Impressia for Pixelfed vs Darkplug
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Impressia for Pixelfed
This app offers a dedicated photo-only timeline for discovering and enjoying photography. It features a clean interface for liking, commenting, and following users, with tools for managing content and discovering trending posts. Share your own photos and explore a community of photo enthusiasts.
- Photo-only timelines
- Clean and minimalistic interface
- Like and comment on photos
- Follow users
- Discover trending photos, tags, and accounts
- Share your photos
- Photo details with metadata
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Impressia is a simple and intuitive Pixelfed client that is focused on showcasing and sharing photos. With Impressia, you can browse through a timeline that is dedicated to photos only. This means that you won't find any other types of media in the app, so you can focus solely on discovering and enjoying beautiful photography. Our app features a clean and minimalistic interface that is designed to put the focus on the images. You can easily like and comment on photos, as well as follow other users to keep up with their latest posts. Main features: - clean timelines (home/local/federated) focused on photos - photo details screen with other user comments and metadata (like location, alternative text etc.) - ability to like photos and boost photos - following other users from Pixelfed (and across the Fediverse) - blocking and muting other users - reporting of abuse - support of photos bookmarks - trending photos, tags and accounts - sharing your photos - and much more... Impressia is 100% free and open-source. So, whether you're a professional photographer, an amateur enthusiast, or simply someone who loves to discover and share stunning photos, Impressia is the perfect app for you. Try it out today and join our growing community of passionate photo lovers.
Darkplug
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Darkplug is a darkroom timer and printing tool for iPhone. It lets you control your enlarger from your iPhone using a compatible Shelly smart plug on your local network. Built for film photographers and darkroom printers, Darkplug combines precise timing, guided workflows, and a red-on-black interface designed for darkroom use. The clean timer interface is designed to stay practical under safelight conditions, with large controls and minimal clutter. Darkplug+ unlocks advanced printing tools, including F-Stop timing, guided test strips, dodge and burn planning, split grade printing, guided paper developing, and reusable Dodge & Burn plan codes. The guided test strip workflow helps you build and run exposure tests in seconds or F-Stops, then apply your preferred result as the print time. The Dodge & Burn workflow helps you plan local exposure changes, review a generated print plan, and follow guided execution steps in the darkroom. Plans can be exported and restored later with reusable plan codes. Darkplug also includes a guided developing timer for developer, stop, fix, and wash, so printing and paper processing can stay in one focused app. To use Darkplug, connect your enlarger to a compatible smart plug, make sure the plug and your iPhone are on the same local network, enter the plug’s local IP address, and connect. No account login is required. No cloud backend or external web service is needed for core timer operation. Compatible smart plugs: Shelly Plus Plug S Gen2, Shelly Plus Plug UK Gen2, Shelly Plug S Gen3, Shelly Outdoor Plug S Gen3, Shelly Plug M Gen3, and Shelly Plug US Gen4.
Screenshots
Verdict
Impressia for Pixelfed and Darkplug are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. Impressia for Pixelfed sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Darkplug sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Impressia for Pixelfed | Darkplug |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (43 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 63.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 43 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 29 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Marcin Czachurski | PETER DR SZENTKIRALYI |
Bugs and requests
Impressia for Pixelfed
Reported bugs
21 issues- Cannot log in
- App won't open
- Sign in sheet never passes data
- App stuck in web authentication view
- Does not work with 2FA
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- Captcha issues
- Long load times and freezes
- Cannot edit or delete posted materials
- No way to contact admins for issues
- Home feed does not work
- Hashtags don't work
- IP checker and Captcha issues
- Login only works if 2FA is not enabled
- Credential sheet never passes to permission page
- App says password is wrong even if correct
- Sign in with Mastodon doesn't log in
- 419 page expired error
- Unable to log in on iOS 17/18
- Feed is too zoomed in
- Cannot overlay like counts and comment counts
- Cannot pan images when zoomed
Requested features
8 requests- More view options for feed (e.g., grid)
- Ability to edit comments
- Grid view option for feed
- Overlay like counts and comment counts on images in feed
- Ability to pan images when zoomed
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- iPad version with tiling view
- Option to change licensing model (e.g., CC)
- Dark mode option
Darkplug
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Impressia for Pixelfed
- Donut$0.99
- Coffee$2.99
- Coffee & cake$6.99
Darkplug
- Darkplug+$24.99









