Comparison · checked September 25, 2026
Face blur apps for iPhone, compared honestly.
We make Blur Photo & Face Censor ($3.99 once). Here's how it stacks up against the other face blur and censor apps on the U.S. App Store, including where another app is the better choice.
The short version. If you need video, look at Kumo. If you want a free tool that also auto-detects license plates and text and you're on iOS 26, Blurshot is strong. Choose Blur Photo & Face Censor if you want to pay once ($3.99), with no subscription, no watermark, and no data collected, plus an opaque cover, batches of up to 20 photos, and support back to iOS 17. Most general “blur photo” editors are free to download but sell weekly or yearly subscriptions and carry tracking privacy labels.
The comparison table
| App (developer) | U.S. price | App Store privacy label | Video | Auto-detects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blur Photo & Face Censor David Balderston (this site) | $3.99 once; no in-app purchases | Data Not Collected | No | Faces (plates and text by brush) | iOS 17+; iPhone & iPad; batches of 1–20 |
| Blurshot (Blur Faces: Censor) ENGINES STUDIO LAB | Free; no in-app purchases listed | Data Not Collected | No | Faces, license plates, text | Requires iOS 26+; no watermark |
| Kumo – Blur Faces Franck Geslin | Free; Kumo Premium $4.99/year | Data Not Collected | Yes | Faces | Free exports watermarked; Premium unlocks unlimited video and HD export |
| Poof: Blur Faces in Photos Ka Lok Sam | Free; Pro $3.99/month, $11.99/year, or $24.99 lifetime | Data Not Linked to You | No | Faces | Requires iOS 18+; free exports cover the most prominent faces and add a watermark |
| Face Blur: Mosaic & Emoji 逸文 周 | Free; $2.49/week or $26.99/year | Data Not Collected | No | Faces | Many sticker and emoji styles |
| Censor: Face Blur & Pixelate PRODEKS UA | Free; $4.99/week or $12.99/year | Data Used to Track You | No | Faces | 67 ratings, 4.7 average |
| Blur Photo Effect Background Honk Honk Punch | Free; Premium $2.99/month or $11.99/year; Remove Ads $2.99 | Data Used to Track You | No (separate app) | Faces (per listing) | General blur editor; ~27K ratings, 4.7 average |
| Blur Photo Grey Desk SA | Free; $4.99/week, $8.99/month, yearly plans $29.99–$99.99 | Data Linked to You | No | Not listed (manual brush) | General blur editor; ~31.5K ratings, 4.4 average |
| Blur Photo Editor & Mosaic Yu Abe | Free; $4.29/month, $29.99/year, or $69.99 one-time | Data Used to Track You | No (separate app) | Faces and license plates | General blur editor; ~6K ratings, 4.7 average |
Prices, in-app purchases, and privacy labels are from each app's U.S. App Store page; rating counts from Apple's iTunes lookup API. Checked September 25, 2026. Privacy labels are self-reported by developers and not verified by Apple. Prices change, so check the App Store before buying.
Where each one fits
Blur Photo & Face Censor
Choose it if you want one payment of $3.99 with every feature, no subscription, no watermark, and nothing uploaded. Faces are detected on-device and you pick which to cover. Covers: opaque Privacy Cover, Mosaic, Emoji, and Soft Blur. Batches of 1–20 photos. Exports drop GPS and camera metadata. Works on iOS 17 and later.
Skip it if you need video, automatic plate or text detection, or a free tool.
Blurshot
Better fit if you want a free tool that detects faces, license plates, and blocks of text in one pass, with no watermark. Its listing says it runs on-device, strips EXIF and location on export, and offers blur, mosaic, pixelate, or a solid bar. Its privacy label is Data Not Collected and no in-app purchases are listed.
Catch: requires iOS 26 or later; iPhone only.
Kumo – Blur Faces
Better fit if you need to hide faces in videos. It works on-device, has many sticker masks, and its label is Data Not Collected.
Catch: the free tier adds a watermark. Kumo Premium ($4.99/year) removes it and unlocks unlimited videos and HD export.
