Comparison

Warframe vs RetroArch

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

Head to head
About

Warframe

Become a powerful warrior in this free-to-play online action game. Battle alongside friends across a sprawling interplanetary system, customizing your bio-metal suit and arsenal to annihilate enemies and explore vast open worlds. Experience an epic story and master destructive weaponry.

Highlights
  • Become a powerful warrior in a bio-metal suit
  • Battle alongside friends in co-op missions
  • Explore massive open worlds and engage in ship battles
  • Experience an epic cinematic story with multiple expansions
  • Master and customize a vast arsenal of weapons
  • Customize Warframes and gear endlessly
Features
Read full description

Awaken as an unstoppable warrior and battle alongside your friends in this story-driven free-to-play online action game Confront warring factions throughout a sprawling interplanetary system as you follow the guidance of the mysterious Lotus and level up your Warframe, build an Arsenal of destructive firepower, and realize your true potential across massive open worlds in this thrilling, genre-defining third-person combat experience. Carry your progression through the expansive Origin System across platforms with Cross Platform Save. BECOME A POWERFUL WARRIOR Enter your Warframe: a bio-metal suit of untold power. Unleash its Abilities and wield a vast array of devastating weaponry to effortlessly annihilate hordes of enemies on sight. And when the slaughter is over, you can earn or instantly unlock 50+ different Warframes - each with a unique suite of powers - to re-experience the mayhem any way you want. BATTLE ALONGSIDE FRIENDS Form a Squad with your friends and earn valuable bonus Rewards when you complete Missions together via highly collaborative, co-op gameplay. Utilize your Warframe’s Abilities to heal allies, redirect enemy fire, and achieve your objectives. Stuck on a particular challenge? In-game matchmaking makes it easy to connect with friendly Tenno whenever you need an extra hand. EXPLORE A MASSIVE SYSTEM Deftly maneuver through ground-based Missions with your Warframe’s mesmerizing parkour skills or take to the stars and engage in massive ship-to-ship battles in your very own customizable spacecraft. Lose yourself within mysterious open-world landscapes and discover a system teeming with fascinating lifeforms - both friendly and hostile. DISCOVER AN EPIC STORY Marvel at the sweeping history of the Origin System as you experience Warframe’s massive cinematic narrative spanning 5 separate expansions and 30+ story-based Quests. Discover the power within and experience your first taste of invincibility with one of three original Warframes before you begin your journey, develop your skills and seek out the truth behind your awakening. MASTER YOUR ARSENAL Your starter Weapons are just the beginning. Craft hundreds of destructive armaments, plus vehicles, Companions and more. Level them up and experiment until you find the right combination of gear that suits your unique playstyle. Fashion your weaponry for a fearsome look to compliment your custom-designed loadout. CUSTOMIZE ENDLESSLY Entering the Origin System means joining legions of friendly Tenno, each with their own personalized Warframes, Weapons and gear. With a staggering number of Customization options available to enhance your Loadout, designing the perfect look for your Warframe makes for an endlessly rewarding challenge for you and your Squad. IGRS: 18+

About

RetroArch

This application serves as a versatile frontend for emulators and game engines, supporting a vast array of systems through downloadable cores. It offers advanced features like netplay, save states, and customizable controls for an enhanced gaming experience.

Highlights
  • Supports numerous gaming systems via libretro cores
  • Netplay for multiplayer gaming
  • Save states and fast forward/rewind
  • Controller support and key remapping
  • Customizable shaders and overlays
  • RetroAchievements integration
  • AI translations for games
Features
Read full description

