Published by PutTogether, which makes one of the two apps compared. No affiliate links. Both apps were tested on iOS 26 against the same wardrobe in April–May 2026 and again in August 2026; listings re-read 24 September.
Scope: a head-to-head between Alta's photo-real avatar and PutTogether's drawn mini-you, the two apps built around a picture of you in the day's outfit. The other daily-outfit head-to-head is Cladwell vs PutTogether; the visual comparison across the field is The Closet Apps That Put You In the Outfit.
Alta has 15,000 App Store ratings at 4.9, an $11 million seed round, a CFDA partnership and a stylist who dressed Michelle Obama, and it costs nothing. If you are choosing a closet app in 2026 you will meet it, and the question you should ask is not whether it is good. It is who is paying for it, and what that does to the outfit.
At a glance
| Alta |  PutTogether | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2025, New York (Flagship AI, Jenny Wang); $11M seed June 2025 | 2026, Los Angeles |
| Price | Free, no in-app purchases listed | Dress me free; daily looks from Mini $9.99/mo (25 pieces) to Atelier $34.99 (200) |
| Business | Shopping recommendations from ~4,000 brand partners and a CFDA inventory | Subscription; no shopping links; "We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information" |
| Platform | iPhone, Android, web | iPhone |
| The picture of you | Photo-real avatar from a face photo plus height, weight and body shape | Watercolor drawing from one full-body photo |
| Daily outfit | On open, by weather and schedule, on the avatar | Generated at your wake-up time, drawn on the mini-you, with a written reason |
| Import | Forward purchase-receipt emails, pick from Alta's database, or snap a piece | Outfit photos; every piece extracted and drawn |
| Trips | Packing list from destination, activities and luggage size; multi-city; shareable link | Dress me: looks plus an itemised packing list; five-year climate averages past the forecast |
| Rating | 15.5K, 4.9 | 21, 5.0 |
| Last update | 1 October 2026 (v2.2.5); "new features every week" | 2 October 2026 |
What we could not test. Alta's effective import speed depends on how much of your wardrobe was bought online from its partner retailers; our test wardrobe was about 40% from supported brands. We did not audit either company's data handling. Alta's avatar is built from measurements we supplied truthfully; a different body would get a different render.
Round 1: Who pays
Alta's listing is candid: it will "tell you what is missing from your closet, so you can shop intelligently," surface "shopping recommendations from both your favorite brands and new ones," and notify you when a wishlist item goes on sale. Alta is free the way a magazine with advertising is free. The product is good and the direction of pull is toward buying.
PutTogether carries no shopping links, and its privacy policy says it plainly: "We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information." When Dress me finds a gap in your closet, it borrows a sticker from PutTogether's own style library, marks it as borrowed and files it under "Find one like it": a description of what to look for, not a product page. The daily look may name a missing type of piece ("a pair of white sneakers would finish this") but never links to one. The trip planner is free; the daily look is from $9.99 a month (25 pieces), and subscribers are the app's only customers.
Neither is wrong. They are different trades, and only one of them is printed on a price tag.
Round 1: depends on you. Free with a shop, or paid without one.
Round 2: The picture of you
Alta builds a likeness. You give it a face photo, height, weight and body shape, and it renders outfits on an avatar meant to look like you (WWD, April 2025). The fidelity is the point: if the question is "will these trousers sit right on me," a likeness is the right tool, and Alta is the strongest example in the category.
PutTogether draws an interpretation. One full-body photo in, a watercolor mini-you out, redrawn in every day's outfit. There is no photographic detail in it to zoom into, which is why you can post it to a group chat without deciding how you feel about your body that day, and why the app never needs to ask your measurements. There is no gender, size, height or weight field anywhere in it.
The trade is real on both sides. A drawing will not tell you whether the trousers fit. A render of your body is a thing you have to be comfortable seeing and sharing.
Round 2: split. Alta for fit questions. PutTogether for everyone who would rather be drawn than measured.
Alta wants your measurements so the likeness is accurate. PutTogether wants one photo so the drawing is of you without ever asking what you are.
Round 3: The morning
Both apps read the weather. Alta's listing: "Get daily outfit suggestions based on the weather and your schedule." PutTogether's server fetches Apple's forecast minutes before it generates the look and gives the stylist the hourly forecast, feels-like, rain, wind and UV.
The difference is when and how. Alta decides when you open it, and shows a named look ("Chic Brunch") on the avatar with a styling note. PutTogether decides at the wake-up time you chose, whether or not you open the app, pushes the first line of the reason to your lock screen, and shows the outfit drawn on you with two or three plain sentences underneath: "LA is sitting at a heavy 58°F with cloud cover all day — cool enough that the black leather biker jacket does the real work here." No chat box exists in the app.
Alta's own users flag its hot-weather logic as its weakest (Style With In Grace's hands-on review, March 2026, and multiple App Store reviews). In our May run the same thing showed: correct in cool weather, generic above 80°F.
Round 3: PutTogether. The decision is already made, it is shown on you, and it says why.
