Comparison

Simul Studio vs Cinetone

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

Head to head
About

Simul Studio

Features
Read full description

Simul turns your iPhone into a film camera and a darkroom. Shoot through real film-inspired looks and see the result live, or bring in photos you already have — the grain, the tones, the character of film, in seconds instead of weeks. 544 FILM-INSPIRED PRESETS Browse a huge library of looks modeled on classic analog stocks — warm consumer negatives, punchy slides, moody black & white, and more. Tap to preview, swipe to compare before and after. A DARKROOM IN YOUR POCKET • Film grain and halation with fine manual control • HSL color mixer, tone curves and split toning • Exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, clarity, vibrance • Local radial & linear masks to dodge and burn • Crop, straighten and one-tap auto-align • Film frames & borders — white, black, 35mm sprockets with rebate text, and Polaroid • Optional retro date stamp SHOOT A ROLL Load a virtual roll of 24 or 36, pick your film, and shoot blind — no chimping, no deleting. When you're ready, develop the roll and watch each frame come to life, negative to positive. The anticipation of film, without the lab. BATCH EDITING Apply one look across a whole set at once, keeping every other adjustment intact. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your photos are edited on your device. No account needed. Optional iCloud Sync backs up your library to your own iCloud, and optional anonymous analytics help improve Simul. Try Simul free, then unlock everything with a single one-time purchase — no subscriptions.

About

Cinetone

Apply cinematic color grades to your videos and export them or create reusable 3D LUTs. Explore original looks, fine-tune adjustments, and import your own LUTs for a personalized workflow. All processing happens locally on your device.

Highlights
  • 20+ original cinematic looks
  • Adjustable color parameters
  • Import custom .cube LUTs
  • Export graded video (MP4/HEVC)
  • Export 33/65-point .cube LUTs
  • Siri and Shortcuts integration
  • On-device scene analysis
Features
Read full description

Edit the video. Shape the color. Cinetone is an iPhone video editor and cinematic color studio. Arrange multiple clips, refine each shot, build a soundtrack, add captions, and export a finished video—or create a color-only LUT for another editing workflow. EDIT ON A MULTI-CLIP TIMELINE Trim, split, move, and reorder clips. Reframe, rotate, or flip footage. See waveforms, trim added audio clips, adjust their volume individually, and keep original sound separate from added music. Editing is nondestructive: Cinetone works with its own local copies, leaving source files untouched. ADD CAPTIONS Create and edit captions for individual source clips, set their text and timing, and control whether they appear. Captions stay attached to their original clip as you trim, split, or reorder the timeline. Add them manually or generate them from speech in a selected original clip when the device, language, and Apple speech model support it. Model downloads may be required; transcription runs on device. Review captions before export. Enabled captions are burned into the video, never included in a LUT. MAKE THE COLOR YOURS Start with 20 original cinematic looks, including Golden Hour, Soft Portrait, Teal Shadow, and Rich Mono, plus three open community looks. Compare your grade with neutral Rec.709 and adjust exposure, warmth, tint, contrast, saturation, intensity, and fade. Import your own .cube LUTs from Files after choosing the matching input profile; imported LUTs output SDR Rec.709. HANDLE LOG AND HDR SOURCES Import supported Rec.709, Apple Log, Apple Log 2, and color-tagged HLG or PQ footage. HLG and PQ are converted to SDR Rec.709 for preview and video export. Cinetone does not export HDR video. EXPORT FOR YOUR NEXT STEP Export an H.264 MP4 or HEVC MP4 when supported, with SDR Rec.709 color and supported mono or stereo audio. Choose up to 1080p or 4K and up to 30 fps or the source frame cadence. Smaller sources are never upscaled. Export a 33-point or 65-point .cube LUT to carry color into a compatible workflow. Save videos to Photos with add-only access, share them, or save them in Files. SUGGESTIONS WITH YOU IN CONTROL Explore 20 looks and get on-device scene suggestions with a deterministic fallback. Where available, optional Apple Private Cloud Compute requires explicit opt-in on iOS 27 or later. Only disclosed scene metrics and look-catalog text are sent; your video, frames, and audio stay on device. Suggestions never apply a look or change your export automatically. USE SHORTCUTS, NO ACCOUNT Use Siri and Shortcuts to apply or recommend looks, explore cinematic looks, and export graded video. Find looks and imported presets with iOS Spotlight. No Cinetone account is required. Requires iOS 26 or later. iPhone only.

Screenshots

Simul Studio4 screens
Cinetone4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Cinetone at none against Simul Studio's 1. Cinetone also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). Simul Studio's advantage is iOS requirement (18.2 vs 26.0). On price, ads and device support 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. Simul Studio sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Cinetone asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Simul Studio ships an update every 2 weeks, Cinetone every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Simul Studio versus Cinetone: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimul StudioCinetone
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS18.2 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVincent PestanaAndrii Cheberiako

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Simul Studio

One-time1
  • Simul Unlock$9.99
None

Cinetone

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Simul Studio free?
Simul Studio is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cinetone free?
Cinetone is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Simul Studio or Cinetone have ads?
Neither Simul Studio nor Cinetone shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Simul Studio or Cinetone?
Simul Studio ships an update every 2 weeks, and Cinetone every 3 days. Most recently, Simul Studio was updated on October 23, 2026 and Cinetone on October 24, 2026.

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