RetroArch is a free, ad-free, open source, and cross platform frontend/framework for emulators, game engines, video games, media players, and other applications. Supported systems come in the form of libretro cores. The following systems are supported through various cores: * 2048 * Acorn - BBC Micro * Amstrad - CPC/GX4000 * Anarch * Arcade * Arduboy * Atari - 2600 * Atari - 5200 * Atari - 7800 * Atari - Jaguar * Atari - Lynx * Bandai - WonderSwan/Color * Cave Story * Coleco - ColecoVision * Commodore - Amiga * Commodore - C128 * Commodore - C64 * Commodore - C64 SuperCPU * Commodore - CBM-II 5x0 * Commodore - CBM-II 6x0/7x0 * Commodore - PET * Commodore - PLUS/4 * Commodore - VIC-20 * Dinothawr * Doom * DOS * Fairchild ChannelF * Flashback * GCE - Vectrex * Game Music Emu * Handheld Electronic * MSX/SVI/ColecoVision/SG-1000 * Mattel - Intellivision * Mega Duck / Cougar Boy * Mr.Boom * NEC - PC Engine / SuperGrafx / CD * NEC - PC-FX * NEC - PC-98 * Nintendo - DS * Nintendo - Game Boy / Color * Nintendo - Game Boy Advance * Nintendo - NES / Famicom * Nintendo - Nintendo 64 * Nintendo - Pokemon Mini * Nintendo - SNES / SFC * Nintendo - Virtual Boy * Palm OS * PocketCDG * Quake * Quake II * Rick Dangerous * SNK - Neo Geo AES/MVS * SNK - Neo Geo CD * SNK - Neo Geo Pocket / Color * ScummVM * Sega - MS/GG/MD/CD/32X * Sega - MS/GG/SG-1000 * Sega - Saturn * Sharp - X68000 * Sinclair - ZX Spectrum * Sony - PlayStation * Sony - PlayStation Portable * Texas Instruments TI-83 * The 3DO Company - 3DO * Thomson - MO/TO * Vircon32 * VirtualXT * WASM-4 * Watara - Supervision RetroArch supports a broad range of features, including: * Netplay * Soft patching * RetroAchievements * Save states * MFi controller support * Key remapping per core or per game * Gyro * Cheats * Custom overlays * Shaders * Fast forward and rewind * Game artwork * AI translations * Advanced latency management **RetroArch and Libretro are in no way affiliated with Nintendo. The name "Nintendo" and all associated game console names are registered trademarks of Nintendo Co., Ltd.**

Screenshots

Warframe4 screens
RetroArch4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Warframe at 4.9 against RetroArch's 4.3. Warframe also leads on ratings volume (26K vs 1.8K) and chart position (#87 vs unranked). RetroArch's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 42) and update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). On price, 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. Warframe sells 41 one-off in-app purchases. RetroArch asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Warframe holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Warframe has 26K ratings behind it against 1.8K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 73% of Warframe's written reviews are positive against 69% of RetroArch's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Warframe ships an update fortnightly, RetroArch weekly. Both last shipped on September 26, 2026.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Warframe versus RetroArch: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWarframeRetroArch
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (26K ratings) — better4.3 (1.8K ratings)
Positive reviews73.4% of reviews — better69.2% of reviews
Number of ratings26K — better1.8K
Update frequencyFortnightlyWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#87 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV — better
Requires iOS15.612.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size3.7 GB652 MB
Age rating17+9+
DeveloperDigital ExtremesLibretro

Customer experience

Warframe

All ratings26,220 ratings
Positive97.6%
Neutral0.7%
Negative1.7%
Written reviews1,671 reviews
Positive73.4%
Neutral7.2%
Negative19.4%

RetroArch

All ratings1,547 ratings
Positive82.7%
Neutral6.9%
Negative10.5%
Written reviews1,459 reviews
Positive69.2%
Neutral11.3%
Negative19.5%

User reviews

Warframe

From 26K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Entire game ported to mobile
  • 🚀 Cross-play and cross-save support
  • 🚀 Impressive graphics and performance
  • 👍 Faithful to the original PC/console experience
  • 👍 Customizable controls and UI

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches, especially with UI and controls
  • 🔋 Overheating and battery drain issues
  • 🔍 Difficult to navigate menus and access certain features
  • 👎 Clunky touch controls, better with a controller
  • 🔍 Lack of keyboard and mouse support

