Comparison

Spool Buddy vs FilaMan

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

FilaMan

Manage your 3D printing filament inventory from your smartphone. Track spools, materials, and locations with detailed metrics and quick actions. Supports barcode and NFC scanning for efficient inventory management.

Highlights
  • Filament spool tracking
  • Inventory value dashboard
  • Low stock alerts
  • Barcode scanning
  • NFC tag support
  • Location organization
  • Multilingual support
Features
Read full description

FilaMan – Your Filament Management for 3D Printing FilaMan is the companion app for your self-hosted FilaMan system. Keep track of your entire filament inventory – right from your smartphone. Dashboard All key metrics at a glance: total number of spools and filaments, inventory value, low stock alerts and empty spools. Always know when it's time to reorder. Spool Management Create, edit and track every spool in your inventory. Record weight, location, purchase data and status. Use Quick Actions to take measurements, adjust weight, change status or move spools to different locations – all with just a few taps. Filaments & Manufacturers Manage your entire filament library with full details: material, diameter, colors, density and price. Set up manufacturers with default values for spool weight and dimensions that are automatically applied to new spools. Barcode Scanner Scan filament barcodes directly with your smartphone camera. Quickly find filaments in your database or conveniently create new entries. NFC Tag Support Write NFC tags on your filament spools and read them at any time. Assign spools and locations via NFC tags – simply hold your smartphone to the spool and instantly access all information. Important note for Apple users: Bambu Lab spools use Mifare Classic NFC tags. This technology is fundamentally not supported by Apple/iOS – neither for reading nor writing. This is an Apple limitation, not a limitation of this app. Locations Organize your spools by location – whether different shelves, rooms or printers. Assign NFC tags to locations for quick identification. Multilingual The app is fully available in English and German. Your Data Stays Yours FilaMan connects exclusively to your own self-hosted FilaMan instance. No data is transmitted to external servers, analytics services or third parties. No tracking, no ads, no cloud dependency. Requirement A running FilaMan instance on your network is required to use this app. More information at https://www.filaman.app By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Spool Buddy4 screens
FilaMan4 screens

Verdict

The call

Spool Buddy and FilaMan are too close to call on the numbers: across 8 compared parameters — price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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 FilaMan sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spool Buddy ships an update every 2 weeks, FilaMan every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Spool Buddy versus FilaMan: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpool BuddyFilaMan
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (9 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings9 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.217 — better
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMartian Code OyManuel Weiser

Customer experience

Spool Buddy

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

FilaMan

Written reviews1 reviews
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

FilaMan

Subscriptions1
  • FilaMan Pro7 Days trial$0.991 Month

Questions

Is Spool Buddy free?
Spool Buddy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is FilaMan free?
FilaMan is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Spool Buddy or FilaMan have ads?
Neither Spool Buddy nor FilaMan shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spool Buddy or FilaMan?
Spool Buddy ships an update every 2 weeks, and FilaMan every 3 weeks. Most recently, Spool Buddy was updated on October 25, 2026 and FilaMan on October 5, 2026.

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