Who is it for?
- Useful for adding arrows, text, numbers and blur to a screenshot for instructions or bug reports.
- Useful for getting screenshots, screen recording and text extraction in one Mac app without an account or cloud service.
Better Shot — Screenshots & Annotation
Kartik Labhshetwar
Better Shot is a free, open-source app for macOS 26 and later that captures a region, window, full screen or scrolling screenshot, marks it up, polishes it and records the screen.
Why it fits
| Good to know | Desktop |
|---|---|
| Free output | Yes |
| No account needed | Yes |
| No watermark | Yes |
| Works offline | Yes |
| Batch processing | — |
| Content language | — |
— Unverified conditions. Official documentation reviewed. The app itself has not been hands-on tested. Matches only documented content-language support, not interface language.
Sources and review date2
Founder feedback and correction
Editorial selection guide
Last checked:
Getting started
- Confirm your Mac runs macOS 26 or later; install with Homebrew or the .dmg from the GitHub releases and grant the permissions.
- Choose region, window, full-screen or scrolling capture; mark it up with arrows, text, numbered markers, highlights, blur and pixelate.
- Optionally polish it with a background, padding and shadow, then save or copy; for screen recording, set the screen, audio and camera options.
Decision points
- Consider it if you want a local Mac tool without an account, subscription or watermark.
- If the macOS 26 requirement is a problem on an older Mac, look at tools with different version requirements such as Shottr or Flameshot.
Limits
- It runs only on macOS 26.0 or later; there is no Windows or Linux version.
- Optional cloud sharing needs your own Cloudflare R2 bucket and does not work offline.
- The site lists OCR, captions and the video editor as side features but does not state their quality or language coverage; try them with your own content.
Frequently asked questions
Is Better Shot free and does it add a watermark?
The site says it is free, with no trial, paid tier, account or watermark.
Does it work offline?
The site says it works fully offline except for the optional cloud sharing.