Sync Shutter vs AfterGlow
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sync Shutter
Automatically back up photos and videos from your SD cards to multiple cloud services and local folders. The app ensures no manual steps are needed and only copies new files after the initial backup.
- Automatic SD card backup
- Multi-destination cloud sync
- Incremental file copying
- Live progress monitoring
- Backup history and stats
- iPhone companion app
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Never lose a shoot. Sync Shutter backs up your camera card the moment you insert it. Set it up once on your Mac, then plug in any card and walk away: every photo and video is copied to every destination you chose, automatically. On iPhone or iPad, plug in a card reader and import straight from the card. It was built for photographers who come home with several cards and cannot afford to lose one. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU INSERT A CARD • The card is detected and the backup starts on its own. Progress lives in the menu bar; a notification tells you when it is done. • Only new files are copied. Already-backed-up shots are recognized and skipped, so the second run after a shoot takes seconds. • Copies to a folder or drive can be verified byte for byte after copying. • Files can be sorted into date folders taken from the photo's own capture date. • Cards that do not use a DCIM folder — video-first layouts from Sony, Panasonic and Canon bodies — are recognized too, and any card can be copied whole from the menu bar. • No internet where you're shooting? The card is still safe. Sync Shutter keeps its own copy and sends it to your cloud destinations on its own the moment you are back online. • A backup that cannot reach one of your destinations says so and names it. It never calls itself complete when something is missing. EVERY CARD, BY NAME • Each card gets its own name the first time it goes in, like purple-frog. Rename it, number it, give it a colour. • Say what each card was doing in a shoot: Primary, Backup slot, Second shooter or Video. • Cards lists every card with its last job and whether it is safe to format, meaning nothing on it would be lost. • Nothing is ever written to your cards. WHERE THE FILES GO Send one card to several places at once: a local folder or external drive, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Photos, the Lightroom auto-import folder, or the Photos library. Turn on as many as you like; each card is copied to all of them in a single pass. CHOOSE WHAT COMES OFF THE CARD Turn on a review step and a grid of thumbnails appears before anything is copied, so you can leave the test frames behind. SYNC SHUTTER PRO — ONE PURCHASE FOR MAC, IPHONE AND IPAD • Back up to a NAS or server: any S3-compatible storage (Synology, Backblaze B2, MinIO, Amazon S3), or SFTP over SSH. • Cold storage: Amazon S3 Glacier and Deep Archive storage classes, chosen per destination, for an archive that costs cents a month. • RAW+JPEG pairs: keep both, RAW only, or JPEG only. • Import date filters: only today's shoot, the last few days, or everything since a date. • Custom file naming from the capture date, a counter and the original name. • Per-card rules on the Mac: route each card to its own destinations. • Auto-delete from the card after every destination has confirmed the copy, and low-storage alerts before a backup would fill the disk. Pro is a single purchase, not a subscription. IPHONE AND IPAD Plug in a USB-C or Lightning card reader, open Sync Shutter, and pick the card. Photos go to your Photos library, a folder in Files, your cloud drives, or an S3 NAS. A Live Activity follows the import and a widget shows your totals. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no sign-up, no servers of ours in the path. Files go straight from the card to the destinations you chose. The only thing the app ever sends home is an anonymous count of backups and errors, so that problems get fixed; it is never linked to you. Works with any card your Mac or card reader can mount: SD, microSD, CFexpress, CFast, XQD.
AfterGlow
This app creates a private, shared disposable camera roll for events like weddings and parties. Guests can capture candid moments, and all photos are collected in one private album for easy reliving.
- Private event camera
- Shared disposable camera roll
- QR code and invite code joining
- Live collaborative photo album
- Guest limits and event duration controls
- Private event-only access
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Your friends. One Oktoberfest album. Heading to the Wiesn in Munich — or a beer festival closer to home? Stop losing the night to WhatsApp threads and “send me that photo.” With AfterGlow, your whole table shoots into one private live roll. From the first Maß at the Festzelt to the last song on the way home, everyone’s shots land in the same film. The pretzel selfie you missed. The toast across the table. The dance floor you left for two minutes. All in one place, while the night is still happening. ONE FILM FOR YOUR GROUP Create a film for your Oktoberfest crew and invite everyone. Guests shoot into the same shared roll — so you keep the moments you weren’t in. JOIN AT THE TABLE WITH A QR Share the invite before you meet or flash the QR when everyone sits down. Guests join with a code or scan — no public link, no strangers. WATCH THE ROLL FILL LIVE See new photos appear as the tent gets louder. Relive the night as it unfolds, not the morning after. MAKE EVERY SHOT COUNT Limited shots per guest bring disposable-camera energy to your iPhone. Pick the laugh, the toast, the unexpected — not three hundred near-duplicates. LOCK THE FILM WHEN IT’S OVER When the festival ends, lock the roll. No more new shots. One finished album for the people who were there. MEMORIES, NOT ATTENTION Invite-only. No public feed. No followers. No discovery. Just your group and the night you shared. Built for Oktoberfest, Wiesn weekends, and beer festivals anywhere — and just as ready for the wedding, birthday, or trip that comes next. Create your film. Share the invite. Shoot together. Seal the night.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: AfterGlow at 5.0 against Sync Shutter's 4.2. AfterGlow also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 67%). Sync Shutter's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. Sync Shutter sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and AfterGlow sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
AfterGlow holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 2 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Sync Shutter's written reviews are positive against 100% of AfterGlow's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sync Shutter | AfterGlow |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (5 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 5 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days | Every 3 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Utkarsh Jain | Lucie Valentova |
Customer experience
Sync Shutter
AfterGlow
In-app purchases
Sync Shutter
- Sync Shutter Pro$9.99
AfterGlow
- Up to 10 Guests$1.99
- Up to 25 Guests$4.99
- Up to 50 Guests$9.99
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- Up to 100 Guests$19.99
- Up to 150 Guests$29.99
- Up to 200 Guests$39.99









