Comparison

ThingLink vs HDReye

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

Head to head
About

ThingLink

Create engaging interactive experiences with images, videos, and 360 media. Add clickable tags to build virtual tours and learning materials. Supports over 80 languages with Immersive Reader integration.

Highlights
  • Create interactive images, videos, and 360 media
  • Add clickable tags with text and audio
  • Build virtual tours and learning experiences
  • Immersive Reader integration for 80+ languages
  • Track engagement and learning analytics
  • Mobile device camera integration
Read full description

The easiest way to create exciting, interactive experiences and virtual tours! Quickly create and share interactive images, videos, 360 media, and 3D models with clickable tags. Build experiences that engage and excite. ThingLink’s Immersive Reader integration makes your materials readable in over 80 languages. Use ThingLink in education • Create personalized, adaptive learning learning experiences that are proven to improve learning outcomes. • Use ThingLink on iPads and tablets in the classroom to develop digital literacy and future-ready skills. • Track engagement on all learning materials, videos and virtual tours, also suitable for educational research. • Make interactive infographics, maps, virtual tours, curriculum organizers, project-based learning presentations, escape rooms and digital breakouts for blended and distance learning. • Ideal for blended and hybrid learning, self-paced online learning in higher education. Use ThingLink for corporate training • Easily recreate local work environments and situations to develop competencies, practical knowledge and skills. • Train employees using virtual learning environments, simulations, and scenarios. • Share instructions and status updates with annotated photos and videos. • Improve productivity, save in logistics, content production and translation costs. • Learning analytics: Automate and scale mandatory training, track completion rate per learner. • Technology integration with existing learning management systems (LMS). Use ThingLink for marketing and communications • Increase time spent and clicks on infographics, floorplans, maps, virtual showrooms, product catalogs, and videos. • Ideal for boosting product marketing, brand engagement, internal communications, company website, social media and customer engagement. • Track engagement and collect data for your next campaign. Easily go back to edit and improve projects any time directly from the mobile app! Trusted by over 8 million creators, teachers, and learners around the world, ThingLink is a must have app in your suite of 21st century digital content creation tools. We’re the pioneer of interactive media, easy virtual tours and immersive scenarios. ThingLink is transforming corporate training, teaching and learning with its innovative interactive media solution. Awards and mentions: The 101 Hottest EdTech Tools According to Education Experts (number 17!), UNESCO ICT in Education Prize. Shoot, snap or upload your media Integrated with your mobile device camera: Capture photos, video and even 360 media with your mobile device, then just select and annotate them with the ThingLink app in minutes! Be inspired Access our professional 360 degree image collection to clone for your own use. Use our integration with Unsplash to get access to unlimited images. Ideal resource for course design, professional development, trainers, curricula planning, homework and documenting assignments. Easy to Use Editor Add text and audio notes, links, quizzes, Google apps, and other embeds from websites, images and video to hotspots. Add transitions from one scene to another, change icons, adjust colors, even record audio directly into a tag or so that it plays when the image is viewed! Organize and share digital learning resources Organize folders and share your interactive media amongst colleagues, easily publish to the web, any learning management system, Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Moodle, Moocs, or other platforms. Access your analytics all from within the mobile app. Virtual Reality 360 Scenes / Virtual Tours Use the tour tag to combine one scene with another and create an immersive walk-through or virtual tour. Visualize tours on VR Headsets, Oculus, Class VR, and Google Cardboard. Start creating now! Follow @thinglink on social media for tips. Need help or have a request? support@thinglink.com

About

HDReye

Create custom 360° HDRi images for realistic 3D lighting and compositing directly from your phone. Capture bracketed panoramas and generate 32-bit EXR files for seamless integration with 3D software and AR development.

Highlights
  • Create 360° HDRi images
  • Shoot bracketed multi-exposure panoramas
  • Generate 32-bit .EXR files
  • Realistic 3D lighting and compositing
  • Image-based lighting solution
  • Access to crowdsourced HDRi collection
Features
Read full description

