PrintScreen.ly vs Shottr
Looking for a Shottr alternative that runs on more than your Mac? Here's an honest PrintScreen.ly vs Shottr comparison — what each one does well, and where the other one wins. Shottr is one of the fastest, most polished native Mac screenshot apps shipping right now; PrintScreen.ly is the cross-platform alternative that follows you to Windows, iPhone, Android, and the web on a single license.
| At a glance | PrintScreen.ly | Shottr |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $3.99/mo | Free (pay what you want, occasional reminder) |
| Most popular plan | $24.99/yr | $12 one-time (Basic, lifts the reminder + commercial use) |
| Lifetime license | $59.99 | $30 one-time (Friends Club — early features + support) |
| Platforms | Mac · Windows · iOS · Android · Web | Mac |
Pick Shottr if
- ·Best-in-class scrolling screenshot speed and quality on Mac — fast, accurate stitching that's still the benchmark for the category in 2026.
- ·Tighter Mac-native polish: pixel ruler, instant color picker, on-screen measurement tools, and a native Apple Silicon build that feels physically lighter than what we ship.
- ·Pay-what-you-want pricing means you can use Shottr free forever for personal use, or pay $12 once to lift the occasional 'consider buying' reminder. Hard to beat that on price alone.
- ·Deeper power-user feature set on Mac — annotation niceties, screen-area zoom, OCR with quick copy, and a build cadence pointed entirely at one platform's quality.
Pick PrintScreen.ly if
- +True cross-platform: native Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and a web dashboard — one account, one license. Shottr is Mac-only.
- +Cross-device clipboard: copy a screenshot on Mac, paste it on iPhone or Windows. Shottr has no equivalent because Shottr only exists on Mac.
- +Editor parity across every client — the same 8 tools, same Apple-system color palette, same stroke widths, same text sizes — so an annotation made on iPhone looks identical when re-opened on Windows or web.
- +Free tier is a complete standalone tool with no occasional 'consider buying' prompts: capture (region, window, fullscreen, scrolling), full 8-tool markup editor, on-device OCR, save, and share — clean forever.
Full feature comparison
Verified 2026-05-08. Source linked at the bottom.
| Feature | PrintScreen.ly | Shottr |
|---|---|---|
| Price (entry) | $3.99/mo | Free (pay what you want) |
| One-time price to remove reminders / unlock commercial use | $59.99 lifetime — every platform, every update forever | $12 (Basic) or $30 (Friends Club) — Mac only |
| Platforms | Mac + Windows + iOS + Android + Web | Mac only (macOS 10.15+, Apple Silicon native) |
| Region / window / fullscreen capture | Yes | Yes |
| Scroll capture | Yes | Yes — class-leading on Mac |
| Video recording | No | No (image capture only) |
| Markup tools | 8 tools, 8-color Apple-system palette, non-destructive crop, identical on every client | Pen, highlighter, shapes, arrow, text, blur, redact, plus pixel ruler and color picker |
| OCR | Yes — on-device, free for everyone, every platform | Yes — on-device on Mac |
| Pixel ruler / on-screen measurement | No | Yes |
| Color picker | No | Yes |
| Cloud sync | Yes (Pro) — Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Web on one account | Optional S3 upload (paid users) — bring your own bucket |
| Web dashboard for your screenshot library | Yes (Pro) | No |
| Mobile apps | Yes — native iOS and Android | No |
| Cross-device clipboard | Yes (Pro) | No |
| Free tier | Complete standalone tool — no nags, no time limit, no watermark | Free forever with occasional 'consider buying' prompt |
| Trust + signing | Apple Developer ID notarized + Azure Trusted Signing on Windows | Apple Developer ID notarized |
Bottom line
Shottr is genuinely great on Mac. If you only ever use a Mac, you can get most of what you need from Shottr free, drop $12 to lift the reminder, and never look back — that's a fair deal and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. PrintScreen.ly is for the other workflow: the one where you capture on Mac, want to mark it up on your iPhone an hour later, and pull the final out from a Windows machine the next day. We are not chasing Shottr on Mac polish — they have a multi-year head start and one platform to focus on. We are chasing the cross-device flow that Shottr does not have because it's Mac-only.
FAQ
Is PrintScreen.ly faster than Shottr on Mac?+
Honest answer: not today. Shottr is one of the fastest scrolling-screenshot tools on macOS and we don't claim to beat it on raw Mac performance. PrintScreen.ly is built around cross-platform parity rather than being the fastest single-Mac app. If you only use a Mac and you want the absolute fastest native experience, Shottr is the right buy.
Does Shottr have an iPhone, Android, or Windows version?+
No. Shottr is macOS-only and has been since launch. If you want one screenshot tool that works on Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android, and the web on the same account, that's the gap PrintScreen.ly fills.
Is PrintScreen.ly's free tier really complete?+
Yes. Free includes every capture mode (region, window, fullscreen, scrolling), the full 8-tool markup editor with the Apple-system color palette, on-device OCR, save to your local folder, copy to clipboard, and share via the system share sheet. No reminders, no time limit. Pro only adds what you can't do on a single device — cloud sync, the web library, shareable links, and cross-device clipboard.
Why pay $59.99 lifetime when Shottr is essentially free?+
If a Mac-only screenshot tool is enough for you, Shottr at $0–$12 is the better buy and we say that on this page. The $59.99 lifetime number covers five platforms, every future update, and the cloud sync that ties them together. You pay for the cross-device part — not the capture-on-Mac part.
More PrintScreen.ly comparisons
Pricing verified 2026-05-08. Shottr pricing source. Subject to change.