Awful vs CiphAR
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Awful
This app provides a streamlined browsing experience for the Something Awful forums on iOS devices. It offers access to all forums, bookmarked threads, private messages, and includes features like image uploads and a smilie keyboard.
- Browse all forums and subforums
- Access bookmarked threads
- Built-in SALR functionality
- Smilie stickers and keyboard
- Upload images and pictures
- Manage private messages
- Favorite forums
Read full descriptionHide full description
Browse the Something Awful forums nicely on your iPhone and iPad! • Every forum and subforum! • Quickly check your bookmarked threads! • Built-in SALR! • Smilie stickers and keyboard! • Upload images and pictures! • Private messages! • Favorite forums! • Rap sheets! • Excessive exclamation marks!
CiphAR
Create and share augmented reality content like images, videos, GIFs, and messages tied to your location. Log in easily with Twitter or email to build a new world around you.
- Share images, videos, GIFs, and messages in AR
- Geolocation-based content sharing
- Log in with Twitter or email
- Create animations with brush tools
- Build and share new AR worlds
Read full descriptionHide full description
【Goal】 Create a new world. 【Features】 ・Share your images, videos or messages, gif, brush... in AR ・Log in with your twitter account or email. ・Contents related to geolocation, so you can share and see contents around here. 【Available Contents】 ・Image ・Video ・Text message ・Animation Gif ・Brush
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Awful at none against CiphAR's shown. Awful also leads on ratings volume (237 vs 2) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Awful against 5.0 for CiphAR. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Awful has 237 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Awful ships an update every 2 weeks, CiphAR monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and June 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Awful | CiphAR |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (237 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 86.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 237 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 102 MB | 205 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Dale Stonall-Mellor | Gungnir Inc. |
Customer experience
Awful
CiphAR
Bugs and requests
Awful
Reported bugs
4 issues- Crashes when opening certain forums
- Inability to load images and media
- Freezing and lagging on older devices
- Sync issues between app and website
Requested features
4 requests- Add search functionality
- Implement dark mode option
- Improve thread navigation and bookmarking
- Integrate with other social platforms
CiphAR
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Awful
No in-app purchases
CiphAR
No in-app purchases
