Comparison

Sweep vs iCut

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

Head to head
About

Sweep

Effortlessly remove photo backgrounds directly on your device. Create transparent PNGs, add new backgrounds, and refine cutouts with studio-quality edges. Your photos remain private and secure, with no internet connection required.

Highlights
  • On-device background removal
  • Transparent PNG export
  • Replace background with colors, gradients, or photos
  • Manual retouching brush
  • Edge refinement tools
  • Cross-device compatibility (iPhone, iPad, Mac)
Features
Read full description

Sweep is a background remover for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that works entirely on your device. No uploads, no account, no internet required. Your photos never leave your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Lift the subject out of any photo in a tap and drop it onto a transparent background, a solid color, a gradient, a blur, or another photo. Export a clean PNG with perfect transparency, ready for stickers, product shots, profile pictures, presentations, and design work. MADE FOR • Listing photos for resale and marketplace apps, on plain white • Product photos for an online shop • Profile pictures and headshots with a fresh background • Stickers of friends, pets, and favorite things to share in chats • Slides, school projects, thumbnails, and collages WHY SWEEP • 100% on device, powered by Apple's Vision engine. Nothing is ever uploaded. • Works offline, wherever you are. • No account, no tracking, no ads. • Studio quality edges, down to fine detail like hair. • One app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Pro works on all three. REPLACE THE BACKGROUND • Transparent PNG cutout • Solid colors • Gradients • Blur the original for a depth look • Drop in any photo as a new background BUILT FOR REAL WORK • Press and hold to compare before and after • Multiple subjects, so you can keep or drop each one • Retouch brush to erase or restore any part of the cutout by hand • Refine, to run the cutout again inside just the area you painted back • Batch, to cut out up to 50 photos in a single run (Pro) • Sticker maker, to turn a cutout into a sticker with an outline and a shadow (Pro) • Edge controls to refine the cut • A library of your imports and finished cutouts • Save the original and the cutout side by side FREE AND PRO Sweep is free to remove backgrounds, retouch by hand, and export. Free exports are up to 1080 pixels with a watermark, three a day on iPhone and iPad. Upgrade to Pro for exports at full resolution, every background type, edge controls, batch runs of up to 50 photos, stickers, and unlimited exports with no watermark. Choose a monthly or yearly subscription, or a one time Lifetime purchase. Either way, Pro unlocks on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Private by design. Fast by nature. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

iCut

Features
Read full description

Pick a photo and iCut removes the background cleanly. Works on the latest iOS. Saving is free with no watermark, and your photos never leave your device. Great for marketplace and online shop listings, social posts and stickers. ■ Remove the background, just by picking a photo • On-device AI finds the subject and removes the background automatically • Copy, share or save the result as a transparent PNG ■ Finish it as a product photo • Use white, black, any color or one of your photos as the background • Adjust a natural shadow, margins, and the subject's size and position • Choose the output size (original / 1024 / 2000 / 3000 px) • Save a transparent PNG and a white-background JPEG at once ■ Fix the details by hand • Trace to erase or restore, with the cursor just above your finger so it never hides the spot • Erase similar colors in one tap to cut out logos and illustrations • Choose which subjects to keep, or set an area before cutting out • Change how the edges are cut and try again ■ Batch background removal • Process many photos at once (up to 20 per run; 5 photos a day in the free version) ■ Peace of mind • All processing happens on your device. Photos are never sent to a server • Open images from the camera, Photos, Files or the clipboard • Supports iPad drag and drop, side-by-side layout and Shortcuts • Available in 16 languages, with Dark Mode ■ New in 1.1 • Lasso: draw around what you want to keep and erase everything outside it (or erase/restore inside) • Magnifier: see a close-up around your finger while you fix the details • ID photos: automatically sized from the face position for résumé, passport and other formats, with a background color of your choice, plus a print sheet (faces are never retouched) • Export stickers at 370×320 and 512×512 • Manual edits are kept until you save, so you can pick up where you left off • Open photos straight from the Share menu of Photos and other apps • Choose the sticker outline color: white, black or any color • ID photos: red background option, saved with 300 dpi information, and print sheets in 4×6 in too • Draw with Apple Pencil and move the picture with your finger (double-tap the Pencil to switch erase/restore) ■ Saving is free • Cutting out, manual edits, saving and sharing are free with no watermark, at the original size • Transparent PNGs stay transparent. iCut also explains how to send them when a chat app turns them white ■ iCut Premium • Removes ads and unlocks unlimited batch background removal • Unlocks background photos and subject placement • Choose a one-time purchase or a monthly plan Terms of Use: https://umebo.net/en/terms/

Screenshots

Sweep4 screens
iCut4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: iCut at none against Sweep's 3. Sweep's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence, 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

Both are free to download. Sweep sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. iCut asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sweep ships an update every 9 days, iCut weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Sweep versus iCut: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSweepiCut
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (6 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings6 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysWeekly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCore Arc Studio LLCKoichiro Umemiya

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Sweep

Subscriptions2
  • Sweep Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Sweep Pro Yearly$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Sweep Pro Lifetime$69.99
None

iCut

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Sweep free?
Sweep is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is iCut free?
iCut is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Sweep or iCut have ads?
iCut shows ads; Sweep does not.
Which is updated more often, Sweep or iCut?
Sweep ships an update every 9 days, and iCut weekly. Most recently, Sweep was updated on October 28, 2026 and iCut on October 31, 2026.

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