Shortcuts vs Themes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shortcuts
Automate everyday tasks on your iPhone and iPad by creating custom workflows. Combine actions from your favorite apps to perform complex operations with a single tap, Siri command, or even automatically. Explore hundreds of built-in actions to streamline your digital life.
- Create custom automations
- Hundreds of built-in actions
- Integrates with favorite apps
- Home Screen icons for quick access
- Siri integration
- Automatic task execution
- Make animated GIFs
- Create PDFs from Safari
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Now, with Describe a Shortcut, you can automate daily tasks with a simple description. Just describe what you need, and Shortcuts creates an automation that connects actions across apps. Choose from hundreds of built-in actions in your favorite apps — like Calendar, Camera, Reminders, and more — to help you accomplish everyday tasks with a simple tap from the Home Screen, by asking Siri, or even automatically. Use the Shortcuts app to: • Add a Home Screen icon that calls a loved one • Make animated GIFs • Make PDFs from Safari And so much more... Shortcuts opens up incredible possibilities to automate things you do regularly on your iPhone and iPad.
Themes
Personalize your mobile device with custom app icons, aesthetic themes, and widgets. Easily change your Home Screen's look and feel with a variety of options and new content added daily. Create your unique style with icon packs and matching wallpapers.
- Custom app icons
- Aesthetic themes
- Home Screen widgets
- Lock Screen widgets
- Icon packs
- Custom wallpapers
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• Upgrade your Home Screen – set custom app icons, themes and widgets! • Aesthetic themes to impress your friends • 100+ apps supported • Lock Screen widgets customizer • Set app icons in one tap • Variety of cool widgets and wallpapers • Create your own style with icon packs • Wallpapers that fit themes style Themely is the only way to totally customize Home screen look and feel. Set custom app icons, widgets and wallpapers. We add new content every day – stay tuned! Need more icons and themes? Or want us to create some special app icon for you? Ping us on support@themely.cc Terms of Use: https://themely.cc/terms Privacy Policy: https://themely.cc/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Shortcuts at none against Themes's 10. Shortcuts also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (49% vs 19%). Themes's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 6 months). On price and rating 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
Both are free to download. Themes sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Shortcuts asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Shortcuts against 4.5 for Themes. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shortcuts has 49K ratings behind it against 2.1K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 49% of Shortcuts's written reviews are positive against 19% of Themes's.
Shortcuts ships an update every 6 months, Themes every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Shortcuts | Themes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (49K ratings) — better | 4.5 (2.1K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 49.3% of reviews — better | 18.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 49K — better | 2.1K |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 143 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Apple Inc. | 42Taps |
Customer experience
Shortcuts
Themes
User reviews
Shortcuts
From 49K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Powerful automation capabilities
- 👍 Customizable app icons and widgets
- 🎨 Aesthetic customization options
- 💡 Useful for home automation and productivity
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy, crashes, and exhibits unexpected behavior
- 🔍 Inaccessible and difficult to use
- 🔕 Annoying notification banners
- 🔌 Drains battery when running complex shortcuts
Themes
From 2.1K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 User-friendly
- 🚀 Quick installation
- 💡 Customization options
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes
- 🔒 Security concerns
- 💰 Expensive subscription
- 🔋 Drains battery
Bugs and requests
Shortcuts
Reported bugs
4 issues- Shortcuts randomly stop working, requiring device restart
- Inconsistent behavior when adding/removing actions in shortcuts
- Shortcuts not syncing properly between devices
- Automations not running automatically as expected
Requested features
4 requests- Add 'and' statement for automations
- Allow toggling of silent mode on iPad and Apple Watch
- Provide option to disable notification banners
- Improve syncing and reliability between devices
Themes
Reported bugs
3 issues- Infinite loading issues
- Duplicate app icons
- Incompatibility with certain devices
Requested features
3 requests- More free themes and icons
- Batch icon installation
- Undo/revert functionality
In-app purchases
Shortcuts
No in-app purchases
Themes
- Monthly Membership$3.991 Month
- Full Access Membership$4.997 Days
- Full Access Membership3 Days trial$7.997 Days
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- Yearly Membership$14.991 Year
- Yearly Membership3 Days trial$24.991 Year
- Yearly Access$29.991 Year
- Unlock Widget/Icon Pack$1.99
- Full Lifetime Access$9.99
- Fancy Widgets Themes & Icon$11.99
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- Full Access$19.99
