DateStamper vs MainframePunch
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
DateStamper
Easily add date, time, location, and custom captions to your photos. Preserve your memories with customizable stamps that blend beautifully with your images. Edit or remove stamps non-destructively at any time.
- Apply date, time, and GPS location stamps
- Add custom captions
- Extensive font, color, and style customization
- Non-destructive editing
- Batch stamping
- Photos app extension
- Shortcuts integration
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DateStamper allows you to apply beautiful date stamps overtop your photos – and include time, location, caption, and filename if you’d like. — "DateStamper brings back old memories for me ... It looks good, it gets the job done, and it’s nicely integrated with Apple’s Photos app." – MacStories Editor-in-chief and Founder, Federico Viticci — The modern photo date stamp is here! Easily add a stamp to your photos so you can remember when or where they were taken. Perfect for printing pictures to display in albums or scrapbooks, allowing you to preserve your memories. The best feature of point and shoot cameras is now available on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac – and better than ever. Styles ◦ With many fonts, colors, and styles to choose from, you can get just the look you want* ◦ The vibrant style beautifully blends the stamp into the photograph, allowing the image behind to shine through ◦ Or go with a classic look with the traditional digital display font ◦ Add a background color, stroke, shadow, underline, and adjust opacity ◦ Customize the date and time format ◦ Use the date taken, date created, date added, current date, or a custom date ◦ Add the location where your photos were taken — name, address, GPS coordinates, or custom text ◦ Add the photo caption, a custom caption, or filename ◦ Adjust the placement with position and padding options, and change the order of the text Stamp ◦ Quickly select photos from your library to stamp — select each individually, swipe to select, select a range, or select all photos in an album ◦ Stamp multiple photos at the same time** ◦ Take a new picture with a stamp pre-applied ◦ Use the DateStamper edit extension to stamp a photo directly in the Photos app ◦ Use the Stamp Image action in Shortcuts to automate your workflow ◦ Easily see which photos have been stamped with filters, badges, and a DateStamper album Edit ◦ Edits are applied right on top of the photo in your library, no duplicating necessary ◦ Remove or change a date stamp at any time, it’s completely nondestructive ◦ With iCloud Photos, when you apply a date stamp on one device, it will appear on all your other devices automatically Features ◦ Lock Screen widget and Control Center control ◦ Beautiful and intuitive Liquid Glass design ◦ Universal app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac ◦ No ads, no tracking, no nonsense * Premium Styles is an available in-app purchase that allows you to utilize all of the style options ** Unlimited Batch is an available in-app purchase that allows you to stamp more than 10 photos at a time
MainframePunch
Transform your text into animated, retro punch-card videos with authentic hole patterns and sounds. Add custom captions, preview your creations, and share them instantly. All processing is done on your device for maximum privacy.
- Authentic 80-column punch card creation
- Live preview and video recording
- Customizable bottom caption
- Synchronized punch audio
- Automatic text flow across multiple cards
- Adjustable animation speed and card scale
- On-device processing for privacy
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MID-CENTURY MODERN MESSAGING Before emojis, before texting, before the screen — there was the punch card. MainframePunch turns whatever you type into an authentic keypunch card, punched column by column, with the clack of a real Hollerith machine. Send one to a friend and they hear the punches too. PUNCH CARDS RIGHT INSIDE MESSAGES — FREE Tap the MainframePunch icon in any conversation and punch a card without leaving the chat: Realistic Custom Card — classic manila stock, your words in real Hollerith code Mid-Century Color Card — the same encoding in period-correct pastels Ready-made cards — SEND COFFEE / ON MY WAY / SYNTAX ERROR / ABEND / CALL ME and more Every iMessage single card animates as it punches and carries genuine keypunch audio, so your recipient watches and hears the machine work. All of it is free. No account, no limits, no catch. THE OPERATOR'S CONSOLE Open the app for the full machine: Type or paste your message and watch the beam sweep across the card Stack up to seven cards into a single deck Export a Full Reel — a shareable video with synced punch audio Send along a Hollerith decoder card so anyone can read the holes (for education or to drive your friends crazy!) Adjust punch speed from deliberate to production line CORRECT DOWN TO THE HOLE Every character is encoded per ANSI X3.26 Hollerith — the same zone and digit punches an IBM 029 would have made in 1964. The sound is sampled from an actual keypunch machine, not a synthesized click. OPERATOR ACCESS Everything is unlimited for your first fourteen days. After that, punching cards in iMessage stay free, and an Operator subscription keeps the reel exporter running: Monthly — $2.99, with a 3-day free trial Annual — $19.99, with a 7-day free trial Already bought MainframePunch? Thank you. Your purchase carries over — you keep everything, permanently, at no charge. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Privacy Policy: https://mainframepunch.com/privacypolicy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MainframePunch at none against DateStamper's 2. MainframePunch also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). DateStamper's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 12 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. DateStamper sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. MainframePunch asks for nothing beyond the download.
DateStamper ships an update monthly, MainframePunch every 12 months. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DateStamper | MainframePunch |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (9.2K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 74.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 9.2K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 12 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 58 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jordan Hipwell | Thomas Gillan |
Bugs and requests
DateStamper
Reported bugs
2 issues- Date/time stamp not visible on some photos
- Inability to batch process all photos in library
Requested features
3 requests- Add option to stamp videos
- Provide more flexibility in date/time stamp positioning
- Allow manual date/time input for older photos
MainframePunch
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
DateStamper
- Premium Styles$4.99
- Unlimited Batch$9.99
MainframePunch
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is DateStamper free?
Is MainframePunch free?
Do DateStamper or MainframePunch have ads?
Which is updated more often, DateStamper or MainframePunch?
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