Comparison

Spool Buddy vs PandaWatch

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

Head to head
About

Spool Buddy

Effortlessly manage your 3D printing filament inventory. Track brands, colors, and usage with a simple, fast interface. Syncs seamlessly across Apple devices without requiring logins or network calls.

Highlights
  • iCloud syncing
  • No logins or network calls
  • Track brands, colors, and modifiers
  • Search and filter by properties
  • Usage and inventory tracking
  • Optimized for iOS and macOS
Features
Read full description

Filament tracking for 3D printing, without the fuss. Spool Buddy is a simple, fast filament inventory app made for hobbyists who want to know what filament they have, where it is, and how much is left — without accounts, subscriptions, tracking, or complicated setup. Add your filaments, organize them by brand, material, color, location, modifiers, and more. Track usage across one or multiple spools, keep drying logs, attach photos, archive old filament, and export or print your inventory when you need it. Spool Buddy syncs with iCloud, so your filament library stays up to date across iPhone, iPad, and Mac without creating an account. Features include: - Track filament inventory, usage, and remaining amounts - Multi-spool support for filaments - NFC reading and writing - iCloud sync with no logins - Photos for filament entries - Drying logs - Custom brands and materials - Detailed filament information, including colors, polymers, modifiers, fillers, and visual properties - Automatic color names and color family filtering - Support for gradients and complex filament colors - Filter by storage location, brand, color family, modifiers, and polymer - Sort by price, date added, color, brand, and name - Group by brand or material - Usage indicators at a glance - Archive filaments you no longer actively use - Export your inventory to CSV - Print your filament inventory - Optimized for iOS and macOS 26 - Small, fast, and designed to stay out of your way Spool Buddy is completely free to use. There are no subscriptions, no locked features, and no required purchases. In-app purchases are optional tips only, for people who want to support the app’s development. Made by an indie solo developer for people who just want a clean, useful way to manage their filament.

About

PandaWatch

Monitor all your 3D printers from one place, anywhere. Get live camera feeds, temperature readings, filament status, and error alerts. Integrates seamlessly with your Bambu Lab account for zero setup.

Highlights
  • Live camera feeds
  • Temperature monitoring
  • Filament status
  • Error alerts
  • Zero-setup fleet monitoring
  • Apple Watch app
  • Home screen widgets
Features
Read full description

Stop walking to the printer room. PandaWatch gives you live cameras, temperatures, filament status, and error alerts for every Bambu Lab printer you own — in one view, from anywhere. Sign in with your Bambu Lab account, Google, Apple or Facebook and you're done. No IP addresses, no port forwarding, no setup wizard. One machine or twenty — it all just works. KEY FEATURES ZERO-SETUP FLEET MONITORING Sign in and go. PandaWatch finds your printers automatically via your Bambu Lab account — no network setup. Several Bambu accounts? Add them all to one dashboard. APPLE WATCH APP A native watchOS app puts your fleet on your wrist — status, temperatures and progress at a glance, with watch-face complications. MULTI-PRINTER LIVE ACTIVITIES (PRO) The first and only app to put your entire print farm on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. PandaWatch Pro supports up to 20 printers at once, with layouts for 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20-printer fleets, and one-tap access to any camera feed. SMART AUTO-SORTING Active printers rise to the top of your dashboard, so your busiest machines are always front and center. SIRI & APP INTENTS Ask Siri which printer has red PLA, which ones are low on filament, or when the next print finishes — without touching your phone. AMS & FILAMENT DETAILS Tap any AMS slot for full material details: drying time, weight, remaining percentage, and more, straight from the Bambu API, with full color visualization. FLEET SCOUT Need the one loaded with red PETG? Fleet Scout filters your fleet by filament color and material in seconds. LIVE CAMERA DASHBOARD View your whole fleet at once with staggered loading and battery optimization. Hide overlay text, or go fullscreen with tap-to-dismiss controls. A1 and P1 owners can enable Camera Fast Mode for a higher-refresh feed. ADVANCED DIAGNOSTICS HMS error codes, temperatures, fan speeds and live layer progress. Dismiss an error per printer or across the fleet, copy a code, or browse the Code Explorer to see what each one means. If a camera won't connect, the app explains what to check on the printer. FILE BROWSER Browse your printer's SD card over FTPS. Preview 3MF files and images, and play back livestream captures. Supports X1, H2 and P2 series. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Widgets update in the background so your home screen always shows current status, and Fleet Health gives an at-a-glance overview of everything. Filter by filament color, choose which printers appear, and tap to jump straight in. IPAD DASHBOARD A proper desktop-class layout that uses the extra screen space — not a stretched phone view. Leave it running on a shelf as a dedicated monitoring display. AVAILABLE IN 10 LANGUAGES English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese and Simplified Chinese, with translated printer error messages. Bambu Lab accounts in the China region are fully supported. ACCESSIBILITY VoiceOver support across printer cards, camera feeds, AMS swatches and progress bars. Transitions respect Reduce Motion. PRICING The core app is free — not "free for 3 days" free, but actually free for unlimited printers, forever. Cameras, diagnostics, widgets, Siri, Fleet Scout and AMS details — no fleet size limit, no cost. The one paid feature is multi-printer Live Activities on your Lock Screen. Up to two printers is free; PandaWatch Pro unlocks up to 20 at once for a one-time $3.99 — no subscription, no expiry. Fleet size stays unlimited either way. SUPPORTED MODELS Compatible with the entire Bambu Lab family: X1 Carbon, X1E, P1S, P1P, A1, A1 Mini, H2, P2 and X2D series. Note: Camera streaming and file browsing need a local network connection. Cloud monitoring works anywhere.

Screenshots

Spool Buddy4 screens
PandaWatch4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: PandaWatch at 5.0 against Spool Buddy's 4.3. PandaWatch also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.2). Spool Buddy's advantage is ratings volume (9 vs 3). On price, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Spool Buddy sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and PandaWatch sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PandaWatch holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 3 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Spool Buddy versus PandaWatch: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpool BuddyPandaWatch
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (9 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings9 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS18.216.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB54 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMartian Code OyMichael Saunders

Customer experience

Spool Buddy

All ratings9 ratings
Positive88.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative11.1%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

PandaWatch

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Spool Buddy

One-time3
  • Small Tip$0.99
  • Medium Tip$2.99
  • Large Tip$4.99
1 purchases

PandaWatch

One-time1
  • PandaWatch Pro$3.99

Questions

Is Spool Buddy free?
Spool Buddy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PandaWatch free?
PandaWatch is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Spool Buddy or PandaWatch?
PandaWatch is rated higher. Spool Buddy averages 4.3 out of 5 from 9 ratings, while PandaWatch averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Spool Buddy or PandaWatch have ads?
Neither Spool Buddy nor PandaWatch shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spool Buddy or PandaWatch?
Spool Buddy ships an update every 2 weeks, and PandaWatch every 2 weeks. Most recently, Spool Buddy was updated on October 25, 2026 and PandaWatch on October 14, 2026.

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