Comparison

ClockFire vs Photo Frame Effects Editor

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

ClockFire

Transform your device into a dynamic digital photo frame with realistic fire, smoke, or plasma clock effects. Customize transitions, zoom, and photo display order for a personalized viewing experience. Add atmospheric touches like snow or rain for an enhanced mood.

Highlights
  • Realistic fire, smoke, or plasma clock effects
  • 20 transition effects
  • Customizable transition duration and type
  • Zoom effect on photos
  • Random or ordered photo display
  • Optional snow or rain overlays
Features
Read full description

Turn your iPad, iPhone, Mac, or Apple TV into a living digital photo frame, with the time written in real fire. A beautiful desk, bedside, and night clock over your favorite photos, with cinematic transitions, Live Scenes, and atmospheres. ClockFire first lit up screens in 2010. ClockFire 2 is a complete rebirth: rebuilt from scratch with Metal and rendered in real time on iPad, iPhone, Mac, and Apple TV. YOUR PHOTOS, BEAUTIFULLY FRAMED • Show albums, Favorites, and On This Day memories from your photo library, or import your own photos • Start right away with more than 40 stunning sample photos • Smart framing keeps faces and subjects in view • Slow, cinematic Ken Burns pan and zoom • Two portrait photos side by side on landscape screens • Discreet captions with the date and place A CLOCK MADE OF FIRE • Real-time flames, embers, and heat haze • More effects to match your mood: Smoke, Plasma, Neon, Ice, Molten Gold, Liquid Glass, Aurora, Hologram, and Minimal • Several clock styles, from 7-segment to rounded, thin, and serif • Your favorite colors, plus the date • Local weather, with temperature and conditions • Time and date formats that follow your region settings CINEMATIC TRANSITIONS • The 20 ClockFire classics, reimagined in 3D: flips, page turn, tiles, waves, ripple, twirl… • Spectacular new ones: burning paper, page curl, glass shatter, cube, dust, ink, water drop… LIVE SCENES Animated paintings rendered in real time between your photos: a cozy fireplace, northern lights, an ocean sunset, a misty forest with fireflies, an underwater lagoon, a koi pond, a black hole, a nebula, a spiral galaxy, a lava lamp, synthwave, and more. CHRISTMAS AND HALLOWEEN Three big Christmas scenes that come alive all December: • Santa’s Run: the elves’ village at the North Pole, a magic box to open on each day of Advent and, on the night of the 24th, the sleigh following midnight around the Earth, all the way to your home • Christmas Village: skaters on the frozen lake, a steam train and bells at midnight • Christmas Hamlet: a fairy tale in the woods, twinkling fir trees and a bonfire And for Halloween: fog, storms and ghosts. Try each big scene in full for an hour. YOUR MUSIC Tens of thousands of radio stations from around the world, your own songs or your Apple Music playlists, in place of the scenes’ sounds. The song playing shows under the clock. ATMOSPHERES Snow, rain, rain on glass, fireflies, cherry blossoms, autumn leaves, embers, shooting stars, mist, bubbles, and light rays. Choose Seasons to follow the time of year, or Live Weather to bring the sky outside onto your frame: when it rains outside, it rains on your photos. MADE FOR DAY AND NIGHT • Night mode dims the frame, keeps only the clock, or turns the screen off on a schedule • HDR glow on XDR displays • Keeps the screen awake, like a screensaver for your desk, nightstand, or kitchen • Tap for controls, swipe for the next or previous photo, drag and pinch the clock, double-tap for settings • Menus and keyboard shortcuts on Mac, full remote support on Apple TV FREE, WITH AN OPTIONAL ONE-TIME UPGRADE ClockFire is free to download and includes unlimited photos, the Fire and Minimal clocks, 10 transitions, 2 Live Scenes, snow and rain, and night mode. ClockFire Pro is a one-time purchase, with no subscription. It unlocks every clock effect and color, all transitions, all Live Scenes, all atmospheres, local weather on the clock, your music files and Internet Radio. Not sure yet? Preview any Pro feature live for 30 seconds. Weather data provided by Apple Weather.

