A Shotsy alternative, and how to bring your history with you

What is different

Prices are the retail prices both apps publish. Feature comparisons reflect what each app offered at the time of writing – check both before deciding, and tell us if something here is out of date.

The three reasons people actually switch

Price, and the lifetime option

Penwise yearly is a third less than Shotsy yearly. Over three years the difference is roughly the price of a year. The lifetime option changes the shape of the decision entirely: 59,99 € once, no renewal, and it pays for itself in three years against Shotsy's annual price. Nothing in this category offers that, which is a deliberate choice rather than an oversight.

The free tier matters as well. In Penwise the core tracker is free forever – logging, weight, sites, history, calendar, reminders – and crucially so is exporting your own data as CSV or JSON. Your history is never held hostage by a subscription lapse.

The features that are not there

Penwise is a superset rather than a different take. Everything a shot log does, plus:

• Pens as real objects. Click counts per strength, in-use windows counted down, days of supply at your actual dose, and the redesigned KwikPen that no longer finishes with a leftover. See the pen click chart and discard windows.
• Both watch platforms. Apple Watch and Wear OS, included, with complications on both and a tile on Wear OS. Log a shot from the wrist and it syncs when the phone is back in range.
• Post-shot vitals. Measure your resting heart rate after a shot and save it onto that shot.
• A proper check-in system. Twenty named side effects on a 0 to 5 scale and nine sliding measures including food noise, appetite and three kinds of craving.
• Insights that stay quiet. Adherence drift, site comfort, symptom timing and milestones – each with a minimum evidence threshold before it appears.
• A doctor-ready PDF and a clinical-standard export for an appointment.
• Four fully translated languages, with proper diacritics, not machine strings on an English app.

Where the data lives

This is the one that is not a feature comparison. Shotsy asks for an account and holds your data. Penwise has no account, no sign-in and no server that receives health data, so there is nothing for us to hand over, sell or lose.

That is an architectural difference rather than a policy one, and the distinction matters: a privacy policy can be rewritten at the next funding round, and an app with no server cannot quietly acquire one without you noticing. The full argument is in why a GLP-1 tracker should not have a server.

Bringing your history across

Import is a two-tap migration rather than a project. It handles Shotsy JSON, CSV and backup exports.

1. 01 Export from Shotsy. Settings, then Manage My Data, then Export Data. Choose JSON if your version offers it, CSV if it does not.
2. 02 Open Penwise and start the import. The in-app walkthrough names the exact path and picks the file up from wherever you saved it.
3. 03 Check the preview. Penwise shows you what it found before it writes anything.
4. 04 Assign pens, if you want to. A dedicated screen afterwards lets you attach pens to the doses that came in without one.

What comes across: shots with dates, times, medication and dose; weights; injection sites; and side effects. What the import is careful about:

• Importing the same file twice does not duplicate anything.
• A side effect you recorded as mild is not rounded away to nothing on the way in.
• Dates, units and separators are detected from the file rather than assumed, including exports made in other languages and regions.
• The whole import can be rolled back if you change your mind.

Import is a Penwise+ feature, and every install starts with fourteen days of Penwise+ with no card and no account – so you can migrate, look at your whole history in the new app, and decide afterwards.

Try both, honestly

There is no reason to delete anything on day one. Export from Shotsy, import into Penwise, and run them side by side for a fortnight while the trial is live. You will know quickly whether the level curve, the pen handling and the watch app are worth it to you, and whether the absence of cloud sync is a relief or a problem.

If it is not for you, your data is still in both places and Penwise will export it again on request, free, forever.

Common questions

Penwise is a tracking and education tool, not a medical device. Nothing on this page is medical advice, a diagnosis or a recommendation to start, stop or change a dose. Dosing decisions belong to you and your clinician. Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus, Saxenda and Victoza are trademarks of Novo Nordisk; Mounjaro, Zepbound and Trulicity are trademarks of Eli Lilly. Penwise is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to either company.