ShareX vs TextSniper
We give ShareX a 3.2 GPA and TextSniper a 2.6, out of 4.0. ShareX grades higher on the free plan and features. They get the same grade on value for money, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
TextSniper
Mac menu bar tool that copies text from any part of the screen
Free trial · from $7.99 one-time
How we grade them
| 3.2GPAShareXVery good | 2.6GPATextSniperGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AIt costs nothing. ShareX is free and open source under the GPL-3.0 license, with no advertisements. The team says donations are its only source of income. | A$7.99 once for 1 Mac, or $9.99 for up to three. About as cheap as paid utilities get. The Mac App Store version is $9.99 on the US store. One catch for later: the vendor says major upgrades come at an additional upgrade cost. |
| Free plan and trial | AThe complete app is free and needs no account. Get it as a setup or portable download, or from the Microsoft Store or Steam. There's no paid edition to grow into. | CNo free version and no standalone trial. The vendor points you to Setapp's free week, where TextSniper is in the catalog, and the listing doesn't say whether that needs a card. Buy direct and you get a 7-day money-back guarantee, which isn't a trial. |
| Features | ARegion, window, monitor and scrolling captures, screen recording as video or GIF, and an editor with arrows, step numbers and blur. Each capture can run a chain of tasks ending in an upload and a copied link. OCR, a color picker and a ruler come bundled. That's the whole screenshot job. | BOne job, done neatly: drag over any part of the screen and the text is copied. It also reads QR codes and barcodes and can speak the text aloud. But the vendor says it can misread symbol-heavy text like code, and on macOS Catalina it only recognizes English. |
| Ease of use | BNo store rating on record, so a B is as high as we go. A plain screenshot is a hotkey away. The clever parts, like task chains and custom uploaders, are things you configure yourself. The docs also say scrolling capture can fail on pages with static or animated elements. | BNo store rating on record, so a B is as high as we go. If you can take a screenshot you can use this: one shortcut, one drag. It sits in the menu bar with no Dock icon, and you can change the shortcut. |
| Platforms and integrations | DWindows only. It uploads to Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Cloudflare R2 and YouTube, and custom uploaders reach services that aren't built in. Nothing for Mac or Linux. | DMac only, on macOS Catalina or newer, with no integrations listed. It recognizes more than 25 languages on recent macOS versions. An iPhone or iPad camera can capture text and send it to the Mac, but there's no app for those. |
| Best for | free screenshots on Windows that file and share themselves | copying text you can't select on a Mac screen |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: ShareX and TextSniper. How we grade
Where they differ
- ShareX is free. TextSniper starts at $7.99 one-time purchase (license for 1 Mac).
- ShareX has a free plan. TextSniper does not, though it has a free trial.
- Only ShareX lists a Windows app.
- Only TextSniper lists a macOS app.
- ShareX is open source, according to its own site.
- TextSniper can be bought with a one-time purchase.
- ShareX also covers screen recording, screenshots and file sharing.
- TextSniper also covers menu bar app.
At a glance
| ShareX | TextSniper | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free trial |
| Starts at | Free | $7.99 one-time purchase (license for 1 Mac) |
| Free plan | The whole app is free and open source, with no advertisements and no account. The team says donations are its only source of income. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | Free for 7 days through Setapp's trial; direct purchases carry a 7-day money-back guarantee |
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Made by | ShareX Team | Valerijs Boguckis |
| Price read from | getsharex.com | textsniper.app |
| Checked | Oct 6, 2026 | Oct 9, 2026 |
Who each one suits
ShareX
- Windows users who capture, annotate and share screenshots many times a day
- People who upload captures to their own storage or a self-hosted service
- Recording short clips or GIFs for bug reports and documentation
TextSniper
- Copying text out of videos, screenshots, scanned PDFs and slides
- Mac users who want text recognition that runs on the device
- Buyers who prefer a small one-time price to a subscription
Worth knowing
ShareX
- Windows only: the site describes it as a screenshot tool for Windows, with downloads on the website, GitHub, Microsoft Store and Steam.
- Files are uploaded to third-party services the user chooses and configures, so each destination's own terms and privacy policy apply.
- OCR can only use the recognizer languages installed in Windows.
- The docs say scrolling capture can fail or produce inaccurate results on pages with static, animated or hover-triggered elements.
TextSniper
- Mac only, requiring macOS Catalina or newer, and the languages it recognizes depend on the macOS version installed.
- There is no standalone trial: the vendor points to Setapp's free week and offers a 7-day money-back guarantee on direct purchases.
- The vendor says it can misread text with a lot of symbols, such as computer code.
- A license is bought once, but the vendor says major upgrades and features come at an additional upgrade cost.
Key features
ShareX
- Capture methods
- Captures the full screen, the active window or monitor, a drawn region, the last or a custom region, or a scrolling page, and has an auto capture mode.
- Screen recording and GIFs
- Records the screen as video or as an animated GIF. Bundled tools include a video converter, a video trimmer and an animated GIF trimmer.
- Annotation and image editor
- Region capture and the built-in editor add arrows, text, step numbers, highlights and speech balloons, and hide details with blur, pixelate or a smart eraser.
- After-capture and after-upload tasks
- Each capture can run a set chain of tasks: copy to the clipboard, save to a file, open in the editor, run an action, upload, then shorten or copy the resulting URL.
- Uploads and custom uploaders
- Uploads images, text, files, folders and URLs to a chosen destination. Custom uploaders, shared as .sxcu files, send uploads to services that are not built in.
- OCR and other tools
- OCR uses the engine included with Windows and runs locally. Other tools include a color picker, ruler, QR code scanner, hash checker and pin to screen.
TextSniper
- Screen text capture
- Press the shortcut, drag over any part of the screen, and the text inside the selection is recognized and copied to the clipboard, ready to paste into another app.
- On-device recognition
- The App Store listing says recognition runs on the device with no internet connection, and the privacy policy says screenshots and text are not stored or sent to outside servers.
- QR code and barcode reader
- Captures a QR code or barcode shown on screen and converts it to text. An option in the settings opens captured links automatically.
- Text to speech
- Has the Mac read recognized text aloud, with a dedicated shortcut for capturing text with speech switched on.
- Languages by macOS version
- English only on macOS Catalina, growing to more than 25 languages on recent macOS versions, with vertical Chinese, Japanese and Korean text recognized from macOS Sonoma.
- Menu bar access and shortcuts
- Runs from the menu bar without a Dock icon, and the capture shortcut can be changed. An iPhone or iPad camera can also be used to capture text and send it to the Mac.
Plans
ShareX
ShareX$0
The complete app as a setup or portable download, or from the Microsoft Store or Steam. Open source under the GPL-3.0 license.
TextSniper
License for 1 Mac$7.99
one-time purchase
A direct license for a single Mac, sold through Gumroad. One button on the homepage still shows $6.99; the checkout price is $7.99.
License for 3 Macs$9.99
one-time purchase
A direct license for up to three Macs, sold through Gumroad and described as suited to multi-device, home and office use.
Unlimited License$9.99
one-time purchase (US Mac App Store)
The Mac App Store version. The homepage lists it at $11.99, but the US store listing shows $9.99.
Setapp$14.99
per month, through a Setapp membership
TextSniper with the rest of the Setapp catalog, free for 7 days. Setapp also lists a TextSniper-only subscription from $6.00 a year.
