Comparison

Lighting Designer vs ChromaCalc

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

Head to head
About

Lighting Designer

Create professional overhead lighting plots for film, TV, theater, and events. Quickly illustrate and communicate lighting setups with a vast library of equipment and intuitive tools. Sync your work across all Apple devices.

Highlights
  • Create overhead lighting plots
  • Extensive equipment library (2000+ items)
  • Organize setups into Shows
  • Custom fixture creation with own images
  • Detailed light specifications
  • Floor plan drawing tools
  • Email editable Plots
Features
Read full description

Never draw a lighting setup on a scrap of paper again. Lighting Designer is a quick and intuitive way to create overhead lighting plots for film, theater, television, concerts, and anything else you can light. The wide selection of equipment and simple yet powerful interface makes it easier than ever to illustrate and communicate your lighting setups, from most Apple devices. Your Silicon Mac is powerful and gives you the most screen to work with; your iPad is large and versatile; your iPhone will go with you anywhere. And if you like, your work can sync among all your Apple devices using iCloud, so you can start plotting on one and finish on another. LD is perfect for tech scouts, working while traveling, or just choosing the couch over your desk chair. While expensive drafting programs can take hours to use and years to master, Lighting Designer is an accessible way to plan your next show! Features: • Organize your setups into Shows, with details like shooting dates and crew members • Choose from over 2000 built-in types of lights, grip equipment, camera gear, actors, and objects like furniture and musical instruments • With a Crescit Premium account, you can have access to an additional 25,000+ pieces of lighting equipment, gels, and gobo templates • Use your own images to create custom fixtures on your Plots (read the User Guide for image specs) • For each light, specify wattage, beam spread, light output, DMX address, color, and many other details • Certain fixtures include info for exposure approximation; all can be user-configured and have their exposure reverse-calculated from real-world readings • Use Groups to create flexible collections of lights • Notes allow you to describe every detail of your setup • Pack your Truck to share gear among multiple Plots • Draw a Floor Plan using basic shapes, and images from your device • Lights can target other objects, and objects can rig onto each other for easy adjustments • Email editable Plots to the crew, with images, equipment, and crew lists • Undo/Redo functionality • Dark Mode presents a dark workspace to reduce eyestrain and minimize your device's light in a dark environment

About

ChromaCalc

This tool helps cinematographers match and find equivalent colors for LED lighting fixtures. It uses spectral data from real instruments to achieve desired color intentions with various lighting and camera settings.

Highlights
  • Match LED lighting fixtures
  • Find equivalent light colors
  • Use spectral data
  • Configure lighting instruments
  • Adjust camera settings
  • Achieve color intent
Features
Read full description

With the advent of LED lighting fixtures for cinematography, it can be a challenge to match different lighting instruments to each other or to an intended color reference or to find equivalent light colors under different white points. This calculator uses spectral data measured from real world lighting instruments to help you find the best combination of settings to use on a variety of popular lighting instruments and cameras to achieve your intent. This app is licensed under the standard Apple license agreement which can be found here: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Lighting Designer4 screens
ChromaCalc1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: ChromaCalc at Free against Lighting Designer's $24.99. ChromaCalc also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.0) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 14.0). Lighting Designer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 8 months). On ads, monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

ChromaCalc is free to download; Lighting Designer costs $24.99 up front. ChromaCalc sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Lighting Designer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ChromaCalc holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lighting Designer has 144 ratings behind it against 14, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lighting Designer ships an update every 3 weeks, ChromaCalc every 8 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Lighting Designer versus ChromaCalc: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLighting DesignerChromaCalc
Price$24.99Free — better
Rating4.0 (144 ratings)4.7 (14 ratings) — better
Positive reviews46.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings144 — better14
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 8 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#181 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size80 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperScenario Software LLCChromatic Applications LLC

Customer experience

Lighting Designer

All ratings144 ratings
Positive74.3%
Neutral6.3%
Negative19.4%
Written reviews80 reviews
Positive46.3%
Neutral18.8%
Negative35.0%

ChromaCalc

All ratings14 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative7.1%

In-app purchases

None

Lighting Designer

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

ChromaCalc

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$9.991 Month
  • Yearly Subscription$99.991 Year

Questions

Is Lighting Designer free?
Lighting Designer costs $24.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is ChromaCalc free?
ChromaCalc is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Lighting Designer or ChromaCalc?
ChromaCalc is rated higher. Lighting Designer averages 4.0 out of 5 from 144 ratings, while ChromaCalc averages 4.7 from 14 ratings.
Do Lighting Designer or ChromaCalc have ads?
Neither Lighting Designer nor ChromaCalc shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lighting Designer or ChromaCalc?
Lighting Designer ships an update every 3 weeks, and ChromaCalc every 8 months. Most recently, Lighting Designer was updated on September 22, 2026 and ChromaCalc on September 10, 2026.

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