Plain and Simple Tools vs Playwall
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Plain and Simple Tools
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A shelf of small tools, each doing one thing, with nothing attached. This is the one app here that is not about a single thing: a container that gains tools over time. Every tool says what it does, what it will ask you for, and what โ if anything โ it sends off your phone, before you tap it. Pin the ones you use to the tab bar. A tool you have never opened is never even started, and never asks you for anything. Three ship today. CHARGE โ IS THAT CHARGER ANY GOOD? Plug the phone in and leave it a few minutes. Charge times how fast the battery is actually filling and tells you roughly how many watts are arriving, and whether that counts as fast or slow. There is a Lock Screen tile for the last one you tested. It is honest about the figure, which is the part most apps are not. iOS does not tell an app how many watts a charger is delivering โ there is no way to ask, and any app showing you an instant number is making it up. Timing the fill is the only method available, it takes a few minutes, and it gets within about a fifth. The app shows that it is still measuring rather than inventing something, and explains the method on the screen. NEGATIVES โ FILM, TURNED BACK INTO PHOTOGRAPHS Point the camera at a negative on a lightbox โ or let a second phone be the lightbox โ or pick one you have already photographed. Colour film, black and white, and slides. A single frame or a whole strip. The conversion happens on your phone, and the result saves straight into your own photo library. STEPS TO HA โ YOUR STEP COUNT, ON YOUR OWN DASHBOARD If you run Home Assistant at home, this sends today's step count to it, so you can put it on a dashboard or use it in an automation. It reads your step count from Apple Health, read-only, and never writes anything back. It sends that number to the address you typed in, and nowhere else. There is no account and no server here. Nothing goes to Plain and Simple. Your Home Assistant address and webhook ID are kept in this phone's Keychain, marked device-only, so they are not in iCloud and do not travel to a new phone. If you do not run Home Assistant, this tool has nothing for you โ and it stays switched off and silent. PERMISSIONS BELONG TO THE TOOLS, NOT TO THE APP The shell โ the shelf, the tab bar, Settings โ asks for nothing at all. Health is only requested once you open Steps to HA and choose to connect it. The camera is only ever on while Negatives is the screen you are looking at, or while you are scanning a pairing code, and it explains itself before iPhone asks. Saving a photograph uses the add-only permission, which lets the app put pictures into your library and never lets it see one that is already there. That is the least it could ask for; the cost is that it cannot file its results into an album, and that was accepted rather than asking for more. Tests read the app's own source and fail the build if permission code appears outside a tool, if the app declares a permission that no tool asked for, or if any tool other than Steps to HA gains the ability to reach the network. WHAT IT DOES NOT DO โข No adverts, no purchases, no subscription โข No account, no analytics, no tracking โข One tool sends one number, to one address you chose. Nothing else in the app can reach the network at all, and a test fails the build if that changes โข Nothing downloaded after you install it If none of the three is a job you have, this one has nothing for you yet. The shelf is honest about being short.
Playwall
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Playwall is the backlog you actually want to open. No streaks to keep. No guilt if you skip a week. No number counting everything you have not finished staring back at you every time you open the app. Just the games you already own, kept somewhere that feels good to look at. Nothing in Playwall is locked behind a subscription. Capture, log, and rate as many games as you want, for free, forever. Night Owl is there if you want to support the person who makes Playwall, never because you have to. CAPTURE THE PILE Add a game once, from your own wall or a quick search, and it takes its place: sharp if you own it, dimmed if it is a wishlist, one tap to move between the two. No folders, no lists to maintain. TONIGHT, NOT SOMEDAY Open Playwall on a quiet evening and it names one game worth starting tonight, not a ranked list to read through. Stop scrolling a storefront you have already scrolled. Start playing something you already own. LOG THE NIGHT IN ONE TAP After you play, log the session in a single tap. No timer running, no diary entry required, just a mark that you played and how the night went. RATE IT IN TWO QUESTIONS Finish a game and Playwall asks two questions, not a five-star form to fill out. That is enough to remember what you thought, and it is what turns a finish into something worth keeping. EVERY FINISH BECOMES A STAR Every game you finish joins a small galaxy you can look back through any time: rate it, log it, and it takes its place among everything else you have played and loved. DECEMBER GETS A RECEIPT At the end of the year, Playwall prints a plain record of what you played, what you finished, and what stood out. A keepsake, not a leaderboard. SUPPORT, NEVER A GATE If you want to support the person who builds Playwall, there are three tiers: Supporter, Night Owl, and Patron. All three unlock the same cosmetic extras, wall themes and a gold galaxy among them. None of them touch the games, the logging, or the ratings, and the higher tiers are a bigger gift, not a bigger app. Terms of Use: https://drnkn.dev/playwall/terms Privacy Policy: https://drnkn.dev/playwall/privacy License Agreement (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Plain and Simple Tools at none against Playwall's 3. On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Playwall sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per year. Plain and Simple Tools asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Plain and Simple Tools | Playwall |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Weekly | โ |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No โ better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 โ better | 18.6 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chandler Young | Aji Mukti |
In-app purchases
Plain and Simple Tools
No in-app purchases
Playwall
- Supporter$19.991 Year
- Night OwlFree
- Patron$79.99
Questions
Is Plain and Simple Tools free?
Is Playwall free?
Do Plain and Simple Tools or Playwall have ads?
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