TextSniper alternative: Peekaboo vs TextSniper
By Vishva Variya · Updated
TextSniper is a capture tool: press a shortcut, drag over anything on screen, and the text is on your clipboard. It’s quick and it works on video and web pages too. Peekaboo handles the other half: the hundreds of screenshots you’ve already saved, whose words you now need to find.
Looking for TextSniper itself? It’s at textsniper.app.
- TextSniper price
- From $7.99 one-time (1 Mac)
- TextSniper requires
- macOS 10.15 or later
- Peekaboo
- $24.99 one-time, 14-day trial, macOS 14+
TextSniper figures from textsniper.app, verified 2026-10-31.
Why pick Peekaboo over TextSniper?
Search, not just capture
Peekaboo reads every screenshot, photo and PDF in the background, so “screenshot with the wifi password” finds the right one months later.
Copy from fifty images at once
Select a batch and press ⇧⌘C to copy all their text together.
On-device, like TextSniper
Text recognition uses Apple’s Vision framework on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded.
Peekaboo vs TextSniper, job by job
| Job | TextSniper | Peekaboo |
|---|---|---|
| Grab text from the screen right now | Core feature, any region | Not offered; use Live Text or TextSniper |
| Find a saved screenshot by its words | Not offered | Yes, across all screenshots, photos and PDFs |
| QR codes and barcodes | Yes | No |
| Batch copy from many images | One capture at a time | Yes, ⇧⌘C |
| Price | From $7.99 one-time | One-time, 14-day free trial |
The honest verdict
They do different jobs. TextSniper is for text you’re looking at now; Peekaboo is for text in files you saved before. If you screenshot things to remember them, Peekaboo is what makes those screenshots findable.
TextSniper vs Peekaboo: questions
Can Peekaboo copy text from a video or web page like TextSniper?
- No. It reads text in image and PDF files. For anything on screen, macOS Live Text or TextSniper is the tool.
Does Peekaboo upload screenshots to read them?
- No. Apple’s Vision framework runs on your Mac.