ShotDeck vs SHADOU
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ShotDeck
Access the world's largest library of high-quality, searchable cinematic images. This tool aids directors, cinematographers, and visual artists in finding inspiration, conducting research, and referencing visual styles for film production. Explore detailed information for each image to enhance your creative process.
- Largest collection of cinematic images
- Meticulously keyworded and searchable
- Detailed image metadata (cast, crew, camera, lens)
- Time-saving image discovery
- Inspiration, research, and reference tool
- Collaborative professional tool
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Shotdeck is the largest collection of meticulously keyworded fully searchable high quality cinematic images in the world. Hello directors, cinematographers, designers, ad folks, film students and visual artists, you’ve just discovered your new secret weapon, the best collaborative professional tool for bringing your vision to life - from pitch, to prep to post. Each image has information on cast and crew, aspect ratio, framing, lighting, camera, lens, shooting location, and a dozen more. This time saving app will help you not just find the exact image you are looking for but allow you to discover ones that you never new existed. You'll wonder how you ever worked without Shotdeck. Inspiration - Research - Reference - Education - Discovery Start exploring Shotdeck totally free today and witness your vision come to life and your creativity reach new heights.
SHADOU
This app offers a membership-based community for aspiring film and TV professionals to gain hands-on production experience. Access exclusive content, treatments, and event tickets. Members are selected monthly to learn from industry experts on set.
- Hands-on production experience
- Exclusive content access
- Real treatments provided
- Tickets to live events
- Monthly on-set learning opportunities
- Industry professional mentorship
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SHADOU is a membership-based self-actualization community where those aspiring for a career in the FILM/TV industry can get hands-on experience on real productions. Access exclusive content, and real treatments, and get tickets to live events. Members are selected monthly to come on set and learn from industry professionals. ▷ Already a Member? Sign-In to access your subscription. ▷ New? Subscribe in the app to get instant access. SHADOU offers auto-renewing subscriptions. You'll receive unlimited access to content on all your devices. Payment is charged to your Account at confirmation of purchase. Pricing varies by location and is confirmed prior to purchase. Subscription automatically renews each month unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current billing period, or the trial period (when offered). Cancel anytime in Account Settings. For more information see our: -Terms of Service: https://shadou.co/pages/terms-of-service -Privacy Policy: https://shadou.co/pages/privacy-policy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: SHADOU at 100% against ShotDeck's 29%. SHADOU also leads on rating (4.0 vs 3.2). ShotDeck's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. SHADOU sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $29.99 per month. ShotDeck asks for nothing beyond the download.
SHADOU holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ShotDeck has 46 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 29% of ShotDeck's written reviews are positive against 100% of SHADOU's.
ShotDeck ships an update every 2 weeks, SHADOU every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ShotDeck | SHADOU |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.2 (46 ratings) | 4.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 28.9% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 46 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Subscription |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 78 MB | 63 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Filmmakers Research Lab, LLC | AUDIO VIDEO TECHNOLOGY LLC |
Customer experience
ShotDeck
SHADOU
Bugs and requests
ShotDeck
Reported bugs
35 issues- UI issues
- Low quality grabs
- App crashes constantly
- App quits after a few searches or image saves
- App crashes when searching
Show 30 moreShow fewer
- Age verification required
- New account creation with Apple ID required
- iPad app crashes every time search is used
- App crashes when entering a search term
- Infinite loading
- Won't allow sign up or log in
- Password reset email not received
- Enlarged images opened in a new page
- Search feature completely useless
- App wouldn't load anything
- Servers down error
- No more than 5 minutes without crashing on iPads and iPhones
- Images take too long to load
- Images won't load
- System error causing refund
- Asked to sign in, not sign up
- Application would shut down itself when looking for more shots
- App entirely crashes when swiping through full sized photos on iPad
- App crashes after a few minutes of use on iPad
- Search engine never works
- Search bar not working
- Filters don't work in search function
- Burned 2 hours saving images to a deck, but they are not in the deck
- App crashes repeatedly
- Periodic crashing (typically when choosing to browse similar shots)
- Quick add doesn't seem to work
- Unpredictable search results
- Pages don't load or have errors
- Searches with fairly common words don't yield any results
- Cannot use split screen or a floating window with the app on the iPad
Requested features
8 requests- Update app to be a great companion to desktop site
- Fix login with Apple ID issue
- Fix age verification and account creation hurdles
- Make a widget that cycles random shots
- Improve UI/UX
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Add more data to search and tags
- Add dark mode
- Faster way to add shots to favorites
SHADOU
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
ShotDeck
No in-app purchases
SHADOU
- Monthly Membership$29.991 Month
- Annual Membership$199.991 Year
