GIPHY: The GIF Search Engine
82
Quality Score
Excellent
✍️ Bumetric analysis
“
GIPHY: The GIF Search Engine is an iOS app from Giphy, Inc. in the Photo & Video category, currently rated 4.8★ across 691,578 ratings. Initial signal reads as mixed reviews: supporters praise core features while critics cite stability and value gaps.
Quality Score is 82: Excellent (strong product-market fit). For a Photo & Video app, that means strong product-market fit. The full BU Investment Matrix below scores 8 dimensions including monetisation, growth, and operational risk.
Track changes month-over-month in the Performance section below: live snapshot history and revenue forecast included.
💰 Monthly revenue · now vs forecast
● Right now
$900K
per month
→
12-mo forecast
$953K – $1467K
per month
→
24-mo forecast
$1.1M – $2.1M
per month
BIG tierFREE
💡 Grow this revenue
Free AI audit of this app’s store listing
- Title & subtitle keyword fit
- Description hook & conversion structure
- Screenshots, ratings, reviews strategy
Typical impact: +2-5× organic installs
📊 Performance Tracking LIVE
339 snapshots on record
Rating
4.8
Reviews
691,578 reviews
Forecast Revenue / mo
$900K
Snapshots tracked
339
since Feb 2025
ONE-TIME · BUILD
💰 Estimated build cost
$200K
↳ What it cost to build · not monthly revenue
Likely range $150K – $270K
$25K · MVP floor
$100K · indie scale
$500K+ · studio build
📈
Pays back in under a month at current MRR
Synthetic estimate. Inputs: category complexity, file size, screen count, monetization layer, platform reach, age × team-size proxy. Calibrated against 2024-2026 indie-agency rate surveys. Full math + source list on /methodology.
Where the money goes
| 🧱 MVP baseline (design + 1-store ship) | +$28K |
| 📱 5 unique screens × $4.5K | +$22K |
| 📦 Asset bundle (138 MB) | +$35K |
| ⚙ Photo & Video complexity ×1.55 | +$47K |
| ⚙ 11.5y maintenance × ~1-person team | +$69K |
Total estimate
$200K
ONE-TIME · EXIT VALUE
💵 Estimated acquisition value
$19.5M
↳ What it would sell for · not monthly revenue
Marketplace range $14.5M – $25.5M · 22× MRR multiple
💸
~98× return on build cost
Synthetic estimate. Multiple band derived from ad-supported + age, rating quality, category demand, and user-base maturity. Calibrated against 2024-2026 indie-app-marketplace closed-deal medians. Full math + comparable deal list on /methodology.
How the multiple was built
| 📺 Ad-supported base | 15× MRR |
| 📅 11.5y proven track record | +20% |
| ⭐ ★ rating ≥ 4.7 (premium) | +15% |
| ⭐ Mature user base (100K+ ratings) | +5% |
Final multiple
22× MRR
👥 Estimated audience size
67.5M
Lifetime downloads (US-equivalent)
Monthly active
5.2M
Daily active
1.6M
Synthetic estimate from ratings × category benchmarks. Calibrated against 2024-2026 mobile-attribution retention + DAU/MAU reports. Numbers are US-storefront-equivalent — true global audience can be 5-10× larger for international apps. Full math + source list on /methodology.
How we sized it
| 📲 Photo & Video engagement | ~140 installs / rating |
| 📅 11.5y of rating accumulation | -30% |
| 🔁 Photo & Video D30 retention | 18% |
| 📍 DAU / MAU stickiness | 0.30 |
DAU / MAU
30% sticky
🛠 Estimated tech stack
🍎
Native iOS (Swift / UIKit)
Medium confidence · 60%
Also possible
React Native
Flutter
Heuristic guess from app bundle size, category, store description signals, and release-date stack era. Bumetric does not disassemble binaries — for binary-level certainty you would need an SDK intelligence tool or the manifest itself. Reasoning chain on the right. Full ruleset on /methodology.
Signals we read
| 📦 App bundle size | 138 MB |
| 🏷 Category context | Photo & Video |
| 📦 Mid-large iOS bundle | → Likely native Swift / UIKit (pre-2020 era) |
💀 Maintenance status
Active
5%
Last shipped 2026-08-31 · 30 days ago
0 · Active
50 · At risk
100 · Abandoned
Heuristic risk score from time-since-last-update + ratings velocity proxy + Editor's Choice / curated featuring signals. Calibrated against 2024-2025 app-store ranking decay reports. Not a guarantee — a quiet app with a healthy codebase looks the same as an abandoned one until something breaks. Full math on /methodology.
