Snagit for Mac and Skitch are two popular graphic apps that allow you to take screenshots, annotate them and share them. Both of these programs will make it easier for you to explain software and highlight elements in screen captures. But there are some key differences between these two products that you should consider before downloading.

Price

Snagit for Mac comes with a full-featured 30-day trial, during which time you can use all of Snagit’s features. After your trial evaluation period is over, you’ll have to pay $49.95 to continue using Snagit.

Skitch is free forever. However, with the free version of Skitch, you won’t be able to access some of the advanced editing features, such as watermarks, transparencies, custom fonts and others. For most users, however, the free version of Skitch is sufficient.

Capture Profiles

Snagit for Mac has a number of capture profiles, including a region capture that lets you use crosshairs to draw a box around the area you’d like to capture; window capture; fullscreen capture and delay capture. One standout feature is the ability to capture scrolling windows. This is great for capturing screen shots of webpages that don’t fit in a single window.

Skitch offers a region capture, fullscreen capture and a “frame” capture that works much like the region capture. The free version of Skitch does not allow you to take screenshots of scrolling webpages. One feature that Skitch offers that Snagit does not is the ability to take a snapshot from your webcam.

Editing

Snagit for Mac has a vast selection of markup tools and annotations and effects. It comes preloaded with a number of styles for text, text boxes, arrows, shapes and stamps. You can also crop, resize, add borders and shadows and customize elements. For example, you can create dotted lines with different arrows, curved arrows and text boxes with custom fonts on your hard drive.

Skitch has more limited editing features. It allows you to include text, draw shapes, draw freehand and draw arrows. However, customization is limited to changing the size and color of each element. Cropping is basic in the free version.

Sharing

Snagit for Mac lets you copy and paste screenshots directly into programs, such as iWeb or Microsoft Office. You can also send your screenshots to Screencast.com or upload them via FTP. Snagit for Mac exports in a number of file formats, including PNG, JPG, GIF, PDF, TIF and others.

Skitch has robust sharing features and its own full-featured photo sharing service. You can upload your Skitch snapshots directly to your personal website, where they can be viewed by the community, tagged, commented and organized. The free version lets you export images in a handful of formats, while the paid version gives you more. You can also send snapshots directly to Twitter or Facebook with Skitch.

Overall Summary

If you are looking for a basic image sharing and screen capture tool, Skitch offers a great set of features for free. But if you’d like to get more detailed with your annotations, Snagit for Mac is a worthy investment. Both are incredibly easy to use and can help you make professional looking screenshots for your tutorials, blogs and tech manuals.