Foldscope vs FathomVerse
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Foldscope
This app allows users to capture, focus, and scale images taken through a specialized lens. It also provides a platform for sharing these images and text posts with a global community of users. Explore and discover microscopic worlds through shared content.
- Capture and focus microscopic images
- Scale images through the lens
- Share images and text posts
- Browse global user posts
- Explore the Microcosmos community
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Use the Foldscope app to scale and focus your images while using the Foldscope! - Capture, focus, and scale images through the Lens - Share your images and text posts on Microcosmos - Browse Microcosmos to explore posts from Foldscopers around the world
FathomVerse
Explore the ocean world through an immersive game that trains AI for scientific research. Discover and identify over 50 groups of ocean animals using real imagery collected by researchers. Contribute to science while playing minigames, completing quests, and earning badges.
- Play minigames with real ocean imagery
- Identify over 50 groups of ocean animals
- Save and share favorite images
- Participate in quests and earn badges
- Unlock awards for gameplay contributions
- Customize soundscape with Ocean Radio
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The ocean covers more than 70% of our planet, yet most of the life within it remains undiscovered. FathomVerse is changing that, one dive at a time. FathomVerse invites everyone to take part in real ocean exploration and discovery. Through interactive mini-games, FathomNauts identify animals in real underwater photos and contribute to a growing library of labeled images that helps scientists catalog and understand marine life. With FathomVerse, you can: - Be among the first to review real imagery collected in the ocean. - Learn to identify more than 70 groups of marine animals. - Help train AI models by labeling animals in underwater images. - Participate in quests, earn badges, and track your scientific contributions. - Save and share your favorite ocean images in a personal gallery. Whether you're a lifelong ocean lover or simply curious about what lives in the depths, FathomVerse makes it easy to contribute to meaningful scientific research.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Foldscope at 5.0 against FathomVerse's 4.6. FathomVerse's advantage is ratings volume (88 vs 2). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Foldscope holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: FathomVerse has 88 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Foldscope ships an update every 2 months, FathomVerse every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and July 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Foldscope | FathomVerse |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.6 (88 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 85.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 88 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 6 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 26 MB | 284 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Foldscope Intruments, Inc | Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute |
Customer experience
Foldscope
FathomVerse
In-app purchases
Foldscope
No in-app purchases
FathomVerse
No in-app purchases
