Shottr

Shottr is a 2.3 MB native macOS screenshot tool built for designers, front-end engineers and anyone who lives in a pixel ruler. We rate it 88/100 — if you take more than a handful of screenshots a week and you don’t already pay for CleanShot X, install Shottr today.

What is Shottr?

Shottr is a Mac-only screenshot, annotation and measurement app made by indie developer Mikhail Mikhailov under Electric Endeavors LLC. The app first appeared on Hacker News in June 2022 and went on to win a wide following on Reddit, Product Hunt and Mac power-user circles. The current public release as of May 6, 2026 is v1.9.1, distributed as a 2.3 MB DMG and also available through Homebrew (brew install --cask shottr).

The pitch is simple: macOS’ built-in Cmd + Shift + 4 is fine for a quick crop, but the moment you need to scroll a long page, OCR a paywalled article, sample a colour, measure a button or pixelate a row of email addresses, you reach for a different tool. Shottr packs all of that into a single launcher that takes ~17 ms to fire and ~165 ms to show the editor — faster than the macOS preview thumbnail. Crucially, it is fully native, optimised for Apple Silicon, and ships without a subscription.

Key Features of Shottr

• Scrolling screenshots: Capture an entire web page, a long Slack thread or a Figma board that doesn’t fit on screen. Shottr scrolls the source window and stitches the captures into a single image — works in any app, any window.
• Built-in OCR & QR reader: Hit a hotkey, drag a region and Shottr extracts the text to your clipboard. Apple’s on-device Vision framework means it runs offline and supports dozens of languages. The same selection also reads QR codes.
• Pixel-perfect screen ruler: Press an arrow key in selection mode and Shottr measures vertical or horizontal distance. Click to imprint the measurement onto the screenshot — useful for design QA and bug reports.
• Magnifier and color picker: Zoom into any pixel and press TAB to copy its color (HEX, RGB, NSColor, SwiftUI, UIColor — configurable). Shift + TAB grabs the dominant text color of a 20×20 px region.
• Erase & pixelate: Hide email addresses, API keys or faces with a pixelated curtain, or remove an object as if it were never there using a content-aware tool. Text mode hides text without warping the surrounding image.
• Beautiful backdrops: One-click gradient backgrounds, drop shadows and rounded corners turn a raw screenshot into something you can post to Twitter or drop into a docs page.
• Pin, combine and resize: Pin captures as borderless always-on-top windows, stitch multiple screenshots onto one canvas, or resize the bitmap right inside the editor.
• Lightweight and private: A 2.3 MB DMG, no electron, no telemetry beyond an opt-in update check, no cloud account required. Everything stays on your Mac unless you upload it deliberately.

What Users Say About Shottr

Sentiment is overwhelmingly positive. The original Hacker News thread in 2022 surfaced more than 250 comments, with the most upvoted reply praising the speed (“faster than CMD+Shift+4”) and the fact that Shottr was free at launch. On Reddit’s r/macapps and the Mac Power Users forum, Shottr is the most-recommended free alternative to CleanShot X — commenters specifically call out the scrolling screenshots, the screen ruler and the absurdly small disk footprint as standout features.

The honest complaints are real but narrow. There is no screen recording — Shottr is screenshots only, so users who want short-clip GIFs still install CleanShot X or Kap alongside it. There is no built-in cloud upload — you can copy to clipboard or save to a folder, but a shareable URL is not part of the product. The Friends Club tier is sometimes called “mostly cosmetic”: most paying users only need the Basic license. And Windows or Linux users are out of luck — the app is Mac only and the developer has said a port is unlikely.

Shottr Pricing

Shottr stays free to download — the app keeps working after 30 days but begins suggesting an upgrade. A Basic license is required for commercial use. Both paid tiers are one-time purchases, never subscriptions, processed by FastSpring with EU-compliant VAT invoices.

Plan	Price	Key Limits
Free	$0	All core features. After 30 days the app prompts you to upgrade. Personal, non-commercial use only.
Basic Tier	$12 one-time	Unlocks the full app, removes the upgrade nag, allows commercial use. One user, up to 5 Macs.
Friends Club	$30 one-time	Everything in Basic, plus access to experimental features, priority email support and a thank-you in the about screen.

Who Should Use Shottr?

Best for: macOS designers, front-end and mobile developers, technical writers and QA engineers who screenshot every day and need OCR, scrolling captures or a pixel ruler. It’s also the right pick for anyone who refuses to pay a $96/year subscription for screenshots when a $12 one-time native app does 80% of the job.

Not ideal for: People who need screen recording or built-in cloud sharing — for that, CleanShot X is still the more complete suite. Also a hard pass for Windows and Linux users; Shottr is Mac only.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Tiny 2.3 MB install — smallest in its category, native Apple Silicon
• Scrolling screenshots and OCR included for free in the trial
• $12 one-time licence beats every subscription competitor on lifetime cost
• Screen ruler, color picker and pixel zoom that designers actually use daily
• Strong privacy posture — no account, no telemetry, no cloud requirement

Cons:

• No screen or window recording — screenshots only
• No built-in cloud upload or shareable URLs
• Mac only — no plans for Windows or Linux
• Friends Club tier is mostly cosmetic at $30

Alternatives to Shottr

CleanShot X is the obvious paid alternative — pricier ($29 one-time or part of Setapp) but adds video recording, cloud uploads and a more polished annotation toolbar. ShareX is the open-source Windows equivalent with broader output integrations but no Mac build. Apple’s built-in screenshot tool (Cmd + Shift + 5) is free and fine for casual use, but lacks scrolling capture, OCR, the screen ruler and any kind of object erase.

Verdict: Is Shottr Worth It?

Yes — it is the easiest $12 a Mac-using designer or developer can spend in 2026. Shottr does not try to be a creative suite; it does seven or eight things really well, ships them in a 2.3 MB native binary, and refuses to charge a subscription. We rate it 88/100. The only reason it isn’t scoring in the 90s is the absence of screen recording and a built-in share URL — if those land in a future release, this is a 95+ app.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Shottr free?

Yes — you can download and use Shottr for free indefinitely. After 30 days it asks you to consider upgrading. A Basic licence is $12 one-time and a Friends Club licence is $30 one-time. There is no subscription.

What platforms does Shottr support?

macOS only — macOS 10.15 (Catalina) and higher. Shottr is a native AppKit app and is optimised for Apple Silicon. There is no Windows, Linux, iOS or web version.

How does Shottr compare to CleanShot X?

Both are excellent Mac screenshot apps. Shottr is smaller (2.3 MB vs ~50 MB), faster to launch and cheaper ($12 one-time vs $29 one-time or Setapp). CleanShot X adds screen recording, GIF capture and built-in cloud uploads — if you need those, pay for CleanShot X. If you want a focused, free-to-try screenshot tool with OCR and a pixel ruler, pick Shottr.

Does Shottr do scrolling screenshots?

Yes. Shottr supports scrolling screenshots in any app or window — it scrolls the source window automatically and stitches the captures into a single tall image.

Is Shottr open source?

No. Shottr is closed-source proprietary software. The developer publishes release notes and a public roadmap, but the source is not on GitHub.

How many Macs does one Shottr licence cover?

One licence covers one user on up to five Macs. The licence is delivered by email after purchase via FastSpring.