File Explorer & Player vs HomeWatch
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
File Explorer & Player
Access and stream files from your Mac wirelessly on your iPhone or iPad. View photos, documents, and play videos directly from your computer. Transfer files and even use your iOS device as a portable drive.
- Stream video from Mac
- View photos and documents
- Transfer files to iOS
- Use iOS as a drive
- Wireless Mac access
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Turn your iPhone or iPad into the wireless flash drive for your Mac. Have full access to your Mac files – use your iOS device to stream videos, view photos and documents, from anywhere within your home. AT A GLANCE - Stream any video directly from your Mac; - View photos or documents stored on your Mac; - Transfer files between your Mac and your iOS device; - Store anything on your iOS device and take it with you on the go; - Mount your iOS device as drive on your Mac or Windows machine using WebDAV; - Use the Personal Hotspot of your iOS device to control your Mac when you don’t have access to other networks. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS - Mac with macOS 10.10 or above and Helper app installed; - iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with iOS 11 or above; - Shared wireless network connection between your computer and iOS device. TERMS OF USE https://cherpake.com/tos Ratings are like gold for indie developers like me, please give the app a quick rating on the App Store.
HomeWatch
Monitor and control your HomeKit devices with a glanceable status display. This app offers customizable views for rooms, scenes, and individual devices across Apple platforms, including widgets and menu bar items.
- Glanceable room status with color-coded indicators
- Control scenes and devices within rooms
- View camera feeds, weather, and website content
- Customizable home and lock-screen widgets
- Menu bar items for Mac with real-time updates
- Extensive interface customization options
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I made an app for my Apple Watch to see a glanceable status of our home and to control our HomeKit devices. It worked so well on the watch, that I expanded it to a dashboard app for all our Apple devices. I have now added a configuration interface to make it compatible with any HomeKit enabled home setup. I hope some of you will find it useful. HOME VIEW The circle / grid with icons on the home view shows a color coded status of the rooms of the home: red when a door is open, yellow when a window is open, orange when the heating is on, cyan when lights are on and green when nothing is on. On the iPhone, iPad, tvOS and Mac the app also shows the time, date, cameras, feeds, events, reminders, a website and weather information. When there is rain, it will show a rain graph. ROOM VIEWS When a room is selected, the circle layout will show the scenes you can control in that room. The grid layout also shows the devices that can be controlled in that room. Additionally the room view has an information section. To the right it can show any characteristics from your devices. Below is a detail view that can show a camera view, a website, a temperature, humidity and climate history graphs. WIDGETS Fully customisable lock-screen and home-screen widgets. Tap / Clicking a widget item to go directly to a room view, execute a scene or launch any url-scheme. Customisable complications on the Watch can have actions to go directly to a room view and execute any scene. MENU BAR ITEMS On the Mac any HomeKit characteristic can be added to the menu bar and is kept up to date. CUSTOMISATION The interface can be fully customised. The user can add their own background images and icons from the photo library. Customise gradient overlays, icons, fonts, colours and more. Make it your own…
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: HomeWatch at none against File Explorer & Player's 4. HomeWatch also leads on ads (none vs shown) and device support (6 vs 3). File Explorer & Player's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (124 vs 4). On price and rating there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. File Explorer & Player sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. HomeWatch asks for nothing beyond the download.
HomeWatch holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: File Explorer & Player has 124 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 78% of File Explorer & Player's written reviews are positive against 60% of HomeWatch's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
File Explorer & Player ships an update fortnightly, HomeWatch every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | File Explorer & Player | HomeWatch |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (124 ratings) | 4.8 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.3% of reviews — better | 60.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 124 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 85 MB | 61 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Remote Sunrise LTD | Peter Vogels |
Customer experience
File Explorer & Player
HomeWatch
Bugs and requests
File Explorer & Player
Reported bugs
3 issues- Paid version download issues reported
- Free version does nothing
- Poor support response to feature inquiries
Requested features
5 requests- Add NAS support
- Enable external access (remote access from outside home network)
- Add Chinese language option
- Allow file renaming
- Improve PC compatibility
HomeWatch
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
File Explorer & Player
- Upgrade to Pro Version - 1M$1.991 Month
- Upgrade to Pro Version1 Month trial$9.991 Year
- Remove Ads$19.99
- Upgrade to PRO$19.99
HomeWatch
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is File Explorer & Player free?
Is HomeWatch free?
Which has better reviews, File Explorer & Player or HomeWatch?
Do File Explorer & Player or HomeWatch have ads?
Which is updated more often, File Explorer & Player or HomeWatch?
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