Artcodes vs IRCODE
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Artcodes
Create visually engaging codes by drawing beautiful images. Link these designs to websites for a fun and interactive experience, offering a playful alternative to traditional QR codes. Explore unique visual interactions for products, packaging, and services.
- Visually design interactive codes
- Link images to websites
- Playful alternative to QR codes
- Enhance product and packaging interaction
- Create unique visual experiences
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Artcodes allow everyone to become a coder. By drawing visually beautiful images, you can link them to websites to showcase how interaction can become fun and beautiful. Design visually beautiful images and encode them, resulting in the same interactivity as that of the QR code but with a more visually engaging and playful experience. Images can be identical with unique codes or the opposite: visually unique with identical codes. This interplay offers a new opportunity for visual interaction within, product, packaging, service and interaction design.
IRCODE
Instantly unlock hidden stories, exclusive access, or shopping opportunities by scanning everyday visuals. This app transforms ordinary moments into interactive gateways, revealing a digital layer behind images, screens, and products without sending data to the cloud.
- Scan enabled images and products
- Unlock exclusive content and offers
- Discover interactive experiences
- On-device object detection
- Privacy-focused, no cloud data sent
- Real-time interaction
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Imagine walking through a city, watching your favorite show, or standing before a piece of art - and instantly unlocking hidden stories, exclusive access, or the ability to shop what you see. With IRCODE, the world around you comes to life. Sports. Music. Fashion. Film. Art. Retail. If you can see it, you can experience it - in real time. IRCODE transforms everyday moments into interactive gateways. Scan images, screens, and products to reveal the digital layer behind them - from behind-the-scenes footage and live offers to direct shopping and discovery. Powered by on-device object detection and recognition, IRCODE identifies what you're looking at instantly — no data sent to the cloud, no delay, no compromise on privacy. Your camera sees more. Your data goes nowhere. Right now, IRCODE is invitation-only, with a growing collection of enabled visuals and experiences. But that's changing fast. Follow @myircode to see what's live and what's next. How It Works: • Scan - Point your camera at enabled images, products, ads, or screens. • Unlock - Instantly access exclusive content, offers, and experiences. • Discover - Engage deeper with the world around you in ways you've never imagined. Download IRCODE and step into the future of interactive visuals, where everything you see can tell a story, connect you to something new, or invite you to be part of the moment.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Artcodes at 5.0 against IRCODE's 4.4. Artcodes also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.6). IRCODE's advantage is ratings volume (25 vs 1) and update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 2 months). On price, review sentiment, 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.
Artcodes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: IRCODE has 25 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Artcodes ships an update every 2 months, IRCODE every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on June 7, 2026 and September 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Artcodes | IRCODE |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.4 (25 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 25 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 4 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 205 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham | IRDB Holdings, Inc. |
Customer experience
Artcodes
IRCODE
In-app purchases
Artcodes
No in-app purchases
IRCODE
No in-app purchases









