Comparison

Charcoal Booth Pro 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

Charcoal Booth Pro

Transform your photos into expressive charcoal drawings with various paper-and-pencil styles. This app offers fast, visual editing with split previews, curated presets, and adjustable blending. Save your favorite settings and share high-resolution before-and-after images.

Highlights
  • Charcoal art creation
  • Portrait and landscape conversion
  • Paper-and-pencil styles
  • Live split preview
  • Curated presets
  • Adjustable blending
  • Save favorite settings
  • High-resolution sharing
Features
Read full description

Create polished charcoal art in seconds with Charcoal Booth Pro. Turn portraits and landscapes into expressive charcoal drawings with distinct paper-and-pencil styles. Designed for fast, visual editing: • Compare the original and edited image with a live split preview • Explore curated presets made for different photo styles • Blend the effect with your original for a subtle or bold finish • Save favorite effect settings in My Looks and reuse them • Share a labeled before-and-after image • Undo, redo, and resume your last edit • Save and share at high resolution • Edit across compact and expanded layouts with keyboard shortcuts • Process photos directly on your device Choose a photo, try a preset, and adjust until the result feels right. The focused editor keeps the image and its transformation visible throughout the process. The paid edition is ad-free, so you can stay focused on your edit.

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

Charcoal Booth Pro3 screens
Photo Widget4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Photo Widget at 3.9 against Charcoal Booth Pro's 1.0. Photo Widget also leads on review sentiment (36% vs 0%) and ratings volume (301 vs 2). Charcoal Booth Pro's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 2 months). On ads, in-app purchases 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

Charcoal Booth Pro 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

Photo Widget holds the better App Store score, 3.9 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Photo Widget has 301 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Charcoal Booth Pro's written reviews are positive against 36% of Photo Widget's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Charcoal Booth Pro ships an update monthly, Photo Widget every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Charcoal Booth Pro versus Photo Widget: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCharcoal Booth ProPhoto Widget
Price$1.99$0.99 — better
Rating1.0 (2 ratings)3.9 (301 ratings) — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews36.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2301 — better
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer福恩 毛Francis Bonnin

Customer experience

Charcoal Booth Pro

All ratings2 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Photo Widget

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

Bugs and requests

Charcoal Booth Pro

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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

Charcoal Booth Pro

No in-app purchases

None

Photo Widget

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Charcoal Booth Pro free?
Charcoal Booth Pro 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, Charcoal Booth Pro or Photo Widget?
Photo Widget is rated higher. Charcoal Booth Pro averages 1.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Photo Widget averages 3.9 from 301 ratings.
Do Charcoal Booth Pro or Photo Widget have ads?
Neither Charcoal Booth Pro nor Photo Widget shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Charcoal Booth Pro or Photo Widget?
Charcoal Booth Pro ships an update monthly, and Photo Widget every 2 months. Most recently, Charcoal Booth Pro was updated on November 1, 2026 and Photo Widget on November 6, 2026.

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