Photone - Grow Light Meter appears to be a legitimate app. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Photone is 93 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Photone User Reviews

Name: Photone - Grow Light Meter
Rating: 4.6 (4882 reviews)

Photone - Grow Light Meter

Lightray Innovation GmbH

🔧 Utilities

Customer Experience

Positive experience53.3% of reviews

Neutral6.2% of reviews

Negative experience40.5% of reviews

~ Based on 227 written reviews from the US App Store.

What users say

Summarized from real user reviews of Photone. Based on 4.9K reviews and a 4.6/5 average, it highlights the 5 positives and 5 negatives reviewers mention most about this Utilities app.

Positive things

🚀Accurate readings
💡Helpful for growing plants
👍Easy to use
🚀Saves money compared to expensive meters
👍Useful for adjusting lighting

Negative things

🐛Inconsistent readings
💰Expensive in-app purchases
🔒Requires additional equipment (diffuser) to work properly
🐛Readings not accurate without calibration
🔒Limited functionality in free version

Is Photone Safe?

Photone - Grow Light Meter appears safe based on user ratings. AppsHunter Safety Score for Photone is 92/100.

This assessment is based on 4,882 user ratings, with an App Store average of 4.6/5.

Safety Analysis

90.7% of ratings point to a safe experience

3.3% of ratings suggest some concerns

6.0% of ratings point to a risky experience

~ Based on 4,882 App Store ratings for Photone.

Is Photone Legit?

Photone - Grow Light Meter appears to be a legitimate app. AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Photone is 93/100.

Based on 93 of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Top reviews

Most Recent Highest Rated Lowest Rated

Expensive!

This app works but I am not paying $100 for full functionality and I like to own things completely. This monthly subscription thing is nonsense. I would pay $30 to own this app with all its functionality. Thats what it’s worth and you would make more sales and have happier customers if you were not so greedy. BTW you can just use Rizla paper as a filter. Saves flaff with scissors and tape!

BongoToad

23 days ago

Can’t test sunlight for free

I made their paper diffuser and started measuring an area only to be stopped. If you want to measure sunlight, you have to pay over $5.

KMDM4

a month ago

Nothing free about this

Whichever light you want to measure it costs , stop touting this app as free. Unless you count the free download .

judy709

2 months ago

You will not find better

100% perfect no quibble

Trek 121

3 months ago

Amazing app for lighting ideas

Been using this for about a week or two it’s a pretty good app works as it should however, sometimes it’s hard to hold the paper under the screen or camera and looking at the screen under the bright light. It’s hard to see the exact numbers, but I figured it out. Hopefully, it’s been fixed in the latest update props to this dev team.

Zach Garnett

3 months ago

Response from developer

Hi Zach, Thanks a million for your review 🤩🙏 Regarding your issues: We are aware of the problem of reading the results under very bright light and designed the "Hold" mode for that. If you tap the lower part of your screen while measuring, the numbers will freeze, and you can walk somewhere darker to read them. Another option for pro-users is the read-aloud setting. Further, I am not quite sure I understood the problem regarding the paper correctly. So I kindly ask you to reach out to our support through the feedback option in the app with more details, and we can then look into it properly. Best regards and have fun measuring 💡🌱 Angela and the Photone team

“Free” is misleading

Wanted an app to measure indoor natural light & this one rated really well. Downloaded it & discovered “sun” aka natural light is locked unless you purchase a subscription/membership. This light source is likely the most commonly used for growing plants but yet needs a subscription? No thanks.

Birds & Plants & Mulch, oh my!

3 months ago

Teste

Poderia dar alguns dias de teste gratuitos antes de comprar.

PoA 2025

3 months ago

Response from developer

Olá PoA, Obrigada pelo teu feedback. Podes testar as funcionalidades da aplicação gratuitamente com uma das fontes de luz gratuitas durante o tempo que quiseres. Isso deve dar-te uma boa ideia se vale a pena ou não pagar os cerca de 5 $ únicos. É uma pena que, por causa disso, nos dês apenas 1-🌟 😢 Cumprimentos, Angela e a equipa Photone

don’t bother

measuring led lights is paywalled

brankmank

4 months ago

Brilliant

It took just 5 minutes from download to doing my first readings. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow. I paid £5 for one month pro which is incredibly good value compared to the cost of the real kit. People complaining about price are living in cloud cuckoo land.
I am a complete beginner with grow lights and had been following manufacturer instructions. I discovered my lights were too high up and too dim, so I have lowered them and undimmed them. That’s £5 well spent.
I also tried it in the greenhouse, on the patio and inside the house and am astonished at the differences in light when to my eyes it all looks much the same. No wonder my indoor seedlings used to struggle. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the app but under the lights it gives broadly the same readings as claimed by the manufacturer, which is good enough for me to trust it.

