Magic Cue vs Pluma
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Magic Cue
This app provides comprehensive show control for performers, allowing them to program and visualize audio, video, and camera elements. It integrates seamlessly with smart buttons for easy triggering of custom commands and supports both wired and wireless setups for flexible performance environments.
- Show programming with audio, video, and camera
- Integration with Flic Smart Buttons
- Long-range Bluetooth connectivity
- Wired and wireless setup options
- Import/export show elements
- Visual show programming
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Magic Cue is the official companion app to the Magic Cue hardware product. Magic Cue is the revolutionary show control technology designed for performers by performers powered by the iQ Pro engine. - You Control the Show Magic Cue puts the power in your hands with an easy-to-use interface suitable for beginners and advanced features for professionals. Visualise and program your entire show with audio, video, and camera capabilities on the go. - Seamless Integration with Flic Buttons Experience unmatched control with Flic Smart Buttons, known for their stability and security. These lightweight, tactile buttons integrate directly with Magic Cue, allowing you to trigger custom commands from anywhere on stage. - Reliable and Long-Range Bluetooth Enjoy reliable Bluetooth connectivity with a range of up to 200 meters outdoors and 50 meters indoors. Perform without worrying about connection issues. - Wired or Wireless Setup Magic Cue supports both wired HDMI connections and wireless streaming via Apple TV, ensuring you stay in control regardless of your setup. - Effortlessly Import and Export your Show Import your own videos, music, and images, or download from the cloud. Share and backup your shows easily, accessible anytime, anywhere. Transform your performances with Magic Cue, the ultimate show control app. Download the app now and take full control of your show, wherever you go.
Pluma
This app enhances impression boards with advanced AI for text and drawing recognition. It offers seamless integration with various third-party apps and devices, enabling new routines and providing a powerful yet user-friendly experience.
- Advanced AI text and drawing recognition
- Multiple impression board support
- Earworm and PeekSmith integration
- Offline text recognition
- Apple Watch app with covert mode
- Bridge & Inject integration
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Pluma is a fresh take on an impression board app, connecting to the boards you may already own. It offers dramatically better text recognition and powerful features, whilst simultaneously being dramatically better designed. Together, it's more powerful yet easier to use than the core apps offered by most impression boards. It also connects with my suite of apps as well as many third party apps, devices and services, enabling brand new routines never before possible. Features include: ** Advanced AI Text and Drawing Recognition Pluma AI offers best-in-class AI recognition, which can detect handwritten text AND drawings, in any orientation. ** Simultaneous Multiple Board support Receive peeks from up to four impression devices simultaneously! ** Offline Sync Lost connection mid-performance? Supported devices redraw everything written as soon as they reconnect. ** Earworm Integration Make a prediction in the YouTube app on your spectator's phone. Then, have your spectator write the name of any song on the impression pad. Pluma AI integrates with Earworm to do the rest: they just turn up the volume on the spectator's phone to find the chosen song playing in their YouTube app! ** Supports Multiple Board Types Currently supports boards from Lumen Pro, Iarvel, Pitata, Ultra Sharpie, Ultra Sharpie Neo, Oblivious Engage, NOVA Sharpie, PMA and Wave, with more brands added over time. ** Offline Text Recognition For times when there's no signal, Pluma includes excellent realtime offline AI text recognition at no extra charge. ** PeekSmith Integration Pluma connects directly to PeekSmith, letting you get your peek during performance. ** Lumen Duo Integration Pluma also connects directly to Lumen Duo, letting you get your peek even more covertly. ** Earpiece Support Pluma can automatically speak the recognised text to your covert earpiece. ** Apple Watch App Get your peek on the custom built Apple Watch app, with optional covert mode. ** Notifications Compatible with any Bluetooth peek device that supports third party notifications. ** Bridge & Inject Integration Automatically send your peek to the Bridge or Inject apps, which integrates Pluma with many magic apps, services and devices. ** Powerful Features, Easy To Use Pluma brings multiple, advanced innovations from my previous apps (such as Touch To Peek and app integration via polling), whilst simultaneously built to be easy to use and understand. ** Much More Pluma offers features to automatically scale, automatically send peek data and automatically clear. It offers per-board calibration settings, AI optimisation settings, intuitive history features, auto-save to photos, board battery indicatiors, and much, much more. Notes A physical impression board is required. Pluma currently supports boards from Lumen Pro, Iarvel, Pitata, Ultra Sharpie, Ultra Sharpie Neo, Oblivious Engage, NOVA Sharpie, PMA and Wave, with more brands added over time. Pluma works in multiple languages, including Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese Online AI recognition features require the use of in-app credits (with some provided on purchase), or you can provide your own API key. Offline AI text recognition is included for free. No subscription nor device fee needed. Pluma is offered for entertainment purposes only.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Magic Cue at Free against Pluma's $99.99. Magic Cue also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1). Pluma's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 1.0) and update cadence (weekly vs every 4 months). On 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
Magic Cue is free to download; Pluma costs $99.99 up front. Pluma sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Magic Cue asks for nothing beyond the download.
Pluma holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pluma has 10 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Magic Cue ships an update every 4 months, Pluma weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Magic Cue | Pluma |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $99.99 |
| Rating | 1.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (10 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 10 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 114 MB | 33 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Vanishing Inc. Magic LLC | Marc Kerstein |
Customer experience
Magic Cue
Pluma
In-app purchases
Magic Cue
No in-app purchases
Pluma
- 100 Pluma AI Credits$7.99









