Yep — free for 30 days, then a one-time $4.99 to keep it forever. No subscription, no auto-renew, no surprise charge.

Why do I need iShot when my Mac already takes screenshots?

Your Mac captures — it doesn't make captures useful. iShot pulls text off any screen, decodes QR codes, translates, annotates, redacts, records with a camera bubble, and scroll-captures long pages. Text recognition, QR, and annotation run entirely on your Mac; translation runs through the AI key you add. The built-in tool stops at the picture; iShot starts there.

Which Macs does it run on?

Any Mac on macOS 12 (Monterey) or newer. There's one Universal download that covers both Apple Silicon (M1–M4) and Intel Macs — it picks the right one automatically.

Can I grab text and links out of a screenshot?

Yes. Select any text in your capture and copy it with ⌘C, or pull everything off the screen at once with the on-device OCR panel — in a bunch of languages. Point it at a QR code and it'll decode the link, so you can open or copy it straight from the shot.

Can I record my screen with a camera bubble?

Yes. Record your screen and mic, and optionally float your webcam in a round bubble you can drag and resize — turn it off in one click. You can also drop your capture on a clean custom background and mute notifications while you record.

Does it work offline?

Mostly, yes. Grabbing text from screenshots (OCR) and scanning QR codes run entirely on your Mac, no internet needed. Only translation needs a connection.

Is my data safe? What happens to my screenshots?

They stay on your Mac. OCR and QR scanning run entirely on-device — nothing is uploaded and nothing trains a cloud model. Only translation needs an internet connection. The app is notarized by Apple, and downloads come straight from the official site.

How do I capture a long page?

Hit scroll capture, scroll down or sideways yourself at your own pace, then press your finish key. iShot stitches everything into one tall, seamless image and copies it ready to share.

Comparison · Monosnap

iShot vs Monosnap (2026): cloud-first vs local-first

Name: iShot
Brand: iShot
Price: 4.99 USD
Availability: OnlineOnly
Author: Tuan Tran

Monosnap is a cloud-first capture-and-share service: short links, integrations, subscriptions. If your job is getting screenshots to other people fast, it's purpose-built. If your job is making screenshots useful to you — text, QR, translation, history — iShot does that on your Mac for $4.99 once, with no subscription and no cloud dependency.

Disclosure: I built iShot, so I am not neutral here. Every claim about Monosnap on this page comes from their own site or store page, last checked September 2026. WhereMonosnap is the better tool, I say so.

Stop re-typing what you just screenshotted. Monosnap doesn't help with that — its identity is distribution: capture, annotate, and push it to the world as a short link, with integrations for S3, Drive, and Dropbox. The product is built around the moment after the capture: getting the file to someone.

iShot is built around the moment of the capture — the text is copyable, the QR code decodes, the foreign screen translates, and nothing is uploaded.

Side by side

iShot vs Monosnap vs macOS built-in
Feature	iShot	Monosnap	macOS built-in
Price model	⚠️ $4.99 once, forever	⚠️ free tier (2GB, caps); $3/mo non-commercial; $5/user/mo	⚠️ free, built in
Model	⚠️ local-first, one-time	⚠️ cloud-first, subscription	⚠️ local
Copy text out of a screenshot	✅	❌	⚠️ partial — Live Text in Preview
QR / barcode decode	✅	❌	❌
Translate what's on screen	✅	❌	❌
Scrolling capture	✅	❌	❌
Screen recording	⚠️ screen + mic + camera bubble	⚠️ webcam overlay, no bubble	✅
Clipboard history + search	⚠️ Spotlight-style search	❌	❌
Sharing	⚠️ local files + your own tools	⚠️ short links + S3/Drive/Dropbox	⚠️ AirDrop, files
Pin to screen	✅	❌	❌
Blur / redact	✅	✅	❌
Account required	❌	⚠️ central to the model	❌

Feature and pricing data checked against official sites in September 2026. Apps change; if something here looks stale, tell me and I’ll fix it.

What Monosnap does well

Distribution. Short links plus cloud integrations are genuinely handy if your screenshots live in team channels or client portals.
Webcam overlay in recordings — presentable for webinars; iShot's camera bubble does something different (on-screen presence in a single file).
A real free tier: 2GB of storage and monthly caps, usable forever for light users.

Pricing as published on monosnap.ai — Free tier (2GB storage, monthly caps); $3/mo non-commercial; $5/user/mo commercial.

Where it falls short

No read-the-screen layer: no copy-text, no QR decode, no translation. Its "smart" features are about where the file goes, not what's in it.
No scrolling capture at all, and no clipboard history or search.
Privacy is a setting, not an architecture: Monosnap's model requires screenshots to pass through its cloud — the free tier's bandwidth caps are the reminder. iShot has no cloud, no account.
Subscription math: free tier with caps, $3/mo non-commercial, $5/user/mo commercial. iShot is $4.99 once, every user, forever.

The verdict

Pick Monosnap if your screenshots are deliverables shared with clients daily and the link model earns its subscription.

Pick iShot if your screenshots are working material — code, docs, errors, references — or privacy-sensitive: everything runs on your Mac, nothing leaves it, and it's $4.99 per seat once (a small team beats $5/user/mo by the end of month two).

Questions people ask

Does iShot share screenshots to the cloud?

No — by design. You export local files and move them with whatever you already use (AirDrop, email, Slack, your drive). No iShot cloud, no short links, no account.

Is Monosnap's free tier enough?

For casual sharing, yes. The caps (2GB, monthly bandwidth, upload limits) are where it stops being enough.

Can I try iShot before paying?

Yes — 30-day free trial, no card, full app. Then $4.99 once.

Looking for how-tos instead of head-to-heads? The guides cover copying text from screenshots and scrolling capture step by step.

More comparisons

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