CardRunner vs Sync Shutter
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
CardRunner
This app helps photographers quickly transfer selected images from memory cards. It identifies protected or star-rated photos for easy saving or sharing directly from the field, with options for full-size or optimized exports.
- Smart scanning by star rating or lock status
- RAW file import/export (Pro)
- Full-size or optimized image export
- Real-time photo streaming to editors
- Geotagging for imported images (Pro)
- EXIF data viewer
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For photographers who need a fast field workflow, CardRunner helps you get the right images off your camera or memory card quickly so you can stay focused on the action. CardRunner detects connected cameras and cards, searches for photos in the background, and lets you import everything for free! You can upgrade to Pro to pull only protected (locked) or star-rated shots. Once selected photos are copied locally, CardRunner clearly confirms that it’s safe to remove your card and get back to shooting. Your imported collections stay available after relaunch, can be archived for later review, and prevent accidental duplicate imports. Save to your camera roll, share with an editor, client, or friend, or send photos straight to your editor with Photostream. -- KEY FEATURES -- • Automatic Camera Detection — Connect a camera or memory card and CardRunner prepares new photos for import • Free Unlimited Import — Import as many images as you want, free forever • Fast Field Ingest — See how many new images are ready and know when it’s safe to remove your card • Persistent Collections — Review imports later, archive older collections, and avoid duplicate imports • Smart Filtering — Import only protected (locked) or star-rated images (Pro) • RAW Support — Import, save, and share ARW, CR2, CR3, NEF, ORF, PEF, RW2, and more (Pro) • Full Size or Optimized — Save originals or compress for faster transfers on slow connections • Photostream — Stream photos to your editor’s gallery with a simple join code, automatically or when you choose • Pro via Photostream — Photostream-connected users unlock Pro features automatically • Geotagging — Tag imports with your current location so every shot knows where it was delivered (Pro) • Favorites — Mark your best shots and see them on a home screen widget • EXIF Viewer — Camera, lens, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, and more at a glance • iPad Support — Works natively on iPhone and iPad -- BUILT FOR THE FIELD -- Shooting on location with limited connectivity? CardRunner keeps the card workflow focused: connect, import the photos you need, remove the card, and get back to shooting. Save full-size originals or optimized copies for faster sharing over cellular or limited connectivity while keeping your originals intact. With Photostream, your editor can see photos as soon as you import them. Prefer more control? Turn off automatic uploads and send individual photos when you’re ready. -- FREE + PRO -- Import unlimited images for free. Upgrade to CardRunner Pro for rated-only and protected-only imports, RAW support, geotagging, and additional optimization controls. If you work with Photostream, Pro features unlock automatically while connected. CardRunner is built by an independent developer and college football photographer (Go Tigers!) Feedback is always welcome — find me in Settings > Send Feedback.
Sync Shutter
Automatically back up photos and videos from your SD cards to multiple cloud services and local folders. The app ensures no manual steps are needed and only copies new files after the initial backup.
- Automatic SD card backup
- Multi-destination cloud sync
- Incremental file copying
- Live progress monitoring
- Backup history and stats
- iPhone companion app
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Never lose a shoot. Sync Shutter backs up your camera card the moment you insert it. Set it up once on your Mac, then plug in any card and walk away: every photo and video is copied to every destination you chose, automatically. On iPhone or iPad, plug in a card reader and import straight from the card. It was built for photographers who come home with several cards and cannot afford to lose one. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU INSERT A CARD • The card is detected and the backup starts on its own. Progress lives in the menu bar; a notification tells you when it is done. • Only new files are copied. Already-backed-up shots are recognized and skipped, so the second run after a shoot takes seconds. • Copies to a folder or drive can be verified byte for byte after copying. • Files can be sorted into date folders taken from the photo's own capture date. • Cards that do not use a DCIM folder — video-first layouts from Sony, Panasonic and Canon bodies — are recognized too, and any card can be copied whole from the menu bar. • No internet where you're shooting? The card is still safe. Sync Shutter keeps its own copy and sends it to your cloud destinations on its own the moment you are back online. • A backup that cannot reach one of your destinations says so and names it. It never calls itself complete when something is missing. WHERE THE FILES GO Send one card to several places at once: a local folder or external drive, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Photos, the Lightroom auto-import folder, or the Photos library. Turn on as many as you like; each card is copied to all of them in a single pass. CHOOSE WHAT COMES OFF THE CARD Turn on a review step and a grid of thumbnails appears before anything is copied, so you can leave the test frames behind. SYNC SHUTTER PRO — ONE PURCHASE FOR MAC, IPHONE AND IPAD • Back up to a NAS or server: any S3-compatible storage (Synology, Backblaze B2, MinIO, Amazon S3), or SFTP over SSH. • Cold storage: Amazon S3 Glacier and Deep Archive storage classes, chosen per destination, for an archive that costs cents a month. • RAW+JPEG pairs: keep both, RAW only, or JPEG only. • Import date filters: only today's shoot, the last few days, or everything since a date. • Custom file naming from the capture date, a counter and the original name. • Per-card rules on the Mac: route each card to its own destinations. • Auto-delete from the card after every destination has confirmed the copy, and low-storage alerts before a backup would fill the disk. Pro is a single purchase, not a subscription. IPHONE AND IPAD Plug in a USB-C or Lightning card reader, open Sync Shutter, and pick the card. Photos go to your Photos library, a folder in Files, your cloud drives, or an S3 NAS. A Live Activity follows the import and a widget shows your totals. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no sign-up, no servers of ours in the path. Files go straight from the card to the destinations you chose. The only thing the app ever sends home is an anonymous count of backups and errors, so that problems get fixed; it is never linked to you. Works with any card your Mac or card reader can mount: SD, microSD, CFexpress, CFast, XQD.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Sync Shutter at none against CardRunner's 2. Sync Shutter also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 9 days) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. CardRunner sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Sync Shutter asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for CardRunner against 5.0 for Sync Shutter. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 2 respectively.
CardRunner ships an update every 9 days, Sync Shutter every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CardRunner | Sync Shutter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 37 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | David Platt | Utkarsh Jain |
Customer experience
CardRunner
Sync Shutter
In-app purchases
CardRunner
- All Access7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- All Access7 Days trial$49.991 Year
Sync Shutter
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is CardRunner free?
Is Sync Shutter free?
Which has better reviews, CardRunner or Sync Shutter?
Do CardRunner or Sync Shutter have ads?
Which is updated more often, CardRunner or Sync Shutter?
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