Freegate vs ViewPane
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Freegate
Access live camera feeds and recent event previews from your self-hosted Frigate NVR. Enjoy features like PTZ controls, two-way audio, and push notifications without complex configuration. Supports various streaming protocols and secure remote access.
- Live camera view
- Recent event GIF previews
- Push notifications
- PTZ controls
- Two-way audio
- WebRTC/HLS/MJPEG support
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Freegate is a viewer client for your self-hosted Frigate NVR™ servers. - Live view all cameras on homepage - Recent events GIF preview - Push notifications (no config required) - PTZ controls - 2-way audio - WebRTC / HLS / MJPEG support Supports LAN and external fallback server URLs. No tracking or analytics, privacy friendly* *For optional notifications to work, this app registers to your instance using 'Web Push' feature. See privacy policy for detailed information
ViewPane
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ViewPane is the companion app for Frigate NVR — the open-source, self-hosted network video recorder trusted by thousands of self-hosting enthusiasts. Your cameras. Your network. Your phone. NATIVE HEVC LIVE VIEW Tap any camera for a fullscreen live view played as real video with hardware H.265/HEVC decode — full resolution, full frame rate, no server re-encoding. Pinch to zoom, pan while zoomed, rotate for landscape. ALL YOUR CAMERAS IN ONE GRID A clean 2- or 3-column grid with thumbnails you set yourself — capture the exact frame you want for each camera. Live Wall (Pro) turns the grid into an auto-updating multi-camera view with Auto, Large, Medium, or Small tiles, and a long-press pins any camera as the big tile. BROWSE AI-DETECTED EVENTS Scroll events with thumbnails, confidence scores, and zone labels. Filter by camera, detection type (person, car, dog, cat), or time range (Pro). Tap any event for the snapshot and recorded clip. PLAY, SAVE, AND SHARE CLIPS (PRO) Event clips and continuous recordings download to your phone, play smoothly mobile-optimized, and hand off to the system share sheet — save to your files or photos via the share sheet, or send to anyone. GET NOTIFIED (PRO) Motion alerts through your own self-hosted relay container, driven by your MQTT broker. Per-camera schedules, tap an alert to jump to the live view and snooze that camera. No cloud middleman — the relay runs on your hardware. Delivery is best-effort: alerts ride your network and Apple's push service, so treat them as a convenience, not a guarantee. WORKS EVERYWHERE Connect over your local network at home or remotely through Tailscale or a reverse proxy — ViewPane automatically picks the right URL. Sign in with Frigate's own built-in login (0.16+), Basic Auth, or a Bearer Token. The app refuses to send credentials over unsafe public HTTP. PRIVACY FIRST No analytics, no tracking, no accounts, no cloud. Server credentials live in your device's secure keychain. Camera footage flows directly between your phone and your server — we never see it. The only optional external service is push delivery (an anonymous device token; never video or credentials). BUILT FOR FRIGATE USERS Works with Frigate 0.14 or newer (tested on 0.16 and 0.17), community or Frigate+. Multi-server support (Pro). Demo mode — tour the full app with sample data before touching your config. Built by someone who runs 10 cameras on Frigate at home. ViewPane is a viewer for cameras you own and operate. It is not a security or alarm system, does not monitor anything on your behalf, and is not a substitute for a monitored service. Free tier: one server, the camera grid, fullscreen native-HEVC live view with pinch-zoom and landscape, the last 20 events, LAN + Tailscale access, and demo mode. ViewPane Pro ($9.99/year — under a dollar a month) adds push notifications, full event history with filters, clip playback and saving, unlimited servers, and Live Wall. ViewPane is not affiliated with the Frigate NVR project. Privacy Policy: https://viewpane.app/privacy · Terms of Use (EULA): https://viewpane.app/terms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Freegate at none against ViewPane's 1. ViewPane's advantage is update cadence (daily vs every 2 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. ViewPane sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $9.99 per year. Freegate asks for nothing beyond the download.
Freegate ships an update every 2 weeks, ViewPane daily. The most recent releases landed on September 18, 2026 and September 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Freegate | ViewPane |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 58 MB | 33 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Cagri IT Services OÜ | Kenneth Campbell |
In-app purchases
Freegate
No in-app purchases
ViewPane
- ViewPane Pro$9.991 Year









