Comparison · 12 min read · Checked August 2026

Screenshot Bro vs ButterKit

Short answer: ButterKit and Screenshot Bro are the two closest tools in this category — both native, both account-free, both uploading to App Store Connect, both with an MCP server — so the decision comes down to three things. ButterKit requires macOS 26 and is Mac-only; Screenshot Bro runs on macOS 15.0 and on iPad and iPhone. ButterKit reaches all 50 App Store languages only with your own AI provider key, and translates listing metadata as well as screenshots; Screenshot Bro ships 81 locale presets that translate on-device with no key. And Screenshot Bro uploads to Google Play, which ButterKit does not.

Details about ButterKit were checked in August 2026 on ButterKit's own site, documentation and pricing page, and its Mac App Store listing; pricing and features change, so verify there before deciding. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.

What each tool actually does

ButterKit

ButterKit is a native macOS app by Zach Spitulski (Spitulski Ventures LLC) for designing App Store screenshots and metadata, sold from butterkit.app and also available on the Mac App Store and as a Homebrew cask. Its own headline is "You built it. ButterKit sells it." The workflow it describes runs end to end: capture from the Xcode Simulator, design on an infinite canvas with real-time 3D device frames rendered in Metal, translate into App Store languages, and push straight to App Store Connect.

It requires macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later — stated in its system requirements and enforced by its Homebrew cask — with Apple silicon recommended and Intel supported. Pricing is published and one-time: $99 for Pro, listed down from $149, good for 5 Macs, with a 14-day money-back guarantee and an optional $10/month or $39/year Supporter plan; the Mac App Store build sells its own unlocks separately. The free tier is unlimited in projects and artboards but watermarks every export. The app first shipped in September 2025 and has released roughly two or three times a month since, reaching version 2.2.05 in August 2026.

Screenshot Bro

Screenshot Bro is a native Mac, iPad and iPhone app (macOS 15.0+, iOS/iPadOS 18.0+) for building a whole store listing rather than one image at a time. A project holds rows — one per device size, such as iPhone 6.9", iPad 13", Mac, Android phone and 10" tablet — and each row holds the individual screenshots; headlines, images, gradients and backgrounds can span across them. It ships 50+ starter templates, 81 language presets with on-device auto-translate and per-locale overrides, custom fonts, and exports PNG or JPEG at the exact pixel size each store expects, one folder per locale and row. From the same window it uploads to App Store Connect and Google Play. The free tier — 1 project, 3 rows, 5 templates per row — has no expiry and no watermark and includes both uploads; Pro removes the count limits and nothing else.

Side-by-side

What ButterKit does well

This is the closest competitor Screenshot Bro has, and several items here are things Screenshot Bro does not do at all.

• It captures from the Xcode Simulator. A floating capture tool follows the active Simulator window, and it reads the available localizations from your Xcode String Catalog so you can switch language and re-capture without touching the scheme. Screenshot Bro has nothing shipping that does this — it expects screenshots you already have.
• The 3D is live, not pre-rendered. Devices are drawn in Metal and can be rotated and angled freely, with the notch shown or hidden and custom bezels, and Device Overflow runs one device across several artboards. Screenshot Bro's frames are flat images apart from two fixed 3D iPhone models, so anything at an angle is out of reach.
• It covers Apple Watch and Apple TV sizes. watchOS and tvOS are listed among its supported platforms. Screenshot Bro has an Apple Watch Ultra 3 frame but no Watch, TV or Vision Pro size preset, so a listing that needs those cannot be finished in it.
• It translates the listing, not just the pictures. Description, keywords, subtitle, what's new and promotional text go through the same translation step as the screenshot copy, steered by custom instructions for brand voice and do-not-translate terms, with delta re-translation so unchanged strings are not re-sent. Screenshot Bro edits App Store metadata but does not translate it for you.
• Automation is broader. Its MCP server exposes 42 tools across five namespaces, and folder linking keeps an artboard in sync with a fastlane screenshots directory, which is the cleanest bridge between generated captures and a designed layout that either tool offers.
• The price is on the page. $99 one-time, five Macs, 14-day refund, discounts for students, teachers, veterans and first responders. Screenshot Bro deliberately publishes no price and shows it in the app instead, which is less convenient if you are comparing before downloading.
• You can install it three ways. Direct .dmg, Mac App Store, or brew install --cask butterkit. Screenshot Bro is App Store only.

Where Screenshot Bro is different

• It runs on macOS 15.0. ButterKit needs macOS 26. If you keep a machine a version or two back for build stability — a normal thing for a developer to do — ButterKit is simply not installable, and this single line decides the comparison more often than any feature.
• It is also an iPad and iPhone app. Same purchase, same projects, synced through iCloud if you turn it on. ButterKit is Mac-only and its roadmap explicitly rules out other platforms.
• The free tier exports something you can ship. ButterKit's free exports carry a "Made with ButterKit" watermark. Screenshot Bro's free tier is smaller — one project, three rows, five templates per row — but nothing it exports is marked, and both store uploads are included, so a small listing can go out without paying anyone.
• Google Play is a real destination, not just a size. Screenshot Bro uploads through the Play Developer API with a service account, staged as an edit you confirm. ButterKit gives you Play sizes and a Pixel model to design against, then hands you files.
• Translation costs nothing per word. 81 locale presets plus custom BCP-47 codes, translated on-device where Apple's framework supports the language, with per-locale overrides for text, styling, images and position when a German headline runs long. No API key to buy, no metered bill. The trade is honest: for languages Apple does not cover you type or paste the text yourself, where ButterKit would have a cloud model write it.
• The project file is plain, documented JSON. It diffs in git and is described in a public schema. ButterKit's .butterkit package sits on your disk too, which is already better than a cloud tool, but its structure is not documented.

