Comparison

Hacktivate vs GlassBox Dev

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Hacktivate

Engage in cybersecurity challenges with 240 real-world hacking technique missions. Progress through a global map, learning encryption, steganography, and more. Designed for educational use, it offers scalable difficulty and comprehensive tutorials.

Highlights
  • 240 graded cybersecurity missions
  • Real-world hacking techniques
  • Global progression map
  • Hacker's Toolbox (hashing, encryption, XOR)
  • Unix terminals and web browsers
  • Scalable difficulty
  • Cross-platform sync (iPhone, iPad, Mac)
Features
Read full description

Crack codes. Break firewalls. Conquer the map. Hacktivate is the ultimate cybersecurity challenge: a world map of 240 missions where every puzzle is built on real cybersecurity techniques hackers use. From classic ciphers to covert steganography, you’ll sharpen your brain while infiltrating deeper into the network. No fluff. No filler. Just pure challenges. Hacktivate: Education Edition is the same as the regular Hacktivate app, except it's paid up front so that schools and colleges can use it. - 240 graded missions across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and more – unlock all the continents with a one-time purchase. - The Hacker’s Toolbox: hashing, encryption, XOR, ciphers, and beyond. - Real-world attack techniques through Unix terminals, web browsers, digital forensics, SQL injection, and more. - Global progression: unlock regions and learn different specialties each time. - Comprehensive tutorials and documentation teach you the skills you need to win. - Difficulty that scales: from rookies breaking their first code to cyber masterminds cracking the strongest firewalls. - Play on iPhone, iPad, and Mac with a single purchase – your progress is auto-synced. Every lock is a challenge. Every mission is a test. Every solution pulls you deeper into the system. The network is waiting, and your mission starts now! Terms of service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula Privacy policy: https://www.hacktivate.app/privacy

About

GlassBox Dev

Features
Read full description

CryptoKit hands you a final hash or ciphertext and hides everything in between. GLASSBOX rebuilds each algorithm by hand so every intermediate value is visible, tappable, and provably correct against Apple's real implementation — then lets an on-device AI try to crack it, winning on the weak and drowning on the strong. Honesty is a hard requirement. No screen ever fakes progress against strong crypto. Where AI or brute force cannot win, the app shows it failing and explains why. The hand-written teaching engine is checked byte-for-byte against Apple's real CryptoKit/Security output — if they ever disagree, a test fails. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Classical ciphers — Caesar, ROT13, Vigenère, XOR — with an on-device AI cracker that breaks them from ciphertext alone using real statistical cryptanalysis. • Modern families rebuilt by hand and verified against the real thing: AES-128, ChaCha20, DES; SHA-256/512, SHA-1, MD5; RSA, ECC, X25519. Scrub AES through its 10 rounds, step RSA one exponent bit at a time, watch SHA-256 churn its state. • The avalanche on camera: flip one input bit and about half the digest flips. • Crack, Tamper, and Breach labs — a dictionary attack cracks weak passwords instantly while a real, device-timed Argon2id shows why strong hashing takes centuries. • Labs of physics and math: a thermodynamic crack lab, a quantum threat layer (Shor/Grover verdicts + post-quantum survivors), an entropy forge that harvests real sensor noise, and Rosetta panels showing the same cipher in Swift, Python, and C++. • The AI, honestly: a hand-written deep net genuinely learns a reduced-round distinguisher — then genuinely fails at full strength, forever. The flat line is the exhibit. • Hermes — a persistent learner whose brain grows across sessions and syncs across your devices via iCloud. PRIVACY All cryptographic computation runs on your device; your inputs never leave it. The only network traffic is optional iCloud sync of the app's own learning data (in your private iCloud database) and anonymous crash/diagnostic reporting. No accounts, no ads, no tracking.

Screenshots

Hacktivate4 screens
GlassBox Dev3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: GlassBox Dev at Free against Hacktivate's $19.99. Hacktivate's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (18.5 vs 26.0). On 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

GlassBox Dev is free to download; Hacktivate costs $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Hacktivate versus GlassBox Dev: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHacktivateGlassBox Dev
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.5 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size184 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHudson Heavy IndustriesFranky Fernandez

In-app purchases

None

Hacktivate

No in-app purchases

None

GlassBox Dev

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hacktivate free?
Hacktivate costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is GlassBox Dev free?
GlassBox Dev is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Hacktivate or GlassBox Dev have ads?
Neither Hacktivate nor GlassBox Dev shows ads.

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