Risk signals
| 📅 30 days since last update | Active development |
Verdict
Active
🔬
How we forecast this revenue
MEDIUM CONFIDENCEBaseline
$900K/mo · ML-estimated from 234 triggers
Growth rate
+2.5% MoM · BIG tier baseline (compound monthly)
6 months
$887K – $1.2M
12 months
$953K – $1.5M
24 months
$1.1M – $2.1M
Compound growth at +2.5% MoM (tier baseline for BIG). Range widens with horizon — typical noise band ±15% at 6mo.. Ranges widen with horizon — distant futures carry more uncertainty.
📊
BU Investment Matrix
Concerning · 50/100BIG TIERFREE (NO MONETIZATION)below benchmarksGrowth Velocity
5.0
Founder Strength
4.8
Product Quality
8.0
Revenue Strength
6.0
Monetization Maturity
0.5
Defensibility
6.0
Market Position
2.0
Operational Safety
8.1
- 💰 Revenue: Healthy — $360K - $1980K/mo · BIG tier · medium-low confidence, trajectory unclear.
- ⭐ Quality: 4.77★ across 691,578 reviews — strong (top 10%).
- 📍 Market: Not yet charting in any of the 9 monitored markets.
- 📈 Growth: Insufficient signal to assess trajectory.
- ⚠️ Risk: Moderate — rating drift -0.79 ★ (recent 50 vs lifetime).
🎯 For competitors: Mixed picture. Worth competing if you have a clear UX or pricing edge — otherwise crowded segment.
💵 For acquirers: Estimated asking range 18-32× monthly = $16.2M-$28.8M.
Composite of 8 dimensions computed deterministically from public signals — no LLM, every score traces back to a measurable input. Default weights shown; "compete" / "acquire" / "invest" lenses re-weight without re-fetching.
Range:
💰 Forecast Revenue / mo
MODELRevenue forecast computed from BU's 234 trigger model on each snapshot. Calibrated against ground-truth from 58 verified-revenue apps.
🔬Forecast Breakdown — Why This Estimate?Top 11 of 11 triggers
Our ML model uses 200+ signals from public data. These are the most influential for this app:
| High install base (691,578 ratings)METRIC | +$12,000 | |
| Excellent rating (4.8★)METRIC | +$2,200 | |
| bugsREVIEW | −$1,800 | |
| 5 starREVIEW | +$1,800 | |
| excellent appREVIEW | +$1,500 | |
| Mature app (11y old)METRIC | +$1,500 | |
| highly recommendREVIEW | +$1,400 | |
| slowREVIEW | −$1,200 | |
| priceyREVIEW | −$800 | |
| Ad-supported / freemiumMETRIC | +$600 | |
| Single-language (English only)METRIC | −$400 |
METRIC = structural app data · REVIEW = mined from user reviews · ✓ VERIFIED = Stripe-verified anchor (TrustMRR)
📈 Reviews Growth
LIVECumulative review count from first BU snapshot. Each point = a tracked update.
⭐ Rating Trend
LIVEAverage rating evolution. Updates with each new review batch.
🆕 What's New · v4.19.3
We update the app every few weeks to keep it fresh! Some things we never stop doing are code cleanup, bug fixes, and general optimization. See anything weird? E-mail us at support@giphy.com and we’ll help you out.
Profile & Insights
Everything we know — and don't — about this app and its company.
Identification
- App name
- GIPHY: The GIF Search Engine
- Developer
- Giphy, Inc.
- Bundle ID
- com.giphy.giphyformessenger
- App Store URL
- Open in App Store
- Category
- Photo & Video
- Content rating
- 12+
- Languages
- EN
Company
- Website
- Not found
- Tagline
- Today
- Description
- Find apps and games for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and more on the App Store.
- Founded
- Not found
- HQ / Address
- Not found
- Employees
- Not found
- Logo
- Available
Revenue
- Reported revenue signal / mo
- Not found
- AI revenue estimate / mo
- Not found
- AI annual estimate
- Not found
- Model estimate / mo
- $900K/mo
- Top-grossing rank
- Outside top 100 in US Photo & Video
- All-time revenue
- Not found
- Pricing
- Not found
Founder
Founder data not yet collected for this app.
Funding
Funding data not yet collected for this app.
Press & Links
Press & Links data not yet collected for this app.
Contacts & Socials
Contacts & Socials data not yet collected for this app.
📈Ratings growth718,668 ratings+161036% lifetimeShow 3-year history estimate ▾
Tracked (60 weeks) Pre-tracking estimate (0 weeks) · model-based, ±5% noise · anchored to release date and current value
🌍Geographic ReachNot ranked
This app is currently outside the top 100 grossing in all 9 countries we monitor (US, UK, DE, FR, JP, CA, AU, BR, IN). Niche or new apps often launch this way — popularity rankings appear once daily revenue clears the regional threshold.
