QromaScan vs Permanent Archive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
QromaScan
Effortlessly scan and organize your physical photos using your iPhone and voice commands. Simply speak the date, location, and people to automatically tag and categorize your images as you scan them.
- Voice-activated scanning
- Automatic photo tagging
- Geotagging capabilities
- Contact and GEDCOM file integration
- Dedicated LED lightbox for optimal scanning
- Organizes photos into sharable digital images
Read full descriptionHide full description
QromaScan makes it dead simple to scan and organize your photos in one easy step with the two things you use the most everyday; your iPhone and your voice. Just say the date, location and people in your photos, and QromaScan will tag and organize your photos as it scans! QromaScan requires the purchase of the QromaScan Lightbox, which provides the ideal environment for scanning your photos. It’s 12 brilliant LED lights are specifically calibrated to make your photos look brilliant without effecting the look. Forget about all those blurry photos with a big glare right in the middle of it last time you tried to take a picture of a picture. The QromaScan Lightbox aligns your phone and your photos perfectly, so you get a great photo every time. With QromaScan, your photos organize themselves using our unique voice recognition tagging system. Just say the date and location of the photo, and we will insert the right metadata into the photo. You can even tell us an address or location, and we will geotag the photo for you. Tagging people is easy too. QromaScan recognizes the names of the people in your contacts, and they can be used to tag you photos. If you use family tree software, QromaScan can import a GEDCOM file and use it with our voice recognition system to make it easy to tag family photos. Pick up a QromaScan Lightbox and you will be surprise how quickly your old box of photos can be turned into well organized and sharable digital images.
Permanent Archive
Securely store your family photos, videos, documents, and other digital files permanently. This nonprofit service offers a one-time fee for lifelong access, allowing you to preserve and share your legacy with future generations.
- Permanent digital file storage
- One-time fee for lifelong access
- Legacy planning with steward assignment
- Private or public sharing options
- Collaborative archiving with access control
- Automatic metadata capture
- File format conversion for future accessibility
Read full descriptionHide full description
Permanent.org is a place where you can store your family photos and videos, personal documents, business records, or any other digital file permanently. Our nonprofit mission is a promise to store your digitized photos, videos, music, documents, or anything made of bits and bytes for all time. Our one-time fee model means you don’t have to pay monthly subscriptions for file storage and your access to your files will never expire. We can do that because we're a nonprofit backed by an endowment, same as a museum, university, or faith-based organization. Storage fees are donations. Permanent.org is user friendly for any technical level. It works just like the other file storage applications you’re already familiar with. A digital archive on Permanent.org is a legacy that you can pass down to future generations using our new Legacy Planning feature; you can now name a legacy contact and archive steward. You have the option to keep files private or share them with your whole family, community or the world by adding them to the Permanent Public Gallery. Preserving and sharing your legacy allows future generations to learn from you and know your unique story. ◼Tell the story of your files: add titles, descriptions, dates, locations, and tags to your files. Metadata is captured automatically for your files when you upload to save you time. ◼Share with confidence: choose what files and folders you want to share and what level of access others can have to view, contribute, edit, or curate your content. Generate share links that are easy to copy and paste or share files directly in text messages, emails, or any app. ◼Collaborate with control: add family, friends and teammates to your Permanent Archives as members so they can build archives with you. Control their level of access to view, contribute, edit, or curate your content. ◼Maintain access forever: files are converted to universally standard formats so they are accessible as technology changes. One-time storage fees mean your account and archives will never expire. Be a digital preservation hero! Don’t wait, start building your archives today. There’s no cost to get started. Your loved ones will thank you for it. - - - Permanent.org is the world's first permanent data storage system, backed by a nonprofit organization, the Permanent Legacy Foundation. Secure your most important memories on the spot to ensure they are backed up for all time in the private and secure storage system built for the people, not for profit. Learn more about our nonprofit mission and how we can ensure security, privacy and accessible, permanent data storage at permanent.org.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Permanent Archive at 100% against QromaScan's 25%. Permanent Archive also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.3) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. QromaScan sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Permanent Archive asks for nothing beyond the download.
Permanent Archive holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 25% of QromaScan's written reviews are positive against 100% of Permanent Archive's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | QromaScan | Permanent Archive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 25.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 6 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 32 MB | 54 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Qroma LLC | Permanent.org |
Customer experience
QromaScan
Permanent Archive
In-app purchases
QromaScan
- QromaScan Import$4.99
Permanent Archive
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is QromaScan free?
Is Permanent Archive free?
Which has better reviews, QromaScan or Permanent Archive?
Do QromaScan or Permanent Archive have ads?
Which is updated more often, QromaScan or Permanent Archive?
Other comparisons















