Spool Buddy vs Filament
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
Filament
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Take control of your 3D printer filament collection. Filament Tracker is a native app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that gives every spool a unique ID, a home, and a complete history — from purchase to retirement. — ASK YOUR INVENTORY ANYTHING — Type a question — like "how many grams of red PLA do I have?" — and get an instant answer instead of adding it up yourself. Powered entirely by on-device Apple Intelligence, so nothing leaves your device and no internet connection is required. No Apple Intelligence on your device? Search still works exactly as before. — KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE — Browse your entire collection filtered by state, brand, type, color family, or location, with live counts on each filter option. Sort by grams remaining to spot low spools at a glance. Every spool shows its true filament color with the hex code alongside it, and tracks its weight, state (New → In Use → Low → Empty → Retired) with an at-a-glance colored stripe, event history, and photos. — SMART INTAKE & AUTO-FILL — Skip tedious data entry. Paste text from a product page or receipt—or on iPhone and iPad, use your camera to scan text off box and bag labels. On compatible devices, on-device Apple Intelligence parses it to extract the spool's brand, material, color, and net weight instantly. — SCAN TO FIND. SCAN TO MOVE. — Print a QR code for any spool or location, scannable on iPhone or iPad, or use your iPhone to write and scan custom NFC tags at your workbench. A quick tap or scan instantly identifies what's loaded and where it is. Move a spool to a new location in two quick scans. — LOCATIONS THAT FIT YOUR SETUP — Organize your collection by dry box, AMS unit, shelf, printer, or any location you define. Locations marked as Connected to Printer automatically count loaded spools as In Use. — TRACK EVERY GRAM — Log print sessions to keep grams-remaining accurate, or connect a Bluetooth scale to weigh a spool and get its remaining filament instantly — set the empty weight once and every future weigh-in subtracts it automatically. Attach photos from your camera, photo library, or Files to any spool or filament record. Track purchase price and source URL per spool, with per-spool currency overrides for international purchases. — BUILT-IN FILAMENT REFERENCE — Look up print temperatures, drying recommendations, density, and resistance ratings for ~30 filament types — from PLA and PETG to specialty materials like PA6-CF, BVOH, and ASA. Tap any entry to filter your spools by that type. — ICLOUD SYNC — Your inventory syncs silently across all your devices via CloudKit. Works fully offline; changes sync automatically when connectivity returns. Full sync diagnostics and a cache reset are available in Settings. — BACKUP & RESTORE — Export a complete snapshot — spools, filament, locations, event history, photos, and reference data — as a portable archive or a plain JSON file for hand-editing. Restore at any time using a safe path that never risks accidental data loss to iCloud. — CSV EXPORT & IMPORT — Export your full inventory as a 28-column CSV for Numbers, Excel, or any spreadsheet app. Import it back to bulk-update brand, type, color, location, purchase info, and more — matched by Spool ID, with missing reference entries created automatically. — LIGHT MODE & ACCESSIBILITY — The app now follows your device's Light or Dark Mode setting automatically, and every screen supports VoiceOver and Dynamic Type. — SEAMLESS MAC COMPANION — The app runs natively on Mac with the same data, sync, and features as on iPhone and iPad, including search right from macOS Spotlight. The Mac version additionally supports the TD-1 filament tester — capture optical transmission-distance and hex color readings directly via USB and sync them back to your iOS devices automatically. No subscriptions. No account required beyond iCloud — your data stays in your own private iCloud database. An optional one-time tip in Settings earns a Supporter badge, never required.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Filament at none against Spool Buddy's 3. Spool Buddy's advantage is iOS requirement (18.2 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Spool Buddy sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Filament asks for nothing beyond the download.
Spool Buddy ships an update every 2 weeks, Filament fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Spool Buddy | Filament |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (9 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 9 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 18.2 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 25 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Martian Code Oy | David Oreol |
In-app purchases
Spool Buddy
- Small Tip$0.99
- Medium Tip$2.99
- Large Tip$4.99
Filament
No in-app purchases









