Interstellar vs Retichat
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Interstellar
Access and interact with communities across Mbin, Lemmy, and PieFed. This open-source client provides a unified platform for engaging with your favorite fediverse content.
- Access Mbin, Lemmy, and PieFed accounts
- Interact with fediverse communities
- Open-source platform
- Bug reporting via GitHub
- Feature requests via magazine
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Interstellar is a free and open source, fediverse client, allowing you to access your Mbin/Lemmy/PieFed accounts and interact with your favorite communities. If you encounter any bugs or would like to request a feature, please report it on the GitHub repository (github.com/interstellar-app/interstellar) or the Interstellar magazine (kbin.earth/m/interstellar).
Retichat
This app provides end-to-end encrypted communication over decentralized networks. It supports store-and-forward propagation and federated nodes for lightweight push notifications. Future updates will include LoRa, group, and channel support.
- End-to-end forward encryption
- Decentralized and organization-less
- LXMF Store-and-Forward support
- RFed federated propagation
- Lightweight push notifications
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Reticulum LXMF chat client for iPhone Offers end-to-end forward encrypted communication over Reticulum networks Completely decentralized and organization-less Support for LXMF Store-and-Forward propagation Additional functionality using RFed federated propagation nodes Features lightweight push notification through a notify-only (no message data) relay RFed capability Soon to come: LoRa support Group support Channel support
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Interstellar at 100% against Retichat's 38%. Interstellar also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.2) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.6). Retichat's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 months). 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.
Interstellar holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Interstellar's written reviews are positive against 38% of Retichat's.
Interstellar ships an update every 2 months, Retichat every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on July 6, 2026 and September 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Interstellar | Retichat |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (4 ratings) — better | 3.2 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 37.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 6 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 79 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | John Randall | New Endian LLC |
Customer experience
Interstellar
Retichat
In-app purchases
Interstellar
No in-app purchases
Retichat
No in-app purchases