🚀Update Frequency · Releases per Quarter4 releases tracked
🚀Version Release Timeline4 releases tracked
Profile is built from iTunes Lookup + developer site scrape + ML revenue model. Empty fields show "Not found" — additional sources (Crunchbase, X, IndieHackers, Acquire.com) coming.
📝 About this app
The world's largest library of free GIFs, Clips, & Stickers! GIPHY for iOS is the fastest, simplest way to search and share short form content and animated reactions across all of your favorite social channels such as Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat & more.
SEARCH
• Find the perfect GIF from the world's largest library of animated GIFs & Clips! All the power of GIPHY is in your hands. What are you waiting for?!
EXPLORE
• From all your favorites like HBO, Drake, Rihanna, Comedy Central and MTV, discover the world of pop culture – memes, TV, Movies, Music and more.… View full description on the official store →
SEARCH
• Find the perfect GIF from the world's largest library of animated GIFs & Clips! All the power of GIPHY is in your hands. What are you waiting for?!
EXPLORE
• From all your favorites like HBO, Drake, Rihanna, Comedy Central and MTV, discover the world of pop culture – memes, TV, Movies, Music and more.… View full description on the official store →
App Specs
🔐 Own this app? Claim & verify MRR →💾 138 MB🔞 12+📱 iOS 15.6+🔖 v4.19.3🔄 updated 1mo ago🌐 EN📂 Photo & Video💰 Paid🚀 Launched 2015 (11y old)
📅
What Worked™ · Development Pipeline
19 EVENTS TRACKEDDetected changes in this app over its tracked lifetime — each event links cause (what changed) to effect (what moved). Sorted newest first.See full history →Version history →
2026-08
🔧
Shipped update — v4.19.2 → v4.19.3
→ 30 days after: reviews +6,698 high confidence
2026-08
📦
Bundle ↑ 92MB → 137MB — likely major code refresh
→ 30 days after: reviews +6,698 medium · co-occurring
2026-08
🔧
Shipped update — v4.18.4 → v4.19.2
→ 30 days after: revenue −$6.3K/mo · reviews +16,194 low · multiple changes
2026-06
🔧
Shipped update — v4.18.1 → v4.18.4
→ 30 days after: reviews +13,410 high confidence
2026-05
📈
Crossed 1,000 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: reviews +13,410 medium · co-occurring
2026-05
⭐
Rating ↑ 3.71 → 4.77 (improved 1.06★)
→ 30 days after: reviews +13,410 medium · co-occurring
2026-03
📈
Crossed 500 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$448/mo · reviews +18 high confidence
2026-03
⭐
Rating ↑ 3.71 → 4.70 (improved 0.99★)
→ 30 days after: revenue +$448/mo · reviews +18 high confidence
2025-05
📈
Crossed 100 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$859/mo · rating −0.05★ · reviews +37 high confidence
2025-05
📈
Crossed 100 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$930/mo · rating −0.09★ · reviews +40 high confidence
2025-03
⭐
Rating ↓ 4.19 → 3.88 (dropped 0.31★)
→ 30 days after: revenue +$812/mo · rating −0.19★ · reviews +35 high confidence
2025-03
📈
Crossed 50 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$812/mo · rating −0.19★ · reviews +35 high confidence
2025-03
📈
Crossed 50 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$1.9K/mo · rating −0.50★ · reviews +79 high confidence
2025-02
🚀
First tracked snapshot — initial data captured
→ 30 days after: revenue +$1.1K/mo · rating −0.31★ · reviews +44 medium · co-occurring
2025-02
📈
Crossed 10 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$1.1K/mo · rating −0.31★ · reviews +44 low · multiple changes
2025-02
⭐
Rating ↓ 4.43 → 4.00 (dropped 0.43★)
→ 30 days after: revenue +$1.1K/mo · rating −0.31★ · reviews +44 low · multiple changes
2025-02
⭐
Rating ↑ 3.00 → 3.67 (improved 0.67★)
→ 30 days after: revenue +$1.1K/mo · rating −0.31★ · reviews +44 low · multiple changes
2025-02
🚀
First tracked snapshot — initial data captured
→ 30 days after: revenue +$1.1K/mo · rating −0.31★ · reviews +44 low · multiple changes
2025-02
⭐
Rating ↑ 1.00 → 3.00 (improved 2.00★)
→ 30 days after: revenue +$1.1K/mo · rating −0.31★ · reviews +44 low · multiple changes
🗣
Voice of Customer
Based on 800 reviews across 8 markets● 60% positive · ● 23% neutral · ● 17% negative · Rating drift: -0.79★ (declining — recent 50: 3.98★ vs lifetime: 4.77★)
VADER compound sentiment per quarter (−1 = fully negative, +1 = fully positive). Each point ≥ 5 reviews.