Finally, an app to shoot 360° HDRis with your phone. HDReye is the first and only iOS app for creating custom 360° HDRi images for realistic 3D lighting and compositing. Just select your desired dynamic range, follow the prompts to shoot a bracketed multi-exposure panorama of your location, and HDReye will stitch and generate a 32-bit (.EXR format) HDRi of your location. HDReye is an essential app for combining 3D animation realistically with footage or capturing lightmaps of any location. What used to require an expensive 360° camera or chrome ball light probe, now can be done conveniently on your phone with HDReye. Whether you are an independent 3D artist, VFX studio, AR developer, NFT artist, content creator, or just a hobbyist - HDReye is here to make your workflow simpler and renders more realistic. HDReye is your image-based lighting solution. Compatible with all 3D packages and render engines including Cinema 4D, Blender, Houdini, Maya, 3D Studio Max, Adobe After Effects, Element 3D, OTOY Octane Render, Redshift, V-ray, Arnold, Unreal Engine, Unity, Spark AR, and more. HDReye users also have access to the largest crowdsourced collection of HDRi images in the world. HDReye also works well for capturing 360° panoramas similar to the Google Street View app. Terms of Use: http://hdreye.app/terms/ Privacy Policy: http://hdreye.app/privacy/

Screenshots

ThingLink4 screens
HDReye4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: HDReye at 4.5 against ThingLink's 3.8. HDReye also leads on ratings volume (771 vs 10) and update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months). ThingLink's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and review sentiment (38% vs 29%). On price, ads 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

Both are free to download. HDReye sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. ThingLink asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

HDReye holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HDReye has 771 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 38% of ThingLink's written reviews are positive against 29% of HDReye's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ThingLink ships an update every 3 months, HDReye monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
ThingLink versus HDReye: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThingLinkHDReye
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (10 ratings)4.5 (771 ratings) — better
Positive reviews37.7% of reviews — better28.6% of reviews
Number of ratings10771 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS11.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size30 MB90 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperThinglinkHDReye Technologies Inc.

Customer experience

ThingLink

All ratings10 ratings
Positive70.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative30.0%
Written reviews106 reviews
Positive37.7%
Neutral5.7%
Negative56.6%

HDReye

All ratings771 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral2.7%
Negative9.1%
Written reviews189 reviews
Positive28.6%
Neutral5.3%
Negative66.1%

User reviews

ThingLink

From 10 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use and intuitive interface
  • 🎓 Great for educational purposes and student engagement
  • 🖼️ Excellent multimedia capabilities with video and image linking
  • 💻 Works across multiple devices (laptops and mobile)
  • 🔗 Multiple links can be added to single images

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent app crashes and glitches
  • ❌ Data loss - work deleted after saving
  • 🔐 Login and authentication issues
  • ⚠️ White screen glitches and broken functionality
  • 🔄 Inconsistent performance and reliability

HDReye

From 771 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 👍 High-quality stitching
  • 💡 Convenient for VFX work
  • 🚀 Fast processing
  • 👍 Intuitive workflow

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Paywall to preview/download
  • 🐛 Inconsistent stitching quality
  • 💰 Expensive subscription model
  • 🐛 Crashes and server issues
  • 🔒 No offline processing

Bugs and requests

ThingLink

Reported bugs

12 issues
  • App crashes when taking photos or videos
  • Icon options fail to download (infinite spinning)
  • Login functionality broken or extremely difficult
  • Projects deleted unexpectedly
  • White screen display on startup
Show 7 more
  • Image processing stuck in infinite loop
  • Video playback errors with skin loading
  • Caption text disappears
  • App shuts down immediately after opening
  • Signup page appears repeatedly
  • 360 image functionality not working
  • Incompatibility with VR headsets

Requested features

12 requests
  • Landscape mode support
  • Ability to edit images after publishing
  • Reduce size of hotspot symbols
  • Longer video duration limits
  • Ability to tag images within images
Show 7 more
  • Save projects to camera roll
  • Dark mode option
  • Open In feature for sharing to other apps
  • Better icon customization options
  • Zoom capability for embedded pictures
  • Content filtering for educational use
  • Account name change functionality

HDReye

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Account deletion issues
  • Stuck on processing/uploading
  • Disappearing credits

Requested features

4 requests
  • Free trial or preview option
  • Ability to stitch locally on device
  • One-time purchase option
  • Improved stitching algorithm

In-app purchases

None

ThingLink

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

HDReye

Subscriptions3
  • HDReye Pro$6.991 Month
  • HDReye Pro3 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • HDReye Pro$39.991 Year
One-time1
  • Asset unlock$2.99

Questions

Is ThingLink free?
ThingLink is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is HDReye free?
HDReye is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ThingLink or HDReye?
HDReye is rated higher. ThingLink averages 3.8 out of 5 from 10 ratings, while HDReye averages 4.5 from 771 ratings.
Do ThingLink or HDReye have ads?
Neither ThingLink nor HDReye shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ThingLink or HDReye?
ThingLink ships an update every 3 months, and HDReye monthly. Most recently, ThingLink was updated on October 8, 2026 and HDReye on October 11, 2026.

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