Comparison

ClockFire vs DigiFrame

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β€” 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 β€’ Show albums, Favorites, and On This Day memories from your photo library, or import your own photos β€’ Start right away with more than 40 stunning sample photos β€’ Smart framing keeps faces and subjects in view β€’ Slow, cinematic Ken Burns pan and zoom β€’ Two portrait photos side by side on landscape screens β€’ Discreet captions with the date and place A CLOCK MADE OF FIRE β€’ Real-time flames, embers, and heat haze β€’ More effects to match your mood: Smoke, Plasma, Neon, Ice, Molten Gold, Liquid Glass, Aurora, Hologram, and Minimal β€’ Several clock styles, from 7-segment to rounded, thin, and serif β€’ Your favorite colors, plus the date β€’ Local weather, with temperature and conditions β€’ Time and date formats that follow your region settings CINEMATIC TRANSITIONS β€’ The 20 ClockFire classics, reimagined in 3D: flips, page turn, tiles, waves, ripple, twirl… β€’ 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. 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 β€’ Night mode dims the frame, keeps only the clock, or turns the screen off on a schedule β€’ HDR glow on XDR displays β€’ Keeps the screen awake, like a screensaver for your desk, nightstand, or kitchen β€’ Tap for controls, swipe for the next or previous photo, drag and pinch the clock, double-tap for settings β€’ 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, and local weather on the clock. Not sure yet? Preview any Pro feature live for 30 seconds. Weather data provided by Apple Weather.

About

DigiFrame

Features
Read full description

Give an old iPad a second life. DigiFrame turns the iPad or iPhone you stopped carrying into a digital photo frame that also shows the time, the weather and what is next on your calendar, arranged the way you want them. Stand it on a shelf, plug it in, and let your photos play. The screen stays awake while the frame is showing. WHY A FRAME APP INSTEAD OF A FRAME β€’ No hardware to buy. The device in the drawer is the frame. β€’ No account to create and nothing to upload. Your photos stay in your Photos library, on your device. β€’ Works on the iPhone too, standing on a nightstand or a desk. BUILD THE SCREEN YOU WANT Standby mode lets you design what the frame shows. Choose a layout β€” Full Screen, Split, or Full Screen with Sidebar β€” then fill each pane with widgets. Build as many screens as you like and swipe between them. Swipe up and down inside a pane to move through the widgets stacked there. Free widgets: β€’ Photo β€” your album, edge to edge β€’ Minimal Clock β€’ Date β€’ Greeting With PRO: β€’ Digital, Analog and Flip clocks, in four themes β€’ Weather β€” current conditions and the days ahead β€’ Calendar β€” what's next, from the calendars you choose PHOTOS ON YOUR TERMS Every album keeps its own playback settings: β€’ Order β€” drag photos into any order, sort by the date each was taken, or shuffle β€’ Fit β€” fill the screen, or show the whole photo without cropping β€’ Zoom β€” a slow drift across each photo: subtle, standard, or off β€’ Transition β€” crossfade, slide, or none β€’ Speed β€” how long each photo holds When a photo is cropped to fill the screen, DigiFrame crops around the people in it rather than the centre, so faces near an edge stay in frame. LOCAL AND CLOUD ALBUMS Keep albums on the device, or make them cloud albums and they sync across your devices through iCloud: set up the frame once, then add photos from the phone in your pocket. Cloud albums stay readable even when iCloud is briefly unreachable. IN TWELVE LANGUAGES English, Arabic, French, German, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese and Spanish. Choose one in Settings, whatever your device is set to. DIGIFRAME PRO PRO unlocks the Digital, Analog and Flip clocks, the Weather and Calendar widgets, the grid photo layout, and photo overlays that put the clock, date and your next event over your pictures. DigiFrame PRO is an auto-renewing subscription, available monthly or annually. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. It renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and you can manage or cancel it any time in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://digiframe.netlify.app/privacy-policy Weather data provided by Apple Weather.

Screenshots

ClockFire4 screens
DigiFrame4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: DigiFrame at every 23 months against ClockFire's every 100 months. DigiFrame also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ClockFire ships an update every 100 months, DigiFrame every 23 months. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Β· 6 level
ClockFire versus DigiFrame: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterClockFireDigiFrame
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews33.3% of reviewsβ€”
Update frequencyEvery 100 monthsEvery 23 months β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeβ€”
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod β€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.0 β€” better
Further details β€” not scored
Size102 MB10 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperEric DegrangeMarc Aupont

In-app purchases

None

ClockFire

No in-app purchases

None

DigiFrame

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ClockFire free?
ClockFire is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is DigiFrame free?
DigiFrame is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do ClockFire or DigiFrame have ads?
Neither ClockFire nor DigiFrame shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ClockFire or DigiFrame?
ClockFire ships an update every 100 months, and DigiFrame every 23 months. Most recently, ClockFire was updated on October 19, 2026 and DigiFrame on October 4, 2026.

Other comparisons