LeanCam vs GrayBox
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
LeanCam
This camera app helps you capture more photos and videos without quickly filling your device's storage. It offers familiar camera controls and options for saving space, with advanced features available for greater customization.
- Space-saving photo capture
- Space-saving video capture
- Rear and continuous zoom
- Combined front/rear camera capture
- Flash, timer, grid, tap-to-focus
- Optional metadata/location saving
- Customizable quality and resolution (Pro)
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LeanCam helps you shoot more and store less. Use LeanCam as your everyday camera when you want clean photos and videos without filling your iPhone as quickly. The default capture settings are designed to keep file sizes lean, while still giving you familiar camera controls like rear zoom, continuous zoom, flash, timer, grid, tap-to-focus, and optional metadata/location saving. LeanCam is useful for travel, family moments, quick documentation, creator clips, school notes, work records, and everyday photos or videos where storage matters. Need more control? LeanCam Pro lets you customize quality and resolution so you can choose smaller files when storage matters or higher quality when the shot needs it. LeanCam also includes combined front/rear camera capture on supported devices. Capture what you see and your reaction in one photo or video, with a default combined layout included for free. LeanCam Pro unlocks more collage layouts, PiP borders, and advanced capture options. Free includes: - Space-saving default photo capture - Space-saving default video capture - Rear camera zoom and continuous zoom - Front/rear combined default collage on supported devices - Flash, timer, grid, and tap-to-focus - Optional metadata and location saving LeanCam Pro unlocks: - Custom photo quality - Custom video quality - Custom photo and video resolution - More combined front/rear collage layouts - PiP border options - Advanced capture settings Simple enough for everyday shooting. Flexible enough when you want control over quality, file size, and creative capture.
GrayBox
This app transforms your phone into an interruption-proof dash cam and private vault. It records continuously, even through calls or app switches, and stores footage securely on your device with passcode protection. Optional Pro features enhance driving and security.
- Interruption-proof recording
- Private, passcode-protected vault
- Dash cam functionality
- Dual camera recording
- Lock Mode for continuous recording
- Optional Face ID and passcode protection
- No account or cloud storage
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GrayBox turns the camera you already carry into a dash cam with a private photo safe. No wires, no SD card, no account. Now on iPhone and iPad. Open the app and you're recording in about a second. Tap for a photo, hold for video, slide left to keep recording hands free. Your music keeps playing while you record. Everything goes straight to your private library, never your Photos app. If a call, an app switch, or a dead battery interrupts you, GrayBox keeps everything up to that moment, picks back up when you return, and stitches it into one clip with every interval time-stamped. A DASH CAM WITHOUT THE WIRES • Mount your phone and drive • Car Mode (Pro) is one tap from the camera and starts recording with your saved driving settings • Speed in mph or km/h and the time, burned right into your footage • Your music keeps playing the whole drive • Dual Cam records the road and the cabin at the same time, split screen or picture in picture (iPhone) • Swap the main camera without cutting the recording • A large dim clock while the screen is dimmed, so the phone stays mounted • Your location is only used to draw your speed and is never stored FOR THE MOMENTS YOU NEED ON RECORD • A traffic stop, a fender bender, a heated moment, anything you might need proof of • Lock Mode dims the screen and freezes the controls while recording continues • Unlocking takes a deliberate press and hold, 2 to 10 seconds, your choice • Volume buttons won't stop it either A PRIVATE PLACE FOR PHOTOS AND DOCUMENTS • Keep photos of your ID, insurance card, receipts, and paperwork out of your camera roll • Albums, favorites, and Recently Deleted (kept for an hour, a day, or a month) • Select photos by dragging in any direction • Import existing photos and videos, export anything, anytime A LIBRARY ONLY YOU CAN OPEN • Your passcode gives nothing away, not even its length • Optional Face ID • Optional self-erase after too many wrong guesses, and you pick the number • After a run of wrong guesses, entry pauses for a few minutes so nobody can rush the limit THE CAMERA • Photos and video up to 4K • Flash, front and rear cameras, pinch to zoom from 0.5x to 10x • Turn the mic off for video only • Optional blurred hold instead of jump cuts, so clip length matches the clock PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No accounts, no cloud, no ads, no analytics • Nothing about you is ever collected • Your library is excluded from backups and never appears in Photos unless you export it GRAYBOX PRO One purchase, yours forever. No subscription. Less than a dash cam memory card. • Car Mode with speed and clock • Locked Albums: an album with its own passcode and optional self-erase • Security log of every wrong guess and erase, time-stamped, and it survives the erase • Instant Lock: flip your phone face down or triple tap • Pattern and full keyboard passcodes • Timestamp burned into your footage • Eight themes The $100 dash cam on the shelf? You're already holding a better one. Just add a mount.
Screenshots
Verdict
LeanCam and GrayBox are too close to call on the numbers: across 9 compared parameters — price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. LeanCam sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and GrayBox sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for LeanCam against 5.0 for GrayBox. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.
LeanCam ships an update every 6 days, GrayBox every 3 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | LeanCam | GrayBox |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Zhe Wu | Nolan Mayoss |
Customer experience
LeanCam
GrayBox
In-app purchases
LeanCam
- LeanCam Pro Lifetime$14.99
GrayBox
- GrayBox Pro$2.99









