Photon vs GMA WebRemote
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Photon
Control DMX lighting wirelessly for events, clubs, and theaters. Create sequences, synchronize lights to music with beat tracking, and manage fixtures with a user-friendly interface. Offers advanced features via in-app purchase.
- Wireless Art-Net/sACN DMX control
- Multi-touch interface optimized for iPad
- Light group management
- Scene and animation creation
- Beat tracker for music synchronization
- Fixture database and creator
- Sequencer with timeline editing
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Photon, the next generation of professional user friendly DMX lighting console perfect for nightclubs, musicians, live events, filmmakers, theaters... Wireless (Art-Net or sACN through WIFI) and easy to use, Photon reinvents the way to control DMX devices with its single interface for all your lights. Indeed, combine multiple presets to a sequence and synchronize your lights to music. Our beat tracker listens and animates your devices to the rhythm of the music. Live events will have no more secret for you. Features of the free version: - Multi-touch interface designed and optimized for the iPad. ⁃ Light group management. Associate multiple lights together to perform similar controls (colors, positions, brightness ...). - Classic DMX console for sophisticated controls (gobos/fog/focus...) ⁃ Managing scenes. Create and play animations/effects on your lights. ⁃ Smart color manager. ⁃ Art-Net /sACN / DMX output channel analyzer. ⁃ Complete control of an Art-Net universe with 512 channels. ⁃ Art-Net in multicast or unicast. ⁃ sACN in multicast or unicast. ⁃ Database with hundreds of pre-configured devices (fixtures). - Fixture creator to configure your custom devices. Features of the in-app purchase: ⁃ Sound analyzer : sync your lights to music. ⁃ Multi scene / multi group sequencer. Combine multiple cues to a sequence and animate it. ⁃ Edit your sequences as in a video editor with the timeline. ⁃ Automatic, manual or semi-automatic beat control for the sequencer. - Ableton Link support : Sync lights animations with your favorite DJ app or musical instrument. Link is a technology that keeps devices in time over a local network for a perfect synchronization between lights and music. ⁃ Management of the animation curve in/out. - Background mode * Requires an Art-Net (or sACN) Bridge to DMX. Photon is based on the open lighting architecture (open lighting project). ** Purchase of the "Sequencer" with the in-app purchase
GMA WebRemote
This tool enhances the grandMA2 console's web remote functionality by automatically discovering devices on your network. It also prevents your mobile device from sleeping, ensuring uninterrupted connections and offering features like auto-login and IP-based colorization.
- Device discovery on network
- Always-On mode to prevent sleep
- Auto-connect to last IP
- Auto-login with predefined credentials
- Colorize devices by IP address
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This tool provides a smarter way of using grandMA2 console's integrated web remote. The main advantage is the discovery of grandMA2 devices connected to the network - so you do not have to remember IP addresses. It also keeps the the mobile device awake so the connection does not get inerrupted by activating sleep/standby mode after some time. FEATURES: - Device discovery: See all active MANet2 devices (for instant connection) - Always-On mode: Prevents your device from going to sleep mode while the app is opened - AutoConnect on launch: Automatically connect to last IP on launch (*) - AutoLogin on connect: Automatically log in with your predefined username/password (*) - Colorize by IP: Colorize devices by last byte of IP address (*) FREE VERSION: The free version can always be used with a basic feature set. FULL VERSION (*): The full version unlocks settings and some extra features. And most important: Supports the development :-) IMPORTANT INFORMATIONS: A fast WiFi connection without multicast filtering is required for discovery! This app "wire-tap's" the grandMA2 network session, so there is always a small risk of losing discovery functionality with new software versions. This is NOT an official app from MA Lighting Technology or MA Lighting International.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: GMA WebRemote at 100% against Photon's 42%. GMA WebRemote also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.4) and device support (3 vs 1). Photon's advantage is ratings volume (27 vs 8) and iOS requirement (10 vs 12.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Photon sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and GMA WebRemote sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
GMA WebRemote holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 27 and 8 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 42% of Photon's written reviews are positive against 100% of GMA WebRemote's.
Photon ships an update every 6 weeks, GMA WebRemote every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 17, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Photon | GMA WebRemote |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (27 ratings) | 5.0 (8 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 41.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 27 — better | 8 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 10 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 36 MB | 33 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Photon Studio | Matthias Schoeffmann |
Customer experience
Photon
GMA WebRemote
In-app purchases
Photon
- Light Sequencer$24.99
GMA WebRemote
- Full Version$8.99









