Comparison

Bark vs Actions

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

Head to head
About

Bark

Send custom push notifications to your iPhone via an HTTP API. Supports advanced features like custom icons, grouping, and critical alerts. Offers privacy-protected, end-to-end encrypted pushes with self-deployable server options.

Highlights
  • HTTP API for push notifications
  • Custom icons and grouping
  • Continuous and critical alerts
  • End-to-end push encryption
  • Self-deployable server options
  • Privacy-protected notifications
Features
Read full description

You can send push notifications to your iPhone by simply calling an HTTP API. Bark supports many advanced iOS push features, such as custom icons, notification grouping, custom ringtones, continuous alerts, critical alerts, and encrypted pushes. Bark does not consume device battery, as its core functionality relies on system push services and push extensions, and the app itself does not need to be running. Bark ensures your privacy and security with high reliability. Bark supports self-deploying the server, which can be deployed via Docker, Serverless, or Cloudflare Worker. The bark-server supports most operating systems, and you can also run it manually. The app is compiled and uploaded through Github Action, ensuring that the version you’re using is compiled from open-source code, without any modifications by anyone (including the author). Bark supports end-to-end push encryption with a custom key, ensuring that the push content is not accessed or leaked by the Bark server or Apple’s APNs server during transmission. The notification message history saved locally by Bark is also very secure. Using the NotificationServiceExtension, the push message is only stored on the device when the push is received. Feedback email: to@day.app Privacy Policy: https://api.day.app/privacy User Agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Actions

This app provides a vast collection of additional actions to enhance the functionality of the Shortcuts app on iOS. It offers a wide range of tools for manipulating data, interacting with device features, and automating complex tasks.

Highlights
  • Add to List
  • Apply Capture Date
  • Blur Images
  • Calculate with Soulver
  • Convert Date to Unix Time
  • Format Number as Ordinal
  • Get Device Details (Extended)
  • Get SF Symbol Image
Features
Read full description

