Comparison

ShotText vs Pixelate

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

ShotText

Easily add text, shapes, and overlay effects to your photos. Customize colors, sizes, and rotation for a unique look. Share your creations directly to social media or save them to your device.

Highlights
  • Add text and shapes
  • Adjustable text/shape size
  • Customizable colors
  • Rotation for text/shapes
  • Overlay effects
  • Direct social sharing
Features
Read full description

ShotText is a photo editor that does everything on your iPhone. No accounts. No cloud uploads. No analytics. Your photos never leave your device. EVERYTHING IS ON-DEVICE Every filter, every AI feature, every export happens locally using Apple's Core Image, Vision, and Core ML frameworks. Edit in airplane mode if you want — it all just works. AI THAT RUNS OFFLINE • Background removal — one tap to isolate a person and drop in a new background • Auto-enhance — smart correction for exposure, color, and sharpness • Style transfer — turn any photo into Mosaic, Starry Night, Cuphead, Anime, Cartoon, or White Box style with adjustable intensity • Object erase — paint over what you want gone 38+ FILTERS IN 9 CATEGORIES Film looks (Noir, Chrome, Fade, Instant), 11 cinematic LUTs, art styles, lighting effects (Bloom, Gloom, Thermal, X-Ray), pencil sketch, tone mapping, and more — with a global intensity slider on every one. EVERYTHING ELSE YOU EXPECT • Crop with aspect ratio presets, rotation, and flip • Adjustments for brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth, and sharpness • 73 stickers across 5 packs (emoji, hearts, suns, eyes, directions) • Editable text with font, color, background, and shadow controls • 8 overlay packs (grunge, colors, nature, patterns, wood, bubbles) • 6 vignette presets with start/end controls • PencilKit drawing with pressure-sensitive brushes and eraser EXPORT YOUR WAY HEIC, JPEG, or PNG with adjustable quality. One-tap export to a 9:16 Story format with a blurred background — perfect for Instagram, TikTok, or anywhere vertical. Saved photos go to your library and a dedicated "ShotText" album. DESIGNED FOR THE LONG SESSION • 20-level undo and redo • Long-press the canvas to compare before and after • Pick up exactly where you left off — sessions persist across app restarts • Optimized for iPad with a side-by-side editing layout • Haptic feedback on every action PRIVACY ShotText collects nothing. There are no servers, no accounts, no third-party SDKs. Read the full policy at turkdogan.dev/shottext/privacy.

About

Pixelate

Features
Read full description

Pixelate automatically finds and blurs faces in your photos and videos — entirely on your device. Nothing is ever uploaded, tracked, or stored on any server. WHY PIXELATE Sharing photos and videos often means sharing more than you intend — bystanders in the background, your kids in a group photo, faces you'd rather keep private. Pixelate finds every face automatically and lets you blur, mosaic, or block them out in seconds, right on your phone. FEATURES - Automatic face detection for photos and videos - Choose your style: blur, mosaic, or solid block - Fine-tune detection sensitivity and coverage - 100% offline — your media never leaves your device - No account, no sign-up, no tracking PRIVACY BY DESIGN Pixelate was built around a simple rule: your photos and videos are yours. There are no servers, no cloud processing, and no analytics SDKs. Every face detection and blur happens locally using on-device machine learning. WHO IT'S FOR - Parents sharing family photos and videos online - Content creators protecting bystanders before posting - Journalists and researchers anonymizing sources - Anyone who wants more control over what they share PIXELATE PRO Upgrade to Pro to unlock: - Video anonymization - Clean exports with no watermark Pro is available as a monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions. Privacy Policy: https://sites.google.com/view/pixelate-privacy-policy/home Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

ShotText4 screens
Pixelate3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: ShotText at 3 against Pixelate's 1. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ShotText sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Pixelate sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
ShotText versus Pixelate: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShotTextPixelate
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (19 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews72.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings19 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size77 MB32 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTurkdogan TasdelenSaad El Moustarhfir

In-app purchases

1 purchases

ShotText

One-time1
  • ShotText Pro$5.99
3 purchases

Pixelate

Subscriptions2
  • Pixelate Pro$3.991 Month
  • Pixelate Pro$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pixelate Pro$19.99

Questions

Is ShotText free?
ShotText is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pixelate free?
Pixelate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do ShotText or Pixelate have ads?
Neither ShotText nor Pixelate shows ads.

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