Chatcove vs iMazing, after iMazing went subscription-only

Let us start with the disclosure, because everything below is easier to judge with it in mind: we make Chatcove. We have tried to write the comparison we would want to read if we were the ones shopping, which means conceding the points we lose.

What actually changed

iMazing used to sell a perpetual licence. It does not any more, and this is not an inference, it is on their own licensing policy page:

Their reasoning, published on their blog, is worth quoting too, because it is a genuinely interesting argument: they said that most one-time licences in this industry are “effectively subscriptions in disguise, often limited by update cutoffs or feature restrictions.”

They are not wrong about the industry. Plenty of “lifetime” licences in this category quietly mean “until the next major version.” We just draw the opposite conclusion from the same observation. If dishonest one-time licences are the problem, the answer is an honest one-time licence, not a subscription.

The prices

Prices are the cheapest tier that exports WhatsApp on a Mac, checked on each vendor's own store page on 2 September 2026. Prices change and these may have moved since. All trademarks belong to their owners.

One number worth putting plainly: at €49.99 a year, iMazing costs more in its first three weeks than Chatcove costs ever.

Where iMazing is genuinely better

This is the part most comparison pages skip. iMazing is a mature, serious piece of software and there are real reasons to choose it.

• It does vastly more. Full device backups, photo and music transfer, app management, ringtones, filesystem access, device supervision, configuration profiles. Chatcove exports chat history. That is the entire feature list.
• It runs on Windows and on Intel Macs. Chatcove is Apple Silicon only, on macOS 11 or later. If you are on an Intel Mac or a PC, this comparison ends here and iMazing wins by default.
• It covers more messaging apps. iMessage, WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat, Skype and more. Chatcove does WhatsApp. iMessage is planned, nothing else is.
• It has years of track record. We shipped our first public build in September 2026. That is a real difference and you should weigh it.
• Five devices per licence, not two. If you are managing a family's worth of phones, that matters.

Where we think we are better

• Price and model. $9 once for 2 Macs, against €49.99 a year. Saving your chat history is a job most people do when they change phones. We do not think that should be a recurring bill.
• You see everything before you pay. Install Chatcove, connect your iPhone, let it make the encrypted backup, and read your entire history with every photo and voice note, for free. Payment unlocks exporting. The most common complaint we found about tools in this category is discovering the price only after a long processing step, and this is the direct answer to it.
• Right-to-left languages render correctly. In the app and in the exported file. If you have ever exported an RTL conversation from any tool in this category you will know that reversed lines and misplaced punctuation are the norm. This one is worth checking yourself on your own data, for free, before you pay us anything.
• No account, and no server. Chatcove has no backend for your data. The licence check is an offline signature, so you can disconnect from the network entirely and the whole app still works.
• One job. No device manager to learn. Open it, connect the phone, read, export.

How to try both without spending anything

1. Download Chatcove and let it back up and open your history. Free, no account, and you will know within a few minutes whether your data looks right.
2. If the export is what you want, it is $9 once. If it is not, you have lost nothing but the time.
3. If you need any of the device-management features above, go to iMazing. They have a trial too.

Common questions