Supercharge your shortcuts with lots of useful actions. It provides additional actions for the Shortcuts app. IMPORTANT: Because of an iOS bug, to make the actions show up in the Shortcuts app, you need to first launch the app and then restart your device. 重要提示:由于 iOS 错误,要使操作显示在“快捷方式”应用程序中,您需要先启动该应用程序,然后重新启动设备。 WICHTIG: Aufgrund eines iOS-Fehlers müssen Sie, damit die Aktionen in der Shortcuts-App angezeigt werden, zuerst die App starten und dann Ihr Gerät neu starten. IMPORTANT : en raison d'un bug iOS, pour que les actions s'affichent dans l'application Raccourcis, vous devez d'abord lancer l'application, puis redémarrer votre appareil. The actions are not able to run on Apple Watch or HomePod. Restart your device if the actions don't show up in the Shortcuts app. ■ Actions - Add to List - Apply Capture Date - Ask for Text with Timeout - Authenticate - Blur Images - Boolean - Calculate with Soulver - Choose from List (Extended) - Clamp Number - Color - Combine Lists - Combine Videos - Convert Coordinates to Location - Convert Date to Unix Time - Convert Location to Geo URI - Convert Unix Time to Date - Create Color Image - Create Menu Item - Create URL - Download File - Edit URL - Encrypt File - Encrypt Text - Filter List - Find Music Playlist - Format Currency - Format Date Difference - Format Duration - Format Number as Ordinal - Format Number — Compact - Format Person Name - Format Text List - Generate CSV - Generate Haptic Feedback - Generate Random Data - Generate Random Text - Generate UUID - Get All System Colors - Get Audio Playback Destination - Get Average Color - Get Average Color of Image - Get Battery State - Get Bluetooth Device - Get Bluetooth Devices - Get Boolean from Input - Get Compass Heading - Get Device Details (Extended) - Get Device Motion Activity - Get Device Motion Data - Get Device Orientation - Get Dominant Colors of Image - Get Elevation - Get Emojis - Get File Path - Get High-Resolution Timestamp - Get Image Capture Date / Set Image Capture Date - Get Image Location / Set Image Location - Get Index of List Item - Get Map Image of Location - Get Paragraphs from Text - Get Query Item Value from URL - Get Query Items from URL - Get Query Items from URL as Dictionary - Get Random Boolean - Get Random Color - Get Random Date and Time - Get Random Emoticon - Get Random Floating-Point Number - Get Random Number from Seed - Get Related Words - Get Sentences from Text - Get SF Symbol Image - Get System Color - Get Title of URL - Get Uniform Type Identifier / Set Uniform Type Identifier - Get User Details - Get Values Using JSONPath - Global Variable - Hex Encode - Hide Shortcuts App - Invert Images - Is Accessibility Feature On - Is Audio Playing - Is Bluetooth On - Is Call Active - Is Cellular Data On - Is Cellular Low Data Mode On - Is Conforming to Uniform Type Identifier - Is Connected to VPN - Is Dark Mode On - Is Day - Is Device Locked - Is Device Moving - Is Device Orientation - Is Host Reachable - Is Location Services Enabled - Is Low Power Mode On - Is Online - Is Shaking Device - Is Silent Mode On - Is Time - Is Time In Range - Is Web Server Reachable - Join Wi-Fi - Merge Dictionaries - Open URLs in Safari - Overwrite File - Parse CSV - Parse JSON5 - Pick Color - Pretty Print Dictionaries - Remove Duplicate Lines - Remove Duplicates from List - Remove Emojis - Remove Empty Lines - Remove from List - Remove Non-Printable Characters - Reverse Lines - Reverse List - Round Number to Multiple - Scan Documents - Scan QR Codes in Image - Set Creation and Modification Date of File - Show Black Screen - Show Notification - Shuffle List - Sort List - Sort Months - Spell Out Number - Toggle Boolean - Transform Lists - Transform Text - Transform Text with JavaScript - Trim Whitespace - Truncate List - Truncate Number - Truncate Text - Wait Milliseconds - Write or Edit Text

Screenshots

Bark3 screens
Actions2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Actions at none against Bark's 2. Actions also leads on ratings volume (469 vs 109). Bark's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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. Bark sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.69 per year. Actions asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Bark against 4.8 for Actions. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 109 and 469 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 98% of Bark's written reviews are positive against 92% of Actions's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bark ships an update every 3 weeks, Actions monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Bark versus Actions: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBarkActions
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (109 ratings) — better4.8 (469 ratings)
Positive reviews98.4% of reviews — better91.7% of reviews
Number of ratings109469 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size32 MB28 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer丰 黄Sindre Sorhus

Customer experience

Bark

All ratings109 ratings
Positive97.2%
Neutral0.0%
Negative2.8%
Written reviews61 reviews
Positive98.4%
Neutral1.6%
Negative0.0%

Actions

All ratings469 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral1.5%
Negative3.0%
Written reviews289 reviews
Positive91.7%
Neutral2.8%
Negative5.5%

Bugs and requests

Bark

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Actions

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Errors when using list manipulation actions
  • Incompatibility with HomePod mini
  • Shortcut actions not working on iPhone 15 Pro

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add support for device orientation detection
  • Integrate with more system-level APIs
  • Provide a way to create custom actions
  • Expand language support beyond English

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Bark

Subscriptions1
  • Continuous support$2.691 Year
One-time1
  • One-time donation$2.69
None

Actions

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bark free?
Bark is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Actions free?
Actions is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Bark or Actions?
Bark is rated higher. Bark averages 4.9 out of 5 from 109 ratings, while Actions averages 4.8 from 469 ratings.
Do Bark or Actions have ads?
Neither Bark nor Actions shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bark or Actions?
Bark ships an update every 3 weeks, and Actions monthly. Most recently, Bark was updated on October 14, 2026 and Actions on October 17, 2026.

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