Comparison

Transparent App Icons vs ShowAE

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

Head to head
About

Transparent App Icons

Easily customize your iOS home screen with unique icons that blend seamlessly with your wallpaper. Create custom layouts and spacing for a personalized aesthetic. Includes a variety of overlay images for a see-through logo effect.

Highlights
  • Upload wallpaper for seamless icon blending
  • Automatic image cropping to wallpaper size
  • Create icon images for entire home screen pages
  • Overlay transparent images with 2200+ logos
  • Custom icon spacing and layouts
Features
Read full description

Updated for iPhone 16 and iOS 18.1 with support for large icons mode! Transparent App Icons is the easiest, simplest way to customize your iOS 14+ Home Screen with icons that are set against the background wallpaper to look like they’re transparent. Transparent App Icons lets you create images to use as Shortcuts and bookmarks on your Home Screen, so you can achieve previously impossible Home Screen layouts and custom icon spacing, using a simulated transparent background. Features: - Upload wallpaper images and automatically create icons with the correct cut-out so that icons blend with the wallpaper seamlessly - Automatically crop uploaded images to your phone’s wallpaper size - Quickly create icon images for entire home screen pages - Overlay transparent images to create a see-through logo effect: 2200+ logos and symbols included in the app - Transparent App Icons is a one time purchase, paid up front: no subscriptions, no selling data, no need to log in - Absolutely never, ever, ever any ads There’s no corporation trying to extract ad dollars here - I’m just one developer, and I hope Transparent App Icons can help you create creative and aesthetic iOS 14 home screen layouts! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out at support@transparenticons.app, or on Twitter at @TransparentIcns - thank you!

About

ShowAE

Create custom icon effects for your device's homescreen with over 300 unique options. Design personalized icons by layering different effects and export them for sharing or automatic application. Achieve a unique and visually appealing homescreen with ease.

Highlights
  • Over 300 unique icon effects
  • Layer multiple icon effect options
  • Create unique and amazing icon effects
  • Export single images for sharing
  • Automatically apply to favorite icons
  • Simple and easy to use
Features
Read full description

ShowAE has over 300 unique icon effects so you can theme your icons and have an amazing looking Homescreen! Choose from multiple icon effect layers to create a unique and amazing icon effect. Export a single image to share or automatically apply to your favourite icons. Its so simple too!

Screenshots

Transparent App Icons4 screens
ShowAE3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: ShowAE at 100% against Transparent App Icons's 49%. ShowAE also leads on price (Free vs $1.99) and rating (4.8 vs 3.5). Transparent App Icons's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and chart position (#27 vs unranked). On 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

ShowAE is free to download; Transparent App Icons costs $1.99 up front. ShowAE sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Transparent App Icons asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ShowAE holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Transparent App Icons has 157 ratings behind it against 19, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 49% of Transparent App Icons's written reviews are positive against 100% of ShowAE's.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Transparent App Icons versus ShowAE: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTransparent App IconsShowAE
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating3.5 (157 ratings)4.8 (19 ratings) — better
Positive reviews49.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings157 — better19
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#27 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS14.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB18 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNoah GilmoreSean Kelly

Customer experience

Transparent App Icons

All ratings158 ratings
Positive55.7%
Neutral11.4%
Negative32.9%
Written reviews170 reviews
Positive49.4%
Neutral14.7%
Negative35.9%

ShowAE

All ratings19 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Transparent App Icons

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Icons not aligning properly on iPhone 14 Pro Max
  • Cropping issues on iPhone 13 mini
  • App freezes when trying to add multiple icons

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add support for iOS 26
  • Allow uploading own icons
  • Add widget customization
  • Save and load icon layouts

ShowAE

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Transparent App Icons

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

ShowAE

One-time3
  • Bronze Donation$0.99
  • Silver Donation$2.99
  • Gold Donation$4.99

Questions

Is Transparent App Icons free?
Transparent App Icons costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is ShowAE free?
ShowAE is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Transparent App Icons or ShowAE?
ShowAE is rated higher. Transparent App Icons averages 3.5 out of 5 from 157 ratings, while ShowAE averages 4.8 from 19 ratings.
Do Transparent App Icons or ShowAE have ads?
Neither Transparent App Icons nor ShowAE shows ads.

Other comparisons