1000bramble

4 months ago

Wieso muss man auf Apple Geräten die einzelnen Modi kaufen und auf Android Geräten nicht?

Die App an sich hat 5/5 Sterne verdient, sie macht mit dem Diffuser das was sie machen soll. Jedoch finde ich es maximal frech, dass ich für jeden einzelnen Modi Geld bezahlen muss, aber mein Kollege auf seinem Android Gerät alles von Anfang an freigeschaltet hat. Finde dieses „Apple User können es ja zahlen“ so albern, deshalb muss ich einfach ein paar Sterne abziehen. Man hätte wenigstens sagen können „Ey wenn ihr den Diffuser bei uns kauft, dann bekommt ihr auch alle
Modis kostenlos (oder wenigstens die wichtigsten), dann wäre da wenigstens irgendein Kompromiss.

VitaShn

5 months ago

Response from developer

Hallo VitaShn, Vielen Dank für dein Feedback 🙏 Es freut uns wirklich sehr, dass unsere App von dir 5/5 🌟 verdient für ihre Funktionen 💪 Die Gründe für die unterschiedlichen Preissysteme liegen aber woanders und wir wollen auf keinen Fall Apple User stärker zur Kasse bitten. Bei Apple sind ALLE Geräte IMMER auf Photone kalibriert und die App läuft optimal auf allen Geräten. Auf Android hingegen, da es viel viel mehr unterschiedliche Hersteller und Geräte gibt, decken wir nur circa 50% der Handys mit einer Kalibrierung ab, die anderen können Photone nur mit einer deutlich ungenaueren Messvariante nutzen. Wir fänden es unfair, wenn diese den vollen Preis bezahlen müssten, und haben uns daher für eine Mischrechnung entschieden, bei der nun 50% der Android-User einen Preisvorteil haben. Auch den zweiten Punkt, den du ansprichst, haben wir uns bereits überlegt. Wir fänden es auch super, wenn man mit dem Kauf des Diffusors bereits Funktionen freischalten könnte. Es ist technisch jedoch kompliziert und wirft auch wieder Fragen der Fairness auf - Was machen wir mit jenen, die zuerst Funktionen kaufen und erst dann den Diffusor bestellen? Wir haben uns auf alle Fälle bereits viele Gedanken zu deinen Punkten gemacht und sind auch bei beiden noch nicht vollständig zufrieden mit unseren Lösungen. Wir haben einfach noch keinen praktikableren Weg gefunden. Ich hoffe, das erklärt unser Vorgehen ein bisschen. Nun wünsche ich dir viel Spass beim Messen und dir und deinen Pflanzen alles Gute 🌱 Angela und das Photone Team

Best app ever it works

Best ever really works 914 buy the diffuser .

Themasteroftheworld

6 months ago

Useful

This app is helpful for getting the correct amount of light for my plants. I bought the diffuser and I printed out the lighting chart for autoflowers from their website. I use the dli mode and follow it almost exactly, except I find that 45 dli is a bit much for some plants, so I usually aim for 40-43 dli.

If I was going to improve this app, I would add a feature where I could select the type of plant, what week my plants are on, and the number of hours the lights are on, then it could tell me if I need more or less light. In other words, the plant light calculator would be built-in.

The upgrade for LED and the diffuser are worth the money, but they should be upfront about it and disclose it before getting the app. I think people would be more willing to pay if they didn’t think they were being misled from the beginning.

Midsantiam

6 months ago

Response from developer

Hi Midsantiam, Thanks for your detailed review and your support! It would be interesting to know what phones you tried in your comparison. We factory calibrate for all supported iPhones and with the diffuser accuracy, we can pretty much guarantee that the measurements are within a few percent of each other when used correctly. Android is another story, as our current Beta version works differently and accuracy can't be influenced as much. I'm pretty sure that your iPhone + diffuser accessory would measure close to e.g. an Apogee PAR meter. Please feel free to reach out to our support if you think that isn't the case and would like some troubleshooting help. Best, Dominik & the Photone Team

No trial

I couldn’t even try this because it doesn’t offer any lighting options to test the lights I have.

