Comparison

PIXEL86 vs bitwave

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

Head to head
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.

About

bitwave

This app offers real-time experimental photo and video effects using visual systems like ASCII, dithering, and computer vision. Users can adjust presets, create custom ones, and use image regions to influence visual processing.

Highlights
  • Real-time visual camera effects
  • ASCII, dither, halftone, stipple processing
  • Computer Vision masks and object-based effects
  • Live photo and video capture
  • Import and edit existing media
  • Custom preset creation
  • Video export and sharing
Features
Read full description

Bitwave is a creative-tech camera for making experimental photos and videos in real time. Explore visual systems built around ASCII, dithering, halftone, stippling, signal processing, pixelation, color manipulation and Computer Vision. Point the camera, choose a preset and reshape the image live. Bitwave is designed less like a traditional filter app and more like a visual instrument for experimentation. FEATURES • Realtime visual camera effects • ASCII, dither, halftone, stipple, signal and glitch-inspired processing • Computer Vision masks and object-based effects • Live photo and video capture • Import and edit existing photos and videos • LUTs and color adjustments • Effect-specific controls • Save modified effects as custom presets • Metal-powered realtime rendering • Video export and sharing COMPUTER VISION Use people, faces, objects and image regions as part of the visual processing itself. Computer Vision can reshape where and how an effect appears instead of simply placing a filter over the image. CUSTOM PRESETS Adjust an effect, change its color treatment, CV mode and parameters, then save the result as your own preset for instant reuse. MADE FOR EXPERIMENTATION Bitwave is built for visual artists, musicians, VJs, photographers, creative coders and anyone interested in experimental digital imagery. There is no required workflow. Open the camera, choose a visual system, modify it and see where the image goes. Bitwave Pro unlocks unlimited photo capture, live video recording and video export. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

PIXEL864 screens
bitwave4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: bitwave at none against PIXEL86's shown. bitwave also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6). PIXEL86's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (42 vs 1). On price, review sentiment, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Both are free to download. PIXEL86 sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and bitwave sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

bitwave holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PIXEL86 has 42 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PIXEL86 ships an update every 5 days, bitwave every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
PIXEL86 versus bitwave: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPIXEL86bitwave
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (42 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings42 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS18.017.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size87 MB152 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPeter TretyakovDemian Nezhdanov

Customer experience

PIXEL86

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

bitwave

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

PIXEL86

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

bitwave

Subscriptions1
  • bitwave PRO WEEKLY$0.997 Days
One-time4
  • Optional tip to support Bitwave.$0.99
  • Optional tip to support Bitwave.$5.99
  • PRO lifetime$5.99
Show 1 more
  • Optional tip to support Bitwave.$9.99

Questions

Is PIXEL86 free?
PIXEL86 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is bitwave free?
bitwave is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, PIXEL86 or bitwave?
bitwave is rated higher. PIXEL86 averages 4.6 out of 5 from 42 ratings, while bitwave averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do PIXEL86 or bitwave have ads?
PIXEL86 shows ads; bitwave does not.
Which is updated more often, PIXEL86 or bitwave?
PIXEL86 ships an update every 5 days, and bitwave every 2 months. Most recently, PIXEL86 was updated on November 3, 2026 and bitwave on November 10, 2026.

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