Lens vs Light Here
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lens
A private web browser focused on speed and simplicity. It blocks ads and trackers by default, offers customizable search engine options, and features automatic tab archiving. Enhanced privacy controls include Face ID protection for private tabs.
- Search-first interface
- Ad and tracker blocking
- Customizable search engines
- Automatic tab archiving
- Face ID protected private tabs
- Link preview and translation
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Lens is a web browser that stays out of your way. Open it and type: search comes first, your favourite sites are one tap away, and there's nothing else to learn. No ads, no trackers, no account, and nothing collected about you. Free. SEARCH FIRST • Lens opens straight to search, with your pinned sites one tap away. • Pick your search engine: DuckDuckGo, Brave, Kagi, Ecosia, Google or Bing. THE WEB, WITHOUT THE NOISE • Ads, trackers and most cookie pop-ups don't load. • Hide anything that bothers you on a page, and it stays hidden next time. PRIVATE ON ITS OWN • No account, no analytics, no tracking. Lens doesn't know who you are. • Lock private tabs with Face ID. • Forget This Website clears everything a site saved. • Secure connections everywhere, and tracking codes are cleaned from links. TABS THAT TIDY THEMSELVES • Tabs you haven't opened in a day move to the Archive. Nothing is lost. • A tab with a half-filled form stays open until you send it. • Pinch a page to see your tabs, swipe along the bar to switch, flick a tab up to close it. SMALL THINGS THAT HELP • Mini Player: keep listening while you browse, with Picture in Picture. • Downloads that keep going in the background. • Reader, in seven soft colours. • Translate pages right on your iPhone. • Press and hold a link to preview it, and scroll it, before you open it. • Buttons for Reader, Translate, video and Downloads show up only when you need them. • Zoom, fullscreen, desktop site and blocking, set for each site. • Swipe anywhere on a page to go back or forward. • Copy an article as clean Markdown. MADE FOR iPHONE DUO • Open, the page gets the whole big screen, with the bar down the side. • Half-fold it in landscape, and Reader becomes a book you turn page by page. • Closed, it's the same Lens you know from iPhone. WORKS WITH YOUR iPHONE • Make Lens your default browser. • iCloud Passwords, passkeys, one-time codes, Apple Pay and Wallet passes. • iCloud sync for pins, history and tabs, end-to-end encrypted. • Buttons for Control Center and the Lock Screen, and Siri and Shortcuts. FOR DESIGNERS AND DEVELOPERS Select any text to see which font draws it. Tap anything to see its box, colours and contrast, measure the gap between two elements, or pause the page to look at a menu. Turn on Developer Tools in Settings. LENS FOR MAC A free menu bar app with your pins, your iPhone's tabs and the pages you send from your iPhone. No feeds, no clutter, no AI you didn't ask for. If you like Lens, you can leave a tip and unlock extra app icons.
Light Here
This app displays clocks for different locations, color-coded to indicate the best time to contact people. It helps you find optimal times to call, message, or connect with family and friends across time zones, offering various display options and offline functionality.
- Color-coded time zones for optimal contact
- Find the best time for everyone to connect
- Direct calling and messaging integration
- Always-on display with Night Look
- Multiple clock designs and widgets
- Works completely offline
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Light Here shows the places where your people live as clocks, colored by whether it's a good time to reach them. • Gold: a good time to call • Coral: early or late, maybe send a message • Blue: they're probably asleep KNOW WHEN TO CALL • Up to four places, each with its own reachable hours • "+1 day" shows when they're already into tomorrow • Time differences between every place, at a tap FIND THE RIGHT TIME • Slide ahead to see everyone's time at once • "Find a time for everyone" jumps to the next time every place is awake • Share the time with each place's local time spelled out REACH FAMILY, FRIENDS, CO-WORKERS FROM THE APP • Add people from Contacts, no Contacts permission needed • Tap their face to call, message, FaceTime, WhatsApp or Telegram • A gentle check before you call someone who's likely asleep DISPLAY IT ANYWHERE • Made to stay on: on your nightstand, desk or an unused iPad • Stays awake while charging, and Night Look dims the faces after dark • Slow drift helps protect the screen THREE DIFFERENT DESIGNS AND WIDGETS • Airport analog clocks, LED, or a flip board • 12- or 24-hour time • Home screen, StandBy and lock screen widgets PRIVATE • Works completely offline, with over 159,000 cities and towns built in • No accounts, no ads, no tracking. Nothing leaves your device. Town names from GeoNames.org (CC BY 4.0).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Lens at Free against Light Here's $4.99. Lens also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks) and ratings volume (54 vs 1). Light Here's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On rating, 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
Lens is free to download; Light Here costs $4.99 up front. Lens sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Light Here asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Lens against 5.0 for Light Here. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lens has 54 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Lens ships an update every 2 days, Light Here every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lens | Light Here |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.9 (54 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 54 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 67 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Maximos Angelakis | Brian Ukestad |
Customer experience
Lens
Light Here
In-app purchases
Lens
- Coffee$3.99
- Coffee & Snack$6.99
- Lunch$14.99
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- Big Thank-You$29.99
Light Here
No in-app purchases





