FlareCON vs WLED
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
FlareCON
Control lighting fixtures wirelessly with dynamic scene creation. Easily manage effects, group lights, and save/load shows for events. Designed for the FlareCON Air 2 hardware.
- Dynamic scene creation
- Create effects like Fade, Flicker, Paparazzi
- Find my Light
- Grouping fixtures
- Master commands
- Export and import shows
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Designed for easy operation, the FlareCON Air 2 by CHAUVET DJ is the ideal way to create dynamic scenes with WDMX enabled fixtures. For more information, check us out on www.chauvetdj.com What's new Completely fresh and updated look and experience for the FlareCON app. Easily create effects like Fade, Flicker, Paparazzi with few clicks, simple static scenes. Other new features: - Find my Light - Grouping Fixtures - Master Commands - Export and Import Shows - And more... User Manual: https://www.chauvetdj.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/FlareCon-App_UM_Rev1_Draft1.pdf "Please note, this App is for the FlareCON Air 2, and will NOT function with FlareCON Air 1"
WLED
Control and manage all your WLED light devices from your iPhone or iPad. This companion app works with the open-source WLED software for microcontrollers, offering automatic device detection, customizable names, and software update assistance.
- Automatic device detection
- Centralized light list
- Software update assistant
- Customizable device names
- Hide or delete devices
- Light and dark mode
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With the WLED app, you can easily and efficiently manage and control all your WLED light devices from your iPhone or iPad. This is a companion app for the free and open source WLED software for ESP8266/32 microcontrollers. WLED automatically detects and updates the device list, and offers customizable names, a hide or delete feature, and a light and dark mode. It can also help you install new software updates to your devices. Plus, it supports both phones and tablets. Main Features: - Automatic device detection (mDNS) - All lights are accessible from one list - Software Update Assistant - Custom names - Hide or delete devices - Light and dark mode
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: WLED at 4.0 against FlareCON's 1.2. WLED also leads on review sentiment (51% vs 10%). FlareCON's advantage is ratings volume (73 vs 10) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
WLED holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 1.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: FlareCON has 73 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 10% of FlareCON's written reviews are positive against 51% of WLED's.
FlareCON ships an update every 4 months, WLED every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | FlareCON | WLED |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.2 (73 ratings) | 4.0 (10 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 10.3% of reviews | 50.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 73 — better | 10 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 68 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chauvet Professional | Christophe Gagnier |
Customer experience
FlareCON
WLED
User reviews
FlareCON
From 73 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎨 Color mixing and customization features
- 📱 Wireless control convenience
- 👍 User-friendly interface (older versions)
- 🔌 Easy connection to fixtures (when working)
- 💾 Scene/preset storage capability
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent connectivity failures
- 😤 Non-intuitive user interface
- ⚠️ Incompatible with older FlareCON devices
- 🔄 Unreliable app performance
- 📉 Significant regression from previous version
WLED
From 10 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Works flawlessly for some
- 👍 Free and does the job
- 👍 Great for managing multiple devices
- 👍 Responsive and stable (for some)
- 👍 Cleaner and modern UI
Room to improve
- 🐛 Connectivity issues
- 🐛 Randomly turns on/off
- 🐛 Not user friendly
- 🐛 Glitchy and poorly built
- 🐛 Flickering lights after update
Bugs and requests
FlareCON
Reported bugs
17 issues- App does not connect to FlareCON Air/Air 1/Air 2
- Connection drops after phone powers down
- Auto channel selector not functioning
- Presets not saving between sessions
- Shows randomly disappearing/being deleted
Show 12 moreShow fewer
- Cannot save more than 6-7 presets without data loss
- Backup and restore feature failing
- All color wheel controls offset/incorrect
- Master dimmer not working
- Auto programs starting wrong program
- Incompatible with iOS 15 and newer
- Crashes on iPhone XS and newer models
- App crashes on iPad with current OS
- Incompatible with original FlareCON on Apple devices
- Cannot expand manual on mobile devices
- Lights going dark when switching between shows
- No delay compensation between old and new versions
Requested features
14 requests- Restore previous app version (2.0/1.0)
- Add fade, pulse, strobe, and chase effects
- Sound activation mode
- More than 9 programmable buttons/scenes
- Individual fixture addressing
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- Full DMX channel control (512 channels)
- Support for additional fixture types (GigBar 2, Flex Q, Tri6)
- UV control access
- Landscape/rotation support for iPad
- Ability to name scenes on shows screen
- Save fixture patches to avoid re-selection
- sACN stream recording and playback
- Better manual and documentation
- Option to keep old app alongside new version
WLED
Reported bugs
42 issues- Unable to connect to LEDs
- Lights randomly turn on
- Connectivity issues, needs re-pairing
- App doesn't work, glitchy
- Brightness control issues
Show 37 moreShow fewer
- Lights flicker after update
- Cannot find discover lights option
- Not connected to iPhone, setup issues
- App won't load, vanishes
- None of my devices show up
- Shows up blank, manual add only
- No longer finds WLED devices
- App doesn't work, no devices showing
- Confusing app, turns off
- App is unusable after update, errors
- App stopped picking up signal
- Only connects when at home
- Doesn't pick up esp8266
- Sound react option missing
- Time and macros section not working
- Update won't update
- Goes offline from time to time
- Update breaks app, beta works
- Drops connection, cannot adjust lights
- Latest release freezes, unstable wifi
- Loading WLED UI stuck
- Inconsistent connection after new update
- Lost all config after update
- Lost all presets after update
- Devices missing and disappearing
- Update ruined everything, random disconnects
- App constantly crashes, won't load
- Stopped working after update
- New upgrade feature killed device
- Inconsistent, can't find boards
- Cannot connect lights, IP address doesn't work
- Missing schedule function
- App doesn't work at all
- Doesn't work properly with WLED 0.14
- App won't allow changing anything, freezes
- Hidden devices reappear
- App goes offline and never connects again
Requested features
6 requests- User-friendly interface
- Simple interface with advanced option
- Widget features for Home Screen
- Sound react option
- Remote control when away from WiFi
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Timer or schedule function
In-app purchases
FlareCON
No in-app purchases
WLED
No in-app purchases
