Comparison

Develop! Film Timer vs Film Development Assistant

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

Head to head
About

Develop! Film Timer

This app provides a flexible and intuitive timer for film and darkroom development. Create custom development recipes with multiple steps and intervals, and utilize a special darkroom mode for low-light conditions. Easily share your recipes and import them from FilmDev.org.

Highlights
  • Customizable development recipes
  • Multiple steps and intervals per recipe
  • Darkroom Mode (red-on-black theme)
  • Integrated interval timer
  • Import recipes from FilmDev.org
  • Share recipes via social media
Features
Read full description

Develop your film with a smile! Develop! is a flexible, elegant timer for developing film and working in the darkroom. Build your own development recipes in a few taps: as many steps as you need, each with its own agitation intervals. It's entirely up to you; you're in full control. Notable features: - Voice Control: Hands wet? Just say "NEXT" to move on to the next step. Recognition runs on your iPhone, no internet connection needed. - Keeps time in the background: Leave the app or lock your phone and the timer keeps running. You'll get a notification when a step ends and at every agitation. - Intervals: A built-in interval timer handles things like "beep after the first minute, then every 30 seconds." You'll see at a glance how long until your next inversion. - Darkroom Mode: A strict red-on-black theme for darkroom use. - Flexible: As many recipes and steps as you like, steps of up to 90 minutes, named your way, with notes for every recipe. - Easy to read: A large timer you can see across the room, styled after a classic camera body, right down to the vulcanite. - Import: Bring in recipes straight from FilmDev.org. - Share: Send a recipe as a file with Mail, Messages, AirDrop or anything else on the share sheet. No more losing track of time or forgetting to agitate every 30 seconds. Concentrate on being the best photographer and alchemist you can be, and leave the timing to Develop! Now go out there and shoot a roll of film. Good luck! 100% free. Always.

About

Film Development Assistant

This app helps amateur photographers track their film development chemicals and sessions. It monitors chemical batch expiration, usage, and provides multi-stage timers for development processes. Users can also record notes on session quality for future reference.

Highlights
  • Chemical batch tracking
  • Expiration date monitoring
  • Session tracking
  • Multi-stage development timers
  • Chemical usage calculation
  • Session notes and quality tracking
Features
Read full description

Film Development Assistant provides advanced features for every at-home photographic film developer! Reduce your risk of development issues by keeping track of your chemical batches and development sessions in the app. Our ever-evolving database of home development chemicals makes it easy to track the expiration dates of your mixed chemical batches based on the suggested shelf life from the manufacturer. Once you have your chemicals mixed, you can create sessions to track how many rolls/sheets of film you are developing, and the app will track the chemical usage for you so that you don't forget how much chemical capacity you have remaining! The visual progress indicators for your chemical batch freshness are a very useful tool for keeping track of your chemicals and making sure you either use them before expiration, or prevent yourself from using already expired or depleted chemicals. With each session, you can open a multi-stage timer to track the time for each stage of development. No more creating different timers by hand with the default timer app on your phone! And if you associate an existing chemical batch with each stage, the app will automatically adjust the development times of those stages based on the previous usage of your chemicals (or you can adjust the times manually). When you finish your sessions, you can take notes about how your session went so that you can learn from your home development process over time. You can keep track of the quality of the session and add your own notes to reference later.

Screenshots

Develop! Film Timer4 screens
Film Development Assistant3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Develop! Film Timer at none against Film Development Assistant's 2. Develop! Film Timer also leads on update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 10 months) and ratings volume (416 vs 4). Film Development Assistant's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8). On price, ads, device support 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. Film Development Assistant sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Develop! Film Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Film Development Assistant holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Develop! Film Timer has 416 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Develop! Film Timer ships an update every 4 weeks, Film Development Assistant every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on November 13, 2026 and November 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Develop! Film Timer versus Film Development Assistant: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDevelop! Film TimerFilm Development Assistant
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (416 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews88.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings416 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeks — betterEvery 10 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTodd BreslowZachary Burns

Customer experience

Develop! Film Timer

All ratings374 ratings
Positive95.2%
Neutral1.9%
Negative2.9%
Written reviews115 reviews
Positive88.7%
Neutral6.1%
Negative5.2%

Film Development Assistant

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Develop! Film Timer

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes on startup for some users
  • Timer stops when switching apps or locking phone
  • Issues with saving and editing recipes

Requested features

7 requests
  • Ability to pause and resume timers
  • Option to clone/duplicate existing recipes
  • Integration with development charts or databases
  • More detailed task descriptions and notes
  • Ability to skip optional steps
Show 2 more
  • Larger font size for better visibility
  • Background music playback without interruption

Film Development Assistant

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Develop! Film Timer

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Film Development Assistant

One-time2
  • 7 Day Free TrialFree
  • Film Development Assistant Pro$4.99

Questions

Is Develop! Film Timer free?
Develop! Film Timer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Film Development Assistant free?
Film Development Assistant is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Develop! Film Timer or Film Development Assistant?
Film Development Assistant is rated higher. Develop! Film Timer averages 4.8 out of 5 from 416 ratings, while Film Development Assistant averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do Develop! Film Timer or Film Development Assistant have ads?
Neither Develop! Film Timer nor Film Development Assistant shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Develop! Film Timer or Film Development Assistant?
Develop! Film Timer ships an update every 4 weeks, and Film Development Assistant every 10 months. Most recently, Develop! Film Timer was updated on November 13, 2026 and Film Development Assistant on November 12, 2026.

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