Fiber vs Sorphase
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Fiber
A utility application designed to assist professional communications technicians in servicing fiber optic networks. It provides essential tools for efficient network management and troubleshooting.
- Fiber network servicing
- Professional communication tools
- Network management
- Troubleshooting assistance
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Fiber is a utility for professional communications technicians to help them service fiber networks. It provides fiber optic color codes, following the TIA-598-C standard.
Sorphase
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Sorphase 3.0 turns your iPhone and iPad into a field-ready OTDR trace workbench. Open standard SR-4731 (.sor) files, keep them organized by cable, judge every event against published limits, average both directions and hand over a clean PDF report — offline, with no account and no subscription. NEW IN 3.0 - Trace library: import many SOR files at once, or share a .sor file from Files, Mail or AirDrop and choose Sorphase. Byte-for-byte copies are kept on your device and grouped into jobs by cable or project. - Pass/fail thresholds: presets use ANSI/TIA-568.3-D component limits (0.75 dB per mated connector pair, 0.3 dB per splice, cable attenuation and return loss). Add your own stricter project profile. - A–B cursors: tap to place cursors, zoom and nudge by one sample. Read distance, two-point loss, least-squares (LSA) attenuation in dB/km and a 4-point LSA event loss. - Fiber sections: every span between events gets its own least-squares attenuation, plus a length-weighted mean for the link. - Bidirectional averaging: pair A-to-B and B-to-A traces. Events are matched and averaged with (loss A-to-B + loss B-to-A) / 2, so gainers and exaggerated splice losses cancel out. - Macrobend check: overlay up to six traces. When 1310 and 1550 nm (or other wavelength pairs) are loaded, events whose loss rises by more than your threshold at the longer wavelength are flagged. - Cable summary: see pass/fail, length, loss, worst splice and worst reflectance for every fiber in a job. Export it as PDF or CSV. - PDF reports: trace plot, event table with results, fiber sections, link summary, identification and the method used. Share or save from the built-in preview. - Decoded file details: cable and fiber IDs, locations A and B, operator, fiber type, build condition, instrument and software from the file. Event codes are decoded too: reflective or not, found or added, end of fiber, loss technique. - Wider file support: SR-4731 revision 1 and revision 2 layouts. The CRC-16/XMODEM checksum variant written by some instruments is verified as well as the standard CRC-16/CCITT. - Units and corrections: kilometres, metres, feet or miles. Change the group index (IOR) to rescale every distance, and apply a helix factor to convert fiber length into cable length. - Loss budget calculator: length x attenuation + connectors + splices + other, with an optional power budget and margin. Fill it from a trace and compare it with the measured total loss. Also available as a Shortcuts and Siri action. - Sample job: five clearly labelled synthetic traces let you try every tool before you import your own files. STILL AT THE CORE - Stored samples plotted with min/max buckets, so narrow reflections stay visible. CSV export keeps every sample. - File integrity is checked. A file with an unrecognized checksum opens only after you confirm, and stays marked unverified in the app and in reports. - The import diagnostics list every block, the source SHA-256 and the reader notes. WHAT TO KNOW Sorphase reads binary SR-4731 files with one pulse width and one standard data group, up to 16 MB and one million samples. Multi-pulse files, vendor container formats and text exports are not supported. Event loss and reflectance are the instrument's stored values. Sorphase adds standards-based calculations (least-squares fits, bidirectional averages, loss budgets) and shows each formula in the app. It is an interpretation aid: it does not calibrate instruments and does not certify links. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts, analytics, advertising or tracking. Traces stay on your device until you export or share them yourself.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Fiber at Free against Sorphase's $3.99. Fiber also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). Sorphase's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 30 months). On 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
Fiber is free to download; Sorphase costs $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Fiber ships an update every 30 months, Sorphase every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Fiber | Sorphase |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $3.99 |
| Rating | 3.7 (15 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 15 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 30 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Gerry Cardinal III | Robert Corbin |
In-app purchases
Fiber
No in-app purchases
Sorphase
No in-app purchases









