Collage Maker
Collage Maker is a long-standing app praised for its ease of use and ability to create various photo and video collages, but recent updates have significantly increased paywalls and ads, leading to widespread user frustration and technical issues.
Collage Maker is a popular app for creating photo and video collages, with many users appreciating its simplicity and creative options. However, recent reviews indicate a negative trajectory due to an overwhelming number of ads, features locked behind paywalls, and recurring technical glitches.
What users like
What users complain about
- Excessive and intrusive ads frequently interrupt usage and can freeze the appR7R12R16R118
- Many basic features, templates, and editing options are now locked behind a paywall or subscriptionR11R25R41R68
- App experiences frequent crashes, freezing, and other technical glitchesR2R5R7R29
- Difficult and frustrating user interface, especially for finding free templates or navigating photo selectionR10R22R26R67
- Users report issues with saving projects, particularly videos, or being forced to pay to saveR5R25R29R41
- Concerns about privacy and security, including unexpected file associations and requests for full photo accessR64R82R87
- High subscription cost is considered too expensive by many usersR70R98R99
Latest update · v16.6.4
What the developer says changed (the verdict above weighs this against what reviewers report):
-New features Fresh Holiday Goodies: new templates, stickers, borders, and backgrounds. -Bug fixes Fixed photo permission handling and restricted access messages. Fixed photo picker jumping and unwanted album switching. Fixed video tab missing videos. Fixed several crashes during browsing, consent, and exporting. Improved video tab loading speed. Updated built-in content. How can we help? Any questions and suggestions welcome and please write to us via email: [email protected] If you love our app, please rate us on the App Store! We'll be forever thankful to you.
Recurring themes
Who it's for
This app is for users who need a collage maker with a wide range of creative options and are willing to either tolerate frequent ads and paywalls or subscribe to a premium version R4R14R20. It is not for users who expect a fully free experience, dislike intrusive ads, or need a consistently stable and intuitive interface R10R22R67R70.
Evidence note: The recent reviews skew heavily negative, particularly regarding monetization and technical issues, which contrasts with the high lifetime rating. This suggests a significant negative trajectory in user experience following recent updates. While there are still positive reviews, they are less detailed and often from users who appreciate the basic free functionality or have used the app for a long time.
Frequently asked
Is Collage Maker truly free to use?
Are there many ads in Collage Maker?
What reviewers actually said
Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.
- [R3] Excelente: Facil y excelente
- [R14] Photo collage: I love this app because for Mother’s Day and father day I used this to make a picture of them for there special day they loved the collage I was so special for them this app is also super awesome because you make photos and videos even add colors I give this app 5 million stars and this is just a really good that I did not know Ben have to pay for
- [R18] Easy to use: I love because is too easy to use
- [R23] Collage Maker ( Assessment): The app is very easy and convenient for users
- [R450] Pretty great: Great app. Lovely to present memories (photos) in a personal and beautiful way. Love the different layouts and operations available such as filters, stickers and text. Only trouble is how many of them are restricted to subscribers. Would be 5stats if more were made freely available. Still great though and deffo worth a download!!
- [R58] Great!: I like that I have the option to edit as much as possible and make sure that it fits my style before posting or finalizing the product. I like the background ideas and shapes provided.
- [R4] The Best App Ever for Photo Editing: 15 years plus it has never disappointed me always fresh and inspiring
- [R33] Thank you: I have enjoyed for years and love and appreciate it so much
- [R49] I’m in Love: I just LOVE this app I have had for years & it has gotten better
- [R123] This is my favorite App!: I use this App for greeting cards, to post memories, to make digital cards, to make video memories and memorials. However, every update makes it harder to use and more frustrating!
- [R7] Glitchy and Too many adds: The app is great, use it a whole bunch. But the thing is it glitches a lot, and there is so many adds. Every time I press something an add to sign up for membership pops up. And whenever I save a video you have to see an add. Overall the app is awesome it is fun and easy, but there is too many adds.
- [R12] Too many ads: Ads
- [R16] Bueno: Bueno pero con mucha publicidad!!!
