Fishes vs LeafByte
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Fishes
An offline identification guide for Caribbean shore-fish. It features detailed species descriptions, over 8,200 images, and a search engine to identify fish by various characteristics. Users can also create and export observation lists.
- Offline identification guide
- 1,693 species covered
- Over 8,200 images
- Detailed species descriptions
- Search engine for identification
- Customizable observation lists
- English and Spanish interfaces
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An identification guide for the shore-fish fauna of the Caribbean and adjacent areas. This App is the second of a set of 2 portable identification guides for Apple touch-screen devices that will cover the shore-fish faunas of the tropical American marine regions on both sides of the central American Isthmus: the Tropical Eastern Pacific, the Greater Caribbean (Caribbean and adjacent areas). This stand-alone App, which was adapted from the 2012 website Shorefishes of the Greater Caribbean: online information system (www.stri.org/sfgc), works independently of the internet. • Complete English and Spanish interfaces. Connect to the Spanish interface by setting Spanish in the language preference of your device. • Covers 1,693 species, with over 8,200 images to help identify them. Users can select to work with either the entire fauna, or with the Diver Group, a subset of 919 species that could be found within SCUBA diving depths on or adjacent to reefs in different parts of the region. • A page for each species includes a detailed description (with information on its form, color, size, habitat and depth range), 1 or more species images (primarily photographs), key-features that distinguish it from similar species, a link to a page displaying similar species, and a map of its regional range. • Browse among alphabetic lists of species and species-within-families, changing name-sorting between scientific and common (first or last) names. • A search engine uses any combination of generic common names, location, habitat, and fish features (shape, color pattern and colors) to identify fishes. • A glossary of scientific terms is linked to each species page. • The notebook module allows (1) review of recently visited species pages and (2) construction of lists that record observations about fishes. New lists can be assembled from scratch or by making blank copies of existing lists. Lists are organized in folders, and are downloadable by email. • The iPad version includes glossary images, and high resolution range maps with dots indicating site records. • New for this version: option to work with either the entire fauna or a diver subgroup; 94 more species and almost 50% more images; habitat added to the fish ID search engine.
LeafByte
This application allows users to quickly and accurately measure leaf area and herbivory by taking photos. It supports various leaf types and conditions, and saves data to spreadsheets. Features include freehand drawing for reconstruction and automatic skew correction.
- Measure leaf area and herbivory
- Save data to spreadsheets
- Analyze leaves of any size
- Reconstruct missing leaf margins
- Measure dark or light plant material
- Read barcodes
- Correct photo skew
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LeafByte measures leaf area and herbivory quickly and accurately. Take a picture of a leaf and a scale to measure total leaf area and leaf area consumed. - Saves your data in a convenient spreadsheet on your phone or in Google Drive - Analyzes leaves of almost any size or shape - Uses freehand drawing to reconstruct missing leaf margins - Can measure dark plant material (such as leaves) on a white background or light plant material (such as petals) on a dark background - Reads and records all major barcodes - Automatically corrects skew in photos taken at an angle
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: LeafByte at every 5 months against Fishes's every 45 months. LeafByte also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and review sentiment (100% vs 84%). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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.
LeafByte holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 14 and 13 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 84% of Fishes's written reviews are positive against 100% of LeafByte's.
Fishes ships an update every 45 months, LeafByte every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Fishes | LeafByte |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (14 ratings) | 4.8 (13 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.2% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 14 — better | 13 |
| Update frequency | Every 45 months | Every 5 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 817 MB | 21 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Smithsonian Institution | Abigail Getman-Pickering |
Customer experience
Fishes
LeafByte
In-app purchases
Fishes
No in-app purchases
LeafByte
No in-app purchases









