ShowTool LD vs shift
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ShowTool LD
This app provides essential tools for lighting design and electrical calculations in theatre and film. It helps with beam angles, gel cutting, DMX addressing, power consumption, and network subnetting. Data syncs across devices via iCloud.
- Beam angle and throw calculations
- Gel cut and wastage estimation
- DMX universe/address translation
- Power consumption calculations
- Network subnetting tools
- iCloud data synchronization
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ShowTool LD is a comprehensive suite of Lighting Design and Electrics utilities for theatre and film. Beam Quickly calculate and visualise beam angles, throw and beam diameter. Gel Calculate the number of cuts and wastage from all major gel manufacturers and stock sizes. Choose from a selection of standard frame sizes, or define your own custom frame size. DMX Translate between universe/address and absolute address, discover how many fixtures will fit within a universe and calculate dip switch configuration. Power Simple power calculations in single and three phase configurations. Discover the total power consumption for your rig. Network What is a subnet? Easy tools to discover valid addresses for devices on your lighting network. Lists are kept in sync across all your devices using iCloud.
shift
This tool helps lighting designers and electricians monitor show progress on an Eos family console. It allows observation of pending and active cues, annotation of any cue, and live streaming of channel levels. Users can manage notes, track progress, and even edit console labels directly from their device.
- Connect to Eos consoles
- Monitor cue details
- Annotate cues with custom tags
- View live channel levels
- Manage and filter notes
- Edit console labels and notes
- Apple Watch app for cue monitoring
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An essential new tool for Lighting Designers and Electricians Shift-Label allows you to monitor the progress of your show on an eos family console - observe the pending and active cue and annotate any cue you wish. Key features include (note that some features require an in app purchase): - Connect to any Eos family console with minimal setup - Monitor details of all cues in any cue list, viewing labels, times and other attributes - divided by scene if required - Follow along with the current cue - Add multiple notes to cues, tagging notes with categories such as "Plotting", "Cueing" or "Focus" - all tags are user definable - View live streaming channel levels directly on your device (uses sACN) - Review all notes, or filter them down by taf - Mark notes as completed, or 'sleep' notes for a set time period to revisit later - Maintain separate sets of notes for different shows (great for when working in rep, or revisiting an old production) - Keeps cue details cached on device, allowing you to review details of the show and your notes when not at the console - On iPad run app in "split view" so you can monitor your show while using another app (such as safari or reading a pdf) - Jump directly to a cue on the console from a note - Edit the console label and notes fields directly from your iPad - Keypad control for basic channel manipulation from within app - Apple Watch app - monitor your console's current cue on your wrist! Note that for the watch app to function it must be paired with an iPhone with Shift-Label active and open, I suggest enabling "stop device from sleeping" in shift-label's settings Note that Shift-Label is not an official ETC product and is not authorised or endorsed by ETC in any way. ETC technical support will have no knowledge of the app
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: ShowTool LD at 70% against shift's 0%. ShowTool LD also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and rating (4.7 vs 4.3). shift's advantage is price (Free vs $4.99) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 5 months). On ratings volume, ads 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
shift is free to download; ShowTool LD costs $4.99 up front. shift sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. ShowTool LD asks for nothing beyond the download.
ShowTool LD holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6 and 3 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of ShowTool LD's written reviews are positive against 0% of shift's.
ShowTool LD ships an update every 5 months, shift every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 14, 2026 and June 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ShowTool LD | shift |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (6 ratings) — better | 4.3 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 70.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 10.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Daniel Murfin | Richard Williamson |
Customer experience
ShowTool LD
shift
In-app purchases
ShowTool LD
No in-app purchases
shift
- Full Access$10.99
