Comparison

GContact vs CircleBack

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

Head to head
About

GContact

Organize your contacts into custom groups with this intuitive management tool. Automatically categorize contacts by company, create and edit groups, and manage individual contacts with ease. Send emails and SMS messages to entire groups, and back up your data to iCloud.

Highlights
  • Automatic contact grouping by company
  • Create, edit, and delete custom groups
  • Manage individual contacts
  • Send emails to group members
  • Send SMS/MMS to group members
  • Contact backup to iCloud
  • QR code reader
Features
Read full description

GContact is the most popular contact management software with easy-to-use. Features New Features(New!) Add todo task feature for contacts. Features 1. Contact could be gathered in the groups automatically by company names. 2. Groups could be created, edited, or deleted freely. 3. You could also create, delete, and edit a single contact. 4. It support to search for contacts 5. And send email to all group members 6. Fantastic respond speed 7. Support to send sms/mms to all group members *The group mms just support the emoji only,picture and camera it can not be support in this version. 8.You could change the group's sort 9.You could change the group's color 10.drag & drop for the group editing 11.Contacts backup and save to iCloud 12.QR code reader 13.Backup your contacts and shared your archive file by iTunes connect or EMail Mark: English,Japanese,Chinese versions are available. Tips: Click group bottom twice continuously, you will see the menu including “Edit Group Members” “Change Group Name/Color” “Delete Group” “Send Group Mail” “Send Group SMS/MMS" “Cancel”. We do apologize for the inconvenience to customers which caused by our incomplete illustration. The following is the summary of questions mentioned by customers. Thanks you so much for your treasure feedbacks. FAQ: 1. How to add contacts to groups (1) Please have a browse of the tip mentioned above for reference. (2) Firstly, click a contact in “No Group”, which you would like to add to a certain group. And then you will see a menu including “Contact Detail” “Join in group” “Cancel”. Once you choose and click “Join In Group”, the contact could be ready to add to your favor group. 2. How to delete the group which has been already added? (1) Please have a browse of the tips mentioned above for reference. (2) If you have cancelled GContact software, and plan to delete the groups remained in Apple’s Contacts, there are several ways to deal with it. One is deleting the groups by Exchange or Itune, and connecting your iphone or itouch to the computer, then doing synchronization. Another one is installing GContact again, and deleting the groups by it. Because the function of deleting groups is not supported by Contacts, and only supported by SDK software of Apple. 3. How to change the name of groups? Please have a browse of the tips mentioned above for reference. 4.Why some groups are added automatically, although we did not do any edition on it? We are afraid it is not caused by GContact, but may be caused by other familiar software or others’ computers, while doing synchronization on it.

About

CircleBack

This app intelligently updates your contacts, finds new ones from email, and cleans duplicates. It also allows scanning business cards and offers unified contact management across devices.

Highlights
  • Automatic contact updates
  • Duplicate contact merging
  • New contact discovery from emails
  • Business card scanning
  • Unified address book
  • Contact sync across devices
Features
Read full description

