Sun Surveyor Lite vs Playndisplays
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sun Surveyor Lite
This app helps photographers, filmmakers, and professionals visualize and plan around the sun's path. It predicts sunrise, sunset, and twilight times, and offers tools to understand light and shadows for optimal planning.
- Predict sunrise and sunset times
- Visualize sun's path
- Golden hour and blue hour planning
- Twilight time calculations
- Sun shadow information
- Visual time machine
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Sun Surveyor Lite takes the mystery out of the sunrise, sunset and magic hours, helping photographers and filmmakers scout the best locations, plan effectively, and get the perfect shot. Solar Industry (PV) Professionals, architects, real estate agents, and gardeners will also find a wealth of empowering, interactive features. The 3D Compass and detailed Ephemeris provide a wealth of information about the largest natural light source in the galaxy: - Predict and plan for the golden hour, blue hour and every sunrise & sunset - Visualize the sun's path throughout the day or through the year Additional features: - Visual time machine - take a quick glance at the light for a day, or dial in desired compositions easily - Twilight times - civil, nautical, astronomical - Solstice and Equinox visualization - Sun shadow information - calculate the length of shadows cast by objects - Magnetic declination compensation Check out the Full Version of Sun Surveyor for more: - Live Camera View - augmented reality projections of the sun and moon paths, pinpoint the time the sun or moon will be at a particular location in the sky - Interactive Map View - plan a remote shot or PV array placement, interact with a top-down perspective of sun and moon paths and events - Street View Panoramas - 360 degree spherical panoramas with selected sun, moon and milky way events overlaid, where available - Moon Information: moon position, moonrise, moonset, moon phases, apogee, perigee, distance and a Super Moon finder - Show clients the quality and quantity of seasonal sunlight at a remote location - Understand potential shade of surroundings and discover any obstructions - Create images of the summer and winter Solstice & Equinox paths for a site - Prepare night photography shots with the Milky Way & star trail features - Offline usage (excludes Map View, Street View) - enter coordinates, save & load locations with no data connection or GPS available - Measure distance, and difference between elevations, and vertical angle differentials with the Map view - Import and export Google Earth .kmz/.kml locations
Playndisplays
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Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Playndisplays at every 3 weeks against Sun Surveyor Lite's every 2 months. Playndisplays also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Sun Surveyor Lite ships an update every 2 months, Playndisplays every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sun Surveyor Lite | Playndisplays |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (37 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 78.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 37 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 16 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 57 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Adam Ratana | Mediatrama |
Bugs and requests
Sun Surveyor Lite
Reported bugs
11 issues- Sun no longer appears where it should
- Sun direction is wrong indoors without GPS
- Sun is off by more than 10 degrees
- Sunrise time not working
- App crashes when selecting location
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- Latest update stopped working
- Compass is always off
- Compass is reversed
- Lite version has an obscuring dialog box
- Map view is not working correctly
- App crashes on iPhone 5 iOS 7
Requested features
9 requests- Make the version free
- Move UI options
- Add dark mode
- Add day-length feature
- Add UV index
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- Add sunrise alarm
- Fix time zone for Russia
- Allow user to move UI elements
- Offer a trial for the full version
Playndisplays
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Sun Surveyor Lite
No in-app purchases
Playndisplays
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Sun Surveyor Lite free?
Is Playndisplays free?
Do Sun Surveyor Lite or Playndisplays have ads?
Which is updated more often, Sun Surveyor Lite or Playndisplays?
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