VERO vs Mastodon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
VERO
Connect authentically with friends and family on a social platform free from ads and algorithms. Share your passions, from music and movies to books and places, in a chronological feed. Create dedicated spaces for communities and engage in live audio and chat.
- Ad-free chronological feed
- Share music, movies, books, and places
- Customizable profile 'Sleeve'
- Community Rooms with live audio
- Chronological chat and calls
- Discovery feature for niche communities
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Ad-free social, built for authentic connection. VERO is a place to share what you love with the people who matter to you. SHARE WHAT YOU LOVE Share the music you're playing, the movie you can't stop thinking about, the book on your nightstand and the place you found last weekend, alongside your photos and video, links, games and apps. Write an Introduction post to recommend someone your community should know. - Each post goes to the people you choose, from close friends to acquaintances and followers - Your feed stays in chronological order, so you see what people share in the order they share it - Add photos, video and posts to your Story - Choose Light, Dark or Blurred in Appearance YOUR SLEEVE™ Your posts live on your profile. Your Sleeve is where you choose what to share beyond them: your world in one shareable link. - Make it unmistakably yours with a wallpaper of your own - Spotlight your favorite profiles and your recent posts - Host multiple Community Rooms - Earn through your Sleeve with a Shop, or a Premium Channel with subscriber-only product drops, exclusive content and special access COMMUNITY ROOMS Community Rooms bring your people together. Each room has chat and live audio, with hosts and listeners, and can be open to all or for subscribing members only. Invite people in from your Story, and find live rooms in Discovery, your Stories and your chats. FIND PEOPLE WHO LOVE WHAT YOU LOVE - The profile images on a post show who else has shared the same thing, and what they said about it - Discover another creator's Sleeve through Suggestions in your navigation - Search shows what's popular in music, movies, TV, books, games, apps and places DISCOVERY Discovery is where communities form around the things you love. Add a Discovery Tag like 'Street' or '35mm' to a photo and it appears in that community. You start as a Newcomer, and as people vouch for you, you become a Member. When you vouch for someone whose work inspires you, you help them get seen. CHAT AND CALLS Chat is where you keep the conversation alive. - Message by text or voice note, one to one or in a group - React to messages, and reply in threads or to a specific message - Pin the people, groups and rooms you talk to most - Sort chats by individual, unread, groups, Community Rooms and requests - Call people you're connected with by video or audio SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION If you subscribe to a Premium Channel through Apple, payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period at the rate of the selected plan. You can manage subscriptions and turn off auto-renewal in Account Settings after purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://vero.co/terms-of-use Privacy Policy: https://vero.co/privacy-policy
Mastodon
Connect with others on a decentralized social network. Share posts, images, and videos in chronological order without algorithms or ads. Discover new content and participate in conversations across the fediverse.
