Owncasts vs Plex Photos
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Owncasts
Discover and watch independent live streams from various sources. Receive instant notifications when your favorite streamers go live, ensuring you never miss an update. This app aggregates content from Owncast-powered platforms.
- Watch independent live streams
- Get notified when streamers go live
- Aggregate Owncast-powered content
- On-the-go viewing
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Add your favorite Owncast-powered live streams to watch on the go. Get notified when streamers go live so you'll never miss out. If you're an Owncast streamer, you can stream to your personal instance directly from this app!
Plex Photos
Access and view your personal photo libraries from anywhere. Relive your favorite moments with curated highlights, chronological timelines, and organized library browsing. Requires a Plex Media Server with a photos library.
- Recommended photo highlights
- Chronological timeline view
- Browse by folders and albums
- Access personal media libraries
- Seamless remote viewing
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Important: A Plex Media Server with access to at least one photos library is required to use this application. Plex Photos is your dedicated app for viewing your personal media photo libraries, providing a seamless and intuitive way to relive your favorite moments. Whether you're at home or on the go, Plex Photos lets you access your personal photo collection with ease. Currently Supported Features: - Recommended View: Discover curated highlights from your photo library, bringing your best moments to the forefront. - Timeline View: Explore your photos in a chronological format, making it easy to travel back in time and revisit memories from specific dates. - Library View: Browse through your entire photo collection organized by folders and albums, making it simple to find and view exactly what you're looking for. Note: This is the first Plex Photos release and will receive regular updates over the coming months. We're committed to adding new features, improving performance, and enhancing your overall experience. We value your feedback and encourage you to share your thoughts with us in the forums as we continue to develop and refine the app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Owncasts at 3.9 against Plex Photos's 1.3. Owncasts also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 5 months). Plex Photos's advantage is ratings volume (292 vs 7). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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.
Owncasts holds the better App Store score, 3.9 against 1.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Plex Photos has 292 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 0% of Owncasts's written reviews are positive against 4% of Plex Photos's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Owncasts ships an update weekly, Plex Photos every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Owncasts | Plex Photos |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (7 ratings) — better | 1.3 (292 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 3.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7 | 292 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 25 MB | 52 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Gabe Kangas | Plex Inc. |
Customer experience
Owncasts
Plex Photos
Bugs and requests
Owncasts
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Plex Photos
Reported bugs
4 issues- Buttons not responding to touch
- Vertical videos shown in landscape
- Photos disappearing or not loading
- Rotation issues causing app freezes
Requested features
5 requests- Add ability to sync photos from mobile devices
- Implement HEIC format support
- Improve video playback controls
- Allow organizing photos into albums
- Integrate with cloud storage services
In-app purchases
Owncasts
No in-app purchases
Plex Photos
No in-app purchases
