Comparison

Santa Spy Cam vs grapevineQUEST

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

Head to head
About

Santa Spy Cam

Create magical videos of Santa, elves, and reindeer in your home. This app offers a vast library of scenes and customization options to generate "sightings" that will enchant children. Easily share your holiday creations with loved ones.

Highlights
  • Live-action Santa, elf, and reindeer videos
  • 52 customizable scenes
  • 15 Christmas morning scenes
  • Integrate physical objects into videos
  • Easy social media sharing
  • High-quality video production
Features
Read full description

Santa Spy Cam™ 3 (SSC3) is the third major release of the Internationally acclaimed “proof of Santa” app, enabling parents (and grandparents) to capture live-action, high-quality video of Santa Claus, his friendly elves, and real reindeer in and around your home! With an almost limitless array of live-action video capability and customization options, Santa Spy Cam™ 3 provides “sightings” of Santa and his elves that children all over the world have always wanted in one easy-to-use app. SSC3 brings an unprecedented level of magic and enchantment to a child's holiday experience with its highly intuitive suite of both Santa and his elves "sighting" options. Version 3 features: >SSC3 offers 52 scenes to choose from, inspiring countless live-action video “sighting” opportunities. > SSC3 offers 15 Santa scenes to make Christmas morning one they’ll never forget. > Several scenes allow users to integrate physical objects left behind including candy canes and notes to Santa left behind by the Elves. > Easy sharing of your "sighting" creations with friends and family on social media including Facebook, YouTube and Email. Get inspired! See what other sleuths have recorded with Santa Spy Cam: https://www.youtube.com/user/SantaSpyCamOFFICIAL Due to the high quality of videos produced by SSC3, processing times for captured “sightings” may take up to several minutes to process. We recommend downloading the app and desired scenes when your device is connected to Wi-Fi. Please make sure your device has sufficient memory available. SSC3 may use over 3 GB of storage if all 52 scenes are downloaded at the same time. For tips & tricks to get the most out of your Santa Spy Cam 3 experience, like us on Facebook, follow @SantaSpyCam on Twitter and visit our website at http://www.santaspycam.com. BELIEVING IS SEEING™

About

grapevineQUEST

Engage your community with interactive photo scavenger hunts. This app facilitates team-based challenges inspired by treasure hunts, perfect for team building or group activities for all ages. Easily create themed quests and manage missions for participants.

Highlights
  • Photo scavenger hunts
  • Team-based challenges
  • Themed quest creation
  • Event management
  • Community engagement
  • QR code scanning
Features
Read full description

This application allows participants to engage in a fun smartphone-based photo scavenger hunt from grapevineQUEST.com. Inspired by treasure hunts, grapevineQUEST is an online platform that lets groups, organizations and schools engage, and activate their communities through interactive photo quest experiences. The app can be used for team building or any group activity for kids or adults. Select the theme and create a fun QUEST for kids or adults in a few minutes. The event manager starts the teams and receive the mission photos from the teams for the event managers approval or feedback. The team with the most points will win but most important is the fun teamwork and the joy from playing the quest game. The intuitive platform makes it easy to make a repeatable, fun, and positive activity for large or small groups. First you need to plan an event based on a themed quest from grapevine. Our quests are available with many different themes and in a multitude of languages. Once you've finished your event planning, simply use this app to scan the respective QR code for each team.

Screenshots

Santa Spy Cam4 screens
grapevineQUEST4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: grapevineQUEST at 100% against Santa Spy Cam's 22%. grapevineQUEST also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 8 months). On price, 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

Both are free to download. Santa Spy Cam sells 8 one-off in-app purchases. grapevineQUEST asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Santa Spy Cam ships an update every 8 months, grapevineQUEST every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 4 level
Santa Spy Cam versus grapevineQUEST: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSanta Spy CamgrapevineQUEST
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews22.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.012.0
Further details — not scored
Size33 MB35 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperCraig Research LLCgrapevine.nu

Customer experience

Santa Spy Cam

Written reviews134 reviews
Positive22.4%
Neutral6.0%
Negative71.6%

grapevineQUEST

Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Santa Spy Cam

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashes when trying to download/use scenes
  • Doesn't work on iPhone 6/6s
  • Stuck on startup screen
  • Camera/photo issues

Requested features

4 requests
  • Restore previous purchases
  • More free scenes
  • Dark mode option
  • Compatibility with newer devices

grapevineQUEST

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

8 purchases

Santa Spy Cam

One-time8
  • Grand Entrance2 variantsFree
  • Sack of GoodiesFree
  • Grand Exit2 variantsFree
Show 5 more
  • Grand Entrance$0.99
  • Ultimate Collection$3.99
  • No Watermark$3.99
  • Ultimate Collection 2015$3.99
  • New Scenes 2015$3.99
None

grapevineQUEST

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Santa Spy Cam free?
Santa Spy Cam is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is grapevineQUEST free?
grapevineQUEST is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Santa Spy Cam or grapevineQUEST have ads?
Neither Santa Spy Cam nor grapevineQUEST shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Santa Spy Cam or grapevineQUEST?
Santa Spy Cam ships an update every 8 months, and grapevineQUEST every 2 months. Most recently, Santa Spy Cam was updated on November 1, 2026 and grapevineQUEST on November 3, 2026.

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