Retrospecs vs Mosaic Creator
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Retrospecs
Transform your photos and videos into retro pixel art. Emulate the look of classic computers and consoles from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Customize your output with various graphics engines, color palettes, and fonts.
- Pixelate images and video clips
- Emulate 40+ classic computer/console systems
- Create custom graphics modes
- Variety of color palettes and fonts
- Supports Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, and more
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A retro computing / pixel art camera app. Retrospecs lets you convert images and video clips so they appear as they would on a wide variety of home computers and consoles from the 70's, 80's and 90's. Simply take a picture (or select one from your photo library) and you can display it as it would appear on over forty systems including the Commodore 64, IBM PC (DOS, CGA, EGA and VGA), Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Sega Mega Drive, Nintendo Game Boy and even the original 1984 model Apple Macintosh. If that's not enough you can also create your own custom modes based around four different graphics engines and a wide variety of color palettes and character fonts. (The free version only contains a limited number of systems/dither modes and the custom editors, video clip processing and animation options aren't available.) All trademarks are acknowledged as the property of their respective owners.
Mosaic Creator
Transform your photos into unique mosaic art. Select an image and follow step-by-step instructions to build your creation using virtual bricks. Bring your digital art to life with this creative tool.
- Create mosaic images from photos
- Use virtual bricks for building
- Follow build instructions
- Select images from photo library
- Transform pictures into art
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Take a picture or select image in your photo library and create the mosaic image in our App. You can follow the build instructions and build your mosaic image with bricks!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Retrospecs at 94% against Mosaic Creator's 33%. Retrospecs also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.7) and ratings volume (367 vs 13). Mosaic Creator's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months). On price, 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. Retrospecs sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Mosaic Creator asks for nothing beyond the download.
Retrospecs holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Retrospecs has 367 ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 94% of Retrospecs's written reviews are positive against 33% of Mosaic Creator's.
Retrospecs ships an update every 2 months, Mosaic Creator weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Retrospecs | Mosaic Creator |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (367 ratings) — better | 3.7 (13 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.3% of reviews — better | 33.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 367 — better | 13 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | John Parker | 会勇 陈 |
Customer experience
Retrospecs
Mosaic Creator
Bugs and requests
Retrospecs
Reported bugs
3 issues- Animation option not working properly
- Video import and saving issues
- Occasional image loading failures
Requested features
5 requests- Add more retro systems (e.g. NES, TI-99/4A)
- Improve video encoding capabilities
- Allow adjusting dithering levels
- Add support for transparent PNGs
- Implement batch processing and export options
Mosaic Creator
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Retrospecs
- Small tip$0.99
- Medium tip$1.99
- Unlock everything$1.99
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- Big tip$4.99
- The king of tips$9.99
Mosaic Creator
No in-app purchases
