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

Transform photos and videos into retro-inspired pixel art with a variety of filters and effects. Create unique avatars, social media content, or game-inspired visuals with a creator-friendly interface.

Highlights
  • Real-time pixel art camera filters
  • Pixelate photos and videos instantly
  • Multiple pixel styles and resolutions
  • Custom color palettes and retro effects
  • Live camera preview
  • Save and share directly to social media
Features
Read full description

Description Transform your photos and videos into pixel art with Bitwave Pixel Cam. Create retro-inspired images and videos using carefully crafted pixel filters designed for creators, gamers, artists, and anyone who loves nostalgic aesthetics. Whether you're making pixel avatars, social media content, game-inspired portraits, or unique retro videos, MUT8 Pixel Cam lets you instantly convert ordinary footage into vibrant pixel art. Features • Real-time pixel art camera filters • Pixelate photos and videos instantly • Multiple pixel styles and resolutions • Custom color palettes and retro effects • Live camera preview • Fast image and video processing • Save and share directly to social media • Simple, creator-friendly interface Perfect For • Pixel art enthusiasts • Retro gaming fans • Content creators • Profile pictures and avatars • Social media posts and reels • Creative photography projects Why MUT8 Pixel Cam? Most pixel filters simply reduce image quality. Bitwave Pixel Cam is designed to create authentic pixel-art aesthetics with carefully tuned color reduction, pixel scaling, and retro-inspired visual styles. Create unique pixel art in seconds and bring a nostalgic 8-bit look to your photos and videos. Download Bitwave Pixel Cam and start creating today.

Screenshots

PIXEL864 screens
bitwave4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: bitwave at none against PIXEL86's 2. bitwave also leads on ads (none vs shown) and rating (5.0 vs 4.6). PIXEL86's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 5 weeks) and ratings volume (42 vs 1). On price, monetization model, device support and iOS requirement 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. bitwave asks for nothing beyond the download.

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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PIXEL86 ships an update every 5 days, bitwave every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 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 reviews—
Number of ratings42 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS18.017.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size87 MB32 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPeter TretyakovDemian Nezhdanov

In-app purchases

2 purchases

PIXEL86

One-time2
  • License Discount$9.99
  • Perpetual License$19.99
None

bitwave

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PIXEL86 free?
PIXEL86 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is bitwave free?
bitwave is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
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 5 weeks. Most recently, PIXEL86 was updated on November 3, 2026 and bitwave on November 4, 2026.

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