a free TextSniper alternative
updated · by Anton Shakirov
TextSniper is a good, focused tool that costs between eight and twelve dollars once. hop does the same job — pull text off anything on screen — as one of eighteen tools behind a single menu bar icon, and costs nothing.
if you already own TextSniper, keep it — it works and you have paid. this page is for two other people: someone choosing for the first time, and someone tired of running eight separate little apps to get eight little things done.
what TextSniper gets right
it does one thing and has been refined around it for years. text from images, pdfs, slides, video calls — the workflow is tight, and everything in the app is arranged around that single task.
processing happens on your Mac and it works offline, so the privacy story is the same as ours.
what it costs, checked today
prices as of 10 september 2026: $7.99 for a single Mac and $9.99 for three from the developer's own site, $11.99 for the unlimited licence, $9.99 on the Mac App Store. one-time either way — nothing to renew and nothing to cancel. worth re-checking before you buy: comparison pages age badly, this one included.
what the same job looks like on our side is written out in full on the feature page text recognition on Mac
the free field around TextSniper
if recognition is the only thing you want and you would rather not pay, the free field is not empty. TRex is free and open source and does exactly this; NormCap is open source and runs on three platforms. both cost nothing, as does hop.
we name them because a comparison page that pretends the free field is empty is not worth reading. the difference is shape, not the job: they are specialists, hop is a toolkit where recognition is one of eighteen things behind one icon.
TRex is close enough to us that it has its own page here, with the same honesty applied in the other direction a trex alternative
what Live Text already does for free
before paying anyone — us included, though we do not charge — check whether macOS already covers your case. Live Text is built in and probably further along than you think.
it reads paused video too, and has since Ventura
a paused frame of video is where most write-ups say Live Text gives up. that stopped being true in 2022: pause a clip in Safari, Photos, QuickTime or Quick Look and the text in the frame is selectable like text on a page.
so «we can do video» is not a difference — not from TextSniper, and not from the system.
Apple's own release notes for macOS Ventura put it in one line: Live Text can recognise text in paused video frames. Apple newsroom — macOS Ventura is now available
where it stops, and why
Live Text is not a property of your screen. it is something an app switches on, through Apple's VisionKit, on the views it draws. Apple's own apps have it, Safari has it, Quick Look has it — and everything that draws its own content does not, unless someone added it.
the boundary is a practical one: a video in Chrome or Firefox, a file open in VLC, another app's window, someone's screen shared in a call, a protected stream. in those places there is nothing to select, and no setting turns it on.
the api an app has to adopt for it is documented publicly, which is why the list of places is what it is. Apple developer — VisionKit
the video case has its own page, with the exact mechanism and the one case where it is switched off by design copy text from a video on Mac
if what you grab is a photo, a pdf preview or a page in Safari, Live Text is enough and you need neither of us. the moment your text sits in a browser that is not Safari, a player that is not QuickTime, or an app that will not let you select — that is where a grabber earns its place, and the only question is which one and at what price.
where hop differs from TextSniper
recognition in hop frames any rectangle of the screen — a paused video in Chrome, an app that blocks selection, a screenshot in a chat — and hands the text back in a window where you can read and fix it before copying. line breaks are kept, so a table stays a table and a code snippet stays usable.
you can also drop a picture into that window, or paste one with ⌘V, and it is read without touching the screen.
qr codes come out in the same pass
text and codes are read together, not in two goes: frame a slide with a qr code in the corner and you get both. a code holding a link opens straight in the browser — no reaching for the phone.
codes have their own page if that is the part you came for scan a qr code on Mac
it lands in the clipboard history at the same time
what you recognise does not only go to the clipboard, it goes into a history you can walk back through. grab four things off four slides and all four are still there afterwards.
it also arrives with seventeen other tools: colour picker, window layouts, archives, system monitor and the rest. if recognition is the only thing you need, that is neutral at best. if two or three of the others sound useful, it changes the arithmetic.
the history part is a page of its own find something you copied earlier
| TextSniper | hop | |
|---|---|---|
| a photo in Photos, a page in Safari | does it — but so does Live Text, free and already installed | no reason to open hop for this |
| a paused frame in Chrome, a file in VLC | does it | does it too |
| a qr code in the same shot | text is the job | read in the same pass, a link opens in the browser |
| text you want to fix before pasting | straight to the clipboard | a window you can edit in first |
| you also want clipboard history and a colour picker | a second app, and a second purchase | already behind the same icon |
| what it costs | $7.99–11.99 once, checked 10 sep 2026 | free, MIT licensed |
what you give up leaving TextSniper
focus. TextSniper's whole surface is recognition — every screen in it is about that one task. in hop it is one screen among eighteen, and if you want an app that can only do this, that is reason enough to buy one.
the permission is the same on both sides
framing an area of the screen needs the screen-recording permission, and that is true of every tool in this category — reading pixels is what it is for. in hop it is asked by recognition and by nothing else, and only when you frame an area: a picture dropped into the window needs no permission at all.
better to know that now: macOS re-asks for it in ways that look like a bug and are not.
we wrote up why that prompt keeps coming back the screen recording permission that keeps coming back
we have not tested TextSniper feature by feature and will not claim it is missing things. what we can say precisely is what hop does, which is above. if there is a specific capability you rely on, check it there rather than taking a comparison page's word for it — ours included.
how to try it without deciding anything
- download it: about 6 mb, no registration, works on macOS 14 and later
- switch off every module except recognition, if the rest is not interesting
- use it for a week alongside whatever you have now
- if it does not stick, drag it to the trash; nothing was registered and nothing was paid
and if you want the leftovers gone as well, that is one of the eighteen too uninstall an app with its leftovers
frequently asked questions
- is there a free TextSniper alternative that actually works?
- several. hop, TRex and NormCap are all free and all use on-device recognition. the job is the same on each; what differs is whether you want one small app or a toolkit that does seventeen other things too.
- does macOS already have this built in?
- partly. Live Text covers photos, pdf previews, pages in Safari and paused video in Apple's own players, and it has done since Ventura. it does not reach a browser that is not Safari, a player that is not QuickTime, another app's window or a protected stream — that gap is what a grabber is for.
- is hop really free, or is there a paid tier later?
- free, and there is no paid tier planned. it is open source under MIT, with no accounts and no telemetry. donations are voluntary and unlock nothing.
- i already bought TextSniper — should i switch?
- no. it works, you have paid, and switching gains you nothing on that one job. hop makes sense if you also want the other seventeen tools.
- does recognition work offline?
- yes, on both. hop uses Apple's own engine locally, so nothing is uploaded and no connection is needed.
- which languages are recognised?
- the ones macOS itself recognises — the list comes from the system rather than from us, and on current macOS asking the system for it returns thirty.
- what happens if i stop using hop?
- drag it to the trash. there is no account to close and no subscription to cancel, and the uninstall module can remove its own leftovers.
the hop side of this
text recognition — pull text off anything on screen — a video in Chrome or VLC, a locked pdf, another app's window.
about the author
Anton Shakirovmakes hop
makes hop and every page on this site. eighteen tools under a single menu bar icon, MIT licensed and open source. reads and answers issues and email himself.