Umax alternative: a score that tells you what to change
Umax gives a 0–100 face score behind a weekly subscription. Auraspire gives an aura score across face, hair, physique, style and presence, the moves that raise it ranked by points, and no subscription. An honest comparison, with prices.
Updated 2 November 2026 · 2 min read
What Umax gives you
Umax is a phone app. You take a selfie, it analyses the face, and after a paywall it shows a score out of 100 plus sub-scores for features like jawline, cheekbones, skin and "masculinity", with a list of suggestions. The scan is free; the result costs a weekly subscription, listed at $3.99 a week at the time of writing. Left running, that is around $200 a year.
It is upfront about what it is, and if what you want is a number to watch, it delivers one quickly.
Where a face score falls short
- It scores the photo as much as the face. The scan is a close-range selfie, and at arm's length the nose appears roughly 30% wider and the face narrower than at a normal distance.
- It leaves out most of what people react to. At first glance people read hair, grooming, clothes, expression, posture and light as much as bone structure. Those are also the parts you can change.
- A number is not a plan. A jawline sub-score of 6.4 doesn't say whether a beard, a haircut, a different angle or nothing at all is the right response.
How Auraspire's aura score is different
Auraspire also gives you a number, and it is built to answer "what should I do?" as well as "where do I stand?".
- Six pillars, not one face. Structure, skin & grooming, hair, physique, style and presence each get a score; together they make your aura score from 30 to 95.
- Evidence behind every point. The AI rates about 20 visible traits from 1 to 5 against fixed written descriptions and names what it saw ("light from directly above", "the cut sits flat on top"). A formula, not the AI, turns those into the score, so the same photo always scores the same. The full method is in how the aura score works.
- The photo is scored on purpose. Distance, light and angle sit in the presence pillar, so a bad photo shows up as a fixable move instead of quietly dragging down your face.
- Potential counts only what you can change. Bone structure and height count in your score but never in your potential. Every move shows the points it adds, and they add up to the gap.
In one table
| Umax | Auraspire | |
|---|---|---|
| Output | 0–100 face score + sub-scores + tips | Aura score (30–95), six pillars, moves ranked by points |
| What it scores | Face | Face, skin, hair, physique, style, presence and the photo |
| Plan | Generic tips | Ranked moves with steps, 7/30/90-day plan |
| Friends | No | Challenge links and a leaderboard |
| Price | Free scan; ~$3.99/week to see results (listed) | Free score; $6.99 once for your potential and plan |
| Subscription | Yes, weekly | No |
Prices as listed at time of writing; check before you decide. And whichever you choose, take the photo from a metre and a half away; see why you look different in selfies.
Questions people ask
- Is Umax accurate?
- It is consistent, which is not the same thing. Its score comes from a single close-range selfie, and close-range photos distort facial proportions: the nose reads roughly 30% wider at arm's length than from 1.5 metres. A score built on that photo is partly scoring the distortion.
- Is Auraspire a rating app?
- It gives a score, the aura score, from 30 to 95. It is built differently from a face score: the AI rates about 20 visible traits against written descriptions and points to what it saw, and a fixed formula turns those into the score. The same photo always gets the same score.
- What does the aura score include that a face score doesn't?
- Hair, grooming, skin, posture, leanness, clothes near the face, expression and the photo setup itself, alongside facial structure. Most of those are changeable, which is why the result can rank what to do first.
- What does Auraspire cost?
- The score, the six pillars and your top move are free. Your potential, every move ranked by points, the first-impression monologue and a 90-day plan are a one-time $6.99 on the web. Nothing renews.
Sources
- Apple App Store listing: Umax – Become Hot — in-app purchase pricing as listed; check the listing, since prices change
- Ward B, Ward M, Fried O, Paskhover B. Nasal Distortion in Short-Distance Photographs: The Selfie Effect. JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, 2018. — why any score computed from an arm's-length selfie is partly measuring distortion
- Willis J, Todorov A. First impressions: making up your mind after a 100-ms exposure to a face. Psychological Science, 2006;17(7):592–598. — trait impressions form from a face in about a tenth of a second