Comparison

AppTheme vs Shortcut Icon Maker

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

Head to head
About

AppTheme

Personalize your iPhone's home screen with trendy themes, custom widgets, and matching wallpapers. Create a unique look with icon packs, contact posters, and a vast collection of aesthetic styles.

Highlights
  • 3-in-1 themes (icons, widgets, wallpapers)
  • Customizable photo, clock, and motivation widgets
  • Icon changer with multiple installation methods
  • Extensive wallpaper collection
  • Personalized contact posters
  • Diverse aesthetic styles
Features
Read full description

Ready to take a step up in customizing your iPhone? Customize your home screen with our trendy themes, awesome widgets and wallpapers! Upgrade your device’s screen with our exclusive themes! These lightweight and stylish themes combine perfectly matched wallpapers and optimized icon layouts to create a sleek and organized look. We’ve also added a collection of trendy wallpapers with unique design elements to make your screen stand out and reflect your personality. Make your iPhone truly yours with our latest updates! FEATURES: ■ 3-in-1 Themes Themes include icons, widgets and wallpapers. Easy Install! ■ Widgets and Customizer Photo, Clock & Date and Motivation Widgets sorted by categories and colors. You can customize the widget as you want! We have tons of cute, funny and even trippy widgets, so hurry up and get them! ■ Icon Changer Two ways to install icons. 60+ icons in each pack! ■ Wallpapers Huge collection of awesome wallpapers for your Lock or Home Screen, including Dynamic Island-framed wallpapers for a stylish and modern look. ■ Contact Posters Create unique and personalized contact posters to make incoming calls stand out like never before. ■ Vibes Immerse yourself in a world of styles-elegant aesthetics, vibrant neon, dynamic sports, sleek cars, infinite space, abstract artistry, serene nature, charming animals, urban vibes, and so much more-crafted to perfectly match your unique taste! ■ Easy to Use You can create a unique home screen theme using our icons and widgets. Combine how you want! Theme installation varies depending on the theme you choose — it can be as quick as a couple of clicks or involve deeper customization to create a truly personalized experience. REQUIREMENTS App Theme work on all iOS devices with the only requirement being that it is running iOS 15+ - OS27! Purchase lifetime access to get unlimited access to all content and updates in app! Privacy policy: http://vlabor-apps.com/privacy-policy.html Terms of use: http://vlabor-apps.com/terms-of-use.html

About

Shortcut Icon Maker

Create custom icons for your apps and personalize your device's home screen. Choose from over 1,000 icons with extensive customization options for size, color, and background. Easily save and use your creations with Apple's Shortcuts app for a unique display.

Highlights
  • Create custom app icons
  • Personalize home screen display
  • Over 1,000 icon sets
  • Adjust icon size and color
  • Customize background and borders
  • Save icons to photo library
  • Integrates with Apple's Shortcuts app
Features
Read full description

Shortcut Icon Maker app is a must have tool for users to create custom shortcut icons for apps and transform their device homescreen into a beautiful custom display with nice color scheme of their own choice. This is the best tool to have for customising the homescreen with any widgets. Choose from plenty of icons sets with more than 1,000 total icons from the list with many customisation options as per below: 1. Change the icon size 2. Choose the icon colour 3. Create border for the icon 4. Customize border size 5. Choose border colour 6. Choose icon body / background colour 7. Adjust the icon position up, down, left or right 8. Ability to create background colour for homescreen to match the icon's body colour. In this way, your icons will appear as if their background color is transparent. All icons created will be saved in the device photo library and can be used directly with apple's own Shortcut app for customisation. Shortcut Icon Maker app is surely an easy to use app & with iOS14 widget customization features, this will be a perfect match to create a stunning homescreen display for your device. How to create a custom icon.. 1. Open Shortcut app (make sure to use the one from Apple). 2. Select "+". 3. Select "+ Add Action". 4. Select "Scripting". 5. Select "Open App". 6. Select "Choose" and pick the app that you wanted to open with this shortcut. 7. Select the round "..." button at the top right area under "Next". 8. Set your shortcut a name. 9. Tap on "Add to Home Screen". 10. Under the "HOME SCREEN NAME AND ICON", put the name that will be displayed under the Icon (tips: this name can be empty, this will make the icon clean without text at the bottom). 11. Tap the Icon and select "Choose Photo". 12. Select your desired image that was saved with Icon Text Maker app to become the shortcut Icon. 13. Select "Add" after a image has been selected as shortcut Icon. 14. Confirmation message will be displayed to say it is done!. 15. You can now repeat for every Shortcut you needed. 16. Note : you can actually use the same shortcut with different Icon photo set (meaning with the same one shortcut you can create & add as many icon as possible to be put in the home screen, but remember these all different photo icons will only open the one app that you specified earlier). This is useful if you wanted to create icons just for fun & just for nice display purposes. 17. If different app needs to be open with the Icon, you need to create a new shortcut with the above steps for each app. Enjoy!

Screenshots

AppTheme4 screens
Shortcut Icon Maker4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: AppTheme at 4.4 against Shortcut Icon Maker's 3.5. AppTheme also leads on update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 15 months) and ratings volume (8.7K vs 34). Shortcut Icon Maker's advantage is review sentiment (50% vs 37%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. AppTheme sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days and Shortcut Icon Maker 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

AppTheme holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: AppTheme has 8.7K ratings behind it against 34, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 37% of AppTheme's written reviews are positive against 50% of Shortcut Icon Maker's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

AppTheme ships an update every 6 weeks, Shortcut Icon Maker every 15 months. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
AppTheme versus Shortcut Icon Maker: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAppThemeShortcut Icon Maker
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (8.7K ratings) — better3.5 (34 ratings)
Positive reviews37.2% of reviews50.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings8.7K — better34
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeks — betterEvery 15 months
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size288 MB33 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBarys BandarenkoaZeR DiLLs

Customer experience

AppTheme

All ratings8,733 ratings
Positive84.8%
Neutral5.5%
Negative9.7%
Written reviews537 reviews
Positive37.2%
Neutral8.8%
Negative54.0%

Shortcut Icon Maker

All ratings31 ratings
Positive64.5%
Neutral6.5%
Negative29.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

Bugs and requests

AppTheme

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Widgets not displaying properly
  • Installed icons not working as expected
  • Crashes and freezes when changing themes

Requested features

4 requests
  • More free theme and icon options
  • Improved instructions and tutorials
  • Ability to search for specific themes
  • Fix issues with app icons and widgets

Shortcut Icon Maker

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

7 purchases

AppTheme

Subscriptions5
  • All Icon Packs and Widgets3 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • Monthly (Special Offer)$5.991 Month
  • All Icon Packs and Widgets$8.991 Year
Show 2 more
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Premium (Special Offer)$19.991 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime Premium$9.99
  • Special offer - Lifetime$9.99
1 purchases

Shortcut Icon Maker

One-time1
  • Shortcut Icon Maker All Icons$1.99

Questions

Is AppTheme free?
AppTheme is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Shortcut Icon Maker free?
Shortcut Icon Maker is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, AppTheme or Shortcut Icon Maker?
AppTheme is rated higher. AppTheme averages 4.4 out of 5 from 8.7K ratings, while Shortcut Icon Maker averages 3.5 from 34 ratings.
Do AppTheme or Shortcut Icon Maker have ads?
Both AppTheme and Shortcut Icon Maker show ads.
Which is updated more often, AppTheme or Shortcut Icon Maker?
AppTheme ships an update every 6 weeks, and Shortcut Icon Maker every 15 months. Most recently, AppTheme was updated on November 7, 2026 and Shortcut Icon Maker on November 3, 2026.

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