Comparison

ca vs PIXEL86

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

Head to head
About

ca

This app transforms your camera's live feed into unique, pixelated images and videos using cellular automata. Customize patterns with various color palettes, directions, rules, and resolutions for a retro aesthetic.

Highlights
  • Cellular automaton image interpretation
  • Pixelated output with unique patterns
  • Black and white or retro color palettes
  • Selfie and split camera modes
  • Video recording
  • Customizable automaton parameters
Features
Read full description

The successor of probably the nerdiest camera app ever made, ca-mera+ uses a cellular automaton to interpret the colors of your camera stream. The resulting images are pixelated and contain unique patterns created by cellular automata. The output can be black and white, or one of several retro color palettes (CGA 4 and 16 colors, 1-bit RGB, etc.). This app provides "selfie" and "split" modes, records video, and lets you change the appearance of the pictures by controlling the automaton application direction, its rules, the resolution, the input brightness, and the input fidelity (i.e. to which extent the cellular automaton is allowed to run freely).

About

PIXEL86

Transform photos and videos with vintage pixel art aesthetics. Apply true black-and-white dithering, custom color palettes, and unique dithering styles to create retro media. Supports video editing and sharing your creations.

Highlights
  • True B/W dithering
  • Video editing support
  • Customizable color palettes
  • Three dithering styles (Natural, Pattern, Flat)
  • Vintage-inspired aesthetics
  • Social media sharing
Read full description

PIXEL86 — Retro Dithering for Photos & Videos Make your media look like it came from a cooler, glitchier timeline. Bring back the charm of vintage tech with PIXEL86, the ultimate tool to transform your photos and videos into pixel-perfect black-and-white or limited-palette art. Inspired by early computer graphics, old-school printers, and classic GIFs — this is retro done right. True B/W Dithering No grays. Just black or white pixels smartly arranged to simulate shadows and depth — exactly how early screens did it. Now Supports Video Editing Apply your favorite dithering style to video clips. Make every frame look like a piece of pixel-art history. Color Palettes, Reimagined Choose from curated vintage-inspired palettes Hit random for a fresh surprise every time Or build your own custom palette for a personalized look Three Dithering Styles Natural — Smooth, classic error diffusion. Clean and expressive. Pattern — Retro dot-matrix vibes. Adjustable matrix for custom textures. Flat — Not technically dithering, but perfect for dramatic, posterized effects in both stills and motion. Share Your Style Use #pixel86 on social and tag @pixel86app on Instagram — we love featuring the coolest creations from the community.

Screenshots

ca4 screens
PIXEL864 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: PIXEL86 at Free against ca's $2.99. PIXEL86 also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs monthly) and review sentiment (100% vs 89%). ca's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ads (none vs shown). On rating and ratings volume 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

PIXEL86 is free to download; ca costs $2.99 up front. PIXEL86 sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. ca asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ca holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 53 and 42 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 89% of ca's written reviews are positive against 100% of PIXEL86's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ca ships an update monthly, PIXEL86 every 5 days. Both last shipped on October 27, 2026.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
ca versus PIXEL86: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametercaPIXEL86
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (53 ratings) — better4.6 (42 ratings)
Positive reviews88.9% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings53 — better42
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS11.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB87 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFritz MenzerPeter Tretyakov

Customer experience

ca

All ratings52 ratings
Positive96.2%
Neutral1.9%
Negative1.9%
Written reviews18 reviews
Positive88.9%
Neutral11.1%
Negative0.0%

PIXEL86

All ratings31 ratings
Positive90.3%
Neutral3.2%
Negative6.5%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

ca

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

PIXEL86

One-time2
  • License Discount$9.99
  • Perpetual License$19.99

Questions

Is ca free?
ca costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is PIXEL86 free?
PIXEL86 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ca or PIXEL86?
ca is rated higher. ca averages 4.8 out of 5 from 53 ratings, while PIXEL86 averages 4.6 from 42 ratings.
Do ca or PIXEL86 have ads?
PIXEL86 shows ads; ca does not.
Which is updated more often, ca or PIXEL86?
ca ships an update monthly, and PIXEL86 every 5 days. Most recently, ca was updated on October 27, 2026 and PIXEL86 on October 27, 2026.

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