Shottr
A weekend of work, and real gaps remain.
A fast macOS screenshot tool: capture, annotate, measure pixel distances, pick colours and read text out of an image, all without leaving the capture window.
A native screenshot tool needs native APIs. Build the annotation half in the browser. WHAT A BROWSER CANNOT DO - Capture another application's window, or a scrolling page outside itself - Use the operating system's screenshot key - For those, keep a native tool WHAT A BROWSER DOES WELL STACK - One HTML page, canvas, no server — paste an image and annotate it ANNOTATION - Arrow, box, ellipse, freehand, text, blur and a step counter - Every annotation is an object in a list, so undo is removing one and editing is changing its properties - Never draw straight onto the pixels THE BLUR TOOL - Blur is the one that matters: apply it to the exported image, not as an overlay - An overlay that a viewer can remove is a redaction that never happened EXPORT - PNG at device pixel ratio, and copy to clipboard through the Clipboard API Include the object model, the export pipeline and the blur implementation.
What you lose
- Native capture speed and system integration, which a browser cannot reach
- Scrolling capture of a long page, stitched correctly
- Text recognition inside a screenshot, running locally
If you would rather not build
- macOS Screenshot with Preview, which is free
The escape hatch
open source · no votes, no paid placement
Flameshot
$0Cross-platform screenshot tool with in-place annotation.
flameshot-org/flameshotfree · open source
ShareX
$0Windows capture with annotation, scrolling capture and custom uploaders.
ShareX/ShareXfree · open source
Why this verdict
our own opinion · changed only by a person
55/100
Verdict kinda at 55. Annotation in a browser is straightforward; capture and text recognition need the operating system. The blur warning is the important part.
History
tracked since 10 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten
Questions about Shottr
answered from the record above
Is Shottr free?
No — the plan we track is $0.67 a month. A one-off licence of around $8 rather than a subscription; the figure shown spreads that over a year.
Can you replace Shottr by building your own?
ALMOST. A weekend of work, and real gaps remain. Replacement score 55 out of 100, build time a weekend. Read what you lose before you decide.
How much does Shottr cost?
$0.67 a month on One-off licence — $8.04 a year. Recorded 10 Aug 2026.
What do you lose by replacing Shottr?
Native capture speed and system integration, which a browser cannot reach; Scrolling capture of a long page, stitched correctly; Text recognition inside a screenshot, running locally. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Shottr?
Yes: Flameshot, ShareX. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.
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