Watermelon Backup vs 微光
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Watermelon Backup
Securely back up your iPhone photo library to your own storage, not a third-party cloud. Organize and manage your photos by month, with options to back up, download, or sync. It intelligently avoids unnecessary transfers and can access iCloud Photos when needed.
- Backup iPhone photos to personal storage
- Supports NAS, SFTP, S3, WebDAV, SMB
- Organize backups by month
- Intelligent transfer to avoid duplicates
- Pause and resume backup tasks
- Restore photos and videos from backup
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Back up your iPhone photo library to computers on the same local network, external drives, SMB, WebDAV, SFTP, S3, OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive. Drop Mode also sends photos, videos, and files directly. Nothing passes through Watermelon Backup’s servers. • BACK UP TO A COMPUTER OR EXTERNAL DRIVES Back up directly to a computer on the same local network without installing a desktop app. Open link.watermelonbackup.com in Chrome or Edge, choose a backup folder, then scan the QR code with Watermelon Backup. Keep both devices on the same local network. You can also back up directly to external drives connected to your iPhone. • DROP PHOTOS, VIDEOS, AND FILES Drop Mode sends selected items directly to a computer or storage destination’s Inbox without backup records. Choose original or edited versions, Live Photo MOV videos, or location removal; Photos stays unchanged. It does not deduplicate, so sending an item again keeps another copy. Free users can send up to 3 items at a time; Pro has no per-send limit. • NETWORK AND CLOUD DESTINATIONS Connect to a NAS or server using SMB, WebDAV, or SFTP, or use S3-compatible storage. For OneDrive, sign in with a personal Microsoft account; work or school accounts and SharePoint are not supported. OneDrive backups stay in the app folder. Dropbox backups are stored in Dropbox/Apps/Watermelon, and Watermelon cannot access your other Dropbox files. For Google Drive, provide your own OAuth client ID. Watermelon uses its own folder in My Drive and only requests access to files created by this OAuth app. • BROWSE AND MANAGE MEDIA The built-in media browser covers your full library and selected albums. In the full-library browser, switch among Local, All, and Remote to explore your on-device library, a connected backup, or a combined view. See whether each item is on your device, in the backup, or both. Browse photos, videos, and Live Photos with full-screen previews, then select one or more items to upload, restore, share, or delete from the device or backup. • BACKGROUND AUTO-BACKUP — PRO With Pro, automatically upload the current and previous calendar months to saved SMB, WebDAV, SFTP, S3, OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive destinations while your iPhone is charging and online. Configure a minimum interval and Wi-Fi/cellular use for each destination; iOS decides the actual timing. Backup to Computer sessions and external drives are not supported in the background. • PICTURE-IN-PICTURE PROGRESS — PRO View live transfer status and logs in a floating Picture-in-Picture window for Upload, Download, or Complete tasks while the app is in the background. Pro offers monthly and yearly subscriptions or lifetime access. Lifetime owners keep Pro. • BACK UP, DOWNLOAD, OR COMPLETE BY MONTH The Home screen places your iPhone library and backup destination side by side, organized by month. Choose one or more months to back up, download, or complete. Complete first backs up local items missing from the destination, then restores remote-only items to Photos; it does not synchronize deletions. Existing content is recognized to avoid unnecessary transfers, and active tasks can be paused and resumed. • PRESERVE ORIGINALS AND RESTORE Photo and video resources are transferred without recompression. Backups of edited media include the edited version, the unedited original, and adjustment data. Live Photos are stored as a still image and paired video, then rebuilt when restored to Photos. Optional iCloud Photos access can fetch iCloud-only originals when needed; when disabled, only on-device resources are processed. • BUILT-IN TOOL The Duplicates tool finds content-identical items in your local photo library so you can review what to keep before removing selected copies. • OPEN AND REVIEWABLE The source code is open for review, and credentials for saved destinations are stored in the iOS Keychain. --------------- End User License Agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
微光
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Glimmer is a quiet, private map of every place you've ever taken a photo. No feeds, no sharing, no algorithm. Just your own life, glowing back at you. The Time Machine Press play. The camera flies across your map, dot by dot, replaying years of your life in under a minute. Each place lights up when you first arrived, the trail you walked draws itself between them, and a small card surfaces the photo and date of every memory it visits. The memories you wrote For each day of a trip, you can write one short line — what stood out, what you'd want to remember years later. During playback that line appears beside the photo. Tap it and the card opens, the music quiets, the camera holds still. You stop in time, read it, and continue. Every photo, already mapped Glimmer reads your photo library locally and clusters every geotagged photo into the places you actually visited. The cities and countries on your map fill in as you've lived them, not as you've curated. Nothing about your photos is ever uploaded. Private by design Photos stay on your device. Place names resolve through Apple's own geocoding service. There is no Glimmer account, no server, no shared feed. The map is yours, and only yours. For travelers, parents, people who move often, and anyone who has ever opened the Photos app to find one moment and gotten lost in eight years of timeline. Glimmer is the lens that turns that timeline into a place.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: 微光 at none against Watermelon Backup's 1. Watermelon Backup's advantage is device support and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price 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. Watermelon Backup sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. 微光 asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Watermelon Backup | 微光 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (13 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 96.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 13 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days | — |
| Ads | No | — |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | — |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 42 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ZIZICICI LIMITED | CHENHAO GUO |
In-app purchases
Watermelon Backup
- Watermelon Pro$9.99
微光
No in-app purchases