Poof: Blur Faces in Photos
Better fit if you mostly cover crowds with emoji or blocks and like having a free tier. On-device, and a $24.99 lifetime option exists.
Catch: free exports auto-cover only the most prominent faces and add a watermark. Pro is $3.99/month, $11.99/year, or $24.99 lifetime. Requires iOS 18+.
Face Blur: Mosaic & Emoji
Better fit if you want lots of sticker and grid styles with per-face control.
Catch: subscription at $2.49/week or $26.99/year.
General “blur photo” editors
Better fit if you also want background (bokeh) blur, filters, or collages. That covers Blur Photo (Grey Desk), Blur Photo Effect Background, and Blur Photo Editor & Mosaic, which have thousands of ratings.
Catch: weekly, monthly, or yearly subscriptions, and privacy labels that include “Data Used to Track You” or “Data Linked to You.”
General photo editors: Facetune and Snapseed
Facetune (Lightricks) has a brush-based “Defocus” blur that Lightricks says can blur a license plate or a face, including in video, but it has no automatic face censoring and no opaque cover. It's subscription-based (App Store in-app purchases from $5.99 to $77.99) and its privacy label includes Data Used to Track You. It's a reasonable pick only if you already pay for Facetune.
Snapseed (Google) is free with no in-app purchases and is an excellent general editor, but it has no face blur, pixelate, or censor tool. Its “Lens Blur” adds background bokeh, which isn't redaction.
Free built-in options
iPhone's Photos Markup can draw an opaque box over a face, Clean Up on Apple Intelligence iPhones can pixelate a face you brush over, and Signal's image editor can blur faces before you send. They're free and fine for a one-off. Details and limits: free ways to hide a face on iPhone.
How we compared
- Prices and in-app purchase lists come from each app's U.S. App Store page, and privacy labels from the “App Privacy” section, both on September 25, 2026. Rating counts come from Apple's iTunes lookup API.
- “Auto-detects” and video support come from each developer's own App Store description. We haven't lab-tested detection accuracy, so we don't rank it.
- New apps (Blurshot, Kumo, Poof, Face Blur, and ours) had few or no U.S. ratings when checked, so ratings aren't a useful signal yet.
- We're the developer of one of these apps. We've tried to state plainly where another app is the better fit. Corrections: [email protected].
Sources
- Blur Photo & Face Censor on the App Store
- Blurshot (Blur Faces: Censor) on the App Store
- Kumo – Blur Faces on the App Store
- Poof: Blur Faces in Photos on the App Store
- Face Blur: Mosaic & Emoji on the App Store
- Censor: Face Blur & Pixelate on the App Store
- Blur Photo Effect Background on the App Store
- Blur Photo on the App Store
- Blur Photo Editor & Mosaic on the App Store
- Facetune on the App Store · Facetune blur feature page
- Snapseed on the App Store
- Rating counts: iTunes lookup API (itunes.apple.com/lookup, country=us), September 25, 2026
Questions
What is the best free app to blur faces on iPhone?
If you are on iOS 26 or later, Blurshot is free with no in-app purchases listed, no watermark, and automatic face, plate, and text detection. On older iOS versions, Poof and Kumo have free tiers with watermarks. iPhone's built-in Markup can also draw an opaque box for free.
Which face blur app works on video?
Kumo – Blur Faces handles video (unlimited video and HD export need Kumo Premium, $4.99/year). Facetune's Defocus brush also works on video. Blur Photo & Face Censor is photos only.
Is there a face blur app with no subscription?
Yes. Blur Photo & Face Censor is $3.99 once with no in-app purchases; Blurshot is free with none listed; Poof offers a $24.99 lifetime unlock.
Which apps don't collect data?
On their App Store privacy labels, Blur Photo & Face Censor, Blurshot, Kumo, and Face Blur: Mosaic & Emoji show “Data Not Collected.” Labels are self-reported by developers.
Want the one-price, no-upload option?
Blur Photo & Face Censor works on your iPhone or iPad, exports a new copy without location data, and never uploads your photos. $3.99 once, no subscription.