RetroArch

From 1.8K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth emulation performance
  • 🎮 Wide range of supported systems
  • 🕹️ Controller support
  • 💯 Comprehensive emulation features
  • 🔓 No ads or tracking

Room to improve

  • 🤯 Steep learning curve
  • 🤖 Unintuitive user interface
  • 🐛 Stability issues and crashes
  • 🔌 Slow loading times
  • 🤷‍♂️ Inconsistent core support

Bugs and requests

Warframe

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Initialization loop and download issues
  • Inability to access certain features like decorating the Orbiter
  • Bugs with the chat system and squad management
  • Quests and objectives not functioning properly
  • Performance issues in open-world areas and during intense combat

Requested features

5 requests
  • Gyroscope support for aiming
  • Customizable button placement and size
  • Improved optimization for older devices
  • Ability to disable auto-fire and auto-melee
  • Separate buttons for actions like jumping, rolling, and sliding

RetroArch

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • N64 games not loading textures properly
  • Crashes when changing settings or cores
  • Bios files not being recognized
  • Inconsistent performance across devices
  • Saved settings not persisting

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for PS2, GameCube, and 3DS emulation
  • Improve iCloud/cloud storage integration
  • Implement customizable button layouts
  • Add a more user-friendly setup wizard
  • Provide better documentation and tutorials

In-app purchases

41 purchases

Warframe

One-time41
  • Gunblade Battlekit$0.99
  • Fulmin Battlekit$1.99
  • 75 Platinum2 variants$4.99
Show 38 more
  • Starter Weapon Pack$4.99
  • Dante Chronicles Pack$5.99
  • Sakura Storm Collection$6.99
  • 170 Platinum$9.99
  • 175 Platinum$9.99
  • 370 Platinum$19.99
  • The Old Peace Uriel Bundle$19.99
  • Sirius & Orion Bundle$19.99
  • 3 Regal Aya: Prime Resurgence$19.99
  • 380 Platinum$19.99
  • 1999 Cyte-09 Bullseye Bundle$19.99
  • Jade Chorus Pack$19.99
  • Warframe: Sanctum Collection$19.99
  • Warframe: Oraxia Bundle$20.99
  • TennoCon 2024 Digital Pack$24.99
  • Mesa Heirloom Collection$24.99
  • TennoCon 2026 Digital Pack$24.99
  • TennoCon 2025 Digital Pack$24.99
  • Encore Temple Bundle$24.99
  • Rhino Heirloom Steel Coll.$24.99
  • Ember Heirloom Sear Coll.$24.99
  • Koumei Visions Bundle$29.99
  • Constellations Complete Coll.$34.99
  • 7 Regal Aya: Prime Resurgence$39.99
  • 1000 Platinum$49.99
  • 1025 Platinum$49.99
  • Encore Complete Collection$49.99
  • 1999 Complete Collection$54.99
  • 15 Regal Aya: Prime Resurgence$79.99
  • Sevagoth Prime Access$79.99
  • 2200 Platinum$99.99
  • 2100 Platinum$99.99
  • Styanax Prime Access Complete$139.99
  • Yareli Prime Access Complete$139.99
  • Lavos Prime Access Complete$139.99
  • Xaku Prime Access Complete$139.99
  • Sevagoth Prime Access Complete$139.99
  • 3210 Platinum$149.99
None

RetroArch

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Warframe free?
Warframe is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is RetroArch free?
RetroArch is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Warframe or RetroArch?
Warframe is rated higher. Warframe averages 4.9 out of 5 from 26K ratings, while RetroArch averages 4.3 from 1.8K ratings.
Do Warframe or RetroArch have ads?
Neither Warframe nor RetroArch shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Warframe or RetroArch?
Warframe ships an update fortnightly, and RetroArch weekly. Most recently, Warframe was updated on September 26, 2026 and RetroArch on September 26, 2026.

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