m vs Digital Gel
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
m
Transform your device into a professional sACN lighting fixture for stage, film, and art installations. Control screen brightness, intensity, and vibration using standard lighting protocols.
- sACN control for Universe and DMX Address
- Real-time backlight brightness adjustment
- IRGB 8-Bit fixture compatibility
- 6 Channel Mode with flashlight intensity
- Device vibration control
- Intuitive interface
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Turn any screen into a stage light. m-BER makes your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV a lighting fixture you can patch straight into your console. Send it sACN, and the screen answers with colour and intensity in real time, just like every other fixture in your rig. No dongles. No gateway. Just join the show network and go. PATCH IT LIKE A FIXTURE • Patch as a Generic IRGB 8-bit fixture on any universe • Set the start address, and m-BER tells you exactly which channels it uses • Intensity, red, green and blue on four channels per region SPLIT THE SCREEN Run the whole display as one light, or divide it into independently addressed cells: • Single: one full-screen fixture • Half: two cells, side by side or stacked • Quad: four cells as a grid, in rows or in columns Every cell gets its own four channels, so one device can be four fixtures. MORE THAN A SCREEN On iPhone, two extra channels put the flashlight and the vibration motor on the desk. Flash, pulse and buzz on cue, straight from your console. BUILT FOR THE SHOW • Orientation locks the moment the fixture goes live, so a bumped phone never flips the look • Clean, full-bleed output with nothing on screen but light • Works across iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. Buy once, use it on all of them PERFECT FOR • Props that need to glow on cue • Phones and tablets written into the action • TVs and monitors used as set dressing • Quick practicals when you're one fixture short WHAT YOU NEED • A lighting console or software that outputs sACN (ANSI E1.31) • Your device and console on the same network TRY IT FREE The annual plan starts with a 3-day free trial. Prefer to own it outright? A one-time purchase unlocks m-BER for good. Powered by Liberate Lighting. SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION • m-BER Annual: 1-year subscription, with a 3-day free trial for new subscribers • Payment is charged to your Apple Account at the end of the free trial, or at confirmation of purchase if no trial applies • The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period • Manage or cancel any time in your Apple Account settings • Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when you purchase a subscription Privacy Policy: https://liberatelighting.com/privacy-policy/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Digital Gel
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Digital Gel is a precision color tool for gaffers, DPs, and lighting programmers. Meter a fixture bare, then meter it again through a gel. Digital Gel captures the difference as a color ratio — a "digital gel" — that you can apply to any other light and read back as CIE x,y coordinates to enter on the console. WHAT IT DOES • Extract a gel from two spectrometer readings (bare + through the gel). • Apply that gel — or a stack of gels — to any target light. • Correct: work backwards and cancel a filter you can't take away. • Refine any result against a real meter reading until it lands. • Get the result as x,y for the console, plus CCT, tint (in CC and Δuv), and mired shift. • See everything on a CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram with the Planckian locus, color-temperature ticks, and optional Rec.709 / P3 / Rec.2020 gamut overlays. CANCEL WHAT YOU CAN'T REMOVE Not every filter is a choice — a tinted window, a diffusion frame, a practical's own glass. Meter your fixture with it in the way, and Correct solves for the x,y to set the fixture to so the light lands where you wanted it after the glass. It states the move in mired and CC as well, so the answer is just as usable if you reach for a CTB and minus green instead of the console — and it tells you when a filter is simply too strong to cancel. Saturated filters don't treat an LED fixture quite the way the math expects, so Correct flags them and lets you Refine: meter the result through the filter, enter the reading, and dial the next value. Refine learns how your fixture and filter actually respond, and closes in within a few passes. BUILT FOR THE SET • Enter light as x,y, as a color temperature (5600), or temperature with tint (3200 -2). • Save a library of gels and custom sources; mark favorites; search your list. • Calibrate a fixture that doesn't hit the color it's told to, so Apply's numbers land where you mean them. • Touch and hold any result to copy its x,y. • Choose CAT02 (recommended) or raw XYZ adaptation math. • A transmission read of each gel's red / green / blue balance at a glance. • Universal: one column on iPhone, two panes on iPad portrait, three in landscape. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account to create, and no data collected. Your gel library syncs between your own devices through your private iCloud — nobody else can see it — and with iCloud switched off the app is entirely local. Digital Gel works in chromaticity, so it matches color points, not full spectra — when metamerism matters on set, trust your meter, and let Refine close the gap.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: m at Free against Digital Gel's $3.99. Digital Gel's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 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
m is free to download; Digital Gel costs $3.99 up front. m sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per year. Digital Gel asks for nothing beyond the download.
m ships an update every 2 months, Digital Gel every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | m | Digital Gel |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $3.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Subscription | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lawrence Anthony Ware | TIMO TAPIO HAAPASAARI |
In-app purchases
m
- 365 Days Access to m-BER app3 Days trial$4.991 Year
- Access m-BER app Lifetime$9.99
Digital Gel
No in-app purchases








