Snapzy: a menu bar capture app that shows its feature receipts
An open-source native macOS screenshot and screen recording app. A CleanShot X alternative.
At a glance
- What is it?
- A native macOS screenshot and recording tool built on ScreenCaptureKit and SwiftUI, with ten interface languages, bring-your-own S3 or R2 uploads, and a beta cadence fast enough to track OS releases.
- Who is it for?
- Snapzy is unusual among capture apps because its README reads like a changelog rather than a pitch, which makes it easy to evaluate and hard to summarise. What you get is a complete capture tool with a real annotation editor, a video editor with trim and zoom segments, OCR routed through Apple Vision or a custom endpoint, and cloud upload pointed at storage you control rather than a vendor account.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes. BSD-3-Clause is a permissive licence: you can use, modify and sell software built on it, as long as you keep its copyright and licence notices.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository received new commits within the last day.
- What is it written in?
- Mainly Swift, according to GitHub's language statistics.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on October 10, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
Editorial analysis
Built on Apple's capture stack, not a wrapper
The README credits its stack directly: SwiftUI and AppKit for the interface, ScreenCaptureKit for capture, Vision for OCR, and Sparkle for updates. Naming ScreenCaptureKit is the detail that matters most, because that is Apple's modern capture API and it is what makes window-level and application-level capture behave correctly on recent macOS versions.
The two feature categories that follow from that choice are the ones a reviewer should look at first. Screenshot capture works in fullscreen or selected-area mode with a manual toggle, and application capture defaults to the A key. The interesting part of application capture is that it includes already-open third-party menu bar popovers that would normally close the moment capture begins, restoring them visually for selection and saving them with transparent rounded corners. That is a small detail that would take real work to reproduce, and it is the sort of thing that separates a capture app people keep from one they try once.
Other screenshot capabilities listed include inline annotate before saving, scrolling capture with a live stitched preview, transparent object cutout with optional safe auto-crop, window shadow capture on macOS 14 and later, multi-format export to PNG, JPG and WebP, hiding desktop icons and widgets, and quick screenshot during an active recording.
Recording, including continuity camera and keystroke overlays
Screen recording output is either video or GIF, with system audio and microphone as sources. Two features stand out from the usual list. Camera overlay supports iPhone Continuity Camera, which turns a paired iPhone into the webcam for a recording. Mouse click highlights and keystroke overlays draw attention on the recording itself, which is the difference between a recording someone watches and one they scrub through.
Live on-screen annotations are drawn during recording rather than afterwards, the last capture area is remembered, and GIF output can be resized. The README also mentions Smart Camera metadata for Follow Mouse edits, which connects recording to the video editor described later.
Camera permission is worth noting as a design decision. Continuity Camera requires the phone nearby and unlocked, and it inherits Apple's continuity plumbing rather than implementing its own pairing, so the feature works the way the rest of the system behaves instead of adding a parallel mechanism.
The annotation editor and the video editor
The annotation editor is the largest single feature block in the README, and it is a list of tools rather than a paragraph. Shapes, arrows, text, watermarks, filled rectangles, blur and pixelate, counters, and a highlighter with text snapping where the command key bypasses it are the basics. Beyond that: adjustable Bezier control handles for curved arrows, crop with edge-snapping and a one-key auto-crop to content bound to A, remove background with crop-aware auto-crop support, mockup backgrounds rendered in 3D, and zoom and pan by pinch or keyboard.
Two entries carry weight for anyone handling sensitive material. There is automatic local sensitive-data redaction, which the README is explicit runs locally rather than through a service, and OCR text extraction available both as a capture feature and from the image context menu. OCR runs through Apple Vision by default or can be pointed at a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint, with a native result notification so you know extraction finished.
The video editor is smaller but specific: trim with a visual timeline and frame strip, zoom segments with auto-focus for Follow Mouse behaviour, wallpaper backgrounds with padding, custom export dimensions, an animated GIF viewer, and undo with redo. Drag-to-app from the editor can optionally keep editing active and reactivate the editor, which is the kind of state handling that separates a polished tool from a demo.
Cloud upload pointed at storage you control
The upload story is the part that separates Snapzy from the commercial apps it positions itself against. It is described as privacy-first bring-your-own-storage over AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2 with no third-party servers, which means the bucket is yours and the credentials are yours.
Uploads are manual rather than automatic by default, launched from Quick Access for screenshots, videos and GIFs, or from the annotation editor for screenshots. Credentials go into the macOS Keychain with optional password protection, and there is a manual encrypted import and export path for moving them to another Mac faster than re-entering them. Alongside that: upload history, configurable auto-expiration from one to ninety days or permanent, lifecycle rules, and custom domain support.