I’m not going to buy a subscription without testing it. I bought a standalone light meter instead.

Rater1234

6 months ago

False free app

Free to download, but heavy restrictions on usage make it useless for the average user. Need to pay to get a ppfd reading for led lights.

MythMan285

6 months ago

In app purchases!

App is full of in app purchases!!!!

traxsboy

6 months ago

Asked to pay twice within 10 seconds for basic features

Within 10 seconds of using the app, I discovered that you can only only use it to measure manmade light sources not sunlight which you'd expect to be the default for plants. Two seconds after I was told that a diffuser needed to measure the light level despite the claims that your phone front camera is enough. To the bin it goes.

MarinkaNC

7 months ago

Sunlight not Free

I downloaded the app because it claims to work for simple measurements without additional purchases. However, if you want to see if your plants are getting enough sunlight from a window, you must pay for “pro.”

Deadassh

7 months ago

Paywalled

They paywall the functionality most home growers would need. Avoid these scammers.

FreePalestineFuccApple

7 months ago

Great app, easy to use, from a developer who is fair-minded!

All I needed was something to measure lux, because a sleep expert says we should have lighting measuring less than 30 lux for an hour or two before bed. I tried two other apps first. One was difficult to figure out, and the other one required payment, even though the app description didn’t include that. I took a chance on this app because of the developer’s notes - sounds like a straight-up, fair person. This app was super easy to use; there are instructions on how to make a diffuser by wrapping a strip of printer paper around the front camera. To change the setting to measure in lux, all I had to do was swipe a couple of times. I used it to measure light from various sources to see how it worked, and will be using it tonight to measure my usual evening lighting. I’m moving soon, and after I have my houseplants set up in their new locations, I will definitely upgrade so I can make sure I have optimal lighting for my plants, and to support the app and the developer! There’s so much greed these days especially in children’s apps, so it’s really refreshing to come across someone who is fair-minded like this.

TeeKayCee

8 months ago

Response from developer

Hi TeeKayCee, Thanks a million for your feedback! It felt like a Christmas present for the whole team 💝🎁 We've put a lot of thought and effort into making the app as easy and user-friendly as possible, and it's amazing to hear that you appreciate that 🤩 We are also keen to design the pricing as fair as possible for every party involved, and it's really good to hear that you appreciate our efforts 🫶 Hopefully, our app helps you sleep, and we wish you good luck with moving 🏡 Fingers crossed that you and your plants like the new place! 🌱🤞 Don't hesitate to reach out to support@growlightmeter.com if questions arise💡 All the best, Angela and the Photone team

Most accurate compared to others

It’s actually quite a decent PAR/PPFD meter for the iPhone. A diffuser is required with an auto detect feature which is just your cameras used to detect if one is attached. I didn’t struggle with my piece of paper being detected, was found immediately. You can pick your diffuser type even if you use a white piece of printer paper, it works. Does state it has the most advanced light measurement technology for iPhones and iPad due to advanced RAW camera image-based measurement algorithm, customisable adaptations to light source, extended ePAR measuring & excellent low light sensitivity. While I found it great in low light, a lot of the adaptations were behind a paywall. Including selecting my light source which was incredibly frustrating. The more advanced features should be behind a paywall, not minor things like light source which could heavily impact accuracy of readings. I found its accuracy more akin to what I believe my light results to be; but very different to many other apps tested in exactly the same parameters. I did find it never struggled in the commonly difficult 400-500nm & 600-700nm ranges. Does state it has high sensitivity for low light detection (0.1 μmol/m²/s minimum) which aided in compiling info during rest cycles of ur plants. Readings were responsive upon moving & I experienced zero lagging or app glitches. I like certain features such as in aquarium settings but again, many features are pay walled. Ok to use for general detection purposes but any advanced users will need full functionality by paying for pro version. Readings: PAR / PPFD in µmol/m²/s, PAR / PPFD in µmol/m²/s, DLI in mol/m²/d, Illuminance in lux and foot-candle (FC) and CCT in kelvins. Great if you don’t wanna carry extra equipment, esp on the go.

Nurse_JJ.UK