Comparison

Lifecards vs Photo Widget

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

Head to head
About

Lifecards

Create personalized postcards using your own photos and text. Design imaginative cards with various templates, stickers, and editing tools. Share your creations instantly via social media or export them for printing.

Highlights
  • Design postcards with up to 7 photos
  • Insert text, balloons, and stickers
  • Personalize with filters and blend modes
  • Sign with your finger
  • Export as PDF, JPEG, and PNG
  • Share via social media or email
  • Over 350 templates available
Features
Read full description

With Lifecards you can use up to 7 of your photos to design your own imaginative postcard directly on your phone. Share with friends and family using Facebook and other social networks. Freely zoom and pan to get the important details right while you edit. Insert, move, scale, and rotate photos from your photo-album or directly from you camera. Insert texts, balloons, and stickers to personalize your photos. Features: • Select from more than 350 templates • Add up-to 7 photos on one card • Add text and speech balloons • Add stickers • Sign with your finger • Control scale, position, and rotation of photos • Control alignment, color, size, and font of text • Freely pan and zoom while creating card • Apply filters to your photos • Email or submit to Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr • Automatically adapts to landscape and portrait mode • Cards are automatically saved • Advanced text settings (perspective and warp) • Install fonts • PDF, JPEG and PNG export • Advanced blend modes for stickers and images • "Snail mail" cards with Kite.ly ---- What the review sites say ---- "I was really impressed with the feature set and the attention to detail. If you are looking for a post card app, this is the one!" - Epic iPhone apps: "The entire interface from creation to completion of the card is very well thought and implemented. Lifecards will certainly make your friends feel jealous of your iPhone/iPod touch." -Touch Reviews

About

Photo Widget

Display your favorite photos directly on your device's home screen and today view. Customize widgets with up to six images, view them in full screen, and organize them into lists for quick access. Supports dark mode and allows unlimited widget creation.

Highlights
  • iOS 14 Home Screen Widgets
  • Customizable Today View widgets
  • Display 1-6 photos per widget
  • Fullscreen photo viewing
  • Unlimited widget creation
  • Organize widgets into lists
  • Dark mode support
Features
Read full description

Those Widgets are compatible with the new iOS 14 Home Screen Widgets. Thanks to this application (and the other Widget apps from PacoLabs), you can now customize the Today view of your device, by adding custom widgets for some specific purposes. From anywhere in your device, with a simple top to bottom swipe, you'll have access to your own information and actions. Each Photo widget allows to view one or more photos from the photo library of your device. This is the quickest access to the favorite photos of your beloved family and friends. Add from 1 to 6 photos in each widget, in order to maximize the available space. Those photos can be viewed in fullscreen by touching them. The application is really easy to use and is adapted to the fresh look of your device. Dark mode of iOS13 is supported. You can add as many widgets as you want and they will be displayed in up to 3 different lists. Those same lists will be available in the Today view and in the application (although it is possible, if you want, to hide some widgets in the Today view). To avoid overloading the Today view, when too many widgets are displayed, an intuitive control will allow you to navigate from one widget to another. Even if the main purpose of the app is to view the widgets in the Today view, it can also be very handy to view them directly in the application (a long press on a widget in the Today view will open it directly in the main application).

Screenshots

Lifecards4 screens
Photo Widget4 screens

Verdict

The call

Lifecards and Photo Widget both sit at 3.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 81% of Lifecards's written reviews are positive against 36% of Photo Widget's. Photo Widget's advantage is ratings volume (300 vs 4) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 7 months). On rating, ads, 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

Lifecards costs $1.99 and Photo Widget $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.8 for Lifecards against 3.9 for Photo Widget. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Photo Widget has 300 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 81% of Lifecards's written reviews are positive against 36% of Photo Widget's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lifecards ships an update every 7 months, Photo Widget every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Lifecards versus Photo Widget: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLifecardsPhoto Widget
Price$1.99$0.99 — better
Rating3.8 (4 ratings)3.9 (300 ratings) — better
Positive reviews81.1% of reviews — better36.1% of reviews
Number of ratings4300 — better
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.612.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size104 MB12 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperVivid AppsFrancis Bonnin

Customer experience

Lifecards

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews122 reviews
Positive81.1%
Neutral11.5%
Negative7.4%

Photo Widget

All ratings298 ratings
Positive70.8%
Neutral6.0%
Negative23.2%
Written reviews83 reviews
Positive36.1%
Neutral12.0%
Negative51.8%

User reviews

Lifecards

From 4 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 💡 Creative and fun
  • 🚀 Fast creation and sending
  • 🖼️ Great templates and designs
  • ✉️ Excellent for e-cards

Room to improve

  • 👴 Old-fashioned borders
  • 🐛 Crashes frequently
  • 🖨️ Poor printing quality
  • ❓ Some features unclear
  • 🌐 Limited language support

Photo Widget

From 300 App Store ratings

What we love

  • ✨ Quick and easy content display on home screen
  • 🎨 Customizable photo widgets with grid options
  • 🔧 Works well with iOS 14 and widget integration
  • ⚡ Fast developer support and bug fixes
  • 📱 Allows multiple widgets with different images

