The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide vs Griptonite
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide
Discover and navigate thousands of climbing routes worldwide with detailed topos, maps, and photos. Find the perfect climb by filtering grade, rating, and style, and log your progress. Support local climbing communities as 50% of subscription profits go to authors.
- Thousands of community-created topos
- Filter by grade, rating, and style
- 3D map with GPS navigation
- Log sends and track history
- Offline topo downloads
- Create and monetize your own topos
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Stop searching, start climbing. This is your epic guide to sport, trad and bouldering adventures, with thousands of topos created and moderated by local climbers. The Topo brings a unique ethical dimension to digital rock climbing topos. 50% of subscription profit goes back to local authors who share their knowledge of crags and boulders with the climbing community. KEY FEATURES • Access Verified Topos – the most reliable info on crags and boulders made by locals • Support local climbing culture – 50% of subscription profit goes back to authors • Find the perfect climb – Filter crags and boulders by grade, rating and climbing style • Explore sport, trad, bouldering, and DWS destinations on the 3D map • Navigate directly to routes and boulders using in-app GPS • Log your sends to tick list and track your history • Plan future adventures with a personal to-do list • Download topos for offline use and climb without a signal • Create Verified topos for your region and get paid for doing what you love VERIFIED TOPOS: CLIMBING INFO YOU CAN TRUST Anyone can contribute basic information to The Topo, and together our community has added over 30,000 destinations worldwide. But for more reliable and complete information, look for Verified Topos. Verified Topos are created and maintained by dedicated local climbers (more than 7,000 individuals) who know the area inside and out. Before being published, every Verified topo is reviewed for quality and accuracy by The Topo experts, so you can be confident in the information. SUPPORT THE CLIMBERS WHO BUILD OUR SPORT Your subscription directly supports the climbers working on the topos you use. We share 50% of our subscription profit with the local authors who create and maintain the verified topos. By going Premium, you get the best climbing info and help fund the development of your next favourite crag. CREATE YOUR OWN TOPO Know a crag or boulder that's missing or needs an update? Add new crags, add sport, trad or DWS routes and boulders, upload photos, draw lines, and add descriptions. Be a vital part of the climbing community by sharing what you know. You can apply to make your topo a verified one and earn money for your hard work. Join 300,000 climbers already using The Topo. Download The Topo and plan your next climbing adventure! Terms of Use: https://thetopo.com/site/terms Privacy Policy: https://thetopo.com/site/privacy
Griptonite
Enhance your climbing experience by discovering beta, routes, and inspiration from a community of climbers. Track your progress, identify areas for improvement, and compete with others through global and venue-specific rankings.
- Discover beta and routes
- Learn from community experience
- Track personal progress
- Identify areas for improvement
- Global and venue rankings
- Filterable leaderboards
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The Griptonite app is a perfect companion to your climbing life. Discover what's important to you. Be it beta, routes, or inspiration. Our community ticks thousands of routes every day and we enable you to learn from their experience. Everyone loves to get better, and seeing gains is a crucial part of staying motivated. In climbing, it's often hard to pin these down and so progression tends to plateau. The app helps you drill into the areas you can improve at your own pace. Got a competitive or curious side. Or, just want to smash your own PB? The app has both global and venue linked rankings that are fully filterable to help you in your quest.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Griptonite at none against The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide's shown. Griptonite also leads on review sentiment (45% vs 36%). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $8.99 per month and Griptonite sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.0 for The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide against 3.0 for Griptonite. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 37 and 21 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 36% of The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide's written reviews are positive against 45% of Griptonite's.
