Comparison

Ventra vs ancy

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Ventra

Manage your public transit fares and tickets for Chicago's CTA, Metra, and Pace services. Load value, buy Metra mobile tickets, and access real-time arrival information all in one place. Add your Ventra Card to your iPhone for seamless travel.

Highlights
  • Manage Ventra Card balance and passes
  • Load value and passes to Ventra Card
  • Buy Metra mobile tickets
  • Real-time CTA, Metra, Pace arrivals
  • Add Ventra Card to Apple Wallet
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Ride CTA, Metra & Pace with Ventra: Manage your fares, buy Metra mobile tickets, get arrivals and add your Ventra Card for riding CTA and Pace to iPhone and Apple Wallet. Use transit in and around all of Chicago: It's easy to manage and pay your fare on CTA, Metra and Pace buses and trains with the Ventra app. Find all the features you're used to on the Ventra website and more, including mobile ticketing for Metra trains! With the Ventra app, you can: • Check your balance and available passes in your Ventra Card's transit account. • Instantly load value or passes to your Ventra Card's transit account. • Switch autoload for transit value or passes on and off. • Buy and use Metra mobile tickets to ride any Metra train. • Use transit value you've loaded to buy a Metra ticket. • Get real-time account notifications so you know when it's time to load more fare or buy more tickets. • Get real-time arrival/departure information from CTA, Metra and Pace all in one app—by picking a stop, using favorites or looking at service near where you're standing.

About

ancy

This app offers a map-centric approach to planning and remembering travel experiences. Organize destinations, discover new places with curated recommendations, and create ranked lists of your favorite cities and trips. It also functions as an automatic travel journal and allows social sharing of your adventures.

Highlights
  • Map-based trip planning
  • Discover top-rated restaurants and cafes
  • Rank cities and trips
  • Automatic travel journal
  • Social sharing of trips and rankings
  • Organize multi-city itineraries
Read full description

ancy is the map-first travel app that stays with you before, during, and after every trip. RANK EVERY CITY YOU'VE BEEN Which was better, Tokyo or Rome? Sort your cities into tiers and build a travel leaderboard that's uniquely yours. Add photos, call out your must-try spots, and share the post with friends. PLAN ON A MAP, NOT A LIST Drop pins for every restaurant, museum, and hidden gem and see your whole trip laid out in front of you. Chain cities together: Rome, then Florence, then Positano. Every stop gets its own map, dates, pins, and notes, plus a bucket list for cities you want to visit next. See a spot on TikTok or Instagram? Share it straight into ancy and it drops a pin for you. Invite a friend and plan together. WEEKLY POSTCARDS TO RELIVE TRAVEL MEMORIES Every week, ancy asks a different travel question: best sunset, favorite bite, a place you'd go back to. Answer with one photo, browse your friends' postcards as they come in, and look back on your own anytime to relive where you've been. SEE HOW YOUR FRIENDS RANKED EACH CITY See exactly how your friends ranked the same city, side by side with yours. Tap in to see their must-try spots, their photos, and who they went with. DISCOVER THE CITY'S BEST SPOTS Don't know where to eat? Discover shows you the top-rated restaurants, bars, and cafes wherever you're headed. Swipe right to pin one to your map, swipe left for the next. A PROFILE THAT TELLS YOUR TRAVEL STORY Cities ranked, countries visited, and a world map that fills in with every place you've ever been. Your travel life, all in one place. ANCY PREMIUM ancy premium is an optional auto-renewable subscription: $4.99 per month, or $29.99 per year. It raises the photo limit on a city ranking from 5 to 40, lets you attach photos and PDFs to the places pinned on your trips, and turns any city you rank into a web page you can send to anyone, no app or account needed to open it. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Your subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://ancy.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://ancy.app/privacy

Screenshots

Ventra4 screens
ancy4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: ancy at 100% against Ventra's 8%. ancy also leads on rating (5.0 vs 1.8) and update cadence (weekly vs every 4 months). Ventra's advantage is ratings volume (3.4K vs 9) and chart position (#84 vs unranked). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ancy holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ventra has 3.4K ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 8% of Ventra's written reviews are positive against 100% of ancy's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ventra ships an update every 4 months, ancy weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Ventra versus ancy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVentraancy
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.8 (3.4K ratings)5.0 (9 ratings) — better
Positive reviews7.9% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3.4K — better9
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#84 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size61 MB86 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperChicago Transit AuthorityETHAN D TRAMEL

Customer experience

Ventra

All ratings3,390 ratings
Positive18.3%
Neutral4.2%
Negative77.5%
Written reviews507 reviews
Positive7.9%
Neutral4.7%
Negative87.4%

ancy

All ratings9 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Ventra

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Purchase button not working on iPhones
  • Favorites list glitches and resets
  • Inconsistent and unreliable ticket display
  • Frequent app crashes and login issues
  • Payment processing failures and lost funds

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to manage Ventra cards and balances
  • Improve real-time transit tracking and notifications
  • Allow saving of favorite routes and stations
  • Integrate with Apple Wallet for easier access
  • Provide more transparent and user-friendly payment options

ancy

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Ventra

No in-app purchases

None

ancy

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Ventra free?
Ventra is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ancy free?
ancy is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Ventra or ancy?
ancy is rated higher. Ventra averages 1.8 out of 5 from 3.4K ratings, while ancy averages 5.0 from 9 ratings.
Do Ventra or ancy have ads?
Neither Ventra nor ancy shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ventra or ancy?
Ventra ships an update every 4 months, and ancy weekly. Most recently, Ventra was updated on October 13, 2026 and ancy on October 10, 2026.

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