Comparison

Frontier Minilab vs Glassy

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

Head to head
About

Frontier Minilab

Recreate the classic film lab aesthetic on your iPhone. Apply authentic presets, fine-tune colors with CMYK controls, and batch edit entire rolls of film. Experience instant, lag-free edits with haptic feedback.

Highlights
  • Authentic film lab presets
  • CMYK color control
  • Batch editing
  • GPU-accelerated Metal rendering
  • Custom haptic feedback
  • Film borders and contact sheets
  • Google Drive export
Features
Read full description

Frontier brings the film lab to your iPhone. The Frontier scanner has defined the film lab look for decades. Warm highlights. Smooth rolloff. Colors that feel right instead of processed. We studied thousands of Frontier scans. Built that look into three presets. Supra — Daylight warmth. Superia soul, Portra glow. Chrome — Tungsten cinema. Fujichrome punch, Kodachrome mood. XXX — Contrast and grain. Double-X grit, Tri-X punch. That's it. Metal fast. Runs on Apple's Metal framework. GPU-accelerated shaders render your edits in milliseconds. Drag a slider, see it instantly. No lag. No waiting. Batch editing. Edit up to 36 frames at once. Lock your settings, swipe through your roll, apply to the batch. Like a real lab. Feel every adjustment. 30+ custom haptics. Every tap, every slider tick, every preset has its own feel. CMYK color control. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Density. Adjust like a lab tech. Film borders. 14 authentic borders. Each preset has its own. Contact sheets. Auto-generated proof sheets. Perfect for carousels or archiving. Google Drive export. Export direct. Browse folders. Stay organized. Try free for 7 days. Then $3.99/month or $12.99/year. Terms of Use: https://frontierminilab.com/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://frontierminilab.com/privacy/

About

Glassy

Transform your photos and Live Photos into dynamic visual cards with real-time data stickers and a unique liquid glass aesthetic. Add context like weather, music, or location to your memories. Create polished, modern designs with customizable templates and layered depth for sharing.

Highlights
  • Dynamic data stickers (weather, music, location)
  • Liquid glass visual style
  • Layered depth and foreground/background effects
  • Export as images, videos, or Live Photos
  • Customizable templates
  • Animated stickers and effects
Read full description

Glassy is a carousel maker for seamless carousels, photo dumps, and panorama posts. Photos become collages and scrolling videos that flow across every slide. • Liquid Glass: translucent layers with tint, blur, and depth, and the content underneath still shows through. • Real Data Stickers: with your permission, bring weather, workouts, routes, time, location, music, lyrics, and movie details into a design. • Cross-Slide Layers: run images, text, stickers, and frames across several slides for a seamless swipe. • Motion: preview and export while Live Photos and animated elements keep moving. • Erase and Remove: erase part of a photo, bring it back, or remove an unwanted object right on your iPhone, free. • A full toolkit: photos, text, widgets, stickers, frames, grids, drawings, gradients, and textures, starting from a template or a blank canvas. Make photo dumps, travel journals, lyric cards, workout recaps, mood boards, and posters. Free tools and materials cover everyday creation and still-image export. Anyone can add videos and Live Photos, and the first three motion exports are free with a small Glassy mark. Glassy Plus unlocks Plus templates, premium materials, and unlimited motion exports without the mark. Exporting a design that contains premium content also requires Plus. Terms of Use: Apple's standard end-user license agreement applies: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Frontier Minilab4 screens
Glassy4 screens

Verdict

The call

Frontier Minilab and Glassy are too close to call on the numbers: across 9 compared parameters — price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Frontier Minilab sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Glassy sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Frontier Minilab against 5.0 for Glassy. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Frontier Minilab versus Glassy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFrontier MinilabGlassy
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size37 MB165 MB
Age rating12+4+
Developerelliot Hasse伟滔 黄

Customer experience

Frontier Minilab

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Glassy

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Frontier Minilab

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Yearly7 Days trial$12.991 Year
2 purchases

Glassy

Subscriptions2
  • Glassy Plus Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Glassy Plus Yearly$19.991 Year

Questions

Is Frontier Minilab free?
Frontier Minilab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Glassy free?
Glassy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Frontier Minilab or Glassy?
Frontier Minilab and Glassy are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Frontier Minilab or Glassy have ads?
Neither Frontier Minilab nor Glassy shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Frontier Minilab or Glassy?
Frontier Minilab ships an update weekly, and Glassy weekly. Most recently, Frontier Minilab was updated on October 30, 2026 and Glassy on November 5, 2026.

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