Letra alternatives for Mac

Letra is a small menu bar app: press a shortcut, drag over text anywhere on screen, and it’s on your clipboard, recognized on your Mac. Before you buy it, it’s worth knowing what else does the same job, because the differences come down to a few specific things: which macOS you run, and whether you need tables, translation or a history.

We make Unpixel, which is one of the closest alternatives, so read its entry with that in mind. Details about other apps come from their own sites, read in October 2026 and linked under Sources.

What Letra offers

As of October 2026, Letra’s website lists:

• Capture: a customizable global shortcut (⌘⇧2 by default), a drag, and text on the clipboard, with an option to keep line breaks.
• Recognition: Apple’s Vision framework on your Mac, working offline, with automatic language detection.
• Extras: QR codes and barcodes, links filed separately, a searchable history stored on the Mac, clipboard images, and PNG, JPEG and PDF files.
• Automation: a URL scheme that works with Raycast, Alfred and Shortcuts.
• Price: one-time, $5.99 for one Mac, $9.99 for two and $13.99 for three, with no trial and a 7-day refund window.
• Requirements: macOS Sonoma 14 or later. It’s a direct download, and the site notes that notarization by Apple is still in progress, so expect to approve it in System Settings → Privacy & Security the first time it opens.

Translation and table capture aren’t on the list. If you don’t need them, Letra covers a lot for its price.

Built-in options

If what draws you to Letra is that it keeps your screen private, macOS’s own tools do too, at no cost.

• Live Text selects words inside images in Preview, Photos, Quick Look and Safari. Take a screenshot first if the text is somewhere else.
• Shortcuts can do a full screen capture to text on one key: Take Screenshot, Extract Text from Image, Copy to Clipboard, then Add Keyboard Shortcut.

What you give up compared with Letra: an extra step or two per capture, no QR decoding in the Shortcuts action, and no history.

Similar capture apps

All of these follow the same shortcut-and-drag pattern. Details as of October 2026:

Unpixel is the closest match. Both apps use the same license sizes and prices, the same default shortcut and Apple’s on-device recognition, and both keep a searchable history and read QR codes, links and files. Unpixel adds two main things. A captured table pastes into Numbers, Excel or Google Sheets as real cells. Holding ⌥ as you let go copies a translation into your language, made on your Mac by Apple’s Translation framework. It also has ⇧⌘1 to read the same area again, ⇧ to add a capture to the clipboard, and x-callback-url links that hand the text back to Shortcuts. In exchange, it needs macOS 26 on an Apple silicon Mac. It has a 14-day money-back guarantee and no trial.

Text Lens suits people who want an app that can’t go online at all: its developer says it has no way to connect to the internet. It keeps tables as tab-separated text and can show captures in an editable window.

LudyLens is the app formerly called TextGlance. Its free version lets you try it for real before paying, it runs on Intel Macs, and its Code Mode keeps the indentation of code snippets.

TextSniper has been around for years and supports much older systems. It’s the one to pick if you want text read aloud.

TRex is free. It reads QR codes and barcodes, works offline, and can be scripted through its URL scheme and command-line tool.

What to compare

Check these in order. The first one often decides for you.

1. Your macOS version. Open Apple menu → About This Mac. On macOS 14 or 15, current versions of Text Lens and Unpixel won’t run, which leaves Letra, TextSniper, TRex and, on macOS 15, LudyLens.
2. Tables. If you copy rows and columns from PDFs, slides or dashboards, you want table output rather than loose lines. See how table capture works in Unpixel.
3. Translation. If you often read text in another language, translation in the same gesture saves a round trip to a translator.
4. History. If you go back for “that number from this morning”, a searchable history matters more than it sounds.
5. Price model. All the paid options here are one-time purchases as of October 2026. Check how many Macs one license covers.
6. Refunds. Apart from LudyLens’s free version, none of the paid apps here has a free trial, so the refund window is your trial. As of October 2026, Letra offers 7 days, as does TextSniper when bought from its website; Unpixel offers 14.

Pick by need

• macOS 14 or 15, text only: Letra, LudyLens (macOS 15) or TextSniper.
• An Intel Mac: LudyLens, the only app here whose maker lists Intel support. Check the others’ requirements before you buy; Unpixel needs Apple silicon.
• Free: TRex, or Live Text plus Shortcuts.
• Tables or translation on macOS 26: Unpixel.
• Maximum privacy: Text Lens, or any on-device app tested with Wi-Fi off.
• Text read aloud: TextSniper.

When to stay with Letra

If you already use Letra and it does what you need, there’s little reason to switch. It runs on older macOS than Unpixel or Text Lens, its history and QR handling cover everyday needs, and it’s a one-time purchase. Move only if you keep reaching for something it doesn’t list, such as tables or translation.