Room to improve

  • 😕 Confusing user interface with steep learning curve
  • 🐛 Widget doesn't appear in widget menu for many users
  • 🖼️ Poor image quality and blurry photo display
  • ⚫ Black screen and display glitches reported
  • 🔄 Photos disappear or fail to load after few days

Bugs and requests

Lifecards

Reported bugs

17 issues
  • App crashes frequently
  • Pictures not showing up
  • Cannot resize postcards
  • Text function is buggy
  • Text size changes put spaces
Show 12 more
  • Left side of text cut off when printing
  • Poor quality and blurry when printing
  • Facebook posting issues
  • Program shuts down when trying to put on Facebook
  • Non-English text prints garbled
  • Crashes with some font changes
  • Crashes when changing fonts
  • Text display terrible at any resolution
  • Program crashed when looking at font options
  • Interface with Facebook issues
  • Non-functional since OS 3.0 update
  • Pan/zoom button awkward

Requested features

102 requests
  • New and modern borders
  • Ability to add/use custom borders
  • More card variety
  • Option to move frames
  • Option to move text
Show 97 more
  • More stickers
  • More professional templates
  • Ability to change backgrounds
  • GPS location maps as option
  • HDR support
  • Option to choose number of photos per template
  • More templates
  • Ability to delete templates
  • Create own layouts
  • Choice of stamps
  • Ability to design own templates
  • Modify existing templates with backgrounds
  • Cropping area for text
  • More frames (pet type)
  • Sell frame packs
  • Free version with limited frames
  • More card designs
  • Ability to move around pictures
  • Ability to move text
  • More templates for children's section
  • Option to print & mail
  • More calendar templates
  • Tap on date to enter text
  • Add small cliparts
  • Small photo on special dates
  • Send small music file
  • More professional templates
  • Allow different fonts in same text box
  • Creation of custom templates
  • Email directly from app (hi-res)
  • Make cards larger (hi-res)
  • Ability to transfer e-card to actual postcard
  • Add stamp with place and date
  • More catagories
  • More portrait orientation options
  • Option to freely position and layer pasted images
  • Stamps
  • Send button to transfer card to email app
  • Float text anywhere
  • Background colors (with or in place of a photo)
  • No photo templates
  • More styles
  • Indentation for text
  • In-place text typing
  • Larger template previews
  • Separate text input for areas right/left of center-line
  • Single-picture with postcard back options
  • Text improvements
  • More backgrounds/choices
  • More catagories
  • More portrait orientation options
  • Option to freely position and layer pasted images
  • Stamps
  • Send button to transfer card to email app
  • Float text anywhere
  • Background colors (with or in place of a photo)
  • No photo templates
  • More styles
  • Indentation for text
  • In-place text typing
  • Larger template previews
  • Separate text input for areas right/left of center-line
  • Single-picture with postcard back options
  • Text improvements
  • More backgrounds/choices
  • More catagories
  • More portrait orientation options
  • Option to freely position and layer pasted images
  • Stamps
  • Send button to transfer card to email app
  • Float text anywhere
  • Background colors (with or in place of a photo)
  • No photo templates
  • More styles
  • Indentation for text
  • In-place text typing
  • Larger template previews
  • Separate text input for areas right/left of center-line
  • Single-picture with postcard back options
  • Text improvements
  • More backgrounds/choices
  • More catagories
  • More portrait orientation options
  • Option to freely position and layer pasted images
  • Stamps
  • Send button to transfer card to email app
  • Float text anywhere
  • Background colors (with or in place of a photo)
  • No photo templates
  • More styles
  • Indentation for text
  • In-place text typing
  • Larger template previews
  • Separate text input for areas right/left of center-line
  • Single-picture with postcard back options
  • Text improvements
  • More backgrounds/choices

Photo Widget

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • Widget doesn't appear in widget menu when adding to home screen
  • Black screen display issues
  • Photos disappear after several days of use
  • Large widget displays as black box
  • Multiple widgets show identical images
Show 5 more
  • App crashes or fails to load photos
  • Blurry or low-quality image rendering
  • Widget not compatible with iOS versions below 14 (not clearly labeled)
  • Only allows adding one photo despite claims of multiple
  • App doesn't show up when searching widget menu

Requested features

10 requests
  • Photo shuffle/slideshow capability
  • Image resizing options
  • Named photo arrays for easier widget selection
  • Share functionality when tapping photos
  • Swipe through photos in widget sets
Show 5 more
  • Pin lock security for app
  • GIF support for animated displays
  • Home screen widget support (not just Today view)
  • Better image quality and resolution
  • Improved watermark design or removal option

In-app purchases

None

Lifecards

No in-app purchases

None

Photo Widget

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Lifecards free?
Lifecards costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Photo Widget free?
Photo Widget costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Lifecards or Photo Widget?
Photo Widget is rated higher. Lifecards averages 3.8 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while Photo Widget averages 3.9 from 300 ratings.
Do Lifecards or Photo Widget have ads?
Neither Lifecards nor Photo Widget shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lifecards or Photo Widget?
Lifecards ships an update every 7 months, and Photo Widget every 2 months. Most recently, Lifecards was updated on October 19, 2026 and Photo Widget on October 21, 2026.

Other comparisons