Comparison

Retro Joy vs Holocron Archive

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

Head to head
About

Retro Joy

Track your progress and discover achievements for classic video games. Organize your favorite titles into custom collections and connect with a community of retro gaming enthusiasts. It's the perfect companion for reliving gaming history.

Highlights
  • Track RetroAchievements.org progress
  • View achievements, friends, and games
  • Collect and organize favorite games
  • Create custom game collections
  • Connect with the RetroAchievements community
Features
Read full description

Retro Joy is your ideal companion app for RetroAchievements.org With Retro Joy, your RetroAchievement.org achievements, friends, and games are brought straight to your device. You can even collect your favorite games in your library and organize them into collections, exclusive to Retro Joy. If you are new to the RetroAchievements.org community, joining is as simple as downloading the app, creating an account, and logging in. The rest you can pick up along the way with pointers in the app, and the support of the community on RetroAchievements.org.

About

Holocron Archive

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BOOKS Novels, anthologies, and novelizations for adult, young adult, and junior readers, with release dates, publisher summaries, and in-universe chronology. COMICS Comic series and individual issues from Marvel, Dark Horse, and IDW - with creators, cover and store dates, and full descriptions. Browse by franchise, drill into a series, or page through a run issue by issue. COLLECTIONS AND VARIANTS View which trade paperbacks, hardcovers, and omnibuses belong to which series. Browse cover variants with artist, ratio, type, and retailer-exclusive details, shown in zoomable high-resolution art. READING LISTS Curated reading orders - The High Republic, the Crimson Dawn saga, crossover events, and more - that take you straight to each book, comic, or collection in sequence. CHECKLIST Mark any book, comic, collection, or variant cover as Read or Owned. Long-press to mark several at once, filter your library by what you have or haven't read, and back up your checklist to a file to restore on any device. FEATURES • Tap a creator to see their body of work. Jump from any issue to others by the same artist or featuring the same character. Follow franchise breadcrumbs between related runs. Open any author's full bibliography. • Timeline mode - A visual chronology spanning seven eras, from the High Republic to the New Jedi Order. Books and comics plot alongside movie and TV reference points. • Search books by title, author, or series; find comics by series, issue, creator, or publisher. Sort by release date, title, author, chronology, publisher, or creator. Filter by audience, availability, book type, or publisher. • Upcoming releases - Shows every announced book, comic, and collection. • Notifications - Get a heads-up on release day for new books, comics, and collections, and when the database updates. Pick which ones you want. • Make it yours - Choose which audiences and publishers appear in your library, and save your favorite sort, view, and filters as the default.

Screenshots

Retro Joy4 screens
Holocron Archive4 screens

Verdict

The call

Retro Joy and Holocron Archive are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Retro Joy ships an update every 2 months, Holocron Archive every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Retro Joy versus Holocron Archive: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRetro JoyHolocron Archive
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (14 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews81.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings14 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size48 MB54 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperClayton SulbyBlue Haisai LLC

In-app purchases

None

Retro Joy

No in-app purchases

None

Holocron Archive

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Retro Joy free?
Retro Joy is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Holocron Archive free?
Holocron Archive is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Retro Joy or Holocron Archive have ads?
Neither Retro Joy nor Holocron Archive shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Retro Joy or Holocron Archive?
Retro Joy ships an update every 2 months, and Holocron Archive every 6 weeks. Most recently, Retro Joy was updated on October 21, 2026 and Holocron Archive on October 24, 2026.

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