The repository supports that model directly. A `docker-compose.local-object-storage.yml` file at the root suggests the author runs a local object storage service, and `ExportOptions.plist` plus `appcast.xml` indicate a Sparkle release pipeline with an update feed. That combination is what lets an open source app offer self-hosted uploads without asking you to trust a hosted backend.
Localization, history and the shortcut system
Localization is the most under-rated entry in the feature list. The app ships in ten languages: English, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Russian, French and German, with native macOS per-app language support rather than an in-app language switch. A first-run language picker is part of onboarding.
Capture history is unusually thorough for this category of app. Beyond a floating history panel there is a full browser for recent screenshots, videos and GIFs with type and time filters, filename search, quick copy, open and delete, direct drag-to-app reuse with scroll-safe gesture arbitration, one-click reopen in the annotation editor or video editor, and editable annotation restore for screenshots you already committed to a file. Retention policies are configurable, which matters because a capture app that keeps everything forever becomes a privacy problem in itself.
Shortcuts are described as fully configurable globals for capture, recording and annotation tools, with a per-shortcut on and off control and system conflict detection. Conflict detection is the part worth crediting: a screenshot tool that silently fails because its hotkey collides with something else is a support ticket waiting to happen.
The root also holds a `CHANGELOG.md`, `SECURITY.md`, `install.sh`, `uninstall.sh` and `reset-permissions.sh`, alongside the Xcode project and a `Snapzy.xctestplan` test plan.
Beta tags and OS-version fixes in the release record
Three releases are visible and they show a project shipping frequently enough that beta tags are a normal part of the cadence. Version 1.32.3, published 2026-09-20, adds a sound effects toggle to Quick Access and fixes two things: intermittent low-resolution window captures, and pinned window dragging on macOS 27. A beta of the same version landed the day before, on 2026-09-19.
Version 1.33.0-beta.1, published 2026-09-23, adds drag-to-draw support for a new crop rectangle, adds a maximum recording resolution to improve H.264 browser compatibility, and fixes a text background colour problem by promoting plain text to a label. The H.264 resolution cap is a good example of a fix that only surfaces from real user reports: a recording that plays badly in a browser is a compatibility problem, not a preference.
Every release notes entry ends with the same distribution line: the artifact is Developer ID signed and notarized. For an app distributed outside the App Store that matters, since Gatekeeper will refuse an unnotarized build, and the `ExportOptions.plist` at the repository root is the configuration that produces it.
The pattern across these releases is telling. Two of the three fixes are about operating system behaviour, one about macOS 27 specifically and one about window capture resolution. That is what you would expect from a native app tracking Apple's release cycle. The repository is not archived and the last push was on 2026-09-23, the same day as the newest release.
Editorial conclusion
Snapzy is unusual among capture apps because its README reads like a changelog rather than a pitch, which makes it easy to evaluate and hard to summarise. What you get is a complete capture tool with a real annotation editor, a video editor with trim and zoom segments, OCR routed through Apple Vision or a custom endpoint, and cloud upload pointed at storage you control rather than a vendor account. Two things to weigh before switching. The project ships beta tags alongside stable ones, so you are choosing how much churn you want on macOS updates, and the local object storage compose file suggests the author's own deployment runs a MinIO-style service. Start with the capture and Quick Access features, install with `install.sh`, and check `reset-permissions.sh` if screen recording permission ever gets into a bad state.
Frequently asked questions
Is Snapzy free and what license is it under?
The repository is licensed BSD-3-Clause, and there is a LICENSE file at the root along with a Casks directory for Homebrew distribution. The README also links Ko-fi and GitHub Sponsors, so donations are the funding path rather than a paid licence.
Does Snapzy upload my screenshots to a third-party server?
Not by default. Cloud upload is described as bring-your-own-storage over AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2 with no third-party servers, uploads are manual, and credentials are stored in the macOS Keychain with optional password protection. Automatic expiration from one to ninety days or permanent can be configured.
Which languages does the Snapzy interface support?
Ten: English, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Russian, French and German. It uses native macOS per-app language support, and onboarding includes a first-run language selection step.
Can Snapzy record my screen with audio and a camera?
Yes. Recording outputs video or GIF and can capture system audio plus microphone, with camera overlay supporting iPhone Continuity Camera. Mouse click highlights, keystroke overlays and live on-screen annotations can be drawn during the recording itself.
What OCR options does Snapzy have?
Text extraction runs through Apple Vision by default, or through a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint. A native notification reports when extraction finishes, and OCR is available both as a capture option and from the image context menu in the annotation editor.
Official sources
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