CircleBack is the only address book manager that updates your contacts intelligently, discovers new contacts in your Google and Microsoft inboxes, cleans up duplicates, and allows you to scan business cards and save them as contacts. Packed with everything you need to stay organized while building and maintaining productive professional relationships, CircleBack makes it easier than ever to keep connections alive and get stuff done. CIRCLEBACK FEATURES • Contact updates when people in your network change jobs, roles & more • Intelligent merging / management of duplicate contacts • “New Contact” discovery from email signatures in Outlook, Gmail & the entire Microsoft account suite (Outlook.com, Hotmail, MSN, etc.) • Contact grouping by favorite, old/archived, or business card scans • A single, unified address book that imports from Outlook/Exchange , Gmail (Google Apps), Microsoft account suite, Facebook & more • Contact sync across multiple devices and platforms • Export contacts to Salesforce & ACT! • Best-in-class OCR business card scanning • Deleted contact recovery for the moments you make a mistake WHAT THE MEDIA IS SAYING • “CircleBack lets you sit back as it does the real-time contact updates and management for you.”— iphoneappsreviewonline.com • “Every once in a while I have this fever dream that I’d have a smartphone contact book that would be up-to-date and completely filled out, but that’s all it is—just a dream. But with CircleBack, I have a fighting chance.” — Gizmodo • “CircleBack uses artificial intelligence and crowd-based intelligence technology to automate contact updating and management. A useful tool to activate your contact list.” — Computerworld • “The modern world is busy and engaged, and your professional and personal contacts merge. But how can you keep up with what they’re doing? CircleBack uses artificial intelligence and crowd-based intelligence technology to automate contact updating and management.” — TechCrunch • “CircleBack knows your contacts better than you do. By automatically cleaning, completing, and updating your contacts, as well as removing duplicates, CircleBack keeps your address book organized and up-to-date.” — abduzeedo • “CircleBack is helpful app that makes sure that you address book is up-to-date. But, the app also consolidates all of your contacts by removing duplicate entries and repairing errors like typos. It can also locate missing contact information or updated information from outdated contacts.” — Forbes REVIEWS LEFT ON THE APP STORE • “Continuously improving” • “Simple, Powerful, intuitive” • “Very Useful Complement To Apple's Contacts App” • “Great & Simple App” MORE ABOUT CIRCLEBACK CircleBack’s unique answer to contact management is a single tool that ensures your address book is up-to-date, unified & accessible on all your devices. CircleBack handles the time-consuming organization of your digital address book while you do what you do best: crush it daily. DATA USAGE Crowdsourcing powers CircleBack’s core, allowing you (and everyone else) to anonymously contribute to the intelligence of our database. Your contributions are matched with billions of other data points from millions of other users to provide the best, most up-to-date info for anyone that’s outdated or duplicated in your address book. We love hearing from you! Keep the comments coming by emailing us anytime at support@circleback.com.

Screenshots

GContact2 screens
CircleBack4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: CircleBack at Free against GContact's $19.99. CircleBack also leads on ratings volume (2.5K vs 123) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 4 months). GContact's advantage is device support (4 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.6). 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

CircleBack is free to download; GContact costs $19.99 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 — 4.5 for GContact against 4.5 for CircleBack. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CircleBack has 2.5K ratings behind it against 123, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 51% of GContact's written reviews are positive against 61% of CircleBack's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

GContact ships an update every 4 months, CircleBack every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
GContact versus CircleBack: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGContactCircleBack
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating4.5 (123 ratings) — better4.5 (2.5K ratings)
Positive reviews51.1% of reviews60.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1232.5K — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size87 MB118 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperEJingCircleBack, Inc.

Customer experience

GContact

All ratings123 ratings
Positive86.2%
Neutral3.3%
Negative10.6%
Written reviews182 reviews
Positive51.1%
Neutral11.0%
Negative37.9%

CircleBack

All ratings2,543 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral5.1%
Negative6.7%
Written reviews128 reviews
Positive60.9%
Neutral8.6%
Negative30.5%

Bugs and requests

GContact

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

CircleBack

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Fails to update contacts on devices
  • Incorrectly merges unrelated contacts
  • Loses contact notes and other data
  • Unreliable sync between app and phone contacts

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add ability to remove contacts from groups
  • Improve search functionality
  • Allow starting with a fresh contact list
  • Provide better backup/restore options

In-app purchases

None

GContact

No in-app purchases

None

CircleBack

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is GContact free?
GContact costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is CircleBack free?
CircleBack is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, GContact or CircleBack?
GContact is rated higher. GContact averages 4.5 out of 5 from 123 ratings, while CircleBack averages 4.5 from 2.5K ratings.
Do GContact or CircleBack have ads?
Neither GContact nor CircleBack shows ads.
Which is updated more often, GContact or CircleBack?
GContact ships an update every 4 months, and CircleBack every 2 months. Most recently, GContact was updated on September 23, 2026 and CircleBack on September 24, 2026.

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