Fandor vs ciniq
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Fandor
Discover a curated collection of independent, international, documentary, and classic films. Explore dozens of genres, enjoy exclusive content, and read in-depth articles about cinema. Filmmakers can also submit their work for consideration.
- Curated library of indie, international, documentary, and classic films
- Dozens of genres and subgenres
- Access to Keyframe publication (articles & video essays)
- Curated lists and spotlights
- Film submission platform for filmmakers
- Ad-free viewing with Premium plans
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The home for cinephiles, Fandor offers a premier library of exceptional indie, international, documentary, and classic films, hand-picked to bring you an unparalleled cinematic experience. Our dozens of genres include styles you know and love from comedy, drama, film noir, and science fiction to rare gems you may have never seen before in creature-feature, Pre-Code, avant-garde, and grindhouse. FEATURES: ● The Fandor library of thousands of hours of the finest independent, international, documentary, and classic films with new additions continuously added for a low monthly price. ● Dozens of genres and subgenres in categories ranging from film festival winners to cult classics to enjoy films of every mood. ● Access to Keyframe, our digital publication of articles and video essays dedicated to the art of cinema. ● Fandor Spotlights and curated lists to help you find new film favorites and works from exciting new filmmakers. ● Hand-picked selection of films by cinephiles, for cinephiles. Filmmakers welcome! We accept film submissions through the Fandor app for the opportunity to be featured, with selections made by our team of film experts. The next film you see on Fandor could be your own! SUBSCRIPTIONS: Sign up for Fandor’s Premium plans to go even further into the art of cinema. Fandor subscribers receive access to the entire Fandor library ad-free, including Fandor Exclusives and Originals, and access to your personalized My Library of Fandor films. All subscription payments will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage your subscriptions in Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable. Our full Terms & Conditions can be found here: https://www.fandor.com/terms-of-use Our full Privacy Policy can be found here: https://www.fandor.com/privacy-policy
ciniq
Discover films tailored to your personal taste without relying on crowd scores or critic reviews. Engage in ten-minute film auditions and provide detailed readings across ten dimensions to refine your preferences. Share film recommendations with friends and compare your unique taste profiles.
- Personalized film recommendations
- Curated film canon
- Ten-minute film auditions
- Multi-dimensional film readings
- Friend taste comparison
- Private by design
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ciniq is a film-discovery app built on a canon of festival and academy award winners. No accounts, no user data collected. 1.10 adds a voice mode to the Ask tab. Everything else in this release is canon data corrections and Ask answer quality. VOICE (new in 1.10) Tap the microphone in the Ask tab and speak; ciniq answers aloud and keeps listening, so the user can interrupt it or ask a follow-up without tapping again. Speech is recognised on this device only. requiresOnDeviceRecognition is set rather than requested: if the device or language cannot recognise locally, the microphone reports unavailable instead of sending audio to a server. No audio, transcript or recording leaves the device, and nothing is retained beyond the conversation visible in the app. Answers are composed on-device with Apple's Foundation Models. There is no cloud model and no Private Cloud Compute. On a device without Apple Intelligence the voice mode still works and Ask still answers from the user's own data. To test: Ask tab → microphone → "What have I rated highest?" A real device is required; the Simulator has no microphone and usually no speech voices. The microphone and speech-recognition prompts appear on first use, and their purpose strings explain them. PLAY ON TV "Play on TV" sends a film to a Roku player on the same Wi-Fi using Roku's public External Control Protocol (unauthenticated HTTP on port 8060, enabled by default on Roku devices). ciniq discovers players on the local network, then sends a launch request with the streaming provider's own title ID so the app opens on that film. This is the same mechanism Roku's own mobile app uses. Discovery uses SSDP — a single multicast query on the local network — alongside a subnet probe. The Multicast Networking entitlement was granted to our team on 2026-09-11. This affects only how players are found; launching a film is unchanged. Testing this requires a Roku on the same network as the review device. Without one, the feature shows "No Roku found" plus a manual IP field, and nothing else in the app is affected. To reach it: open any film → Where to watch → Look up → the TV icon on a source row. The app requests local network access for this; the purpose string explains it. Nothing leaves the local network — no analytics, no identifiers, no server. WHERE TO WATCH Where-to-watch lookups use a Watchmode API key that the user supplies in Settings — ciniq has no server and no shared key. For review, please use the key below; paste it in Settings → Watchmode key. Then: any film → Where to watch → Look up → the TV icon appears on sources that can open directly on the film. [PASTE YOUR WATCHMODE KEY HERE] IN-APP PURCHASE ciniq+ unlocks sending to more than one TV. It can be viewed without hardware at Settings → ciniq+ → "See what ciniq+ unlocks". PRIVACY The privacy label is unchanged: no data collected.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: ciniq at 5.0 against Fandor's 3.4. ciniq also leads on monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs subscription) and ads (none vs shown). Fandor's advantage is ratings volume (37 vs 1) and iOS requirement (16.2 vs 26.0). On price, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Fandor sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and ciniq sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
ciniq holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Fandor has 37 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Fandor ships an update every 3 months, ciniq every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Fandor | ciniq |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (37 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 30.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 37 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Subscription | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 16.2 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 44 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Cinedigm | Labham LLC |
Customer experience
Fandor
ciniq
In-app purchases
Fandor
- Fandor monthly plan7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Fandor quarterly plan7 Days trial$13.493 Months
- Fandor yearly plan7 Days trial$49.991 Year
ciniq
- ciniq+$5.99









