Awful vs TVTropes
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
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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!
TVTropes
Explore a vast wiki dedicated to tropes found in TV, anime, film, literature, and more. Discover how media breaks down into common patterns and gain new insights. Features include a game, video examples, and a story generator.
- Explore media tropes
- Name That Trope game
- Video examples of tropes
- Story Generator
- Editing and reviews
- Customizable tabs
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TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life - Dig into your favorite works (TV, anime, film, literature, ...) and find how they break down into tropes. It will change how you view media. Once you get familiar try our new "Name That Trope" game. If you need some visual examples scroll through our Videos pages with thousands of trope examples. You can also use our Story Generator to help you come up with ideas for writing your own story using tropes as the building blocks. For existing users you'll find all the main features such as editing, reviews, trope launch pad, etc. And some new features on the app including: badge shop, PM and Forum notifications, PM's in a single text-style format, new wiki walk experience, and much more. The TVTropes app has many different sections so we've add the ability to customize what tabs you see. Privacy Policy: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Awful at 87% against TVTropes's 46%. Awful also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and rating (4.9 vs 4.7). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. TVTropes sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Awful asks for nothing beyond the download.
Awful holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 239 and 378 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 87% of Awful's written reviews are positive against 46% of TVTropes's.
Awful ships an update every 8 days, TVTropes every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Awful | TVTropes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (239 ratings) — better | 4.7 (378 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 86.6% of reviews — better | 45.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 239 | 378 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 103 MB | 47 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Dale Stonall-Mellor | TVTropes.org, Inc |
Customer experience
Awful
TVTropes
User reviews
Awful
From 239 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast and efficient
- 👍 User-friendly interface
- 🔒 Secure browsing experience
- 💡 Customizable layout and settings
- 🎨 Visually appealing design
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- 📉 Declining performance over time
- 🔋 High battery consumption
- 🚫 Compatibility issues with newer devices
TVTropes
From 378 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Smooth UI
- 🚀 Mostly functional app
Room to improve
- 🐛 Dark mode not working
- 🤖 Unnecessary AI features
- 🤬 Rude responses from mods
- 💰 Excessive ads
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
TVTropes
Reported bugs
2 issues- Account creation issues with VPN
- Video examples missing from app
Requested features
3 requests- Fix dark mode
- Remove AI story generator
- Improve video playback controls
In-app purchases
Awful
No in-app purchases
TVTropes
- Monthly Ad-Free Subscription$5.991 Month
- Yearly Ad-Free Subscription$29.991 Year