The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide ships an update every 2 weeks, Griptonite every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide | Griptonite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (37 ratings) | 3.0 (21 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 36.3% of reviews | 45.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 37 — better | 21 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.5 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 127 MB | 92 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 27 Crags Oy | Cascom Ltd |
Customer experience
The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide
Griptonite
User reviews
The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide
From 37 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🌍 Access to global climbing spots
- 📸 Detailed crag photos
- 🤝 Helpful customer service
- 💡 Supports local developers
- 🗺️ GPS for navigation
Room to improve
- ❌ Login issues persist
- 🐛 Frequent crashes
- 📉 Performance drop after updates
- 🧭 Confusing navigation
- 🚫 Missing topos/climbs
Griptonite
From 21 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Tracks climbing progress effectively
- 💡 Motivates users to climb more
- 👍 Easy to log climbs
- 📈 Shows improvement over time
- 🤩 Makes climbing feel like a game
Room to improve
- 🐛 Very buggy and glitchy
- 🐌 Slow performance
- 💥 Frequent crashes
- ❌ Poor UI/UX
- 💸 Filters behind paywall
Bugs and requests
The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide
Reported bugs
36 issues- Login does not work
- App crashes frequently
- Cannot register
- Premium access not recognized
- App crashes when adding new lines/topo images
Show 31 moreShow fewer
- Scrolling through topos is difficult
- Login errors due to poor connection
- Sign up fails with 'bad internet'
- App resets when exiting and returning
- Topos don't always start correctly
- Navigation to parking is sometimes hidden
- App crashes when downloading large sectors
- Cannot add ascents (404 error)
- Offline topos not available
- App restarts to startup map after switching apps
- Takes too many clicks to get back from topo to route list
- Takes too many clicks to tick a route
- Cannot comment on routes/boulders
- App crashes on opening
- App crashes after a second or two
- Todo list disappeared
- Topos not visible in app (web version works)
- Cannot tap on routes to see details
- Recent update removed grades on non-premium crags
- App crashes when trying to load areas
- Advertisements do not disappear with premium subscription
- Parking places send users down private roads
- Saving ascents doesn't work
- Cannot download offline maps
- App is impossibly huge download size
- Offline crags deleted from device
- Map display overlaps in dense areas
- Offline topos not working properly
- Topos missing lines on boulders
- Premium topos are not great
- Community topos are poor and incomplete
Requested features
17 requests- Improve map search functionality
- Allow browsing all topos/spots with empty search
- Add dark mode
- Improve filtering by grade
- Allow downloading entire areas (e.g., Rocklands)
Show 12 moreShow fewer
- Implement a better rating system (e.g., 5 stars)
- Allow commenting on routes/boulders
- Add a bottom navigation bar for quick switching
- Allow creating topos within the app
- Transfer ticket routes from other apps
- Add notifications for area updates
- Fix app resetting after switching apps
- Make it easier to tick routes
- Improve offline map functionality
- Add a one-time purchase option
- Provide a free trial period
- Fix advertisement display for premium users
Griptonite
Reported bugs
30 issues- App constantly erroring
- Filters won't reset or apply
- Projects not registered properly
- App freezes when uploading video
- App crashes frequently
Show 25 moreShow fewer
- Login screen freezes
- White screen of death on sign-in
- Filters not filtering properly
- Feed is glitchy
- Cannot log anything
- App crashes on iOS 16.3.1
- UI lags and jumps when scrolling
- Phantom notification icons
- Cannot clear notification badges
- Novice/intermediate/advanced grading inaccurate
- Ability breakdown doesn't show all grades
- Notification badges not clearing
- Grading of beginner/novice out of line with French system
- Blank screen after entering name
- App instant crashes on opening
- Latest update not working on older iOS
- Cannot get past sign-up page
- Password not visible due to privacy
- Slide to tick interaction not working
- Delay on feedback requests
- Cannot correct age category
- App crashes after a few minutes of usage
- UI is broken, cannot make account
- App crashes on iPhone 12
- App crashes on older iPhone/iPad
Requested features
34 requests- Social sign-in (Apple/Google)
- Total grades/routes climbed count
- Sortable monthly gym results table
- Quick navigation between map and stats
- REST API for data access
Show 29 moreShow fewer
- More holistic progress tracking (training, mood)
- Integration with health apps (Google Fit, Apple Health)
- Privacy mode (hide from leaderboards)
- Ability to log climbs offline
- Star/favorite problems
- Filter for routes not completed this month
- Visual indicator for attempted problems
- Add friends and leaderboards for friends
- Trophy section for comp achievements
- Check beta videos on profile
- Add/follow other climbers
- Clear breakdown for grade progression (novice to advanced)
- Search gyms by name
- Follow gyms for reset notifications
- Apple Watch integration
- Option to log 'clean/dogged' status
- Nominate incorrect grades
- Option to permanently skip video submission
- Toggleable option for route reset points
- Dark mode option
- AI driven training plans
- Filter by grade in free version
- More detailed analysis of climbs
- Sort completed climbs by grade
- League table for top ten climbs
- Line graph of points or top ten grades over time
- Ability to add line pics
- See which problems you’ve attempted at least once on the gym view
- Make it easy to see which problems you’ve attempted at least once on the gym view (eg making the number amber)
In-app purchases
The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide
- Premium subscription monthly7 Days trial$8.991 Month
- Premium subscription yearly7 Days trial$44.991 Year
Griptonite
- Griptonite Pro1 Month trial$4.991 Month
- Griptonite Pro14 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Griptonite Pro$39.991 Year
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Griptonite Pro1 Month trial$49.991 Year
- Griptonite Pro$49.991 Year
- Griptonite Pro14 Days trial$49.991 Year
Questions
Is The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide free?
Is Griptonite free?
Which has better reviews, The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide or Griptonite?
Do The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide or Griptonite have ads?
Which is updated more often, The Topo | Rock Climbing Guide or Griptonite?
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