- [R118] SO MANY ADS: i can't create one basic collage without being forced to click on eight links
- [R11] There’s a free version and a paid: Free version has half of the templates and a watermark
- [R25] Saving Options are a Pain: Oh I get why I was not able to save the project to my photos; what was supposed to be a free app turned out to be paid. If it’s free then okay but if it’s paid I would have rather been told that upfront instead of downloading all my pictures and then being forced to pay before I could do anything with my project. Your tactics are not okay. I will Surely be canceling befo
- [R41] Can’t even use it: It’s actually really sad you have to PAY to download a collage. A money grab to be honest.
- [R68] NOT FREE: I THOUGHT I HAD FREE COLLAGE MAKER, but when I had finished making my collage, I HAD TO PAY FOR A SUBSCRIPTION. DO NOT GET THIS APP UNLESS YOU WANT TO PAY
- [R2] Gets Confused: Requires multiple restarts
- [R5] Not working: Won’t save video
- [R29] Issue exporting video STILL: When trying to export a gif set, all that exports is the background and not the gifs. Note that I never had an issue in the past. Upd 05-Jun: Still an issue with latest update!!!
- [R10] Not user friendly: This app is very difficult to use, navigate, edit. I’d like to find another app that I’m sure is doing better - and especially cheaper or even free bc it’s not worth paying for.
- [R22] Frustrating to use for basic edits: It’s impossible to find basic templates, such as a grid of three rectangles. Instead you have to scroll through an unorganized, unlimited selection of trendy topic-based ugly cutouts. Practically unusable.
- [R26] Too hard: Ads are ridiculous, so hard to crop photos in collage frame and you have to start over because it won’t let you fix
- [R67] Horrible interface + payment required for minimal editing: Interface and user experience is garbage, add on the requirement to pay for anything other than a bland rectangle collage. Trash app
- [R64] Why suddenly need access to ALL photos???: Have had this app for many years. Just tried to open and it said the app only works if it has access to all photos, not just the ones I selected. What. This is the creepiest and most suspicious this ever. Even worse than this app hiding secret folders in files. Check folders. Ridiculous. These are scammers Update: they responded and said it is required u
- [R82] Security Issues: I have used this app since before they began asking for money. They were my go to app for photo collages. When I made a collage last night and went to save to my phone I immediately was hacked. I received a pop up about no more space on my phone and I would loose my photos. Then I received multiple e-mails from a suspicious domain. This resulted in lots of time wasted trying to pr
- [R87] Didn’t trust anymore: I had to delete this app because something strange started happening. I was listening to a mp4 file in my file folder. And when I clicked on the next file it automatically opened in Live Collage. The default was changed to Live Collage and I couldn’t change it. ChatGPT said, “Developers sometimes sneak new permissions and file associations into updates buried in changelog lan
- [R70] Too expensive now: Yes, you have a nice product, but 36.00 a year is too much for it. You realize people are hurting right now, right? No way am I paying a yearly subscription anymore for something like this unless it’s a lot less that this or something a lot more important than collages. To each their own I guess, complete waste of money though. Drop your price and I’ll come back. See ya. Peace o
- [R98] meh…..: not worth paying for when i can get more things done for free on other services.
- [R99] Greedy: Why would I pay for a basic collage app? Free trials are a trick- I’m only gonna use it a few times- all of these app creators are so greedy . Would not recommend
- [R20] This app is the best I have discovered so far!: I have it 4 stars because in my religion nothing is perfect and nobody is perfect except Jesus. But if I could give it 5 stars I definitely would. The ads are very entertaining and fun to watch. You should definitely download this app. I put together two picture just in the range of 15 min. It definitely passed the time on my trip of 20 hours.
- [R1] Still Waiting for Better Update: It's been almost a long time until you said you would get the GIF to video conversion feature working again, and I don't want it to be worse than before.
- [R8] Good app! Actually free!: I love it super simple and no games about forcing you to pay! Simple and easy to use
- [R57] Horrible: If I could give it is a half a star I would it is inundated with ads and sucks don’t download unless you want to suffer
Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store