SwiftConvert vs FormatBox
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
SwiftConvert
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Convert video and audio right on your iPhone or iPad. Nothing uploads, nothing leaves the device. SwiftConvert turns files into the formats your apps and devices accept, and does the whole job on-device. No server, no account, no tracking, no analytics. LISTEN & TAKE NOTES Start a session and SwiftConvert captures what your iPhone or iPad is playing, transcribes it on your device and saves a timestamped notes file. Use it for lectures, podcasts, videos and talks. Pick a limit of 15, 30, 60 or 120 minutes. On iPhone and iPad you choose what to capture in the system content picker. Speech is recognized on your device; a language's speech model may need a one-time download the first time you use it. VISUAL NOTES On devices with Apple Intelligence, you can optionally turn a finished recording's transcript into key ideas, a timeline, cards, concepts, connections and recall questions, generated on your device. Otherwise the app says why it's unavailable. APPLE WATCH The Apple Watch app is a remote for your iPhone. Start or stop a Listen & Take Notes session from your wrist and see the last five lines. Your iPhone must be reachable, because it does the listening. The Watch remote works with iPhone only, not iPad. The watch also starts or stops a batch and retries failed files. Converting happens on your iPhone, so keep it nearby. MEET THE DRAGON The dragon is the one control for your queue: tap it to add files, start, stop or retry. TALK TO dragON Switch to dragON mode and say what you need: "just the audio", "trim Road Trip to the first minute". It shows a plan with estimated sizes, asks before starting, and reports back. Type, or hold the mic and speak; speech is recognized on your device. With Apple Intelligence it understands free-form requests. Otherwise it uses built-in phrases and suggestions. Switch back to Classic any time; both share one queue. PLAY THE MKVs THAT WOULDN'T PLAY iPhone and iPad can't open MKV files. SwiftConvert reads them itself and rebuilds them as MP4. H.264 and HEVC video is copied across untouched, while AC-3 and E-AC-3 soundtracks become AAC with 5.1 channels intact. Keep just the audio and subtitle track you pick, or keep every one as alternates you can switch between in the player. Chapter marks come across too. TRIM, CROP AND ROTATE Set a start and end point, straighten a clip shot sideways, or crop to 16:9, 9:16, square, 4:3 or 21:9. Smart Crop offers an on-device suggestion for centering on the subject. Trimming and rotating are lossless. Only cropping changes the pixels, and the editor tells you when. FORMATS AND PRESETS Output MP4, MOV or M4V with H.264 or HEVC video and AAC audio, or pull the audio out as M4A in AAC or lossless ALAC. Four presets are built in: iPhone, Web, Archive and Podcast. Save any combination as your own preset. ENHANCE WHILE YOU CONVERT Super Resolution, Motion Smoothing, Motion Blur, Noise Reduction and frame interpolation run on your device's media hardware, one enhancement per conversion. The app tells you up front which ones your device supports. DESCRIBE WHAT YOU NEED Smart Convert takes a plain sentence such as "archive at the best quality" or "just the audio", picks the container, codecs and quality, explains the choice in a line, and offers to save it as a preset. Needs a device that supports Apple Intelligence. RUN IT FROM SHORTCUTS Convert Files takes files and a preset and returns the results without opening the app. Add Files to SwiftConvert Queue sends them to the queue to review first. Both work with Siri. BUILT FOR BATCHES Add files from the picker, or open them in SwiftConvert from the Files app or another app's share sheet, and queue as many as you like. Start them together, watch per-file progress, stop at any point, and retry anything that failed, even from the completion notification. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Every conversion happens on your device. There is no server to sign in to, no upload step and no analytics. Your videos stay yours.
FormatBox
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Your all-in-one toolbox for photos, videos, PDFs, audio, and archives. Convert, compress, resize, sign, and organize β 100% on your iPhone. No cloud, no uploads, no account, no data collection, ever. WHAT YOU CAN DO QUICK CONVERT β’ HEIC to JPG, HEVC to H.264 β for universal compatibility β’ Open modern web images (WebP, AVIF, JPEG XL) and convert to JPG β’ Convert camera RAW files (DNG, CR2, NEF, ARWβ¦) to JPG or HEIC, in batch IMAGE TOOLS β’ Resize by percentage, dimension, or target file size in KB β’ Remove the background from any photo β transparent, white, or black β’ Add a text watermark to photos and videos β’ Batch rename files with a custom prefix, suffix, and numbering pattern β’ Extract text from any photo with on-device OCR β copy it or export as .txt β’ Crop, rotate, and adjust brightness/contrast before you share PDF TOOLS β’ Scan documents with your camera β automatic edge detection and perspective correction β’ Combine photos into a PDF, or export every PDF page as an image β’ Merge, split, reorder, and rotate PDF pages β’ Draw a signature and stamp it onto any page β’ Add a searchable, invisible OCR text layer to scanned PDFs β’ Compress image-heavy PDFs to a fraction of the size VIDEO & AUDIO β’ Compress video to a target size β 10 MB, 25 MB, 50 MB, or custom β’ Trim the start or end of any video, losslessly β’ Extract audio from video as M4A β’ Convert audio between M4A, WAV, FLAC, ALAC, and MP3 (128/192/320 kbps), with trimming ARCHIVE TOOL β’ Zip files together for sharing or backup β’ Create password-protected ZIP files β’ Extract ZIP, RAR, 7Z, and TAR archives EBOOK, VECTOR & FONT TOOLS β’ Convert PDF to EPUB and EPUB to PDF β’ Convert SVG to PNG/JPG, or vectorize simple icons into SVG β’ Convert TTF and OTF fonts with the bundled offline font engine PRIVACY β’ Strip GPS location, timestamps, and camera info from photos before you share them β see exactly what's embedded first IPHONE SPECIAL β’ Split Live Photos into a still JPG/HEIC and a motion MOV β’ Turn animated GIFs into MP4 video BATCH PROCESSING Select 100+ files at once and convert them all in one tap. Mixed photos, videos, and formats welcome. PRIVACY FIRST Everything runs on your iPhone. No cloud uploads. No tracking. No ads. No accounts. Terms of Use: https://taxlite.net/format_box/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://taxlite.net/format_box/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SwiftConvert at none against FormatBox's 4. SwiftConvert also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 weeks) and device support (5 vs 1). FormatBox's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 27.0). On price and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. FormatBox sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. SwiftConvert asks for nothing beyond the download.
SwiftConvert ships an update every 2 days, FormatBox every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SwiftConvert | FormatBox |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days β better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No β better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch β better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 27.0 | 17.0 β better |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 20 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dragos Gavrilovici | ZHENGQIAO JIANG |
In-app purchases
SwiftConvert
No in-app purchases
FormatBox
- Weekly3 Days trial$1.997 Days
- Monthly$4.991 Month
- Yearly$29.991 Year
- Lifetime$79.99
Questions
Is SwiftConvert free?
Is FormatBox free?
Do SwiftConvert or FormatBox have ads?
Which is updated more often, SwiftConvert or FormatBox?
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