Subscription

Shotlist is sold as a yearly subscription, with a free trial, through Polar. The price is the yearly price on the Shotlist page.

What’s free and what’s paid

Looking is free. Making and uploading screenshots is paid.

Free, always	Needs a subscription
shotlist init and Set Up a Project…	shotlist capture, and Capture and Recapture in the app
shotlist doctor and Check This Mac	shotlist compose, and Compose in the app
shotlist verify and Verify	shotlist publish --apply, and Upload… in the app
shotlist captions status, draft and review, and the app’s caption review
shotlist publish without --apply: the read-only plan, and Plan in the app
Browsing results in the app: the matrix, before and after, composed screenshots, creative art
shotlist licence

So you can set up a project, write scenes, check your Mac and review captions before subscribing, and you can always look at what you’ve made, even after a subscription ends. Your files are yours: nothing in Shotlist/ depends on the subscription.

Starting a trial

• In the app: choose a paid action, such as Capture. The subscribe sheet appears; choose Start Free Trial…. It’s also in Shotlist › Settings… (⌘,).
• From the CLI: a paid command without a subscription stops, saying what it needed and where to start a trial, then: shotlist licence activate <key>.
• From the web: the Shotlist page.

Checkout happens in your browser, with Polar. Your licence key is in the receipt.

Licence keys

• One key covers up to 3 Macs.
• Activating on a Mac covers both the app and the CLI there. The licence is kept in your login Keychain, where both read it.
• Each activation is named after the Mac’s name in System Settings › General › Sharing, so you can tell them apart.

The first time the app reads a licence the CLI activated (or the other way round), macOS asks whether it may use the “Shotlist licence” Keychain item. Choose Always Allow, or it asks every time.

In the CLI

shotlist licence activate <key>

✓ Activated …A1B2 on Richard's MacBook Pro for you@example.com.

shotlist licence status

✓ Active
  Key …A1B2 · you@example.com · activated 1 Nov 2026
  Manage or cancel: https://polar.sh/digitalhope-ltd/portal

status checks with Polar each time you run it. It exits 0 when the subscription is active and 1 otherwise, so a script can test it. shotlist licence on its own runs status.

shotlist licence deactivate

✓ Deactivated …A1B2 on this Mac.

deactivate frees this Mac’s place on the key, so you can activate on another Mac.

shotlist license works too, with the same subcommands.

In the app

• The subscribe sheet appears the first time you try a paid action without a subscription. Paste your key and choose Activate, choose Start Free Trial…, or Not Now.
• Shotlist › Settings… (⌘,) shows the licence on this Mac: its status, the key (all but its end hidden) and the account email, with Manage Subscription…, Check Now and Deactivate This Mac. Without a subscription, it shows Start Free Trial… and a field for your key.

Moving to a new Mac

On the old Mac, run shotlist licence deactivate or choose Deactivate This Mac in Settings. Then activate on the new one. If you’ve already used three Macs and no longer have one of them, ask for its place to be freed through the Shotlist page.

CI

On a CI runner, set the key in the environment instead of activating:

export SHOTLIST_LICENSE_KEY=<your key>

Each paid command checks it with Polar, and nothing is activated on the runner. If Polar can’t be reached, the command carries on with a warning, so a Polar outage doesn’t break your build. Keep the key in your CI system’s secrets. See CI and automation.

Working offline

Shotlist checks your subscription with Polar about once a day, when you use a paid action. If it can’t reach Polar, it keeps working for 14 days from the last successful check. The CLI says so when it’s relying on that:

! Couldn't reach Polar lately; your subscription keeps working until 15 Nov 2026.

After 14 days without reaching Polar, paid actions stop until Shotlist can check again: “Shotlist hasn’t reached Polar for over two weeks. Go online and try again.” Free actions keep working throughout.

Capturing and composing don’t otherwise need the internet: builds, simulators and fixtures are all local. (Your build may fetch packages, captions draft may use the Claude API, and publishing talks to App Store Connect.)

Statuses

licence status says	Meaning	Paid actions
Active	Polar confirmed the subscription recently.	Work.
Active; couldn’t reach Polar lately, so it keeps working until …	The last check failed; within the 14 days.	Work.
Needs a check with Polar: Shotlist hasn’t reached it for over two weeks	More than 14 days without a successful check.	Stop until a check succeeds.
Ended	Polar says the key no longer works: the subscription ended or was refunded.	Stop.
No subscription on this Mac	Nothing activated here.	Stop.

A key whose subscription is renewed works again at the next check, without activating again. If it doesn’t, run shotlist licence activate <key> again.

Managing or cancelling

Manage your subscription, update payment details, see receipts or cancel in Polar’s customer portal:

• choose Manage Subscription… in Shotlist’s Settings, or
• open the link shotlist licence status prints.

Cancelling stops the subscription renewing. When it ends, paid actions stop; everything free keeps working, and your project files are untouched.

Messages

Message	Meaning	What to do
You’ll need a Shotlist subscription to capture screenshots. (or compose screenshots, or upload to App Store Connect)	A paid action without an active subscription.	Start a trial or activate your key.
That key wasn’t found. Check you’ve copied all of it.	Polar doesn’t know the key.	Copy the whole key from your receipt.
This key can’t be used on this Mac. It may already be in use on 3 Macs, or its subscription may have ended.	Polar refused the activation. Polar’s own explanation follows, if it gave one.	Deactivate another Mac, or check the subscription in the portal.
That key is for a different app.	The key belongs to another Digital Hope product.	Use your Shotlist key.
Couldn’t reach Polar to check the key. Check you’re online and try again.	No answer from Polar.	Try again when you’re online.
The subscription on this Mac has ended. Renew it in Polar’s customer portal, then run shotlist licence activate <key> again.	The key’s subscription ended.	Renew, then activate again.
This copy of Shotlist doesn’t need a subscription.	Printed by licence status in a build that isn’t set up for subscriptions.	Nothing.