Comparison

VHS vs Chromaform

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

Head to head
About

VHS

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Bring back the look and atmosphere of classic VHS camcorders. VHS Camera transforms your iPhone into a retro analog video camera with authentic low-fi aesthetics inspired by old videotapes, consumer camcorders, tape tracking errors, analog noise, and nostalgic 80s/90s recordings. Everything is rendered live while you record, so the exported video matches exactly what you see on screen. FEATURES • Real-time VHS video simulation • Authentic 4:3 camcorder framing • Analog tape noise and tracking effects • Retro REC overlays and camcorder OSD • Vintage color degradation and bleed • Tape warp, static bursts, and glitch artifacts • Live preview matching final export • Multiple VHS-inspired presets • Rear camera support with continuous zoom • Record videos directly with VHS processing applied • Minimal cinematic interface designed for creators DESIGNED FOR • Filmmakers • Music videos • Retro aesthetics • Analog nostalgia • Experimental visuals • Vintage social content • Lo-fi video creators Whether you want dirty tape glitches, soft analog mood, or full retro camcorder energy, VHS Camera gives your footage the unmistakable character of old videotapes. Record memories like they came from another era.

About

Chromaform

Features
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Chromaform is a professional-grade RAW photo editor for photographers who demand precision, speed, and total creative control — with a full suite of on-device AI tools that never send your photos to the cloud. REAL-TIME RAW EDITING Open DNG, CR3, NEF, ARW, and other major camera RAW formats with true RAW processing. Exposure and recovery work directly from sensor data — no clipping, no compromise. Every adjustment renders live on the GPU through a Vulkan pipeline (vkdt + MoltenVK) and Metal-accelerated Core Image. COMPLETE ADJUSTMENT TOOLKIT • Light: Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows + an interactive per-channel Tone Curve • Color: Temperature, Tint, Vibrance, Saturation • Effects: Texture, Clarity, Dehaze, Vignette • Detail: Sharpening, Noise Reduction, and Neural Denoise • Optics: Chromatic Aberration removal Fine-tune any slider with +/− buttons and reset any section with one tap. COLOR GRADING Cinema-style color wheels for shadows, midtones, and highlights. Grade the whole frame, or apply grades selectively to the foreground, background, or a gradient region. ON-DEVICE AI TOOLKIT • Generative Erase — remove unwanted objects and let the model paint in a clean background • Smart Masking — tap any subject to select it with Segment Anything Model 2.1, then adjust just that region • Recolor Clothing — automatically detect garments and recolor them to any hue • Relight — add up to five virtual lights and drag them across the scene to reshape the lighting • Portrait — face-aware adjustments • Match — transfer the look of any reference photo with neural analysis • Auto Adjust — one tap analyzes the scene with Apple's Vision framework (classification, face detection, saliency) for optimal exposure, white balance, and color MASKING & GRADIENTS Combine subject masks with linear, radial, and rectangular gradient masks. Paint masks in or out by hand, feather the edges, and apply any adjustment or color grade to the masked area only. PRESETS & LUTS Nine built-in looks: Natural, Vivid, Film Warm, Film Cool, Cinematic, B&W Classic, B&W High Contrast, Vintage Fade, and Matte. Import your own .cube 3D LUTs for custom film emulations. CREATIVE EFFECTS Add atmosphere with the Water tool — rain drops and streaks. PIPELINE CONTROL See every stage of the processing pipeline and toggle any phase on or off to understand exactly how your edit is built. CLIPPING VISUALIZATION Toggle the Clip overlay to see blown highlights (red) and crushed shadows (blue) — essential for exposure-critical work. NON-DESTRUCTIVE WORKFLOW Your originals are never modified. Edits are stored as lightweight recipes — reopen any image with your edits intact, or reset to original at any time. PROJECT-BASED ORGANIZATION Group photos into projects, rate with stars, filter by rating, and copy, paste, or batch-apply edit recipes across an entire shoot. Review full-screen in the loupe with pinch-to-zoom. PRIVATE BY DESIGN The entire pipeline runs on-device with MoltenVK and Metal. Your photos never leave your device. Privacy Policy: https://chromaform.art/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

VHS4 screens
Chromaform2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Chromaform at Free against VHS's $1.99. VHS's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Chromaform is free to download; VHS costs $1.99 up front. Chromaform sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. VHS asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences · 4 level
VHS versus Chromaform: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVHSChromaform
Price$1.99Free — better
Update frequency—Every 9 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.616.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size114 MB35 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWilliam CarrerChromaform, Inc.

In-app purchases

None

VHS

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Chromaform

Subscriptions2
  • Chromaform Pro$2.991 Month
  • Chromaform Pro$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Chromaform Pro Lifetime$59.99

Questions

Is VHS free?
VHS costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Chromaform free?
Chromaform is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do VHS or Chromaform have ads?
Neither VHS nor Chromaform shows ads.

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