Mac screenshot redaction tools compared: built-in vs ScrubShot
Short answer: for capturing, basic markup and cropping, the tools already on your Mac are free, installed and perfectly good, and if the sensitive thing sits at the edge of the shot, you can crop it out with them and need nothing else. Where they fall short is real redaction: Markup has no blur or pixelate, so people improvise with a solid box that can be lifted off, and it makes you save, open an editor and re-export. ScrubShot exists for that gap: pixelation written into the image, plus capture and markup in one keyboard-driven loop. I make ScrubShot, so I will be straight about where the built-in path wins.
What you already have on your Mac
Every Mac ships with a capable screenshot path, and for a lot of people it is all they need. The Screenshot app handles the capture: a keyboard shortcut grabs the whole screen, a window or a region you drag out, and the result lands on your desktop or the clipboard.
For editing, Markup is built into Preview and Quick Look. Open the image, hit the markup button, and you get shapes, arrows, lines, a highlighter and a text tool, plus the ability to crop. That covers most annotation: circling the button you are pointing at, drawing an arrow to the error, dropping a label on top. It is free, it is already there, and it is fine.
Where the built-in tools genuinely win
I am not going to pretend you need an app for everything. There are real cases where the built-in path is the right call:
- Plain annotation. If nothing in frame is sensitive and you only want to point at something, Markup's shapes and arrows do the job with nothing to install.
- The sensitive part is at the edge. If the private detail sits at the top, bottom or side of the shot, crop the edge away in Markup and it is genuinely gone, no overlay, no recoverable layer. Cropping removes pixels.
- Zero cost and zero setup. They are already on the machine, with no trial, no license and nothing to learn beyond a shortcut.
That last point about cropping has a real limit, though, and it is the same limit it always has: it only works when the detail is at the edge. The moment the thing you want to hide is in the middle of content you need to keep, cropping it away takes the context with it. There is a fuller treatment of that trade-off in the comparison of redacting versus cropping a screenshot.
Where they fall short for redaction
The gap shows up the instant you need to hide something rather than point at it. There are two problems, and the first is the one that catches people out.
Markup has no blur and no pixelate. There is no tool in it that actually destroys the underlying pixels. So when someone wants to cover a key, an email or a face, they reach for the nearest thing that looks final: a solid black box drawn with the shape tool. The trouble is that a box is an overlay. It is a separate layer sitting on top of the image, and depending on the format you save in and the editor it is later opened with, that box can sometimes be nudged aside or deleted to reveal exactly what you thought you had hidden. It looks like redaction, but it is a sticker, not a shredder. The deeper reason a baked-in pixelation beats a blur or a box is that it leaves no original detail behind to recover.
It is a multi-step detour. Even when a solid box is good enough, the workflow is a chore: take the screenshot, find the file, open it in Preview, switch into Markup, draw the box, then re-export or copy it out. That is fine once. By the tenth time, mid-task, the friction is exactly why people skip the careful step and just paste the raw shot. The safe move only happens reliably when it is also the fast one.
Built-in versus ScrubShot, side by side
Here is the honest comparison of the two options, with no third app in the mix.
| What you need | Built-in (Screenshot + Markup) | ScrubShot |
|---|---|---|
| Capture | Yes, shortcut grabs screen, window or region | Yes, shortcut grabs the screen under the cursor |
| Markup / annotation | Yes, shapes, arrows, text, highlighter | Yes, Marker, Text and Crop in the editor |
| Real irreversible redaction | No, no blur or pixelate; a solid box is an overlay that can be lifted | Yes, Scrub pixelates the area into the image, nothing left to recover |
| One-step capture to share | No, save, open Preview, mark up, re-export | Yes, capture, scrub, copy or save in one loop |
| Price | Free, already installed | Free 7-day trial, then $30 once |
What ScrubShot actually changes
ScrubShot is not trying to replace Markup for drawing arrows. It targets the two things the built-in path cannot do: redact for real, and do it without leaving the moment you took the shot in.
- Press the shortcut. It captures the screen and opens the editor straight away.
- Drag the Scrub tool over the sensitive part. It is pixelated into the image as you go, rewriting the pixels rather than covering them, so there is no layer to peel back. If you miss the mark there is Undo.
- Use the Marker to circle something, Text to label it, or Crop to trim the frame.
- Copy it to the clipboard or let it save to your Pictures folder, then paste it wherever it needs to go.
Because the redaction happens between capturing and sharing, in one pass, the safe option is also the quick one. Everything stays on your Mac; the only version that leaves it is the cleaned image. The longer argument for why on-device matters, and the full range of methods, is in the pillar on redacting screenshots on Mac without uploading them.
So which should you use
If you mostly annotate, or the sensitive thing in your shots is always at the edge and easy to crop, the tools on your Mac are the right answer and I would not sell you anything. They are free, they are good, and they are right there.
The case for ScrubShot is narrower and specific: you regularly need to hide something in the middle of a screenshot you still want to share, you want that redaction baked in so it cannot be undone, and you do not want a save-open-edit-export detour every time. If that is your day, debugging with secrets on screen, sending screens of admin panels, sharing anything with a name or a number in it, the loop pays for itself in a week.
FAQ
- Can the built-in Mac tools blur or pixelate a screenshot?
- No. Markup in Preview and Quick Look gives you shapes, arrows, text and a highlighter, but it has no blur or pixelate. To hide something with the built-in tools you draw a solid box over it, which is an overlay rather than a real redaction. ScrubShot adds pixelation that is written into the image itself.
- Is a solid box drawn in Markup safe to share?
- Treat it with caution. A box drawn in Markup sits on top of the image as a separate layer. Depending on the format you save in and the editor it is opened with, that box can sometimes be moved or removed to reveal what is underneath. Pixelating the area into the file leaves nothing to lift off.
- When are the built-in Mac tools enough on their own?
- When the sensitive part is at the edge of the shot, the Screenshot app and Markup are genuinely fine: capture it and crop the edge away, and the detail is gone with no extra app. They are also fine for plain annotation when nothing in frame is sensitive. ScrubShot earns its place when the detail is in the middle of something you need to keep.
- Why use ScrubShot instead of the free tools that ship with macOS?
- Two reasons: real irreversible redaction, and one keyboard-driven loop. The built-in path has no pixelate and makes you save, open Markup, edit and re-export. ScrubShot captures, pixelates the secret into the image, and copies or saves in a single pass without the detour.
Try it
ScrubShot is a Mac app for the gap the built-in tools leave: press the shortcut, scrub the sensitive part into the image, then copy or save. The cleaned screenshot is the only version that ever leaves your Mac. There is a free 7-day trial with no card required. After that it is $30 once.