Photon is free to use with your own media servers, however many you run. Home, Library, Search, downloads, offline playback, Spotlight and Handoff are all in the free app, for anything below 4K that is not an MKV and whose soundtrack is not Dolby TrueHD or DTS.
What Pro adds
| More formats | 4K and 8K, MKV, and Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks, played as they are, in Dolby Vision and HDR. |
| Your own storage | Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and WebDAV shares, with no media server involved. |
| Live TV | Xtream Codes subscriptions, the full guide, and the films and shows they carry. |
| Sync between devices | Your servers, already signed in, along with your settings and arrangement, on every device using your Apple Account. |
Servers themselves are never limited. Connect as many as you like, on the free app.
The free plays
The first five times you play something in a format Pro pays for, it plays in full with nothing held back.
- It is five plays in total, not five a month.
- Only a title that needs Pro spends one. Everything else plays free forever.
- The count belongs to your Apple Account rather than to a device, so reinstalling the app or picking up another device does not reset it.
What it costs
| Monthly | £1.99, opening with one week free. |
| Yearly | £14.99, opening with one week free. |
| Lifetime | £49.99 once. A purchase rather than a subscription, so there is no trial. |
Apple shows the price in your own currency before you confirm anything, and Pro is bought once for all four platforms.
Restoring a purchase
- Open Settings ▸ Photon Pro.
- Press Restore Purchases.
This re-checks your Apple Account, and is what to use on a new device or after reinstalling. It does not charge anything.
Redeeming a code
- Open Settings ▸ Photon Pro.
- Press Redeem Code and enter your App Store offer code.
Redeem Code is not available on Apple TV. Redeem on an iPhone, iPad or Mac signed in to the same Apple Account and it applies everywhere.
Managing or cancelling
Subscriptions are managed and cancelled in the App Store, under your Apple Account, not in photon. Photon cannot cancel one for you, and it cannot see your billing.
If your subscription ends
Your servers and drives stay exactly where they are, and everything the free app covers keeps working.
Live TV is the exception: it is a paid feature in full, so the guide and the channels stop until you subscribe again. Nothing is deleted, and your subscription details are still there when you come back.