Comparison

Golden Hour vs Phonesty

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Golden Hour

Find the optimal times for photography with the best natural light based on your chosen location and date. It also provides sun positions and offers a convenient watch app for real-time golden hour information.

Highlights
  • Optimal light time calculation
  • Sun position data
  • Location and date specific
  • Watch app integration
  • Gorgeous light for pictures
Features
Read full description

Golden Hour gives you, from the chosen location and date, the 2 best moments of the day during which you will have the most gorgeous light for you pictures. The sun positions is also provided. The Watch App gives you the today's golden hours at your current location.

About

Phonesty

This video conferencing app offers secure and affordable meetings with a high participant capacity. Features include automatic muting with a "raise hand" option, customizable room settings for various uses like teaching or webinars, and the ability to record conferences. Participants can also join via phone dial-in or receive automated calls.

Highlights
  • High participant capacity
  • Plenum Mode with "raise hand"
  • Customizable conference rooms
  • Automatic speaker switching
  • Conference recording
  • Phone dial-in and automated calls
Features
Read full description

Phonesty Video Conferencing is easy, secure and affordable. It's by far the simplest way to join a Phonesty Conference. Phonesty conference rooms can host meetings with a very high number of participants and can be individually configured for many specific use cases (church services, teaching, webinars etc.). Participants can either be automatically muted with our unique "Plenum Mode" and can then raise their hand if they want to speak. Or the conference room can be configured so that everyone can mute/unmute themselves. The video switches to the speaking member automatically or can be fixed to one speaker at a time. Conferences can be recorded, locked and much more. Participants can also dial-in by telephone. Or our system can automatically call your participants by phone starting at 1 Cent per minute.

Screenshots

Golden Hour3 screens
Phonesty3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Phonesty at none against Golden Hour's 1. Phonesty also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 17.0). Golden Hour's advantage is ratings volume (399 vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Golden Hour sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Phonesty asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Phonesty holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Golden Hour has 399 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Golden Hour ships an update every 2 months, Phonesty monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Golden Hour versus Phonesty: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGolden HourPhonesty
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (399 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews48.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings399 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.09.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB64 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperApplorium LtdPhonesty GmbH

Customer experience

Golden Hour

All ratings397 ratings
Positive92.2%
Neutral2.3%
Negative5.5%
Written reviews45 reviews
Positive48.9%
Neutral11.1%
Negative40.0%

Phonesty

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Golden Hour

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • App not opening
  • App not loading on watch
  • Unknown error message on launch
  • App crashes after update
  • Search for other locations broken (time zone issue)
Show 4 more
  • Map is tiny on iPhone SE
  • Widget shows 00:00
  • App crashes on opening
  • iPhone X optimization missing

Requested features

11 requests
  • Add blue hour timeframes
  • Add labels for map lines
  • Add option to save last location
  • Add live wallpapers
  • Add diagram for shots
Show 6 more
  • Improve location search granularity
  • Allow planning for future dates/locations
  • Fix time zone issues for location search
  • Add dark mode
  • Add Apple Watch app
  • Fix evening/morning labels on map

Phonesty

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Golden Hour

One-time1
  • Lifetime upgrade$3.99
None

Phonesty

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Golden Hour free?
Golden Hour is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Phonesty free?
Phonesty is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Golden Hour or Phonesty?
Phonesty is rated higher. Golden Hour averages 4.7 out of 5 from 399 ratings, while Phonesty averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Golden Hour or Phonesty have ads?
Neither Golden Hour nor Phonesty shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Golden Hour or Phonesty?
Golden Hour ships an update every 2 months, and Phonesty monthly. Most recently, Golden Hour was updated on November 6, 2026 and Phonesty on November 3, 2026.

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