Comparison

Recent Contacts vs Contacts

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

Head to head
About

Recent Contacts

View your most recently added contacts with precise timestamps. This app provides insights into your contact addition patterns, including statistics and historical graphs. It also offers home screen quick actions and the ability to export your data.

Highlights
  • View recently added contacts
  • See exact contact addition time
  • Contact addition statistics
  • Contact addition history graphs
  • Home screen quick actions
  • Export contacts to spreadsheet
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

See your most recently added contacts. And more! Select a row to see the exact time a contact was added. Useful for business contacts, new love interests — just relax and let Recent Contacts sort out the details. Features include: • stats such as when you are most likely to get a new contact • graphs of your recent contact addition history • home screen quick actions • ability to export to a spreadsheet • more reliable than competitors I hope you find it useful and thanks for checking out Recent Contacts! -Kyle

About

Contacts

Organize and manage contact details, including birthdays and custom posters. Easily connect via messages, calls, or FaceTime. Share your information instantly with new contacts using NameDrop.

Highlights
  • Manage contact information
  • Sync across devices
  • Quickly connect via calls/messages
  • Store personal information for autofill
  • Customize Contact Posters
  • Share contacts with NameDrop
  • Use on Apple Watch
Features
Read full description

With Contacts on iOS, iPadOS and macOS, you can store and manage your and other’s contact information, birthdays, Contact Posters and more. Easily connect with your contacts with Mail, Messages, Phone, or FaceTime. Or instantly share your Contact Poster and your number or email address with someone new through NameDrop on iPhone and Apple Watch. Manage Your Contacts Easily add people to your contacts, and sync their contact information across all your devices with iCloud, Microsoft Exchange, Google, and other syncing services. If your contacts choose to, you can automatically get updates to their Contact Poster through Messages, Phone and FaceTime as well. Get Connected Quickly When you need a contact’s information, you can search to find who you’re looking for. You can then quickly message, call, FaceTime, email or even Apple Pay them. If you add their social profile to their contact card, you can jump to it with a tap. And if you add their birthday, you’ll also see it in Calendar so you never miss it. Store Your Personal Information Create a My Card in Contacts to store your own contact information including your phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, and more. You can then use the information in your My Card to use Autofill to instantly complete forms online or in apps across iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Customize Your Contact Poster Create a customized poster to represent yourself when you connect with others using Messages, Phone and FaceTime. Choose from various treatments for photos, Memoji and your name, and choose to automatically share it with your contacts or be asked every time before you share. Share your Contact with NameDrop Exchange contact information with someone new by simply bringing your iPhone near their iPhone or Apple Watch. Your name and Contact Poster are automatically included every time, and you can select the phone number or email address you want to share from your My Card along with it. Use Contacts on Apple Watch Select people from your contacts to use as a complication on your watch face for easy access, and quickly connect with them through Messages, Phone or Mail right from your wrist. You can also create new contacts and customize existing contacts, or exchange contact information with someone new using NameDrop with their iPhone or Apple Watch.

Screenshots

Recent Contacts4 screens
Contacts4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Recent Contacts at 90% against Contacts's 27%. Recent Contacts also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.5) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 6 months). Contacts's advantage is price (Free vs $4.99) and in-app purchases (none vs 4). On ads 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

Contacts is free to download; Recent Contacts costs $4.99 up front. Recent Contacts sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Contacts asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Recent Contacts holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Contacts has 3.3K ratings behind it against 598, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 90% of Recent Contacts's written reviews are positive against 27% of Contacts's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Recent Contacts ships an update every 2 months, Contacts every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Recent Contacts versus Contacts: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRecent ContactsContacts
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (598 ratings) — better3.5 (3.3K ratings)
Positive reviews89.9% of reviews — better27.1% of reviews
Number of ratings5983.3K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#75 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS13.010.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKyle GorlickApple

Customer experience

Recent Contacts

All ratings598 ratings
Positive93.0%
Neutral2.5%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews179 reviews
Positive89.9%
Neutral3.4%
Negative6.7%

Contacts

All ratings3,333 ratings
Positive57.6%
Neutral11.0%
Negative31.4%
Written reviews586 reviews
Positive27.1%
Neutral11.9%
Negative60.9%

User reviews

Recent Contacts

From 598 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Efficient for finding recent contacts
  • 👍 Helpful for remembering names and numbers
  • 💡 Useful for business and networking
  • 🔒 Great privacy policy
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive interface

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inaccurate contact dates after restoring from backup
  • 🐛 Inconsistent behavior when editing contacts
  • 💡 Lack of dark mode option
  • 💡 Need ability to archive or categorize contacts

Contacts

From 3.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💻 Useful app
  • 📱 Integrated with other Apple apps
  • 🗓️ Stores contact information well
  • 🔍 Organized contact list
  • 🙂 Good for basic contact management

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Contacts randomly disappearing
  • 🤔 Confusing contact management
  • 🔍 Difficult to find/search contacts
  • 🔀 Duplicated contacts
  • 🔒 Security/privacy concerns

Bugs and requests

Recent Contacts

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Inaccurate contact dates after restoring from backup
  • Inconsistent behavior when editing contacts

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add dark mode option
  • Improve contact editing functionality
  • Allow archiving or categorizing of contacts
  • Provide more sorting/filtering options

Contacts

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Contacts not syncing properly across devices
  • Editing contact information causes data loss
  • App crashes or freezes when performing basic tasks
  • Incorrect or missing contact details

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to create and manage contact groups
  • Improve search and filtering functionality
  • Allow customization of contact information fields
  • Integrate with more third-party apps and services
  • Add option to lock/secure sensitive contact information

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Recent Contacts

One-time4
  • Tip for Developer (Small)$0.99
  • Tip for Developer (Medium)$4.99
  • Tip for Developer (Large)$9.99
Show 1 more
  • Tip for Developer (Very Large)$14.99
None

Contacts

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Recent Contacts free?
Recent Contacts costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Contacts free?
Contacts is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Recent Contacts or Contacts?
Recent Contacts is rated higher. Recent Contacts averages 4.7 out of 5 from 598 ratings, while Contacts averages 3.5 from 3.3K ratings.
Do Recent Contacts or Contacts have ads?
Neither Recent Contacts nor Contacts shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Recent Contacts or Contacts?
Recent Contacts ships an update every 2 months, and Contacts every 6 months. Most recently, Recent Contacts was updated on September 24, 2026 and Contacts on September 25, 2026.

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