Shottr wins hearts with raw speed. Lovely starts at the same speed-first capture loop, then adds recording, beautify and on-device AI on top.
| Feature | Lovely (free) | Lovely Pro | Shottr |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $12 once (beta price) | Free · $8 Pro |
| Speed-first capture | yes | yes | yes |
| Scrolling capture | — | yes | yes |
| Annotate (arrows, shapes, text, blur…) | yes | yes | yes |
| Multi-shot canvas (several screenshots, one board) | yes | yes | — |
| Beautify backgrounds | watermarked | yes · 12 hand-named gradients | basic |
| Screen recording | yes (MP4 + trim) | yes (multi-clip, GIF/MOV) | — |
| Voice-over & webcam layer on recordings | — | yes | — |
| OCR text extraction | yes | yes | yes |
| Smart redaction (auto-blur emails, keys, cards) | yes | yes | manual |
| Search screenshots by meaning (on-device AI) | yes | yes | — |
| Automation: custom scripts & webhooks per capture | — | yes | — |
| Pixel ruler / measurements | yes | yes | yes |
| Notarized by Apple | at 1.0 | at 1.0 | yes |
Comparison against Shottr's public feature list as of July 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us on the requests board and we'll fix it.
Shottr is brilliantly fast and light — a hand-tuned, tiny app that's earned its place on thousands of Macs. If all you need is capture → annotate → copy at maximum speed, Shottr is hard to beat and its free tier is generous.
Lovely covers that same daily loop and then keeps going: screen recording with a real timeline editor, warm beautify backdrops for shots you publish, offline AI search across your history, and automation that pipes captures into your own tools. Beta is free — run both and keep whichever fits.
Lovely Screenshots is a free Shottr alternative for Mac - the same fast capture, annotation and pixel ruler, plus screen recording, beautify backdrops and on-device AI search that Shottr does not offer. Here is what people ask before switching.
Yes. Lovely Screenshots is a free Shottr alternative for macOS 14 and later. It matches Shottr's fast capture-and-annotate loop, pixel ruler and OCR, then adds what Shottr does not have: screen recording with a real timeline editor, warm beautify backdrops, and on-device AI search across your screenshot history.
Yes, and that is a key difference. Shottr focuses on stills, while Lovely records MP4 (free, single clip) and, with Lovely Pro, multi-clip video with voice-over, a webcam layer and GIF/MOV export. If you want screenshots and screen recordings from one menu-bar app, Lovely covers both.
The app is free to download and the daily capture-and-annotate loop is free forever. Lovely Pro is a one-time 12 USD purchase (beta price) - comparable to Shottr's own one-time Pro - with no subscription.
Shottr is exceptionally fast and light, and it is Apple-notarized today (Lovely notarizes at version 1.0). If your only need is the leanest possible capture-annotate-copy tool, Shottr is excellent. Lovely's bet is breadth - recording, beautify and AI search alongside that same fast loop.