A free Mac OffShoot alternative that still verifies your footage
Copsy is a free Mac camera-offload app and the closest free alternative to OffShoot (the renamed Hedge). Plug in an SD, CFexpress or camera card and Copsy auto-detects it, copies the footage to your drive and to Google Drive or Dropbox in parallel, verifies every file with ASC-MHL checksums, and pings you on Telegram when it's done. Free, no card limit, no signup.
OffShoot now costs roughly $169–$249. If you mainly need fast, verified offloads, Copsy does that part for free.
Download Copsy for Mac → · macOS 13+ · no account needed
What is OffShoot?
OffShoot is Hedge's offload product, renamed. Hedge was for years the default fast-offload app for DITs and shooters; the company rebranded the app to OffShoot and raised the price at the same time. It now runs roughly $169, with OffShoot Pro around $249 (a short-term rental option exists too). It's still an excellent, battle-tested, cross-platform tool that's trusted on big productions. But the price jump sent a lot of people looking for a cheaper or free option that still verifies copies properly.
That's the gap Copsy fills. The parts most people actually rely on every shoot (auto-detect the card, copy it to a drive and the cloud, and verify it with ASC-MHL) are done for free.
Copsy vs OffShoot — honest comparison
| Feature | Copsy | OffShoot (was Hedge) | MhlFileVerify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | FREE | ~$169–$249 PAID | FREE |
| ASC-MHL checksum verification | ✓ built-in | ✓ | ✓ verify only |
| Auto-detect card type (Sony/ARRI/RED/BMD/Canon/drone/audio) | ✓ | partial | verify only |
| Copy to a drive AND cloud (Drive/Dropbox) in parallel | ✓ | drives only | — |
| Telegram notification when done | ✓ | — | — |
| No signup / no account | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Platform | macOS 13+ | macOS / Windows | macOS |
Pricing and features change — figures above were last verified in June 2026. Check each vendor's site for current details.
Who should switch to Copsy — and who shouldn't
Copsy is the right free alternative if you…
- Offload SD / CFexpress / camera / drone / audio cards on a Mac and want it verified, not just dragged in Finder.
- Want a drive copy and a Google Drive or Dropbox copy from the same offload.
- Don't want to pay $169+ for the core "copy a card safely" workflow.
- Like getting a Telegram ping when the card is done so you can walk away.
Stick with OffShoot / a paid tool if you…
- Need Windows support today. Copsy is macOS-only for now, with no Windows build.
- Rely on a specific advanced pipeline Copsy doesn't do: LTO/LTFS tape, Premiere/Resolve panel integrations, or large studio toolchains.
- Need a battle-tested tool with years of big-production deployment behind it. OffShoot is exactly that.
The part that matters most: verified copies
People don't pay for OffShoot for speed. They pay for trust. A drag-and-drop in Finder gives you no proof the files arrived intact. Copsy verifies every copied file with ASC-MHL checksums, the same Media Hash List standard used on film sets and for studio deliverables, so each file is confirmed bit-for-bit on the destination. If anything failed to copy or got corrupted in transit, you find out before you wipe the card, instead of three weeks later in the edit.
A free verify-only tool like MhlFileVerify can check hashes after you've already copied somehow, but it doesn't do the copy, the auto-detection, or the parallel cloud backup. Copsy does the whole offload and the verification in one pass.
How Copsy offloads a card
- Plug in the card. Copsy detects it by content and recognizes the camera/source (Sony, ARRI, RED, Blackmagic, Canon, drones, audio recorders).
- Pick destinations. An external drive, plus optionally Google Drive or Dropbox, copied in parallel.
- Walk away. Copsy copies, organizes by date and source, and verifies every file with ASC-MHL checksums.
- Get pinged. A Telegram message tells you it finished and verified, nothing lost.
Frequently asked questions
Offload your next card for free
Copsy — a free Mac camera-offload app. Verified copies to a drive and the cloud, nothing lost.
⬇ Download Copsy for Mac