Round 4: Getting the closet in
This is Alta's best round, for one kind of reader. Forward your purchase-confirmation emails and Alta populates the closet from the retailer's catalog: the right photo, the right fabric, no camera. For a wardrobe bought online from its ~4,000 partner brands, that is the fastest setup in the category. For a wardrobe that is thrifted, inherited, or bought in person, you are back to snapping one piece at a time.
PutTogether's setup does not care where the clothes came from. Photograph yourself in outfits, up to ten photos a batch; every piece in the frame is detected, cut out and redrawn as a watercolor sticker, and you approve each one before it is charged. A 50-piece wardrobe took about 25 minutes in our test, from five to eight outfit photos. A 50-piece closet sits on Capsule, $16.99 a month.
Round 4: depends on your receipts. Alta if you shop online from its partners. PutTogether if you don't.
Round 5: Trips
Alta documents the most ambitious packing brief in the field: destination, activities and luggage size in; a packing list and a travel lookbook out, with multi-city trips and a shareable link you can text. In our August test, the list it produced was not one we would have packed from without editing, and because Alta is a shop, a packing brief can come back with products to buy.
PutTogether's Dress me, free on every account, takes a city, a trip of up to 30 days and an occasion, returns up to five looks from your own clothes, and builds a packing list grouped by section with pieces de-duplicated across looks, check-off and a share sheet. Past the ten-day forecast it averages the same dates over the previous five years from the Open-Meteo archive. The full ranking is in The Best Closet App for Packing.
Round 5: PutTogether.
Round 6: Platform and pace
Alta runs on iPhone, Android and the web, and its release note says "new features every week." PutTogether is iPhone only. If you are on Android, or you want to catalogue at a desk, this round is not close.
Round 6: Alta.
The verdict
Two rounds to PutTogether outright, one to Alta, three that depend on you: whether you welcome a shop, whether you would rather be measured or drawn, and where your clothes came from. Read those three honestly and the choice makes itself. If you want free and you like being shown things to buy, Alta is a strong product and 15,000 people agree. If you want to wear what you already own and see yourself in it, drawn, before you are awake, with a reason, that is PutTogether: the trip planner is free, and the daily look starts at $9.99 a month (25 pieces) because nobody else is paying.
Frequently asked questions
Is Alta free?
Yes. Alta's App Store listing shows no in-app purchases as of September 2026, and the app is funded by shopping recommendations: it tells you what is missing from your closet, surfaces pieces from its brand partners, and alerts you when a wishlist item goes on sale. The daily looks, the avatar and the packing list all cost nothing. The trade is that the app's business is helping you buy.
Alta vs PutTogether, which is better?
They agree about the job and disagree about who pays. Alta is free, photo-real, cross-platform and built around a shopping loop. PutTogether plans trips free and costs from $9.99 a month (25 pieces) for the daily look, on iPhone; it draws you rather than rendering you, decides the outfit before you wake up with a written reason, and never shows a product. Pick Alta for free and shopping; pick PutTogether to wear what you own.
Does Alta need my measurements?
Yes. Alta builds its photo-real avatar from a face photo plus height, weight and body shape, which is what makes the try-on accurate enough to answer a fit question. PutTogether asks for one full-body photo and a first name; there is no gender, size, height or weight field in the app.
Does PutTogether recommend things to buy?
No. It has no shopping or affiliate links, and its privacy policy says "We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information." A daily look may name a missing type of piece, like white sneakers to finish an outfit, and Dress me may borrow a sticker from PutTogether's own style library to fill a gap, but neither links to a product or a brand. Alta links to products by design.
Which one is better for travel?
PutTogether, in our tests. Alta documents the more ambitious brief, including luggage size and multi-city trips, but the list it generated in our August run needed editing and can include products to buy. PutTogether's Dress me, free on every account, builds an itemised list from looks made of your own clothes and plans past the forecast with five-year weather averages.
Is Alta safe to use?
This is not a security review. Alta asks for a face photo plus height, weight and body shape, because a likeness needs them; its App Privacy card and privacy policy cover retention. PutTogether asks for one full-body photo and a first name, and its privacy policy says "We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information."
Does Alta work on Android?
Yes, and on the web. PutTogether is iPhone only. If you are on Android, Alta is the free daily-outfit app with an avatar, and Cladwell is the paid one with a capsule.
Sources & references
- Testing: both apps on iOS 26, April–May and August 2026, same wardrobe and reference trip.
- Alta App Store: description, shopping and wishlist lines, packing brief, avatar line, "new features every week," no IAPs, 15.5K ratings, v2.2.5 dated 1 October 2026. WWD, April 2025 on the CFDA partnership, Meredith Koop and the avatar inputs. TechCrunch, 16 June 2025 on the $11M seed. Style With In Grace, March 2026 hands-on review.
- PutTogether App Store, October 2026: "Start exploring Dress Me for free: three requests per day, with up to five outfit ideas each." PutTogether privacy policy: "We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information." Scheduling, weather inputs, setup and Dress me mechanics are described from the live app.
- PutTogether is the publisher of this article; the rounds and their criteria are stated so you can re-weight them.
