Comparison

Boulder Challenge vs Retro Flash

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

Head to head
About

Boulder Challenge

Easily create and share custom climbing boulder problems by taking a photo of the wall. Define holds, difficulty, and descriptions to document your routes or outdoor projects. Discover and rate boulders created by others, and track your climbing progress.

Highlights
  • Create custom boulder problems from photos
  • Define hand and foot holds
  • Specify difficulty and descriptive text
  • Search and rate existing boulders
  • Track climbed and favorite boulders
  • Export data to Excel
  • Follow other climbers and view news feed
Features
Read full description

App to create and share your own boulder problems on every climbing wall / spray wall / training wall / system wall / chaos wall / boulder block by simply taking a picture and easily specifying the definition as detailed as you like. - No additional costs like many other apps. Create as many walls and boulders as you like - Search for locations / boulder walls that have already been added or add them yourself - Suitable for all artificial boulder walls and also for saving the beta of your outdoor projects - Take a picture of the wall area you want, select an image that is already stored in the app or from the gallery of your smartphone - Define the start and end of your boulder - Define hand and foot holds (optionally separately and explicitly for left / right if desired) - Optionally define fixed hold sequences by specifying numbering - Various ways of displaying the markers - Smoothly fade out markings to be able to see details "behind" the markings - General descriptive text for a boulder and also possible per hold - Optional specification of the wall angle - Specification of difficulty in Fontainebleau / Hueco V scale or without - Mark boulders that have been resetted to see directly that they are no longer on the wall - Edit, delete and clone boulders - Rate and comment boulders - Submission of individual difficulty ratings with graphical display of the difficulty distribution per boulder - Search for boulders by name, creator, difficulty from / to, rating, climbed, favorite, wall angle, resetted - Sorting of boulders by created on, climbed on, name, difficulty, number of ascents, popularity - Random boulder selection in a certain difficulty range for e.g. warm-up - Lists for your favorite and already climbed boulders - Share boulders outside of the app as an image, direct link and QR code - Display of news per location / boulder wall - Display of the difficulty distribution per location / boulder wall - Display of the locals per location / boulder wall - "Bulletin board" per location / boulder wall - Share locations / boulder walls outside of the app as direct link and QR code - Follow other users and see what they've been up to in your personal news feed - Get score points for your created boulders, climbed boulders or e. g. if one of your boulders has been rated well by others - Optional private profile if your activities should not be visible to others - Send and receive private messages - Automatically kept logbook to easily display your activities for a period of your choice - Export of all your created and climbed boulders in Microsoft Excel format for further individual evaluation Have fun!

About

Retro Flash

This app helps climbers maximize their spray wall training with unique tools for setting various problems and supports multiple grading systems. It fosters a community for climbers to share and improve their training.

Highlights
  • Spray wall problem setting
  • Supports symmetrical, partly symmetrical, adjustable, and private walls
  • Circuit and competition boulder creation
  • Fontainebleau, Dankyu, and Hueco grading systems
  • Customizable grading systems
  • Wall upgrades for new possibilities
Features
Read full description

Welcome to Retro Flash and the Arcade Bouldering Community! Retro Flash is the Ultimate Spray Wall App, designed with every member of the climbing community in mind! We have created a lot of unique tools to ensure that everyone has everything they need to get the most out of their spray walls! For example, we support symmetrical, partly symmetrical, adjustable and private walls! Set all kinds of problems on your wall, like circuits or even competition boulders! With our wall upgrades, we upgrade your walls to the next level, opening up a lot of new possibilities! Now, you can even upgrade your walls by yourself!! Retro Flash supports the Fontainebleau, Dankyu and Hueco grading systems. You can also define your own grading systems or even deactivate grading! Download Retro Flash now and become a part of our growing community!

Screenshots

Boulder Challenge4 screens
Retro Flash4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Retro Flash at Free against Boulder Challenge's $2.99. Retro Flash also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.3) and ratings volume (226 vs 23). Boulder Challenge's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 8) and iOS requirement (10.3 vs 15.6). On update cadence, ads and device support 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

Retro Flash is free to download; Boulder Challenge costs $2.99 up front. Retro Flash sells 8 one-off in-app purchases. Boulder Challenge asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Retro Flash holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Retro Flash has 226 ratings behind it against 23, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 71% of Boulder Challenge's written reviews are positive against 83% of Retro Flash's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Boulder Challenge ships an update every 6 weeks, Retro Flash every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Boulder Challenge versus Retro Flash: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBoulder ChallengeRetro Flash
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating4.3 (23 ratings)4.7 (226 ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.6% of reviews82.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings23226 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS10.3 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size79 MB162 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChristian FenzlArcade Bouldering UG (haftungsbeschrnkt)

Customer experience

Boulder Challenge

All ratings23 ratings
Positive82.6%
Neutral8.7%
Negative8.7%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive70.6%
Neutral11.8%
Negative17.6%

Retro Flash

All ratings226 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral3.5%
Negative3.5%
Written reviews35 reviews
Positive82.9%
Neutral8.6%
Negative8.6%

Bugs and requests

Boulder Challenge

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Retro Flash

Reported bugs

8 issues
  • Cannot see sends anymore
  • All boulders set to unclimbed for all users
  • Statistics are gone
  • Won't let me reset wall
  • Won't let me delete walls
Show 3 more
  • Won't let me add a new wall on a new account
  • Camera button to add a photo doesn't do anything
  • Can't change the angle of the wall

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add a tick list of all climbs done
  • Show number and distribution of grades
  • Copy route feature for minor adjustments
  • Ability to edit names or grades of existing boulders

In-app purchases

None

Boulder Challenge

No in-app purchases

8 purchases

Retro Flash

One-time8
  • Unlock Rules for Circles$4.99
  • Home Wall Year Pass$4.99
  • 1 Month Upgrade Pass$8.99
Show 5 more
  • Additional Wall$9.99
  • Gym Year Pass Tier 1$14.99
  • Add Gym$14.99
  • Gym Year Pass Tier 2$29.99
  • 6 Months Upgrade Pass$44.99

Questions

Is Boulder Challenge free?
Boulder Challenge costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Retro Flash free?
Retro Flash is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Boulder Challenge or Retro Flash?
Retro Flash is rated higher. Boulder Challenge averages 4.3 out of 5 from 23 ratings, while Retro Flash averages 4.7 from 226 ratings.
Do Boulder Challenge or Retro Flash have ads?
Neither Boulder Challenge nor Retro Flash shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Boulder Challenge or Retro Flash?
Boulder Challenge ships an update every 6 weeks, and Retro Flash every 3 weeks. Most recently, Boulder Challenge was updated on October 24, 2026 and Retro Flash on October 24, 2026.

Other comparisons