Comparison

HalftonePix vs PIXEL86

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

Head to head
About

HalftonePix

Apply unique artistic effects to your photos with a variety of dot, line, and wave patterns. Customize shapes and colors for a personalized look. Transform selfies or gallery images into memorable artwork.

Highlights
  • Halftone dot effects
  • Line and stripe effects
  • Wave patterns
  • Customizable shapes and colors
  • Apply to selfies or gallery photos
Features
Read full description

HalftonePix brings advanced artistic photo effects to your mobile device. Our filters include a variety of halftone styles, patterns, shapes, and colors. Customize everything for a truly unique effect. HalftonePix includes: - Variety of dot effects (akin to newspaper print or comics) - Line and stripe effects - Waves - Circles HalftonePix allows you to apply a halftone effect to a selfie or a photo from gallery. Don't miss out on this unique and memorable photo filter!

About

PIXEL86

Transform photos and videos with vintage pixel art aesthetics. Apply true black-and-white dithering, custom color palettes, and unique dithering styles to create retro media. Supports video editing and sharing your creations.

Highlights
  • True B/W dithering
  • Video editing support
  • Customizable color palettes
  • Three dithering styles (Natural, Pattern, Flat)
  • Vintage-inspired aesthetics
  • Social media sharing
Read full description

PIXEL86 — Retro Dithering for Photos & Videos Make your media look like it came from a cooler, glitchier timeline. Bring back the charm of vintage tech with PIXEL86, the ultimate tool to transform your photos and videos into pixel-perfect black-and-white or limited-palette art. Inspired by early computer graphics, old-school printers, and classic GIFs — this is retro done right. True B/W Dithering No grays. Just black or white pixels smartly arranged to simulate shadows and depth — exactly how early screens did it. Now Supports Video Editing Apply your favorite dithering style to video clips. Make every frame look like a piece of pixel-art history. Color Palettes, Reimagined Choose from curated vintage-inspired palettes Hit random for a fresh surprise every time Or build your own custom palette for a personalized look Three Dithering Styles Natural — Smooth, classic error diffusion. Clean and expressive. Pattern — Retro dot-matrix vibes. Adjustable matrix for custom textures. Flat — Not technically dithering, but perfect for dramatic, posterized effects in both stills and motion. Share Your Style Use #pixel86 on social and tag @pixel86app on Instagram — we love featuring the coolest creations from the community.

Screenshots

HalftonePix4 screens
PIXEL864 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: HalftonePix at none against PIXEL86's shown. HalftonePix also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 18.0). PIXEL86's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 67%) and rating (4.6 vs 4.3). On price, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. HalftonePix sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and PIXEL86 sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PIXEL86 holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PIXEL86 has 42 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of HalftonePix's written reviews are positive against 100% of PIXEL86's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HalftonePix ships an update fortnightly, PIXEL86 every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
HalftonePix versus PIXEL86: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHalftonePixPIXEL86
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (7 ratings)4.6 (42 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings742 — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS9.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB87 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAevica SoftwarePeter Tretyakov

Customer experience

HalftonePix

All ratings7 ratings
Positive71.4%
Neutral28.6%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%

PIXEL86

All ratings31 ratings
Positive90.3%
Neutral3.2%
Negative6.5%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

HalftonePix

One-time1
  • Premium Styles$4.99
2 purchases

PIXEL86

One-time2
  • License Discount$9.99
  • Perpetual License$19.99

Questions

Is HalftonePix free?
HalftonePix is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PIXEL86 free?
PIXEL86 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, HalftonePix or PIXEL86?
PIXEL86 is rated higher. HalftonePix averages 4.3 out of 5 from 7 ratings, while PIXEL86 averages 4.6 from 42 ratings.
Do HalftonePix or PIXEL86 have ads?
PIXEL86 shows ads; HalftonePix does not.
Which is updated more often, HalftonePix or PIXEL86?
HalftonePix ships an update fortnightly, and PIXEL86 every 5 days. Most recently, HalftonePix was updated on October 21, 2026 and PIXEL86 on October 27, 2026.

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