Comparison

Spool vs SpoolManager

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

Head to head
About

Spool

Manage your 3D printing filament inventory with detailed tracking of materials, costs, and stock levels. Log print details, monitor printer maintenance, and gain insights into your printing habits. Integrates with Bambu Lab printers for automatic data logging.

Highlights
  • Filament spool tracking
  • Cost and weight logging
  • Low-stock warnings
  • Print logging and analysis
  • Bambu Lab printer integration
  • Printer maintenance schedules
  • NFC/QR code spool tagging
Features
Read full description

You have 40 spools. You're about to start a 12-hour print. How much PETG do you actually have? Spool is precision filament inventory for 3D printing enthusiasts. Track what you have, what things cost, and what's running low. Built by a maker who got tired of guessing. TRACK YOUR COLLECTION Lightning-fast spool entry with auto-fill from screenshots and product URLs. Material, brand, colour, weight, cost, purchase date, storage. Real remaining-weight tracking down to the gram. Low-stock warnings before you find out mid-print. THE HUB Tap the centre tab and a glass command centre opens over any screen. Every major action (add spool, log print, scan SpoolTag, analytics, printers) is two taps away. PRINT LOG & PRINT STORY Every print captures 24 process fields. 20 decoded automatically from your Bambu data: nozzle, layer height, infill, walls, speeds, temperatures, plate, adhesion, supports. Rate every print with 11 failure types, down to the exact layer. Tap any print and a full-screen story opens: costs, telemetry, spool gauges, and every previous attempt side by side. 19 insight cards surface temperature sweet spots, speed ceilings, drying impact, personal bests, and failure patterns. BAMBU LAB INTEGRATION Bambu printers log prints automatically via Bambu Cloud. Free for everyone, no manual entry. AMS multi-material tracked correctly. Smart spool matching learns and auto-selects on future imports. CATEGORIES 17 built-in, unlimited custom. Spool suggests one for every print and learns every override. Category Insights show success rates, costs, and trends so you see which kinds of prints are worth your filament. PRINTER MAINTENANCE Schedules from manufacturer guides for Bambu Lab, Prusa, Creality, Anycubic, Elegoo, Artillery, Flashforge, Sovol, AnkerMake, Qidi Tech, RatRig, and Voron. A live health score per printer. Overdue tasks turn red. Complete one and watch it climb. SPOOLTAG Tap your iPhone to an NFC-tagged spool and everything opens instantly. QR codes work from any camera app. Scan, log print, spool pre-selected. Label Studio designs and prints labels to Dymo, Brother, sticker sheets, or A4. AR Inventory overlays live data above every tagged spool, with Searchlight filtering by brand, material, colour, or status. ANALYTICS & INTELLIGENCE Five dashboards: Pulse, Economics, Energy, Material, and Hardware. Add your electricity rate once and every print shows its true cost, materials and energy combined, to the penny. Nozzle breakdowns, plate comparisons, quality-weighted grades, and variant-aware palettes for matte and silk filaments. WORKSHOP MANAGEMENT Six storage types (shelf, dryer, AMS, box, airtight case, vacuum bag) with humidity and seal date tracking. Shopping list and batch management for multi-packs. START FREE 20 spools, 2 printers, 4 storage locations. 30 days of analytics. Bambu Cloud sync, SpoolTag, AR Inventory, Print Story, Categories, and Printer Maintenance included. No card required. Live counters show where you stand against your limits. GO PRO, £4.99/month or £49.99/year Unlimited spools, printers, and storage. Lifetime analytics. CSV import. Label Studio with thermal exports and sticker sheets. Print Queue for batch production. Plus: full cross-print insight tray, category customisation, maintenance notifications, Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets, and Live Activities. The annual plan works out at £4.16/month and pays for itself in the waste it helps you avoid. SPOOL PACKS Not ready to subscribe? A one-time Spool Pack permanently adds 10 slots to your free account. SUBSCRIPTION & PURCHASE INFO Spool offers a one-time Spool Pack and two auto-renewing subscriptions: Spool Pro Monthly and Yearly. Payment charged to iTunes Account at confirmation. Auto-renews unless cancelled 24 hours before the period ends. Manage in Account Settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://lance-studio.com/privacy.html

About

SpoolManager

Features
Read full description

SpoolManager - Your Filament. Smartly Organized. Keep track of your filament spools, remaining amounts and printing data at all times. SpoolManager makes managing your 3D printing filament simple, fast and digital - with NFC/RFID tags, QR codes, an automatic shopping list and much more. -------------------- NFC/RFID & QR CODES -------------------- - Read and write NFC/RFID tags - Create and scan QR codes - Store filament data directly with your spool - Optimized for NFC tags, e.g. Anycubic ACE Pro - Quickly access material, color and other filament data -------------------- SPOOLS & INVENTORY -------------------- - Manufacturer, material and color - Remaining amount and spool weight - Printing temperatures and print parameters - Storage location and inventory - Price and purchase date - Edit, share and update your spools -------------------- AUTOMATIC SHOPPING LIST -------------------- - Automatically detect spools running low - Automatically add low-stock filament to your shopping list - Set your own remaining-filament threshold - Add items manually at any time -------------------- FILAMENT PROFILES -------------------- - Create custom material profiles - Save frequently used settings - Import and export profiles - Quickly switch between commonly used filaments -------------------- HISTORY, ARCHIVE & SEARCH -------------------- - Keep track of read and write history - Archive spools and reuse them later - Quickly search through your saved data -------------------- ICLOUD, APPLE WATCH & WIDGETS -------------------- - Optional iCloud sync across your devices - Quick access from your Apple Watch - Important information available in widgets -------------------- TRY FREE FOR 7 DAYS -------------------- Try SpoolManager free for 7 days and explore all its features. After your trial, unlock SpoolManager permanently with a one-time Lifetime purchase for $1.99 - no subscription. SpoolManager is made for everyone who wants to organize filament, keep track of remaining amounts and simplify their 3D printing workflow. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.pixel-project.de/spm/datenschutz_en.html

Screenshots

Spool4 screens
SpoolManager4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Spool at every 2 weeks against SpoolManager's every 2 months. SpoolManager's advantage is iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Spool sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and SpoolManager sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spool ships an update every 2 weeks, SpoolManager every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on July 24, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Spool versus SpoolManager: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpoolSpoolManager
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (4 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS26.118.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size76 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLucas MeloNorman Hennige

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Spool

Subscriptions2
  • Spool Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Spool Pro Yearly$49.991 Year
One-time1
  • +10 Spool Capacity$0.99
2 purchases

SpoolManager

Subscriptions2
  • Monatsabo$0.991 Month
  • Jahresabo$8.991 Year

Questions

Is Spool free?
Spool is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is SpoolManager free?
SpoolManager is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Spool or SpoolManager have ads?
Neither Spool nor SpoolManager shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spool or SpoolManager?
Spool ships an update every 2 weeks, and SpoolManager every 2 months. Most recently, Spool was updated on July 24, 2026 and SpoolManager on September 20, 2026.

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