Birdfy vs NeedlePointer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Birdfy
Monitor your backyard for feathered visitors with real-time live streaming and automatic video capture of bird activity. Organize your recordings by species, share your discoveries with a global community, and even track the entire nesting and hatching process.
- Real-time bird visitor tracking
- Automatic video capture of bird moments
- Categorized video clips by bird species
- Community sharing of bird observations
- Nesting and hatching process tracking
- AI-powered bird and animal identification
Read full descriptionHide full description
The Bird Side of Life 1. Live Stream: Real-time Bird Visitor Tracking - View the device's live feed anytime, anywhere to track birds or animals visiting your backyard. 2. Moment Auto-Capture: Automatically Record Wonderful Moments - The device automatically records short video clips when it detects birds or other creatures, saving key moments without manual operation. You can view these directly within the app. 3. Categorized Collection: Manage Wonderful Clips by Bird Species - Sort videos by bird species based on recognition results or your manual selection, allowing you to easily find, manage, and browse your collected video content. 4. Community Sharing: Explore Other Users' Fascinating Observations - Share or browse wonderful content of bird visits with users worldwide. Enjoy an immersive video stream experience that supports Browse by bird species, expanding your birdwatching horizons. 5. Bird Nesting & Hatching Process Tracking (for Birdhouse Devices) - Automatically identify and record the complete process of birds from nest building, laying eggs, hatching, to fledging. The process is automatically archived by stages, allowing you to browse the entire lifecycle on a timeline. Finally, a merged video is generated, fully presenting the precious process of nesting and raising young. 6. Cloud Services (Optional Paid Premium Features) - AI Recognition Cloud Service: When enabled, it supports more intelligent video analysis and content organization, including: * Accurate Identification: 6000+ bird/animal identification, accurately recognizing species like birds, squirrels, and other visiting animals in your device's footage. * Highlights: Automatically generates daily highlights, selecting the most exciting moments of the day. * Monthly/Annual Recap: The system organizes and generates monthly and annual highlight video compilations for easy review and saving. * Birdfy Data: Records bird visit times, frequency, and species, generating data reports. * Smart Moment List Filtering: Supports quick filtering of interesting bird videos by recognition results, improving Browse efficiency. - MVR Cloud Service * Standard recording is 20 seconds. Subscribing provides longer moment recording times (30 seconds+) and longer moment preservation times. - Collection Cloud Service * Standard users have only 5GB of collection memory. Subscribing increases collection memory to 20GB+.
NeedlePointer
This utility app helps users track and manage needle points. It offers a simple interface for recording and organizing point data, with options for advanced editing. Ideal for users who need precise point management.
- Needle point tracking
- Point data recording
- Point organization
- Advanced editing options
- Simple interface
Read full descriptionHide full description
NeedlePointer helps needlepoint and embroidery stitchers organize projects, thread stash, canvases, progress, shopping lists, and patterns in one place. Track active and finished projects, save photos and notes, manage thread inventory by brand/color number/color name, mark canvases as kitted, create shopping lists, and use pattern editor tools. Optional purchases: - Remove Ads: one-time purchase - Premium Monthly: auto-renewable monthly subscription, $1.99/month in the US, unlocks premium editor tools and removes ads - Support the Creator: optional repeatable $1.99 support purchase Privacy Policy: https://samcarrara415.github.io/needletracker-privacy/PRIVACY_POLICY.html Terms of Use (EULA): https://samcarrara415.github.io/needletracker-privacy/TERMS_OF_USE.html Apple Standard EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: NeedlePointer at 100% against Birdfy's 48%. NeedlePointer also leads on rating (4.5 vs 4.1). Birdfy's advantage is ratings volume (3.6K vs 8). On price, update cadence, 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. Birdfy sells 17 in-app purchases, starting at $2.39 per month and NeedlePointer sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
NeedlePointer holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Birdfy has 3.6K ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 48% of Birdfy's written reviews are positive against 100% of NeedlePointer's.
Birdfy ships an update every 10 days, NeedlePointer weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Birdfy | NeedlePointer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (3.6K ratings) | 4.5 (8 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 48.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3.6K — better | 8 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.5 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 279 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | NETVUE, INC. | Samuel Carrara |
Customer experience
Birdfy
NeedlePointer
Bugs and requests
Birdfy
Reported bugs
3 issues- Inability to delete devices
- Unreliable live view and video uploads
- Unexpected app logout and account deletion
Requested features
5 requests- Batch editing for misidentified birds
- Favorites/frequently spotted section
- Landscape mode support
- Customizable notification sounds
- Motion detection sensitivity adjustments
NeedlePointer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Birdfy
- Collection Storage Basic mo.$2.391 Month
- MVR - Basic - Monthly$2.391 Month
- MVR - Plus - Monthly$3.591 Month
Show 12 moreShow fewer
- Collection Storage Plus mo.$4.691 Month
- Hummingbird Recognition mo.$4.691 Month
- Bird Recognition Basic mo.$5.891 Month
- Collection Storage Pro mo.$7.091 Month
- MVR - Pro - Monthly$7.091 Month
- Collection Storage Basic ann.$23.491 Year
- MVR - Basic - Annual$23.491 Year
- MVR - Plus - Annual$35.491 Year
- Hummingbird Recognition ann.$45.991 Year
- Collection Storage Plus ann.$46.951 Year
- Bird Recognition Basic ann.$57.991 Year
- Collection Storage Pro ann.$70.991 Year
- Hummingbird Reco. Lifetime$85.99
- Bird Recognition Lifetime Plan$99.99
NeedlePointer
- Premium Editor Monthly$1.991 Month
- Remove Ads$1.99









