ShortFlow vs Menu Box
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ShortFlow
Access your favorite apps, websites, and custom shortcuts directly from your iPhone's Lock Screen. Create personalized widget buttons with a vast icon library for quick launching. Supports Always-On display and offers advanced customization options.
- Launch apps from Lock Screen
- Open URLs from Lock Screen
- Access Shortcuts app actions
- Customizable widget buttons
- Over 4,000 icons available
- Supports Always-On display
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Open any apps, shortcuts, URLs from the Lock Screen. Place custom widget buttons on your Lock Screen, with your choice of over 4,000 icons. Each can be configured to launch your favorite app, website, or any shortcut from the Shortcuts app. Other Features: • Display custom title on a widget • Built-in presets for quick configuration • Supports iPhone 14 Pro's Always-On display • Easily change widgets through the app Pro Features: • Transparent widget backgrounds • Create up to 20 different widgets • Place an inline widget above time
Menu Box
Create visually appealing menus for your device's shortcuts. Customize menu items with emojis, app icons, or custom images to build personalized automations. Dynamically generate menus on the fly for advanced shortcut customization.
- Create beautiful menus for Shortcuts
- Customize with emojis, SF Symbols, or custom images
- Attach custom data to menu items
- Fully controllable via Shortcuts
- Dynamically create menus on the fly
- Enhance Action Button functionality
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Menu Box allows you to create beautiful menus in Shortcuts, further customising your advanced Automations. Menus can be created using emojis, SF Symbols App Icons or your own custom images to create truly individual menus with near limitless options. Custom data attached to each menu items allows you to create even more advanced Shortcuts. Menu Box is fully controllable via Shortcuts, including creating Menus dynamically on the fly. Menu Box is perfect for creating advanced Shortcuts to allow you to further customise how your menus look, and becomes especially useful when combined with the Action Button. --- Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
ShortFlow and Menu Box both sit at 4.7 stars, but that hides the real split: 86% of Menu Box's written reviews are positive against 68% of ShortFlow's. ShortFlow's advantage is ratings volume (196 vs 14). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. ShortFlow sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Menu Box sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for ShortFlow against 4.7 for Menu Box. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ShortFlow has 196 ratings behind it against 14, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 68% of ShortFlow's written reviews are positive against 86% of Menu Box's.
ShortFlow ships an update every 8 days, Menu Box fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ShortFlow | Menu Box |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (196 ratings) | 4.7 (14 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 67.7% of reviews | 85.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 196 — better | 14 |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 31 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kenneth Kao | Snailed It Development Ltd |
Customer experience
ShortFlow
Menu Box
Bugs and requests
ShortFlow
Reported bugs
8 issues- App and ShirFlow both launch when shortcut is pressed
- Shortcuts do not appear in widget list
- App does not work on iOS17
- Face ID required even for lock screen shortcuts
- Black screen followed by shortcuts app and then target app
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- Icons disappear after iPhone restart, requiring unlock and widget run
- Buttons within widgets are not functional
- Pro version states up to 8 widgets, but only 4 are supported
Requested features
6 requests- Add Tidal as a preset
- More than 8 shortcut slots
- Add Spotify support
- Add Naverpay support
- Remove icon background
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- Longer widget size with 4 configurations
Menu Box
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
ShortFlow
- ShortFlow Pro$2.99
Menu Box
- Premium$4.991 Year
- Tip Jar - Small$0.99
- Tip Jar - Medium$2.99
- Tip Jar - Large$4.99