Sentiment by country (−1 to +1)
🇺🇸 US
+0.46
🇦🇺 AU
+0.45
🇬🇧 GB
+0.32
🇨🇦 CA
+0.31
🇫🇷 FR
+0.20
🇯🇵 JP
+0.18
🇧🇷 BR
+0.16
🇩🇪 DE
-0.16
Top praise themes
fun fun ×10 fun easy ×10 find something ×7 friends family ×5 highly recommend ×4 des gifs ×4 cette application ×4 easy fun ×3
Top complaint themes
doesn work ×8 won let ×5 gifs instagram ×5 upload failed ×4 saved videos ×4 live photo ×4 create own ×3 move text ×3
🌍
Multi-Country Performance
Available in 9 of 9 monitored markets| Market | Rating | Reviews | Current version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇺 AU | 4.70116★ | 26,871 | 4.70116★ this version |
| 🇧🇷 BR | 4.79075★ | 15,929 | 4.79075★ this version |
| 🇨🇦 CA | 4.69217★ | 44,159 | 4.69217★ this version |
| 🇩🇪 DE | 4.66394★ | 21,615 | 4.66394★ this version |
| 🇫🇷 FR | 4.64872★ | 25,652 | 4.64872★ this version |
| 🇬🇧 GB | 4.73264★ | 60,094 | 4.73264★ this version |
| 🇮🇳 IN | 4.63011★ | 7,340 | 4.63011★ this version |
| 🇯🇵 JP | 4.59152★ | 3,780 | 4.59152★ this version |
| 🇺🇸 US | 4.7694★ | 721,632 | 4.7694★ this version |
🔔
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📝 Description
95
BU Score · Transcendent
Full revenue analysis
Read the article-style breakdown for GIPHY: The GIF Search Engine: category rank, percentile, growth signal, comparable apps, and how the forecast is calibrated against verified-MRR anchors in this niche.
More by Giphy, Inc.
View all →📦 Portfolio summaryMID studio
2apps·$905K/mocombined
⚠ Concentrated — top app contributes 99% of combined revenue (single-app dependency)
About this analysis
Why high confidence: 691,578 ratings · no founder-verified revenue (model estimate only).
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
10 answers · auto-generated from this app's public dataHow much does GIPHY make per month?▴
Based on our ML-calibrated revenue forecast, GIPHY earns approximately $900K/mo. This is a US-storefront-equivalent estimate; global revenue can be several times larger for internationally-distributed apps. See the methodology page for the full formula and confidence bands.
Is GIPHY profitable?▴
With estimated build cost $200K and monthly revenue $900K, GIPHY looks highly profitable — pays back its build investment in under a month at the current run-rate. Profitability also depends on paid-acquisition spend and refund rate which the public model doesn't see.
How many users does GIPHY have?▴
Estimated audience: ~67.5M lifetime downloads, ~5.2M monthly active users, and ~1.6M daily active users. Derived from ratings count × category installs-per-rating × age decay. US-storefront-equivalent — global audience can be 5-10× larger for internationally-distributed apps.
What apps are like GIPHY?▴
Browse the full Photo & Video category catalog to find similar apps with revenue, build cost, audience and tech stack data. Each /p/{slug} page also shows a Compare side-by-side widget with three peer apps from the same niche.
What is GIPHY built with?▴
Our heuristic places GIPHY on the Native iOS (Swift / UIKit) stack (Medium confidence, 60%). Signals: app bundle size, category context, store-description markers, release-date era. We don't disassemble binaries. Alternative possibilities: React Native, Flutter.
Is GIPHY still actively maintained?▴
Maintenance status: Active (5% abandonment risk). Last shipped version was 1 months ago. The risk score combines time-since-last-update with Editor's Choice / curated featuring + user-base maturity adjustments.
How much would GIPHY sell for?▴
Estimated acquisition value: $19.5M (marketplace range $14.5M – $25.5M). Calculated as 22× monthly revenue using the standard multiple for the detected monetization model + adjustments for age, rating quality and category demand. Calibrated against 2024-2026 Flippa / Acquire.com / MicroAcquire closed-deal medians.
When was GIPHY last updated?▴
GIPHY last shipped a new version on 2026-08-31 — 1 months ago. This is the date Apple / Google last accepted a new build, not a content-only push.
Who makes GIPHY?▴
GIPHY is published by Giphy, Inc. on the Apple App Store. See the full publisher portfolio (other apps by the same developer) via the More by developer block on the product page above.
What is GIPHY's BU Score?▴
GIPHY has a BU Score of 82/100 (Excellent). The score combines App Store rating, ratings count, monetization model and revenue signals calibrated against founder-verified MRR anchors. See the BU Score formula.