Filament vs SpoolSense
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
SpoolSense
This app transforms your iPhone into an NFC reader and writer for 3D printing filament spools. It instantly displays filament details and allows you to read, write, and edit tag information. Optional integrations sync with inventory management systems and send spool data directly to your 3D printer.
- NFC reader and writer for filament spools
- Reads material, brand, color, temperatures, and remaining amount
- Supports five tag formats (OpenPrintTag, OpenSpool, TigerTag, OpenTag3D, NFC+)
- Write blank tags or edit existing ones
- Optional Spoolman inventory synchronization
- Optional direct sending to compatible 3D printers
- No account, subscription, server, or cloud required
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SpoolSense turns your iPhone into an NFC reader and writer for 3D-printing filament spools. Tap a tagged spool and SpoolSense instantly shows you what it is: material, brand, color, nozzle and bed temperatures, filament diameter, density, and how much is left on the roll. No typing, no guessing which spool is which. READ AND WRITE FIVE TAG FORMATS - OpenPrintTag (ISO 15693, ICODE SLIX2) - OpenSpool (ISO 14443A, NTAG215/216) - TigerTag (ISO 14443A, NTAG213/215/216) - OpenTag3D (ISO 14443A, NTAG215/216) - NFC+ - register any blank tag's UID against your inventory Write a blank tag from scratch, or read an existing tag and edit it. SpoolSense verifies every write by reading the tag back. WORKS ON ITS OWN Reading and writing tags needs nothing but your iPhone and a tag. No account, no subscription, no server, no cloud. SpoolSense collects no data whatsoever. OPTIONAL: SPOOLMAN INVENTORY Point SpoolSense at a self-hosted Spoolman server and your whole filament inventory syncs to your phone. Browse every spool, search by material or vendor, see remaining weight at a glance, and get a low-spool warning at a threshold you choose. Scans update Spoolman automatically, and used filament is deducted for you. OPTIONAL: SEND TO YOUR PRINTER Scan a spool and push it straight to the printer you just loaded it into: - Snapmaker U1 - assign the spool to a channel over your local network - Klipper with AFC / Happy Hare / a toolchanger - route through SpoolSense middleware for tool assignment and automatic deductions - Plain Klipper - scans keep Spoolman up to date Pick any combination, or none. A phone can roam between printers. PRIVACY Everything lives on your own devices and your own servers. SpoolSense has no analytics, no tracking, no accounts, and no ads, and it never sends your data anywhere. REQUIREMENTS NFC scanning and writing require a physical iPhone (iPhone 7 or later). Spoolman and printer integration are optional and require software you run yourself on your own network.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: Filament at 3 against SpoolSense's 1. SpoolSense's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Filament ships an update fortnightly, SpoolSense every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Filament | SpoolSense |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 4 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 25 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | David Oreol | shane jordan |
In-app purchases
Filament
No in-app purchases
SpoolSense
No in-app purchases







