Sugar vs New Digital Commune
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sugar
Express yourself beyond standard chat bubbles with a unique canvas for text, images, GIFs, and drawings. Personalize your conversations with custom text styles or traditional bubbles. Turn your messages into art with this innovative social experience.
- Unlimited canvas for messages
- Add text, images, GIFs, and videos
- Freehand drawing tools
- Customizable text styles
- Traditional chat bubble option
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Why are our messages with friends constrained to generic green and blue chat bubbles? It’s time to add some color (and chaos) to your conversations with Sugar. On Sugar, chat outside the box by dropping text, images, GIFs, videos, and drawings anywhere on the unlimited canvas. Pick a text style as unique as your own voice (or keep it old school with a green or blue bubble). On Sugar, conversation is art.
New Digital Commune
A social network designed for artists to connect, grow professionally, and increase their visibility. Showcase your work, expand your network, and discover career opportunities in a space built by creatives for creatives.
- Artist portfolio showcase
- Professional network building
- Career opportunity exploration
- Reduced expression limitations
- Social networking for creatives
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New Digital Commune is a platform for artists to connect – with emphasis on professional growth, visibility, and reducing limitations of expression. Present your portfolio, build your network, explore opportunities, and advance your career in a new social network built by creatives, for creatives.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Sugar at none against New Digital Commune's shown. Sugar also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 10 days) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). New Digital Commune's advantage is ratings volume (115 vs 10). 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.
New Digital Commune holds the better App Store score, 2.6 against 2.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: New Digital Commune has 115 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 32% of Sugar's written reviews are positive against 22% of New Digital Commune's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Sugar ships an update every 2 days, New Digital Commune every 10 days. Both last shipped on November 4, 2026.
| Parameter | Sugar | New Digital Commune |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.4 (10 ratings) | 2.6 (115 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 31.6% of reviews — better | 22.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 10 | 115 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 283 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 17+ |
| Developer | amo | New Digital Commune Incorporated |
Customer experience
Sugar
New Digital Commune
User reviews
Sugar
From 10 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Innovative concept
- 👍 Fun and refreshing social experience
- 💡 Unique way to interact with friends
Room to improve
- 🔒 Forced access to contacts
- 🔒 Privacy concerns
- 🐛 Buggy and unstable
- 🤔 Unclear value proposition
- 😕 Frustrating onboarding process
New Digital Commune
From 115 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💡 Innovative platform designed specifically for creatives across all mediums
- 🎨 Minimalist and intuitive UI design
- 👥 Community focused on authentic creative work without toxic elements
- 🔄 Improvements visible in recent updates with better performance
- 📱 Clean interface that feels fresh and intentional
Room to improve
- 🐛 Widespread crashing and freezing issues across devices
- ❌ Non-functional buttons and unresponsive navigation
- 💸 Pre-launch paid memberships sold before app was functional
- 📉 Extremely low user base and sparse content
- 🚫 Lack of transparency and communication from developers
Bugs and requests
Sugar
Reported bugs
4 issues- Login issues
- Crashes and freezes
- Disappearing content
- Unresponsive controls
Requested features
4 requests- Add ability to delete content
- Improve navigation and UI
- Expand customization options
- Allow sign-up without inviting friends
New Digital Commune
Reported bugs
14 issues- App crashes immediately upon opening or after account creation
- Buttons unresponsive and not clickable throughout the interface
- App freezes on 'You haven't connected with other creatives' screen
- Content fails to display or shows blank spaces
- Video posts display as white/blank
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- Phantom notifications for non-existent interactions
- Extreme lag and slow loading times
- UI elements cut off on certain screen sizes
- App crashes when attempting to post or upload content
- Feed rarely displays other users' content
- Profile uploads don't display when clicked
- Sign-up process crashes before completion
- App freezes when scrolling or swiping
- Music pauses every time app is opened
Requested features
10 requests- Dark mode option
- Explore/discovery page to connect with random creators
- Search functionality for finding people
- Ability to see who liked posts
- Better content feed algorithm
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- Profile link aggregation (like Linktree)
- Photo metadata display (camera settings, gear used)
- Suggested content based on user interests at launch
- Improved job section with legitimate opportunities
- Better content moderation and quality control
In-app purchases
Sugar
No in-app purchases
New Digital Commune
No in-app purchases
