ComfiSkin vs CodeCheck
CodeCheck scans food and cosmetics and gives each one a red-or-green rating. Free users get five scans a week before ads and paywalls take over. ComfiSkin scans as many products as you like, for free, with no ads.
- Mon2
- Tue2
- Wed1
- ThuPay
- FriPay
- SatPay
- SunPay
5 scans a week, then upgrade or buy a scan pack
ComfiSkin: unlimited scans, free
The short answer
CodeCheck gives free users five scans a week, shows them ads, and earns commission when you buy through its in-app shop links. It’s owned by the company behind a product-comparison website, and German consumer advocates found its rating weights “not always transparent”. Its App Store label lists identifiers used to track you.
What that means: by Wednesday you’re out of scans, and the app that rates products also earns when you buy them. ComfiSkin has no scan limit, no ads, no shop commissions and no tracking.
Side by side
| ComfiSkin | CodeCheck | |
|---|---|---|
| Free scans | Unlimited | 5 a week2 |
| What it costs | Nothing | Plus, €1.99 a month or €11.99 a year, or scan packs1,2 |
| Ads | None | Yes, for free users2,3 |
| Earns commission when you buy | Never | Yes, on in-app shop links3 |
| Tracks you across other apps | No | Identifiers, says its App Store label1 |
| Tells you whether it suits your skin | Yes, every scan | One red-or-green rating, unless you set filters |
| Scans food too | No | Yes |
Five scans a week, then pay
CodeCheck’s free tier lets you “scanne 5 Produkte pro Woche”, five products a week. After that it’s CodeCheck Plus at €1.99 a month or €11.99 a year, or a paid scan pack.1,2 Five scans won’t get you through one trip to the chemist, let alone checking your whole shelf.
Even paying doesn’t fix everything. German reviewers complain that many products are missing from the database “trotz Plus Abo”, despite the subscription, and that the ads are relentless.4
“Nur noch Werbung, die sogar die laufende Musik über Bluetooth unterbricht!”
ComfiSkin has no allowance. Scan your whole shelf, scan in the shop, scan the same bottle twice. It’s all free and there are no ads.
What that means for you: on CodeCheck, the free version runs out before your shopping list does.
It rates products, and earns when you buy them
CodeCheck explains its own business model: mainly subscriptions, plus ads for free users, advertorials and sponsored posts, display ads including pop-ups, data licensing, and commission when you buy through links in the app. It even says it has “keinen direkten Einfluss”, no direct influence, over which advertisers appear.3 Since 2022, the app has been owned by the company that runs the comparison site Testberichte.de, after the previous operator went into insolvency in 2021.5,6
CodeCheck says partners don’t influence its ratings.3 Still, a scanner that profits when you click through to a shop has a reason to keep you shopping. Germany’s consumer advice centre flagged exactly that: the app’s push to order products from online shops was one of its criticisms.7
ComfiSkin earns nothing from what you buy. It will happily tell you that you already own something that does the job.
What that means for you: a scanner that earns from shop links has a reason to nudge you towards buying. ComfiSkin has a reason to save you money.
A red circle doesn’t know your skin
CodeCheck sums up each product as a red or green rating circle, built from ingredient ratings that range from harmless to highly concerning.8 Verbraucherzentrale, Germany’s consumer advice centre, said in May 2025 that the weighting of these categories is “nicht immer transparent”, not always transparent, and that simple symbols can lead to superficial decisions.7
And its App Store label lists identifiers as data used to track you, with your device ID used for third-party advertising.1 ComfiSkin explains each ingredient in plain words, checks the product against your skin type, concerns and avoid list, and tracks nothing.
What that means for you: a red circle can scare you off a good product without telling you why. ComfiSkin tells you why, for your skin.
What to do if you use CodeCheck
- Don’t buy through in-app shop links just because they’re there. The app earns a commission when you do.
- Turn off app tracking. On an iPhone, go to Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Tracking.
- Scan your skincare in ComfiSkin. No weekly limit, no ads, and an answer for your skin.
Sources
- CodeCheck on the German App Store: subscriptions and App Privacy label. apps.apple.com
- CodeCheck on Google Play: description, free-tier limit and “Contains ads”. play.google.com
- CodeCheck, “Geschäftsmodell” (business model). codecheck.info
- Apple’s public feed of the 50 most recent German App Store reviews of CodeCheck, read 11 October 2026. itunes.apple.com
- t3n, on insolvency proceedings at CodeCheck, 29 November 2021. t3n.de
- Testberichte.de, on taking over CodeCheck, 2 May 2022. testberichte.de
- Verbraucherzentrale, “App-Test CodeCheck”, May 2025. verbraucherzentrale.de
- CodeCheck, “Bewertungskreis” (rating circle). codecheck.info
More comparisons
Scan without a weekly limit
As many products as you like, checked against your skin.
- Free, all of itNo plans, trials or paywalls. Every feature, for everyone.
- No sign-upNo account, no email, no password to lose.
- No ads, no trackingNothing about you is sold, shared or followed around the web.
- Your notes stay on your phoneWith a password-protected backup that only you control.
- Never asks for your faceIt reads the label, not you.
- Answers for your skinYour skin type, concerns, avoid list and routine, every time.