Photone - Grow Light Meter 4+

Best app on the AppStore to estimate PPFD for growing plants. I’m a botanist, and so I know this app won’t replace a $400 par meter, but for quick estimations with your phone? This app is more than worth it. The hold feature is super useful. The background shows a grainy picture that gives you instant feedback that you are aiming your phone correctly, which is a unique feature that even the expensive PAR meters do not have. A suggestion to the developer for a future update would be for the background preview picture to freeze when the hold option is used. The hold option right now freezes the reading which is useful for measuring at actual leaf locations and orientations, but the background picture does not freeze with the reading. It would be amazing for the background image to freeze with the hold measurement, so when you pull your phone back you could see that you were aiming the phone correctly and you could see what you were aiming at when the hold measurement was taken.

Thank you very much for your kind and useful review! We will definitely consider the background image hold for a future release!

Originally, I had written a review stating how displeased I was for paying $5 for the Full-Spec LED addon. Then, I decided to see what others had said in their reviews of the app, and found an interesting bit of information that really helped me. I was getting inaccurate PPFD reading (300 directly next to a light source for plant cultivation), and was absolutely baffled by the number I got. However, I noticed multiple people, as well as the developer state that the use of a diffuser (like a tissue) is important in some instances. I just tried this and feel the PAR reading is incredibly more accurate than what I originally thought it to be. My apologies to the developer, and thank you to everyone for bringing useful information to the reviews. I would certainly now recommend this app knowing what I do.

Hi Funmcfunster,

Thank you very much for your review! We greatly appreciate your insight and are happy that you get good use of our app!

Best regards,
Dominik

This app caught my attention. I recently installed some grow lights and I simply want to know how far they should be from my plants. Was going to buy a light meter, but then this app says “free” on it. Thought I’d try it out.

Well here’s the catch. It’s free to download, but you have to pay for anything actually useful. Theoretically, I’m fine with that. But you have to pay for each individual kind of light. You have to pay for information on what measurements mean. Really? What if, after spending all this money, you find the information is wrong? You can choose to unlock everything for a monthly fee or a onetime fee of $80. But here’s the thing…that same cost will buy a very decent light meter. You can buy a mediocre meter for less than half. And with this app, they insist you make a filter. And seriously, they INSIST. Like the alert will not go away even after you dismiss it, so the warning blocks measurements even after you have done a onetime payment to unlock something. Seriously? I’m just going to buy a light meter without all the hassle, thanks.

Recommendation: Save your money and buy a meter instead.

Hi yungstud,

Thanks for your detailed inputs 🙏

You’re right, Photone is free to download and use. Additionally, there are various upgrades available. For many of our users, the app suffices without any upgrade purchases. If your use case requires an upgrade, you can first try the app, and see that it works and actually fits your needs without any cost. For example, to check how far your lights need to be from your plants you just need the right light source setting which is either free or $6.

No matter if and which upgrade you choose, you will always spend way less cash than for a decent handheld PAR meter which comes in at around $600. Even better, Photone offers many more features like DLI, CCT, a plant lighting calculator, in-depth guides, and much more that you won’t get out of a simple handheld meter.

As you’ve mentioned, a diffuser is required for accurate absolute measurements. Without it, you could only use the readings to compare them relatively. We’ve made this a bit “pushy” on purpose to prevent users from false measurements. If you're sure you'd want that, you could also disable the detection within the settings.

I hope this clears things up a bit 🙂

Best,
Dominik and the Photone Team