PrintScreen.ly vs Monosnap
Looking for a Monosnap alternative with native mobile apps and a one-time lifetime price? Here's an honest PrintScreen.ly vs Monosnap comparison — what each one does well, and where the other one wins. Monosnap is a long-running cross-platform capture tool with a strong free tier and a deep storage-integration story; PrintScreen.ly is the lifetime-licensed alternative that adds native iPhone and Android, plus an editor that's identical across every client.
| At a glance | PrintScreen.ly | Monosnap |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $3.99/mo | Free (2 GB, 5-min video, non-commercial) |
| Most popular plan | $24.99/yr | $3/mo or $30/yr (Non-Commercial Pro, 10 GB) |
| Lifetime license | $59.99 | Not available — subscription only; tiers go up to $55/mo for 250 GB Non-Commercial and $65/mo for 250 GB Commercial |
| Platforms | Mac · Windows · iOS · Android · Web | Mac · Windows · Chrome extension |
Pick Monosnap if
- ·Native video recording on Mac and Windows (5 minutes free, unlimited on paid). PrintScreen.ly does not record video — image capture only.
- ·Massive third-party storage destination list — Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, Evernote, OneDrive, Yandex.Disk, S3, FTP/SFTP/WebDAV — useful if you already live in one of those.
- ·Mature, well-known brand with over a decade of polish, business team plans, Zoom integration, and an established Chrome extension.
- ·Generous free tier for non-commercial use: 2 GB storage, 1,000 monthly uploads, and 5-minute video recording — enough for a lot of casual use cases at $0.
Pick PrintScreen.ly if
- +Lifetime license at $59.99 — pay once and it's yours forever. Monosnap is subscription-only; even the entry Non-Commercial Pro tier renews at $30/year indefinitely.
- +Native iOS and Android apps with the same capture, edit, and library flow as desktop. Monosnap is desktop + Chrome extension only — no mobile apps.
- +Editor parity across every client — the same 8 tools, the same Apple-system 8-color palette, the same stroke widths, the same text sizes — so an annotation made on iPhone looks identical when re-opened on Windows or web. Monosnap's annotation tools differ between Mac and Windows builds.
- +Cross-device clipboard: copy a screenshot on Mac, paste it on iPhone or Windows. Monosnap has no equivalent because there's no mobile client.
Full feature comparison
Verified 2026-05-08. Source linked at the bottom.
| Feature | PrintScreen.ly | Monosnap |
|---|---|---|
| Price (entry paid tier) | $3.99/mo | $3/mo or $30/yr (Non-Commercial Pro, 10 GB) |
| Lifetime license | $59.99 — every platform, every update forever | Not available — subscription only |
| 5-year cost of ownership (entry tier) | $59.99 (lifetime) | $150 ($30/yr Non-Commercial Pro × 5) |
| Platforms | Mac + Windows + iOS + Android + Web | Mac + Windows + Chrome extension (no iOS, no Android, no native web app) |
| Region / window / fullscreen capture | Yes | Yes |
| Scroll capture | Yes | No (not a native Monosnap feature) |
| Video recording | No | Yes — 5 min free, unlimited on paid |
| Markup tools | 8 tools, 8-color Apple-system palette, non-destructive crop, identical on every client | Pen, line, rectangle, oval, arrow, text, blur — varies by Mac vs Windows build |
| OCR | Yes — on-device, free, every platform | No |
| Cloud library on the vendor's storage | Yes (Pro) — Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Web on one account | Yes — 2 GB free, 10 GB / 25 GB / 100 GB / 250 GB paid tiers |
| Third-party storage destinations (Dropbox, Drive, S3, FTP, etc.) | No — uploads go to your PrintScreen.ly cloud library | Yes — extensive list |
| Web dashboard for your screenshot library | Yes (Pro) | Yes — web library on monosnap.ai |
| Mobile apps | Yes — native iOS and Android | No |
| Cross-device clipboard | Yes (Pro) | No |
| Free tier limits | No limits on local capture, edit, save, share — cloud sync is the only Pro upgrade | 2 GB storage, 1,000 uploads/mo, 5-min video, non-commercial only |
| Commercial use on free tier | Yes — no commercial restriction | No — Commercial tier required ($10+/mo) |
| Trust + signing | Apple Developer ID notarized + Azure Trusted Signing on Windows | Apple Developer ID notarized + Microsoft-signed Windows installer |
Bottom line
Monosnap has been around for years and there's a real reason for that — the free tier is genuinely useful, the storage-integration list is enormous, and video recording is built in on Mac and Windows. If your workflow is desktop-only and you want video plus an S3 or Dropbox upload destination, Monosnap is still a sensible buy. PrintScreen.ly is the lifetime-priced, native-mobile-included alternative for someone who captures on a Mac and a phone and a Windows machine and wants the same editor and library on every one of them. We don't shoot video. We don't upload to your S3 bucket. We do ship one license that covers five platforms forever.
FAQ
Why no video recording in PrintScreen.ly?+
Honest answer: we haven't shipped it. Screen recording is the most-requested gap in the product and it's on the roadmap for both Mac and Windows. Until it's live in a public build, we list it as missing on this page rather than dressing it up. If video recording is the reason you're shopping, Monosnap is the better buy today on desktop.
Does Monosnap have an iPhone or Android app?+
No. Monosnap ships a Mac app, a Windows app, and a Chrome extension. There is no native iOS app and no native Android app. If a single tool that works on your phone and your laptop on the same account is the goal, that's the gap PrintScreen.ly fills.
How does PrintScreen.ly's lifetime price compare to a Monosnap subscription?+
Monosnap's entry paid tier is $3/month or $30/year for 10 GB Non-Commercial. Five years of that runs about $150 and you keep paying after that. PrintScreen.ly's $59.99 lifetime is a one-time charge that covers every platform and every future update with no renewal. If you're a long-term user, the math favors lifetime; if you only need a screenshot tool for a few months, a subscription wins.
Can I migrate my Monosnap library to PrintScreen.ly?+
Yes. Monosnap exports to standard PNG, JPEG, and MP4. You can drag your existing Monosnap files into the PrintScreen.ly cloud library on the web dashboard or upload from any synced device. Annotations baked into the image come along; native Monosnap-format edit history does not transfer.
More PrintScreen.ly comparisons
Pricing verified 2026-05-08. Monosnap pricing source. Subject to change.