Farcaster vs Primal
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Farcaster
A decentralized social network where users control their identity and data. Connect with a global community by creating a profile, posting public messages, and engaging in private conversations. Experience a new way to socialize online.
- Decentralized social network
- User-controlled identity
- Create public profile
- Post public messages
- Send private messages
- Discover users and profiles
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Sign up requires an in-app purchase. Farcaster is a new type of social network. It's decentralized, like email, which means you control your account and identity. It's an ever-growing community of interesting, curious people from all over the world. Connect with others by creating a profile and posting public messages. What can you do with Farcaster: - Create a Farcaster account and public profile - Post and reply to public messages - Send private messages to friends - Find other users and visit public profiles You can keep updated by following us on (@farcaster) or on X (@farcaster_xyz). If you need to contact support, please send an email to support+ios@neynar.com.
Primal
Experience a next-generation social media platform built on Nostr and Bitcoin. Enjoy rich media feeds, long-form articles, and integrated Bitcoin wallet functionality. Discover content easily and authorize other Nostr apps with remote login.
- Rich media feeds with playback
- Built-in Bitcoin wallet
- Long form articles
- Extensive content discovery
- Advanced search
- Remote Login for Nostr apps
- Configurable ambient sounds
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Next generation social media powered by Nostr and Bitcoin. Primal features rich feeds with media playback, built-in wallet, long form articles, extensive content discovery, advanced search. Primal can also be used to authorize activity in compatible Nostr apps using Remote Login. During an active remote session, Primal can play user-configurable ambient sounds that continue while the app is in the background. Our terms of use are available at: http://primal.net/terms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Primal at 88% against Farcaster's 51%. Primal also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.6). Farcaster's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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. Farcaster sells 16 one-off in-app purchases and Primal sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Primal holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.1K and 928 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 51% of Farcaster's written reviews are positive against 88% of Primal's.
Farcaster ships an update every 5 days, Primal every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Farcaster | Primal |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (1.1K ratings) | 4.9 (928 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.6% of reviews | 88.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.1K — better | 928 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 92 MB | 156 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Merkle Manufactory | Primal Systems Incorporated. |
Customer experience
Farcaster
Primal
User reviews
Farcaster
From 1.1K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Smooth experience
- 🌟 Great community
- 💡 Innovative features
- 🌐 Decentralized social network
- 👍 User-friendly interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 Bugs and glitches
- 💰 Paid subscription required
- 🤖 Issues with bots/spam
- 🌐 Onboarding challenges
- 🤔 Confusing payment process
Primal
From 928 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Smooth and fast performance
- 🔒 Secure and private social experience
- 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
- 💡 Seamless integration with Bitcoin Lightning Network
- 🤘 Empowering decentralized social media
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
- 🇨🇦 Limited functionality for Canadian users
- 🔍 Lacking advanced search and discovery features
- 🔔 Inconsistent push notification support
Bugs and requests
Farcaster
Reported bugs
5 issues- Registration issues
- Inability to upload photos
- Crashes and app instability
- Problems with in-app purchases
- Sync issues between devices
Requested features
5 requests- Multi-language support
- Improved notifications
- Expanded content sharing options
- Better integration with web3 tools
- Enhanced analytics and metrics
Primal
Reported bugs
3 issues- Losing relay connections when switching to desktop
- Issues with account creation and sign-in process
- Inconsistent display of reactions from other Nostr apps
Requested features
4 requests- Add support for more Nostr reaction types
- Implement robust community/subreddit features
- Improve cache management and clearing options
- Provide better account management and sign-out options
In-app purchases
Farcaster
- Warpcast Gas Fee$1.00
- Warpcast Gas Fee$2.00
- Warpcast Gas Fee$3.00
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- Onchain Gas Fee$5.00
- Onchain Gas Fee$9.00
- Warpcast Gas Fee$12.00
- Onchain Gas Fee$18.00
- Warpcast Gas Fee$24.00
- Onchain Gas Fee$27.00
- Warpcast Gas Fee$36.00
- Onchain Gas Fee$45.00
- Warpcast Gas Fee$48.00
- Onchain Gas Fee$54.00
- Warpcast Gas Fee$60.00
- Warpcast Gas Fee$72.00
- Warpcast Gas Fee$80.00
Primal
- Primal Premium Monthly$6.991 Month
- Primal Pro Monthly$69.991 Month
- Primal Premium Yearly$69.991 Year
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- Primal Pro Yearly Subscription$749.991 Year
- Prepaid Nostr Zaps$4.99
