ZeroBlur Alternative: Which Screen Blur Extension Should You Use?

DataBlur is the closest ZeroBlur alternative: both blur sensitive data on screen before a screen share or recording, but DataBlur adds automatic detection of emails, credit cards and API keys, redact and transparent hide styles, and a fail-safe that blurs more — not less — when something goes wrong. ZeroBlur is still a fine pick if all you need is to hand-blur a few elements, free with no strings attached.

Both tools follow the same core idea: hide the data before it is ever captured, instead of editing it out frame by frame afterwards. The differences are in how much of that hiding you have to do yourself — and what happens when you forget. Here is an honest comparison, based on what each extension actually ships as of August 2026.

What happened to ZeroBlur?

If you searched for ZeroBlur and landed on a domain-for-sale page, you are not imagining it: zeroblur.com currently points to a domain marketplace. The extension itself is alive — it moved to a page on its creator's site, divbyzero.com/tools/zeroblur. ZeroBlur is one of several free side projects by Massimo Chieruzzi, a SaaS marketing veteran, and it shows in both directions: the tool is genuinely free and pleasantly simple, and it evolves at side-project pace.

What ZeroBlur does well

• 100% free, forever — no signup, no email, no paid tier, no watermark.
• Two ways to blur — pick a specific HTML element, or drag a rectangle over an area.
• Per-page or site-wide — a toggle decides whether a blur follows you across the whole site (handy for a user ID shown on every page).
• Lightweight — a small extension with no meaningful browsing overhead.

For a quick demo where you know exactly which two fields to hide, that is honestly all you need.

Where you may outgrow it

The gaps only start to matter when screen sharing is part of your job rather than an occasional event:

• Everything is manual. ZeroBlur blurs what you point it at. It does not scan the page for emails, phone numbers, card numbers or API keys — under pre-call pressure, the field you forgot is the one that leaks.
• Blur is the only style. There is no solid redact bar for data that must be unreadable beyond doubt, and no transparent mode.
• No saved setups. Blurs persist per site, but there are no named profiles to save a client-specific setup and re-apply it deliberately; cross-device sync is listed as a maybe-someday.
• Side-project cadence. The lapsed main domain tells the story: updates arrive when the author has time.

How DataBlur compares

DataBlur covers the same manual workflow — click any element, drag any area, blur the page title or the whole page — and then automates the part ZeroBlur leaves to you:

• Auto-detection. Emails, phone numbers, credit cards, passwords, security codes and API keys are found and hidden by deterministic pattern matching. No AI, no cloud: detection runs entirely on your device.
• Three hide styles. Blur for context, redact for data that must be unreadable, transparent for layouts that should stay visually intact.
• A blur list. Add plain keywords or regular expressions — every match on every page gets hidden, automatically.
• Fail-safe defaults. If detection fails mid-call, DataBlur blurs everything rather than exposing everything. The default state is protected, not exposed.
• Peek and shortcuts. Hold Alt to look under a blur; keyboard shortcuts cover the toolbar, text blur and auto-detection.

Everything above is free, like ZeroBlur — with one honest asterisk: blurs that DataBlur applies for you automatically carry a small badge in the free version. DataBlur Pro ($4.99 a month or $39 once, lifetime) removes the badge and adds named blur profiles you can save per client and restore in one click.

Who should pick which?

Pick ZeroBlur if you share your screen occasionally, know exactly which elements to hide, and want the smallest possible free tool with zero branding on its blurs.

Pick DataBlur if screen sharing is routine — demos, support calls, tutorials — and you want the fields you forgot to be caught automatically, with a redact option for the data that must never be recoverable and a default that protects you when things break.

Frequently asked questions

Is ZeroBlur still maintained?

The extension still works and its page lives on divbyzero.com. Its original domain, zeroblur.com, now points to a domain marketplace, and its creator maintains it as one of several free side projects — so updates are sporadic rather than scheduled.

Is DataBlur a free ZeroBlur alternative?

Yes. Manual blur, area blur, auto-detection, redact and transparent styles, the blur list and keyboard shortcuts are all free, with no signup. The free version marks auto-applied blurs with a small badge; DataBlur Pro removes it and adds saved profiles.

Does either extension send my data to the cloud?

DataBlur processes everything locally — no cloud, no AI, no data ever leaves your device, which is why it can be used in front of client data. ZeroBlur does not document a cloud component either; check its site for the current details.

Can I blur data automatically instead of clicking each field?

With DataBlur, yes: auto-detection finds emails, card numbers, passwords and API keys on its own, and the blur list hides every match of your own keywords or regex patterns. ZeroBlur is manual by design — you select each element or area yourself.

Hide it before it leaks

Both tools beat editing blur boxes into a recording afterwards. If your screen only occasionally holds something sensitive, ZeroBlur is a perfectly good, perfectly free answer. If your screen holds client data every day, let the tool do the hunting: install DataBlur free and see what auto-detect catches on your own dashboard.