Comparison · Xnip
iShot vs Xnip (2026): same $4.99 tag — one is once, one is per year
Xnip is a solid, long-running Mac screenshot app: capture, scroll, pin — free with a watermark, Pro at $4.99/year. iShot costs the same number — $4.99 — but you pay it once, forever, and get the layer Xnip doesn't have: on-device text copy in 12+ languages, QR decode, and translation.
Disclosure: I built iShot, so I am not neutral here. Every claim about Xnip on this page comes from their own site or store page, last checked September 2026. WhereXnip is the better tool, I say so.
Stop re-typing what you just screenshotted. If you're looking at Xnip, that's probably where the search started: an affordable screenshot app that does the basics well. It does — capture, scroll, annotate, pin, a focused toolkit with a simple license. The catch: the text stays in the picture. No text copy, no QR, no translation.
Xnip has been around for years — a known quantity, years of updates, a reasonable answer to "what should I buy instead of paying for a big app." The question is what the $4.99 tag actually buys you — and how long the deal lasts: once, forever, or every year?
Side by side
| Feature | iShot | Xnip | macOS built-in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price model | ⚠️ $4.99 once, forever | ⚠️ free (watermark); Pro $4.99/yr; IAP $7.99–9.99 once | ⚠️ free, built in |
| Copy text out of a screenshot | ✅ | ❌ | ⚠️ partial — Live Text in Preview |
| QR / barcode decode | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Translate what's on screen | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Ask your screenshot anything (AI) | ⚠️ bring your own GPT/Claude key | ❌ | ❌ |
| Scrolling capture | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Screen recording | ⚠️ screen + mic + camera bubble | ❌ | ✅ |
| Clipboard history + search | ⚠️ Spotlight-style search | ❌ | ❌ |
| Pin to screen | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Blur / redact | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Watermark on captures | ❌ | ⚠️ free tier watermarks everything | ❌ |
| Privacy posture | ⚠️ no cloud, no account, on-device | ⚠️ fully local — requests no network permission | ⚠️ local |
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 Xnip does well
- Simplicity. Xnip does a smaller set of things and does them cleanly — if all you want is capture + scroll + pin, the surface area is smaller.
- Long track record. Years of updates and a known quantity in the category.
- Local by default. The App Store listing shows it requests no network access permission at all — a genuine privacy posture, with a smaller toolkit.
- Instant free start. You can use Xnip today at $0 — at the cost of a stamp on every shot.
Pricing as published on xnipapp.com/ — Free with a watermark on every capture; Xnip Pro $4.99/yr auto-renewing; one-time IAPs $7.99/$9.99 (checked Sept 2026).
Where it falls short
- No read-the-screen layer: no copy-text, no QR decode, no translation. That's the entire difference between the two products.
- No screen recording — Xnip is capture-focused, iShot records with a camera bubble.
- No clipboard history or search.
- The watermark test: the free tier stamps every capture. Removing it means Xnip Pro at $4.99/yr auto-renewing, or a $7.99–9.99 one-time IAP.
The verdict
Pick Xnip if you're a minimalist who only captures and pins — it's a good small app, and the free tier is real.
Pick iShot if you screenshot code, docs, errors, or foreign-language screens: on-device text copy (12+ languages), QR decode, translation, AI chat on your own key, and recording — $4.99 once, forever, no watermark, full 30-day trial first.
Questions people ask
Why does Xnip watermark the free version?
That's the freemium model: the watermark is the paywall. iShot's model is time-based — the full app free for 30 days, no watermark, no card, then $4.99 once.
Is Xnip Pro cheaper than iShot?
Not really. $4.99/year vs $4.99 once: by year two you've paid about $10 for Xnip Pro — iShot's whole price — with no copy-text, no QR, no translation, no recording.
Is iShot's text copy better than Preview's Live Text?
Same on-device technology family. iShot's advantage is one-step in-app copy, 12+ languages, combined with QR and translation in the same pass.
Looking for how-tos instead of head-to-heads? The guides cover copying text from screenshots and scrolling capture step by step.