About

Photo Frame Effects Editor

Features
Read full description

Turn ordinary photos into polished frame edits, collages, and cutout scenes without wrestling with complicated controls. Make the look you want faster, then save or share it in the size that fits. Photo Frame Effects Editor helps you build photo frames, collage layouts, blend pictures, and scene edits from your own photos. Bring a person into a sunset scene, make a cover photo from two images, or clean up a portrait with crop and reframe before you share it. You can lay out a quick photo grid for a recap post, place text and stickers over a background photo, make a heart or circle shape collage, or cut out a person and place them on a new backdrop. If you want a designer frame, a blend photo effect, or a simple collage maker with clear export choices, it is all in one app. - Make a photo grid with layouts like side by side, 3 in one row, 2×2, 2×3, 3×3, and banner + row, then export a square collage. - Add captions and stickers on top of a background photo, change text color, size, font style, and turn on text outline for better readability. - Adjust your picture with Looks like Mono, Chrome, Fade, and Instant, then fine-tune exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, vibrance, and sharpness. - Press and hold in the filter editor to compare your edit with the original photo before you save it. - Place yourself in a scene with built-in gradient backdrops or your own backdrop photo, then move, scale, rotate, flip, or fade your foreground photo. - Cut out person photos and place them on a new background, with messages that help if the photo is unclear. - Blend two pictures with Normal, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light, Difference, and more for creative collage results. - Make a shape collage with Circle, Rounded square, Heart, or Diamond masks. - Build a designer frame with custom mat and frame colors, then reset the pose anytime. - Create a wide cover image with separate backdrop and foreground photos. - Crop and reframe with popular aspect choices, using simple pan and pinch gestures. - Save or share as PNG or JPEG, and jump back into recent edits from the home screen. Everything is arranged around clear editors, so you can switch from a photo frame to a cover photo or collage maker without learning a new workflow each time. Recent edits help you reopen past exports, and the shared move, pinch, rotate, flip, and opacity controls make Scenic frames, Blend, Shape collage, Designer frame, Cover image, and Cut & place feel consistent. That makes it handy for everyday jobs like making a birthday collage, trying a blend photo look, building a clean cover image, or placing a cutout portrait into a new scene right on your phone. Some backdrops, export options, and batch export are available with Pro. Free users can also get temporary access to a Pro feature after watching a short ad. The app asks for photo access only to choose your pictures and save your finished images, and Pro removes ads. Pick a mode, place your photos, and make a frame, collage, or cover image that looks ready to share. Terms of Use (EULA) - http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/appstore/dev/stdeula

Screenshots

ClockFire4 screens
Photo Frame Effects Editor4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: ClockFire at none against Photo Frame Effects Editor's shown. ClockFire also leads on device support (4 vs 2). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ClockFire sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Photo Frame Effects Editor sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
ClockFire versus Photo Frame Effects Editor: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterClockFirePhoto Frame Effects Editor
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 3 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size33 MB12 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperEric DegrangeSandeep Bhandari

In-app purchases

1 purchases

ClockFire

One-time1
  • ClockFire Pro$2.99
3 purchases

Photo Frame Effects Editor

Subscriptions2
  • Photo Frame Pro — Weekly$4.997 Days
  • Photo Frame Pro — Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Photo Frame Pro — Lifetime$99.99

Questions

Is ClockFire free?
ClockFire is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Photo Frame Effects Editor free?
Photo Frame Effects Editor is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do ClockFire or Photo Frame Effects Editor have ads?
Photo Frame Effects Editor shows ads; ClockFire does not.
Which is updated more often, ClockFire or Photo Frame Effects Editor?
ClockFire ships an update every 3 months, and Photo Frame Effects Editor every 3 months. Most recently, ClockFire was updated on October 27, 2026 and Photo Frame Effects Editor on October 6, 2026.

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