screenshot tools like macOS's built-in Cmd+Shift+4, Skitch, or anything else. BlurData sits at the end of the pipeline as a dedicated privacy layer, not a replacement for capture tools.
CleanShot X and BlurData solve different problems. Framing this as "which is better" slightly misses the point — it's more useful to ask which one matches your actual workflow.
If you mostly need a better screenshot capture tool with some annotation features and the occasional blur, CleanShot X is excellent value and one of the best apps in its category.
If you need to reliably redact sensitive personal information from screenshots or PDFs — without missing anything, without uploading files to the cloud, and without manually hunting through every image — BlurData is built specifically for that job. The auto-detection alone is worth it for anyone who processes more than a handful of screenshots a week.
For privacy-critical work, manual blurring isn't a process — it's a risk. BlurData eliminates that risk with a 7-day free trial and a $29 one-time license. No subscription required.