Comparison

Retain Archive vs Save by OpenArchive

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Retain Archive

Access and manage archived business communications, including emails, social media, and mobile messages. Browse, search, and preview attachments from various platforms for case assessment and eDiscovery.

Highlights
  • Unified archiving of business communications
  • Access archived email, social media, and mobile data
  • Browse and search archived messages
  • Preview message attachments
  • View social media archives (WhatsApp, WeChat, LinkedIn, etc.)
Features
Read full description

Micro Focus Retain Unified Archiving provides unified archiving of all business communication including email, social media, and mobile communication data for case assessment, search, and eDiscovery. The Retain App provides users and administrators direct access to view, browse, search, and these business communications. • Access all the archived accounts you manage • Browse messages in the archived accounts • Preview message attachments • View archive social media messages from WhatsApp, WeChat, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, SharePoint, and Instagram For more information about Retain Unified Archiving, see https://www.microfocus.com/products/retain-unified-archiving/.

About

Save by OpenArchive

This app allows users to securely archive and organize their mobile media. It provides tools for uploading, editing metadata, and sharing content to private servers or the Internet Archive, ensuring long-term preservation and control.

Highlights
  • Upload media to private servers or Internet Archive
  • Edit media metadata (location, notes)
  • Flag media as 'significant'
  • Batch edit media metadata
  • Organize media into project albums
  • Share to Save from other apps
  • Wi-Fi-only upload setting
  • Creative Commons licensing options
Features
Read full description

Save by OpenArchive enables you to safely preserve, organize, and share your mobile media. Designed with and for individuals and organizations working to securely archive media directly from their mobile devices to a server, Save keeps you in control of your media at all times. Features •⁠ ⁠Upload any type of media to a private server or directly to the Internet Archive •⁠ ⁠Edit media metadata, including location and additional notes •⁠ ⁠Flag media as “significant” for organization and/or easy retrieval later •⁠ ⁠Batch edit media — update the metadata of multiple media files at once •⁠ ⁠Create multiple project albums to keep your media organized (e.g. “Summer 2019,” “Workshop photos,” “Kitchen remodel,” etc) •⁠ ⁠Share to Save from other apps on your phone, such as your Photos or voice memos apps •⁠ ⁠“Wi-Fi-only” upload setting, for when cellular data networks are unreliable or expensive •⁠ ⁠Creative Commons licensing options for the media you collect and share •⁠ ⁠Uninterrupted uploads using a foreground service Benefits Preserve Upload your important mobile media to a private server of your choice (using a free and open source platform like Nextcloud or ownCloud). Publish the media publicly to the Internet Archive for resilient, robust preservation by a third-party. Organize Create custom-named Projects to keep your media sorted in ways that make sense to you. Add helpful notes, location, and other contextual information one by one or in bulk. Enable findability and organization with folders in the app that correspond to your own private server. Share Connect to existing project albums created and managed by partners and colleagues. Send media to the Save app from your camera roll and other applications. Secure Save always uses TLS encryption, which encrypts the connection between your mobile device and your chosen destination, whether a private server or the Internet Archive. Save works with server software like Nextcloud that makes it easy to encrypt the data you’ve collected. Help & Support OpenArchive’s FAQ - https://open-archive.org/faq/ Contact us at info[at]open-archive[dot]org About OpenArchive is a team of technologists, ethnographers, and archivists committed to helping people easily preserve and organize their mobile media. We create intuitive, privacy-first decentralized archiving tools and educational resources to preserve history. About Save Save is an intuitive, privacy-first decentralized mobile archiving app that helps people preserve their mobile media for the long term. It offers users greater control over their media by providing tools for authentication, verification, privacy, licensing, and flexible storage options for long-term access and reuse. Save addresses the gaps in the current online ecosystem existing around the a) ethical short-term collection and b) long term preservation of sensitive mobile media. We provide mobile-centered, scalable, industry-standard, ethical, intuitive, easy to use tools for at-risk communities to pseudonymously preserve and authenticate their media so that it will be accessible and maintain its provenance in the future. Links Terms of Service: https://open-archive.org/privacy/#terms-of-service Privacy Policy: https://open-archive.org/privacy/#privacy-policy

Screenshots

Retain Archive4 screens
Save by OpenArchive4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Retain Archive at 5.0 against Save by OpenArchive's 4.3. Save by OpenArchive's advantage is ratings volume (14 vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Retain Archive holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Save by OpenArchive has 14 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Retain Archive ships an update every 3 months, Save by OpenArchive every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Retain Archive versus Save by OpenArchive: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRetain ArchiveSave by OpenArchive
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.3 (14 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings114 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB26 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperOpenTextOpenArchive LLC

Customer experience

Retain Archive

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Save by OpenArchive

All ratings14 ratings
Positive78.6%
Neutral7.1%
Negative14.3%

In-app purchases

None

Retain Archive

No in-app purchases

None

Save by OpenArchive

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Retain Archive free?
Retain Archive is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Save by OpenArchive free?
Save by OpenArchive is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Retain Archive or Save by OpenArchive?
Retain Archive is rated higher. Retain Archive averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Save by OpenArchive averages 4.3 from 14 ratings.
Do Retain Archive or Save by OpenArchive have ads?
Neither Retain Archive nor Save by OpenArchive shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Retain Archive or Save by OpenArchive?
Retain Archive ships an update every 3 months, and Save by OpenArchive every 2 months. Most recently, Retain Archive was updated on October 29, 2026 and Save by OpenArchive on October 24, 2026.

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