- Chronological feed
- No algorithms or ads
- Discover new users and topics
- Post with images, videos, and polls
- Create custom lists
- Filter content
- Cross-platform communication
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Mastodon is the best way to keep up with what’s happening. Follow anyone across the fediverse and see it all in chronological order. No algorithms, ads, or clickbait in sight. This is the official iOS app for Mastodon. In our app, you can: EXPLORE ■ Discover new writers, journalists, artists, photographers, scientists and more ■ See what’s happening in the world READ ■ Keep up with people you care about in a chronological feed with no interruptions ■ Follow hashtags to keep up with specific topics in real time CREATE ■ Post to your followers or the whole world, with polls, high quality images and videos ■ Participate in interesting conversations with other people CURATE ■ Create lists of people to never miss a post ■ Filter words or phrases to control what you do and don’t want to see AND MORE! ■ Login and switch between multiple accounts ■ No spoilers! You can put your posts behind content warnings A POWERFUL PUBLISHING PLATFORM You no longer have to try and appease an opaque algorithm that decides if your friends are going to see what you posted. If they follow you, they’ll see it. If you publish it to the open web, it’s accessible on the open web. You can safely share links to Mastodon in the knowledge that anyone will be able to read them without logging in. Between threads, polls, high quality images, videos, audio, and content warnings, Mastodon offers plenty of ways to express yourself in a way that suits you. A POWERFUL READING PLATFORM We don’t need to show you ads, so we don’t need to keep you in our app. Mastodon has the richest selection of 3rd party apps and integrations so you can choose the experience that fits you best. Thanks to the chronological home feed, it’s easy to tell when you’ve caught up on all updates and can move on to something else. No need to worry that a misclick will ruin your recommendations forever. We don’t guess what you want to see, we let you control it. PROTOCOLS, NOT PLATFORMS Mastodon is not like a traditional social media platform, but is built on a decentralized protocol. You can sign up on our official server, or choose a 3rd party to host your data and moderate your experience. Thanks to the common protocol, no matter what you choose, you can communicate seamlessly with people on other Mastodon servers. But there’s more: With just one account, you can communicate with people from other fediverse platforms. Not happy with your choice? You can always switch to a different Mastodon server while taking your followers with you. For advanced users, you can even host your data on your own infrastructure, since Mastodon is open-source. NON-PROFIT IN NATURE Mastodon is a registered non-profit in the US and Germany. We are not motivated by extracting monetary value from the platform, but by what’s best for the platform. AS FEATURED IN: TIME, Forbes, Wired, The Guardian, CNN, The Verge, TechCrunch, Financial Times, Gizmodo, PCMAG.com, and more.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Mastodon at none against VERO's 3. Mastodon also leads on rating (4.5 vs 4.2) and ratings volume (13K vs 1.5K). VERO's advantage is review sentiment (60% vs 48%). On price, update cadence, ads and monetization model 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. VERO sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Mastodon asks for nothing beyond the download.
Mastodon holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mastodon has 13K ratings behind it against 1.5K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 60% of VERO's written reviews are positive against 48% of Mastodon's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
VERO ships an update every 3 weeks, Mastodon monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | VERO | Mastodon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (1.5K ratings) | 4.5 (13K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 59.9% of reviews — better | 48.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.5K | 13K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 661 MB | 110 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Vero Labs Inc | Mastodon GmbH |
Customer experience
VERO
Mastodon
User reviews
VERO
From 1.5K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 No ads or algorithms
- 🚀 Great for photographers and creatives
- 💡 Unique features like music/book sharing
- 👍 Friendly community
- 🔒 Respects user privacy
Room to improve
- 🐛 Stability and performance issues
- 🔍 Difficulty discovering new content and users
- 🤔 Confusing connection/follower system
- 🙁 Lack of user growth and engagement
Mastodon
From 13K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Friendly and welcoming community
- 🚀 Decentralized and free from corporate control
- 🔒 No data collection or ads
- 🤖 Good alternative to Twitter
- 💡 Ability to self-host servers
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
- 🤔 Confusing onboarding and server selection
- 📱 Limited functionality compared to web version
- 🔍 Difficulty finding and following people
- 🕰️ Slow or delayed notifications
Bugs and requests
VERO
Reported bugs
3 issues- Frequent crashes and loading issues
- Unreliable verification code delivery
- Inconsistent behavior across devices
Requested features
4 requests- Add text-only post option
- Improve search and discovery
- Introduce stories or similar feature
- Expand to more platforms (web, iPad)
Mastodon
Reported bugs
4 issues- Can't log in or create account
- Keyboard freezes during editing
- Inconsistent behavior when switching accounts
- Notifications not working as expected
Requested features
5 requests- Add local and federated timelines
- Improve search and discovery features
- Implement edit and delete post functionality
- Add support for animated GIFs
- Provide better accessibility options
In-app purchases
VERO
- UTRB Monthly$1.991 Month
- Thunder Jackson Monthly$2.991 Month
- Monthly Creator Subscription$4.991 Month
Mastodon
No in-app purchases








