Magic Hour vs Daylight BASIC
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Magic Hour
This app helps photographers and cinematographers find the optimal times for shooting around sunrise and sunset. It provides precise calculations for 'magic hour' based on your location and offers moon phase information. Optional in-app purchases unlock advanced features like location selection and calendar integration.
- Magic hour time calculation
- Sunrise and sunset times
- Moonrise and full moon alerts
- Weather forecast integration
- Customizable notifications
- Location-based planning
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Magic Hour (also called golden hour) is the time of day around sunrise and sunset when the light is great for photography and cinematography. It is typically when the sun is between 6 degrees below the horizon to 6 degrees above. This sunlight is evenly dispersed and helps you create great pictures. Magic Hour makes it easy for you to know when magic hour is coming and how much time you have left once it begins. The app takes your location along with the current day and calculates when magic hour will occur. If the weather forecast is available we give that to you as well. What other light is cool to photograph in? The moon, of course. And you want a full moon for that. Our Moon Watch section lets you know the next moonrise and when the next full moon will appear. In addition to this, you can set up notifications on and before magic hour begins. And with our in-app purchase you can select locations other than your current one, view future magic hour times, and create calendar events for them. Data that is used with the Magic Hour App (e.g. locations, notifications, calendar events, etc.) remain local to your device and are not transmitted nor remotely stored.
Daylight BASIC
This app displays daily and future sunshine hours, along with sunrise and sunset times for your current location. It also tracks changes in sunshine duration over various periods, including comparisons to solstices.
- Sunshine hours display
- Sunrise and sunset times
- Future time projections
- Sunshine hour difference tracking
- Location-based data
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Shows you the sunshine hours as well as the sunrise and sunset times of your current location. Wherever you are. ・sunshine hours for today, tomorrow, in a week and in a month ・sunrise and sunset times for today, tomorrow, in a week and in a month ・difference of sunshine hours for yesterday, today, tomorrow, in a week, in a month and in relation to solstices
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Magic Hour at 4.8 against Daylight BASIC's 2.0. Magic Hour also leads on ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (5.2K vs 6). Daylight BASIC's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, review sentiment, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Magic Hour sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Daylight BASIC asks for nothing beyond the download.
Magic Hour holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Magic Hour has 5.2K ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 77% of Magic Hour's written reviews are positive against 80% of Daylight BASIC's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Magic Hour | Daylight BASIC |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (5.2K ratings) — better | 2.0 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.8% of reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 5.2K — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Linda Byrket | factsoft ag |
Customer experience
Magic Hour
Daylight BASIC
Bugs and requests
Magic Hour
Reported bugs
8 issues- 🐛 Time way off
- 🐛 Can't change location
- 🐛 Crashes all the time
- 🐛 Can't see future dates anymore
- 🐛 Widget doesn't update
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- 🐛 Keeps crashing
- 🐛 Can't determine magic hour at another location
- 🐛 App crashes
Requested features
7 requests- 💡 Moonrise notification
- 💡 Notification when magic hour ends
- 💡 Blue hour option
- 💡 Allow users to set their own background photo
- 💡 Ability to plan shoots in different locations
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- 💡 Companion app for planning sunsets weeks in advance
- 💡 Custom alert tones
Daylight BASIC
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Magic Hour
- Add Locations Ability$0.99
Daylight BASIC
No in-app purchases