When to pick ButterKit

• You are on macOS 26 and intend to stay current. Everything below assumes this; without it nothing else matters.
• You want screenshots captured out of the Simulator, per language, from the tool that will lay them out.
• Your design calls for devices at an angle, in perspective, or running across several panels — live 3D rather than a flat frame.
• Your listing needs Apple Watch or Apple TV screenshots. Screenshot Bro has no size preset for either.
• You want the description, keywords and subtitle translated along with the screenshot copy, and you already pay for an AI API key.
• You want to know the price before you download, and you would rather pay $99 once than judge a price inside an app.
• You want App Preview-style video eventually and like that ButterKit Motion is being built alongside it.

When to pick Screenshot Bro

• You are not on macOS 26, or you do not control which macOS the machine runs.
• You want to work on an iPad or iPhone as well as a Mac — on the couch, on a plane, on the device the screenshots came from.
• You ship to Google Play as well as the App Store and would rather upload from the same window than manage a second tool for Android.
• You want to ship a small listing without paying anything, and a watermark makes that impossible.
• You localize widely and do not want to buy, hold and meter an AI provider key to do it — 81 presets, on-device, no per-word cost.
• You want your work in a plain-text format you can diff, script against and read in ten years.

Frequently confused points

"ButterKit's free tier is the stingier one, right?"

No — in the dimension most people check first, it is the more generous of the two. ButterKit gives you unlimited projects and artboards; Screenshot Bro gives you one project, three rows and five templates per row. What ButterKit takes in exchange is the watermark on every export, and what Screenshot Bro takes is room to work. So the real question is which limit you hit first: if you want to sprawl across a large design before committing, ButterKit's shape is friendlier; if you have one small app and want to ship its listing today for nothing, Screenshot Bro's shape gets you there.

"Both translate on-device, so the language coverage must be the same?"

Both use Apple's Translation framework and both are limited by what it supports, but the products around it differ. ButterKit's docs put its on-device coverage at about 19 languages and route everything beyond that through a cloud model you supply a key for, which is how it reaches all 50 App Store languages — genuinely more coverage than Screenshot Brooffers automatically, at a metered cost you control. Screenshot Bro ships 81 locale presets plus custom codes and translates automatically only where Apple's framework reaches; the rest are slots you fill by typing or pasting. More seats, less automatic filling. Neither is the better answer in the abstract — it depends on whether you would rather pay a model or write the copy.

"$99 once versus an unpublished price — isn't that the whole story?"

It is a fair criticism of Screenshot Bro that you have to open the app to see the price, and ButterKit deserves credit for putting $99 on the page along with the refund window and the five-Mac allowance. But the numbers are not comparing the same thing: Screenshot Bro's free tier is a permanent, watermark-free way to ship a one-project listing including both store uploads, so for a small app the comparison is $99 against nothing. For a developer with several apps it is $99 against Screenshot Bro's Pro unlock, and at that point you should look at both prices properly rather than at this page.

"Two MCP servers — so the automation is equivalent?"

Not quite. Both expose a local MCP server that an agent drives while the app runs, and neither is a headless CLI or a hosted API, so neither belongs in CI. ButterKit's is the bigger surface — 42 tools across five namespaces, documented for Cursor, Claude Code and Codex — and it pairs with Simulator capture and fastlane folder linking, so more of the pipeline can be scripted. Screenshot Bro's MCP server is opt-in, macOS-only, loopback-only, and its edits go through the same undo stack as manual ones. If agent-driven work is central to how you build, ButterKit currently offers more of it.

"Does either one make App Preview videos?"

Neither, in the app you would be comparing. Screenshot Bro has no video export at all. ButterKit's main app has none either; video lives in ButterKit Motion, a separate screen-recording app in free public beta that also requires macOS 26. If App Previews are part of the job, budget for a third tool regardless of which of these you pick.

The honest bottom line

These two apps agree about more than they disagree about: native over browser, files over accounts, a one-time unlock over a rented seat, and an MCP server for whoever wants one. That makes the remaining differences unusually easy to act on. Ask three questions in order — which macOS am I on, do I ship to Google Play, and am I willing to run an AI provider key — and the answer falls out without weighing feature counts.

Do not buy Screenshot Bro if you are on macOS 26 and what you want is Simulator capture, rotatable 3D renders, Apple Watch or TV sizes, or machine-translated listing metadata. ButterKit does all of that and Screenshot Bro does none of it, and it is a well-made, actively developed app by someone doing it full time. Choose Screenshot Bro when the OS requirement rules ButterKit out, when the iPad matters, when Google Play is a real destination rather than a size preset, or when you need what you export today to be unmarked and free. Both have a free tier that costs nothing to try on your own screenshots, which is a better test than either page.