Comparison

Thrivestone vs A«iD

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

Head to head
About

Thrivestone

Explore a universe of interactive camera filters that tap into abstract and chaotic visual realms. This application generates unique, dynamic imagery for your photos and videos. Be aware of potential photosensitive warnings due to light flashes.

Highlights
  • Interactive camera filters
  • Chaos-inspired visuals
  • Dynamic photo effects
  • Unique video generation
  • Photosensitive warning
Read full description

Interactive camera filters that draw from the great seas of chaos. Photosensitive warning: This app creates flashes of light that could trigger seizures for people with visual sensitivities.

About

A«iD

This app synthesizes video in real time, reacting to audio input. It offers a modular chain of effects to manipulate visuals, allowing for custom masks and intricate distortions. Create unique, psychedelic visual experiences inspired by vintage video synthesizers.

Highlights
  • Audio-reactive video synthesis
  • Modular effects chain
  • Customizable masks (SVG, PNG, PDF)
  • Real-time feedback and distortion
  • Color manipulation and remap
  • CRT phosphor and DV tape emulation
  • Edge detection and raster effects
Features
Read full description

A«iD is an audio-reactive video synthesizer inspired by Eric Siegel's legendary EVS Electronic Video Synthesizer from the 1970s. ——— THE CHAIN ——— Modules process the video signal in real time. Stack them in any order, tap to open controls, drag to reorder, long-press to bypass. GEOMETRY SOURCE — Generate a synthetic shape and composite it over the signal. Circle, diamond, bar, cross, ring, triangle, hexagon — or load your own SVG, PNG, or PDF as a custom mask. Position, size, hue, and edge softness are all independently audio-modulatable. FEEDBACK — Route the processed signal back into itself. Pinch and rotate on the canvas to control zoom and spin in real time. KEYER — Unified luma and chroma key in a single module. Cut foreground from background by luminance or isolate a color as a matte. Tap the eyedropper to sample any color directly from the screen. Pairs visually with COMPOSITE in the chain — the signal knows where it's going. COMPOSITE — Layer the processed chain behind a clean camera cut using luma and chroma mattes simultaneously. COLOR MATRIX — Rotate, invert, and cross-channel the RGB color space. Strange colors guaranteed. HUE LFO — Oscillate the hue channel at tempo-synced rates. Psychedelic pulsing locked to the beat. PHOSPHOR DECAY — Emulate CRT phosphor persistence. Past frames linger like burned afterimages. BURN ECHO — Additive frame echo that saturates toward white. Motion leaves a scorched trail. DV TAPE — Analog dropout and compression artifacts from the era of consumer DV camcorders. HALATION — Film halation glow on bright areas. Warm blooming on highlights. CHROMA SMEAR — Horizontal chroma bleed and compression fringing. SCAN DISPLACE — Rutt/Etra-inspired raster displacement. Each scanline shifts horizontally by audio frequency content mapped to vertical position — bass warps the bottom, treble the top. The entire frame becomes a spectrum warp field. EDGE OUTLINE — Sobel edge detection with colored glow, inspired by Stephen Beck's Direct Video Synthesizer. Flat areas go dark; edges light up in the chosen hue and bloom outward. COLORMAP — Remap luminance to color. Five palettes: Thermal (heat vision), Psychedelic (full hue rotation, classic Siegel PCS), Phosphor (P1 green CRT), Ice, and Neon. Every pixel's brightness becomes a new color. RASTER BEND — Distort the scan lines. Warp the geometry of the image itself. MIRROR — Fold, flip, and tile the frame into kaleidoscopic symmetry. TILE — Repeat, scale, and rearrange the frame in a grid. POSTERIZE — Reduce color depth. Hard edges, flat planes, screen-print aesthetics. TRANSFORM — Rotate, scale, and reposition with full affine control. CHANNEL MIX — Blend and cross-route RGB channels independently. ENCODER — NTSC-style composite encoding. Color bleeding and luminance separation. ——— AUDIO REACTOR ——— Every knob can be wired to the live audio signal. A»iD listens constantly and extracts amplitude, bass, mid and treble bands, beat phase, BPM, onset triggers, and spectral centroid. Seven LFOs run at BPM subdivisions. Open the Patch Bay to wire any source to any parameter in any module. Stack multiple sources on one knob. Set amount and polarity per patch. ——— RANDOMIZE ——— Shake the device (or hit the die) to randomize the whole chain. Palette Lock freezes hue and saturation through dice rolls. Sleeper Mode locks each module's bypass state — sleeping modules stay asleep, active modules stay awake. Everything re-rolls around your intention. ——— SYNC & CONTROL ——— ABLETON LINK — Lock BPM and beat phase with Ableton Live, AUM, Loopy, and any Link-compatible app on your network. MIDI — Auto-learns CC from any wired or Bluetooth MIDI controller. Long-press any knob to assign. OSC — Receive /aid/ messages from TouchOSC or Max/MSP over Wi-Fi.

Screenshots

Thrivestone4 screens
A«iD4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: A«iD at none against Thrivestone's 2. A«iD also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8) and update cadence (every 8 days vs every 3 weeks). Thrivestone's advantage is ratings volume (28 vs 5) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). On price, review sentiment, ads and device support 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. Thrivestone sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. A«iD asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

A«iD holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Thrivestone has 28 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 96% of Thrivestone's written reviews are positive against 100% of A«iD's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Thrivestone ships an update every 3 weeks, A«iD every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Thrivestone versus A«iD: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThrivestoneA«iD
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (28 ratings)5.0 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews96.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings28 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size72 MB68 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMichael LemmonJOEL CHRISTOPHER RAKOWSKI

Customer experience

Thrivestone

All ratings26 ratings
Positive92.3%
Neutral7.7%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews25 reviews
Positive96.0%
Neutral4.0%
Negative0.0%

A«iD

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Thrivestone

One-time2
  • Season 0: Filter Pack #1$3.99
  • Season 0: Filter Pack #2$3.99
None

A«iD

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Thrivestone free?
Thrivestone is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is A«iD free?
A«iD is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Thrivestone or A«iD?
A«iD is rated higher. Thrivestone averages 4.8 out of 5 from 28 ratings, while A«iD averages 5.0 from 5 ratings.
Do Thrivestone or A«iD have ads?
Neither Thrivestone nor A«iD shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Thrivestone or A«iD?
Thrivestone ships an update every 3 weeks, and A«iD every 8 days. Most recently, Thrivestone was updated on October 21, 2026 and A«iD on October 24, 2026.

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