Comparison

Reelo Player vs Photon Player

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Reelo Player

Features
Read full description

Reelo is a private, offline video player and gallery for the videos already on your iPhone. No accounts. No cloud uploads. No ads. No tracking. Everything you do in Reelo — playing, organizing, and locking videos — happens entirely on your device. FIND EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE Reelo automatically brings together the videos already stored on your phone into one clean, distraction-free library — organized by folder, ready to browse. PICK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF Your Home screen keeps recently watched videos front and center, so you never lose your place. PRIVATE VAULT Move sensitive videos into a Private Vault, protected by a PIN or Face ID. They disappear from your regular gallery until you unlock the vault. COLLECTIONS Group videos into custom collections — for trips, projects, or anything else — and play them back to back. FAVORITES & HISTORY Tap the heart on any video to save it to Favorites. Your watch history keeps track of what you've played, and you can clear it anytime. A PLAYER BUILT FOR VIDEO Fullscreen playback, Picture-in-Picture, background audio, autoplay, and loop — all built in. YOUR LANGUAGE Reelo speaks English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, and Korean. PRIVACY BY DESIGN Reelo has no servers. Your videos, favorites, and vault contents never leave your device. Privacy Policy:- https://sites.google.com/view/reeloprivacy/home Terms and Conditions- https://sites.google.com/view/relloterms/home

About

Photon Player

This app consolidates your media library from various sources like servers, cloud storage, and live TV subscriptions into a single, unified interface. Enjoy seamless playback with support for advanced features like Dolby Vision and HDR, and download content for offline viewing.

Highlights
  • Connects to Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, Photon, and Silo servers
  • Supports SMB, NFS, FTP, WebDAV, and UPnP shares
  • Live TV playback with M3U and Xtream Codes
  • Dolby Vision and HDR support
  • Offline downloads with Pro subscription
  • Handoff and Spotlight integration
  • Cross-platform compatibility (iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS)
Features
Read full description

Photon is a native player for the library you already own. Connect your media servers, your cloud and network storage, and your Live TV subscription, and everything you can watch appears in one place — on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac, from a single purchase. YOUR OWN LIBRARY, TOGETHER • Works with Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, Photon and Silo • Connect a server free, or as many as you like with Pro. Home and Search bring them all together; the Library tab keeps each source's own shelves separate, so you can still ask what is on one server. • Play straight from an SMB, NFS, FTP or WebDAV share, a UPnP server on your network with no media server at all • Live TV from an Xtream Codes subscription, M3U: a full programme guide, favourites, and a channel list built for thousands of channels • Open a video from Files or the Finder and it becomes a title like any other — with a resume point, artwork and a name you can match against your servers AS IT WAS MADE • Dolby Vision and HDR, with AVPlayer driving the display for real HDR output • MKV and 4K play as they are. Nothing is quietly downscaled or re-encoded behind your back. • Subtitles drawn as overlays, never burned into the picture • Standing choices for audio language, subtitle language, and when subtitles should come on at all • Skip intros and credits, and go straight into the next episode EVERYWHERE YOU WATCH • Download for offline with Pro. Transfers carry on while you are elsewhere, with a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and a notice when a title lands. • Handoff picks a film up on the next device at the frame you left it • Spotlight opens a title directly • Top Shelf on Apple TV, a real menu bar on the Mac, and one design across all four platforms BUILT FOR THE PLATFORM Written in SwiftUI for iOS, tvOS, macOS and visionOS, with full Dynamic Type, VoiceOver labels on every control, and Reduce Motion respected throughout. There is no account to create and no service of ours in the path: Photon talks to your servers and to your own iCloud, and to nothing else. PHOTON PRO The free app is the whole player: one media server and one Live TV subscription, every drive and network share, and every format — 4K, MKV, Dolby Vision, TrueHD and DTS — with browsing, search, Handoff and SharePlay, no advertising and nothing to sign up for. Pro adds: • Every source at once: as many servers and Live TV subscriptions as you like, together in Home and Search • Downloads, for watching offline • AirPlay to an Apple TV or any AirPlay screen • Your servers, settings and the way you have arranged Home, on every device you sign in on Available monthly, yearly, or as a one-off Lifetime purchase, with a free week on either subscription. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac. Photon plays the media you already have on servers and storage you control. It is an independent client and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Jellyfin, Emby or Plex. Terms of Use (EULA): https://photon.oliverwalton.uk/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://photon.oliverwalton.uk/privacy/

Screenshots

Reelo Player4 screens
Photon Player4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Reelo Player at none against Photon Player's 3. Reelo Player also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.0). Photon Player's advantage is update cadence (daily vs every 5 weeks) and device support (5 vs 1). On price 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Photon Player sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Reelo Player asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Reelo Player ships an update every 5 weeks, Photon Player daily. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 5 level
Reelo Player versus Photon Player: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReelo PlayerPhoton Player
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS16.4 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size37 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperInam arshad Muhammad arshadOliver Walton

In-app purchases

None

Reelo Player

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Photon Player

Subscriptions2
  • Photon Pro Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Photon Pro Yearly$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Photon Pro Lifetime$49.99

Questions

Is Reelo Player free?
Reelo Player is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Photon Player free?
Photon Player is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Reelo Player or Photon Player have ads?
Neither Reelo Player nor Photon Player shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Reelo Player or Photon Player?
Reelo Player ships an update every 5 weeks, and Photon Player daily. Most recently, Reelo Player was updated on October 31, 2026 and Photon Player on November 6, 2026.

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