Focalware vs Open Prompter
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Focalware
This app helps photographers and filmmakers visualize the sun and moon's path and height for any location and date. It provides rise/set times, azimuth, elevation, and moon phases, with an interactive compass and map for planning outdoor shoots.
- Sun/Moon position calculation
- Interactive compass and map
- Rise and set times
- Azimuth and elevation data
- Moon phase tracking
- Custom location saving
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Focalware calculates sun and moon position for a given location and date. Use the interactive compass to determine the path and height of the sun or moon. Photographers and filmmakers who are always asked by their clients for the sun, moon and stars, can now deliver. Features - Support for compass on devices that have one - Integrated map for custom locations - Sun/Moon rise and set times - Sun/Moon azimuth and elevation - Moon phase - Magnetic declination - Results shown graphically or on a list - Location list of major world cities - Manually create and save a list of custom locations - GPS support - Calculate sun/moon position for today or any date in the future - Works with current location or anywhere in the world "Focalware offers unrivaled accuracy and ease of use to photographers shooting outdoors. To say I use it a couple of times a day is an understatement!" --Moose Peterson, Wildlife Photographer "A very slick little app, and a landscape photographer's new best friend." --Scott Kelby, Editor of Photoshop User Magazine "As a nature photographer who spends much of my time photographing locations with no cell or wifi coverage, Focalware is essential to my ability to plot and plan for the sun and moon’s arrival and departure, no matter where I am." --Gary Hart, EloquentImages.com Rated one of the 10 most useful iPhone Apps for Photographers by Pop Photo.
Open Prompter
Record content with a teleprompter that reads markdown files directly from your device. Features voice tracking, customizable text, and front camera recording. Seamlessly saves videos to your Photos and script folders.
- Reads markdown files from iCloud, Obsidian, or Files
- On-device voice tracking for scroll synchronization
- Front camera recording with picture-in-picture
- Adjustable font size, scroll speed, and legibility fonts
- Horizontal and vertical mirroring for teleprompter rigs
- Bluetooth remote support for playback control
- Open source and no account required
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Open Prompter is a teleprompter supporting markdown files and every "Pro" feature you need to record content (plus some extras). It reads universal .md files from iCloud, your Obsidian vault or any source in IOS Files — as-is, with live updates, no paste, no import needed. Read it back at your pace with voice tracking while the selfie camera records you. The file saves to your Photos and back to your script folder for the most seamless workflow. THE READING EXPERIENCE — Voice tracking using on-device speech recognition follows what you actually said, so the page advances when you do. Your data never leaves the phone. — Horizontal AND vertical mirroring for beam-splitter teleprompter rigs. — Six legibility-tuned fonts built in: Atkinson Hyperlegible (default), Lexend, System Sans, Verdana, New York (Serif), and the brand monospace. — Adjustable scroll speed (5–200 px/s) and font size (16–160 pt) so dense scripts and eye-line reads both work. — Focus mode dims the chrome for clean recording — a single eye button brings it back. — Full-bleed prompter with vertical or horizontal rotation. CAMERA AND RECORDING — Front camera native recording inside the app. A picture-in-picture tile floats over the script while you read; tap it to promote to a full-screen camera preview; tap minimize to collapse it back. — Open Gate recording on iPhone 17 with the full 1:1 front sensor at 3840 × 3840. Perform your script once, crop a 9:16 / 1:1 / 16:9 from the same take in your editor. No reshoot for every platform. — Save next to the script: toggle in Settings → Recording. When on, the .mov writes to the same folder as the .md so iCloud delivers the take to your Mac next to the script. No "where did I put that file" hunt. — Standard or High Bitrate HEVC, sized for quality and efficiency. — True 24p frame rate or 30p or 60p (if you're feeling wild). BUILT-IN EDITOR Tap the pencil in the top bar to open the file. Changes save back through the file coordinator — iCloud syncs them to your Mac the same way it syncs any other file. BLUETOOTH REMOTE Pair any Bluetooth keyboard or media remote and bind buttons to play, pause, mirror, restart, and more. Volume-button capture is opt-in (Settings → Remote) so the volume rocker still works as a volume rocker by default. WHAT IT UNDERSTANDS Open Prompter parses real markdown. Headings render as headings, bullets as bullets, numbered lists as numbered lists. Front matter, Callouts (> footnotes, tables, and visual-direction brackets ([B-roll: ...]) are stripped. Aggressive stripping is on by default; turn it off in Settings if you want to see cues on screen. WHAT YOU WON'T FIND HERE No account. No subscription. No analytics. No tracking. No third-party SDKs. No network calls of any kind. Voice tracking and the camera both run entirely on-device. Open Prompter reads the files you pick from the built-in Files app, captures with the camera you already own. OPEN SOURCE Every line of code is on GitHub under the MIT license. REQUIREMENTS — iPhone on iOS 17 or newer — For iCloud live-sync: the same Apple ID on Mac and phone — For Obsidian vaults: Obsidian Sync or any folder the iOS Files app can reach — For Open Gate recording: iPhone 17 family (older iPhones record at the maximum frame their sensor exposes — the square-headroom re-crop trick is iPhone 17-only) — For Bluetooth remote: any keyboard or media remote your iPhone can pair with
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Open Prompter at free against Focalware's paid. Open Prompter also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 12 months) and review sentiment (100% vs 73%). Focalware's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Focalware against 5.0 for Open Prompter. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6 and 4 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 73% of Focalware's written reviews are positive against 100% of Open Prompter's.
Focalware ships an update every 12 months, Open Prompter fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Focalware | Open Prompter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (6 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 73.5% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 12 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Warner Photography, Inc. | LELAND ANDREW DUTCHER |
Customer experience
Focalware
Open Prompter
In-app purchases
Focalware
No in-app purchases
Open Prompter
No in-app purchases








