Crest Browser vs Lens
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Crest Browser
Organize your online life with distinct browsing contexts for work, personal use, and private browsing. Each context has its own tabs, history, and data, ensuring a clean separation of your digital activities.
- Isolated browsing contexts (Spaces)
- Separate tabs, history, and cookies per Space
- Customizable Space identity
- Focused sidebar for tabs and history
- Peek for temporary link previews
- Optional iCloud sync
Read full descriptionHide full description
Work, personal life, and everything between deserve their own Space. Crest is a native browser for iPhone and iPad that keeps your accounts separate, your tabs organized, and your browsing distinctly yours. KEEP YOUR ACCOUNTS SEPARATE Each Space has its own tabs, cookies, website data, history, passwords, and site permissions. Stay signed in to different accounts on the same website. Switch from work to personal browsing without carrying the wrong session with you. GIVE EVERY TAB A PLACE Pin the sites you use every day. Save pages in folders. Keep today's tabs close and completed work in the archive. Select and move tabs, folders, and Split View groups together. On iPhone, bring in the sidebar with a gesture; on iPad, keep it beside your page. MAKE IT YOUR OWN Start from Winter, Lion, or another template in Crest Studio, then choose a color for each part of the crest and the sidebar. Choose a crest, emoji, monogram, or symbol. Appearance settings adjust the window border, sidebar material, tab corners, borders, and default page zoom. KEEP RELATED PAGES TOGETHER Group two to four pages in Split View. On iPad, browse them side by side and resize the columns. On iPhone, swipe across the compact toolbar to move between pages in the group. Peek lets you check supported links without losing your place, then keep the page as a tab when you need it. TOOLS FOR EVERYDAY BROWSING Choose one default search for every Space and another for Private Browsing, or pick one for a single Space. Search from a new tab to find the pages and tabs you use most. Translate webpages on device with Apple's Translation framework. Read supported articles in Reader, find text on a page, adjust zoom, share links, and export pages. Content blocking and site permissions give you control over each Space. Language availability varies, and translation may require a language download. PRIVATE WHEN YOU NEED IT Private Browsing uses temporary website storage. Private tabs stay out of saved history, restoration, archive, and sync. Crest does not run an advertising SDK, collect browsing analytics, or require a Crest account. PICK UP ON ANOTHER DEVICE Optional iCloud sync keeps supported Space and tab organization available across your Apple devices through your private iCloud database. Crest is also available for Mac. Crest is free and open source, built with Apple's WebKit. Requires iOS 26.1 or iPadOS 26.1 or later. Some website features and integrations vary by device.
Lens
A private web browser focused on speed and simplicity. It blocks ads and trackers by default, offers customizable search engine options, and features automatic tab archiving. Enhanced privacy controls include Face ID protection for private tabs.
- Search-first interface
- Ad and tracker blocking
- Customizable search engines
- Automatic tab archiving
- Face ID protected private tabs
- Link preview and translation
Read full descriptionHide full description
Lens is a web browser that stays out of your way. Open it and type: search comes first, your favourite sites are one tap away, and there's nothing else to learn. No ads, no trackers, no account, and nothing collected about you. Free. SEARCH FIRST • Lens opens straight to search, with your pinned sites one tap away. • Pick your search engine: DuckDuckGo, Brave, Kagi, Ecosia, Google or Bing. THE WEB, WITHOUT THE NOISE • Ads, trackers and most cookie pop-ups don't load. • Hide anything that bothers you on a page, and it stays hidden next time. PRIVATE ON ITS OWN • No account, no analytics, no tracking. Lens doesn't know who you are. • Lock private tabs with Face ID. • Forget This Website clears everything a site saved. • Secure connections everywhere, and tracking codes are cleaned from links. TABS THAT TIDY THEMSELVES • Tabs you haven't opened in a day move to the Archive. Nothing is lost. • A tab with a half-filled form stays open until you send it. • Pinch a page to see your tabs, swipe along the bar to switch, flick a tab up to close it. SMALL THINGS THAT HELP • Mini Player: keep listening while you browse, with Picture in Picture. • Downloads that keep going in the background. • Reader, in seven soft colours. • Translate pages right on your iPhone. • Press and hold a link to preview it, and scroll it, before you open it. • Buttons for Reader, Translate, video and Downloads show up only when you need them. • Zoom, fullscreen, desktop site and blocking, set for each site. • Swipe anywhere on a page to go back or forward. • Copy an article as clean Markdown. MADE FOR iPHONE DUO • Open, the page gets the whole big screen, with the bar down the side. • Half-fold it in landscape, and Reader becomes a book you turn page by page. • Closed, it's the same Lens you know from iPhone. WORKS WITH YOUR iPHONE • Make Lens your default browser. • iCloud Passwords, passkeys, one-time codes, Apple Pay and Wallet passes. • iCloud sync for pins, history and tabs, end-to-end encrypted. • Buttons for Control Center and the Lock Screen, and Siri and Shortcuts. FOR DESIGNERS AND DEVELOPERS Select any text to see which font draws it. Tap anything to see its box, colours and contrast, measure the gap between two elements, or pause the page to look at a menu. Turn on Developer Tools in Settings. LENS FOR MAC A free menu bar app with your pins, your iPhone's tabs and the pages you send from your iPhone. No feeds, no clutter, no AI you didn't ask for. If you like Lens, you can leave a tip and unlock extra app icons.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Lens at 100% against Crest Browser's 25%. Lens also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.2) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks). Crest Browser's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4). On price, ratings volume, ads and device support 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. Lens sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Crest Browser asks for nothing beyond the download.
Lens holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 20 and 54 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 25% of Crest Browser's written reviews are positive against 100% of Lens's.
Crest Browser ships an update every 2 weeks, Lens every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Crest Browser | Lens |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (20 ratings) | 4.9 (54 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 25.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 20 | 54 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.1 | 26.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 73 MB | 67 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Paul Davis | Maximos Angelakis |
Customer experience
Crest Browser
Lens
In-app purchases
Crest Browser
No in-app purchases
Lens
- Coffee$3.99
- Coffee & Snack$6.99
- Lunch$14.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Big Thank-You$29.99









