Variable Color vs ONiO Button
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Variable Color
Easily scan and identify colors from your surroundings. Find matching paints and materials, organize your color discoveries into palettes, and share them with others. Streamline your color selection process for design, DIY, or professional projects.
- Scan and identify colors instantly
- Match colors to paint and material libraries
- Organize colors into custom palettes
- Share color palettes with others
- Cross-reference colors between brands
- Attach images to palettes
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The Variable Color app assists consumers, DIYers and professionals (such as interior designers, architects, paint contractors and material specifiers), streamline the color selection process. Scan color, find products that match, coordinate and complement. Color referencing, collecting, organizing and sharing has never been easier and more efficient. Variable Color offers: • Instant color match to exact colors • Speed up the color selection process • Share color palettes with friends, clients & colleagues • Material & paint libraries on your mobile device • Cross reference colors between brands & materials Color referencing, collecting, organizing and sharing has never been easier, more accurate and more efficient. A Color Reference System of a Different Color The Variable Color system changes the way modern color management systems operate. The compact size and mobility allow for easy collection and identification of color, which is critical, as you may never know when a color will inspire you. The COLOR MUSE system gives you the ability to match these colors to color and material libraries. Making color matching more black and white The Variable Color system can differentiate colors the human eye isn’t able to. Our technology can be broken down into three essential components. The Variable Color app allows color referencing, selection and inspiration collection to streamline the color selection process. Features: • Scan, store, file and reference colors • Reference scans against color libraries • Scan colors and store them in your custom palettes • Remembers device connections for connecting with ease during later usages • Provides paint and material matching for leading U.S. and International paint companies • Browse full color libraries of paint and material manufacturers • Attach pictures to your inspirational palettes About Variable Inc. Variable, Inc. is an industry leader in color hardware technology, color mobile app development, digital color referencing and color library management across multiple industries throughout the world.
ONiO Button
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Wireless buttons have batteries, and batteries have a date. The ONiO button runs on the light already in the room instead. This app shows what happens when you press it. On iPad the app stands next to the button, at an exhibition or in a demo room. Home shows the button in 3D, the red ONiO one or the one with Exeger's Powerfoyle solar cell, and a finger turns it. Motion draws its magnetometer live: tilt the button and the lines move. Light is a lamp the button switches, plus for on and minus for off, or one press each way on a single-key button. Motion and Light count the presses and show how much energy the button has stored from the light. On iPhone the button lights a room instead. Swipe between four of them: a concrete wall with one LED bar, three bars on a floor that light one press at a time, a living room where the lamp finds a cat, and four bars standing against a wall. Switch the living room off again and two eyes stay behind. Setup pairs buttons and holds the rest: a light or dark appearance, the home page text on iPad, and a kiosk mode that hides Setup and keeps the screen on. Hold the ONiO logo for a second to get back in. No button at hand? Simulation stands in for one. Tap the scene, or the button on screen, and the app behaves as if it had been pressed. The app listens for the button's 2.4 GHz radio through the iPhone's or iPad's Bluetooth. It never pairs or connects. No account, no sign-in, nothing sent to a server.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: ONiO Button at daily against Variable Color's every 5 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Variable Color ships an update every 5 weeks, ONiO Button daily. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Variable Color | ONiO Button |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (62 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 62 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 83 MB | 45 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Variable Technologies LLC | MPIRE |
In-app purchases
Variable Color
No in-app purchases
ONiO Button
No in-app purchases









