Comparison

Tusker vs MaskerAid

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

Head to head
About

Tusker

This app offers a flexible and customizable client for the Mastodon social network and compatible services. It provides advanced features like notification grouping, timeline syncing across devices, and extensive personalization options for a tailored social media experience.

Highlights
  • Notification grouping
  • Timeline sync with iCloud
  • Customizable timelines with filters
  • Extensive user preferences
  • Digital wellness options
  • Multiple account support
  • Modern Mastodon features
Features
Read full description

Tusker is a free and flexible client for the Mastodon social network and other compatible services. Features: • Notification grouping: Combine favorite, boost, and follow notifications into a single row to get a more glance-able view of your notifications. • Timeline sync: Keep your timeline position across all your devices using iCloud. • Customize timelines: Pick which timelines (including lists, hashtags, and public instance timelines) are pinned to your home tab, and apply filters to hide posts you're not interested in. • Tweak your experience: Tusker has a wide variety of preferences to allow you to customize how you use the app. From changing the appearance and interactions, to configuring how content warnings work, Tusker supports it all. • Digital wellness options: Tusker has a variety of preferences to help you manage how you use social media, including by turning infinite scrolling off or showing all images in grayscale. • Accessibility: VoiceOver, Voice Control, Dynamic Type, and more are all fully supported. • Multiple accounts: Sign in to multiple accounts and quickly switch between them. • Modern Mastodon features: Edit posts, view quotes, view trending posts/hashtags/links, translate posts, and more. • Broad software compatibility: Tusker also has builtin support for the Glitch and Hometown variants of Mastodon; as well as Pleroma/Akkoma, a Mastodon alternative; and PixelFed, a photo-sharing social network. Mastodon is part of the fediverse, a free, open source, and decentralized social network. From your home server, communicate and interact with people on any other server using the ActivityPub protocol. Learn more at joinmastodon.org. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

MaskerAid

Easily add emoji to your photos to obscure faces or highlight elements. This app automatically detects faces and offers intuitive controls for positioning emoji. It also removes metadata from shared images for enhanced privacy.

Highlights
  • Automatic face detection
  • Add and position emoji
  • Remove image metadata
  • Save and share photos
  • Thousands of emoji options
Features
Read full description

MaskerAid allows you to quickly and easily add emoji to images. Add emoji for jokes, to call attention to things, hide faces, and more! When you load an image with MaskerAid, it will AUTOMATICALLY detect all the faces in that photo, and obscure them with an emoji. Using MaskerAid, it's quick and easy to obscure the faces of children, shy friends, coworkers, or randos that are in your photos. Additionally, any images you share will automatically have ALL METADATA REMOVED. Privacy is your right, and MaskerAid helps protect it. MaskerAid removes hidden information like where the photo was taken, what device it was taken on, etc. Using the intuitive gestures you'd expect, you can move/resize/rotate emoji to get them centered *just right* over faces and objects. Plus, if you pay for the one-time in-app purchase, you can select from *thousands* of different emoji! Once you've gotten your image just right, you can quickly and easily save it to your Camera Roll, or share it using other apps. MaskerAid is written by one person, Casey Liss, who you may know from the Accidental Tech Podcast (ATP) or Analog(ue) on Relay FM. MaskerAid does not collect your images, and does not collect unnecessary data.

Screenshots

Tusker4 screens
MaskerAid4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: MaskerAid at 317 against Tusker's 30. MaskerAid also leads on update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 3 months). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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. Tusker sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and MaskerAid sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Tusker against 4.8 for MaskerAid. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MaskerAid has 317 ratings behind it against 30, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 91% of Tusker's written reviews are positive against 88% of MaskerAid's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tusker ships an update every 3 months, MaskerAid every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Tusker versus MaskerAid: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTuskerMaskerAid
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (30 ratings)4.8 (317 ratings) — better
Positive reviews90.9% of reviews — better87.7% of reviews
Number of ratings30317 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB4 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperVaccor, LLCLimitliss LLC

Customer experience

Tusker

All ratings32 ratings
Positive96.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative3.1%
Written reviews22 reviews
Positive90.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative9.1%

MaskerAid

All ratings314 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral1.3%
Negative3.2%
Written reviews106 reviews
Positive87.7%
Neutral2.8%
Negative9.4%

Bugs and requests

Tusker

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

MaskerAid

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Inconsistent emoji sizing
  • Difficulty moving emojis precisely

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add undo/redo functionality
  • Increase emoji selection
  • Implement ML-based emoji suggestions
  • Add video support

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Tusker

Subscriptions1
  • Tusker Supporter$1.991 Month
One-time3
  • Nice Tip$1.99
  • Awesome Tip$6.99
  • Incredible Tip$14.99
1 purchases

MaskerAid

One-time1
  • Emoji Unlock$2.99

Questions

Is Tusker free?
Tusker is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is MaskerAid free?
MaskerAid is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Tusker or MaskerAid?
MaskerAid is rated higher. Tusker averages 4.7 out of 5 from 30 ratings, while MaskerAid averages 4.8 from 317 ratings.
Do Tusker or MaskerAid have ads?
Neither Tusker nor MaskerAid shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tusker or MaskerAid?
Tusker ships an update every 3 months, and MaskerAid every 6 weeks. Most recently, Tusker was updated on October 23, 2026 and MaskerAid on October 21, 2026.

Other comparisons