Obscura vs CATCHIVE
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Obscura
This camera app offers advanced manual controls and professional formats like ProRAW for enhanced photo and video capture. Its intuitive design and tactile interface allow for precise adjustments, while features like focus peaking and histograms aid in achieving stunning results.
- Manual exposure, focus, and white balance controls
- ProRAW, RAW, HEIC, and JPEG capture formats
- Live filters and multiple aspect ratios
- Histogram, focus peaking, and exposure clipping highlights
- Integrated photo library with editing and sharing
- Video and Live Photo capture
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Obscura V is a camera app packed full of features to help you take incredible photos. Obscura pairs a stunning design with intuitive controls that make taking photos a delight. — Over its 10+ years on the App Store, Obscura has been featured numerous times around the world, including as Editors’ Choice and App of the Day. — Design Obscura squeezes a bunch of powerful features into simple controls anyone can master. The interface balances aesthetics, ergonomics, and intuitiveness. You won’t want to use anything else. Controls can be reached with one thumb, and gestures and haptics combine to create a tactile experience that lets you stay focused on your subject. — Capture Modes & Formats Obscura captures photos, videos, Live Photos, and portraits. Photos can be captured in RAW, ProRAW, HEIC, and JPEG (on supported devices, see http://obscura.camera/compatibility). Capture images in multiple different aspect ratios, or apply filters live in camera for a wide variety of styles. — Camera Settings Obscura gives you control over exposure, focus, white balance, ISO, shutter speed, and flash, with intuitive controls that make you feel in control of your device’s camera. — Live Filters Obscura includes a bunch of great filters to give your photos instant style but you can also create your own and use them live in-camera. It’s very cool and very powerful. — View Options Obscura lets you display a grid, a spirit level, a histogram, focus peaking, a focus loupe, and exposure clipping highlights to help you understand every detail of what you’re shooting. — Photo Library Obscura has its own interface for browsing, rating, editing, and sharing images, but it’s fully integrated with your system photo library, so images captured with Obscura are available everywhere. — Obscura Ultra Obscura is free to use, with an annual subscription for premium features. See http://obscura.camera/ultra for full details. — I hope you love using Obscura as much as I’ve loved designing and building it. If you do, please consider subscribing to Ultra, leaving a review, or just sharing with a friend. All the best, Ben ———— Privacy Policy: http://obscura.camera/privacy Terms of use: http://obscura.camera/terms
CATCHIVE
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Turn everyday discoveries into your own collection. Photograph people, pets and favorite objects, remove the background on your device, and make them into Catchives. Name them, collect them and combine them into something new. CREATE YOUR OWN COMPOSITIONS Move, resize, rotate, flip, duplicate and layer your Catchives. Erase or restore parts of an image. A finished composition can become an ingredient for your next creation. PUBLISH IN WORLD Arrange Catchives, backgrounds and captions into magazines under your own publisher name. Explore other creators’ work and leave likes. You can change your publisher name once every seven days. FIND MATERIALS IN COLLECT Import Catchives that their creators have permitted others to collect and edit personally. Anything you share in COLLECT can be collected and edited by other users, so only share images you have the right to make available for reuse. DECORATE YOUR FARM Let your Catchives roam while you design their surroundings. Add collected cutouts to the background, duplicate them, adjust their position, size and rotation, and choose which decorations appear in front of the characters. YOUR COLLECTION STAYS ON YOUR DEVICE Photography, the local collection, composition and the farm work without an account. Signing in does not automatically publish or cloud-back up your collection. Images, captions and publisher names you choose to publish are visible to others. WORLD and COLLECT are for ages 14 and up and require an internet connection and Apple or Google sign-in. Reporting, blocking and in-app account deletion are available.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: CATCHIVE at none against Obscura's 5. CATCHIVE also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 weeks). Obscura's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads and iOS requirement 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. Obscura sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $1.49 per 7 days. CATCHIVE asks for nothing beyond the download.
Obscura ships an update every 2 weeks, CATCHIVE every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Obscura | CATCHIVE |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (274 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 52.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 274 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 174 MB | 47 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Ben McCarthy | Seungwon Lee |
Bugs and requests
Obscura
Reported bugs
5 issues- Crashes when trying to use Pro Raw mode
- Inconsistent behavior when switching between lenses
- Manual settings randomly resetting
- Photos not saving properly
- Freezing and black screen issues
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to save custom camera settings
- Variable zoom function in pro mode
- Separate manual control for exposure and ISO
- Dedicated selfie button
- Live audio capture for Live Photos
CATCHIVE
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Obscura
- Obscura Ultra - Weekly$1.497 Days
- Obscura Ultra - Monthly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Obscura Ultra7 Days trial$24.991 Year
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- Obscura Ultra Upgrade1 Year trial$24.991 Year
- Obscura Ultra - One Time$74.99
CATCHIVE
No in-app purchases









