Celeris vs FrameSeeker
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Celeris
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Plan the photo. Find the moment. Celeris is visual photo planning built around the picture you want to take. Choose your standpoint, direction and focal length. In a simulated camera view, see how your subject lines up with the sun, moon or Milky Way. Then find when the picture becomes possible – and take the plan outside. Start free. Unlock the full version once, with no subscription. A 3D WORLD BUILT FOR PHOTOGRAPHY Terrain, water, forest, buildings, photographic landmarks, your own 3D objects, camera and sky share one view. Where terrain data is available, Celeris shows the real horizon. The sun and moon light the land, cast shadows and change its appearance through the day; lakes mirror the land, the trees and the stars. In the full version, woods stand as tree crowns that turn with the seasons, and buildings from official data light up at night with street lamps and windows. After dusk, cars drive the real roads. Haze, snow and fog help you picture the shot – as simulations, not weather forecasts. THE LANDMARK MATTERS Castles, towers, bridges and rock formations can stand in the sky as surveyed 3D models. The curated collection keeps growing; build your own objects from parts and place them on the terrain. Model, building and terrain coverage varies by location. PLANNED FROM ABOVE The drone view lifts your eye up to 1,000 m above the ground; the horizon and the rise and set times follow the height. In the flight planner, lay out a flight with waypoints or as an orbit, aim each waypoint in the 3D sky, play it back in the light of the chosen moment and export it as a video. Celeris does not fly a drone. FIND THE OPPORTUNITY Set the frame from 10 to 1200 mm or through your own lenses, in portrait or landscape, or make a panorama. Two controls find the next or previous time the sun, moon, Milky Way or a selected sky object becomes visible inside that exact frame. The real terrain skyline and the darkness needed to see it count too. A separate transit finder handles the ISS. The month calendar reveals promising nights. Event search finds sunrises, the moon, Milky Way, eclipses and more; Location Finder compares viewpoints. Save the place, time, direction and lens as a plan with a rendered picture – and later mark it completed with your own photo. Saved places get a photo, notes and tags. DAY INTO NIGHT The time scrubber carries the colours of twilight and the sun's and moon's arcs. The 3D sky shows planets, stars, the Milky Way, zodiacal light and the ISS. The full version shows light pollution in the sky and on the map and finds nearby dark places. Find worthwhile nights for meteor showers; the full version draws their radiants and time-compressed meteors. OUT IN THE FIELD AR lays the calculated sky over your camera view. Widgets show events and your next plan. On Apple Watch, see the night as a ring, your next plan, a compass to your standpoint, the moon and ISS, plus a sequence timer and watch-face complications. START FREE. UNLOCK ONCE. The map, 3D view, terrain, catalogue, your own models, lenses and plans are free to use, with planning limited to 48 hours around now. The full version opens every date, 3D buildings, 3D forest, the drone view, the flight planner and more with a one-time in-app purchase. No subscription. One purchase unlocks it on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Plans, places, drone flights, lenses and your own models can sync across your Apple devices through iCloud. No Celeris account, ads or trackers. English and German. The star catalogue uses HYG (Astronexus) and OpenNGC (Mattia Verga), both CC BY-SA 4.0; sources and licences are in the app.
FrameSeeker
Plan your photography by visualizing light conditions and terrain. See sun, moon, and Milky Way positions, golden hour, and twilights. Scout locations with 3D terrain and camera field of view simulations before you go.
- Sun, Moon, and Milky Way positioning
- Golden hour and twilight visualization
- 3D terrain mapping
- Camera field of view simulation
- Depth of field and hyperfocal distance
- Share and view community photos
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FrameSeeker is the ultimate camera and drone shot preplanning app. It tells you where the light will be, so you can be there before it happens. Pick any spot on the map and stand in it. The viewfinder renders real terrain at a real focal length (16 mm to 800 mm, on your sensor) so you can see whether the ridge blocks the sunrise before you drive four hours to find out that it does. THE LIGHT • Sun, Moon and Milky Way positions for any place and any date • Golden hour, blue hour and the three twilights, on a timeline you can scrub • Rise and set solved against the actual horizon, not a flat one • Solar and lunar eclipses, rendered where they happen THE CAMERA • Field of view for any focal length and sensor, full frame to Micro Four Thirds • Depth of field and hyperfocal distance • Stand at eye level or on the summit — no clamped pitch, no clamped altitude THE MAP • 3D terrain from real elevation data, offline once downloaded • Photorealistic 3D tiles where you want detail (FrameSeeker Plus subscription) • Region packs, so a valley in the Dolomites works without signal THE PEOPLE • Share the frames you make, pinned to where you stood • See what others shot nearby, and in what light • Hold a place with your best-liked photograph there • Public or private, per photograph, always your choice Your photographs carry their coordinates. FrameSeeker shows you that, and lets you keep any of them to yourself. FRAMESEEKER PLUS SUBSCRIPTION FrameSeeker Plus is an auto-renewable subscription: $2.99 per month. Everything else in FrameSeeker is free. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. It renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://beneaze.github.io/frameseeker-legal/en/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: Celeris at 4 against FrameSeeker's 1. Celeris also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Celeris sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and FrameSeeker sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Celeris ships an update every 2 weeks, FrameSeeker weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Celeris | FrameSeeker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 2.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 85 MB | 95 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Stefan Engel | Benedikt Lezius |
In-app purchases
Celeris
- Full Version$8.99
FrameSeeker
- FrameSeeker Plus$0.991 Month









