Th3rdwave vs Roasters
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Th3rdwave
Discover and find coffee shops with this comprehensive directory and community app. Track visited locations, save favorites, and manage loyalty cards. Explore new brews with a premium subscription service.
- Discover new and trendy cafes
- Search over 5,000 cafes worldwide
- Advanced search filters
- Track visited places and favorites
- Manage loyalty cards and rewards
- Premium monthly coffee subscription
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Whether you’re on-the-go or at home, Th3rdwave is your companion and guide for great coffee. With over 100,000 users, Th3rdwave is the largest coffee app in Canada helping people discover, find and enjoy coffee. DISCOVER NEW CAFÉS Explore new, trendy and hidden neighborhood cafés in your city using our map. FIND THE RIGHT CAFÉS Search over 5,000 cafés across Canada and major cities around the world using our advanced filters — like outstanding filter brewing, multi-roaster offering, laptop-friendly, and more. YOUR COFFEE BOOK Track the places you’ve visited, save your favorites and create personalized lists. COLLECT YOUR LOYALTY CARDS Keep your loyalty cards and rewards all in-one-place. Collect stamps every time you order coffee and earn free coffee. Our loyalty platform is offered for free to all independent cafés. Whether visiting a coffee shop or buying from a local roaster, there’s something out there for every coffee lover. Let Th3rdwave help you find the right coffee for your mood. The app provides you free access to our coffee directory. Th3rdwave is built on the idea that coffee should be accessible, and through accessibility new opportunities can emerge for coffee lovers and artisans. BREW NEW COFFEES EVERY MONTH [PREMIUM SERVICE] Members enjoy a variety of new coffees every month. Coffee are curated based on their taste profile. Coffees are sourced from small local roasters. Delivered freshly-roasted every month. Our subscription service is currently only available in Canada.
Roasters
Discover specialty coffee shops worldwide with detailed listings, stunning visuals, and user ratings. Personalize your coffee journey by saving favorites, tracking visited places, and sharing notes. Connect with a global community, find coffee jobs, and stay updated on events.
- Discover specialty coffee shops globally
- Detailed shop listings with ambiance
- User-generated ratings and reviews
- Personalize coffee journey with lists and notes
- Connect with a global coffee community
- Find coffee industry jobs and events
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Find a great cup anywhere, log every visit, and keep the record of everywhere coffee has taken you. Seen our "Great Coffee Inside" sticker on a café window? This is the app behind it. Shops that care put it up, and the map of all of them is in your pocket. FIND GREAT COFFEE, ANYWHERE Open the map in any city and see the specialty coffee shops around you. Search as you move, and filter by what matters: open now, newest, nearest, or the shops you have saved. When you land somewhere new, Best Near Me ranks the shops within walking distance by rating against how far you would walk. Every listing carries what decides a visit: photos, opening hours, the espresso machine and grinder on the bar, the roasters served, and separate ratings for coffee, service and place. LOG EVERY VISIT One tap saves the moment: the shop, what you drank, a photo, a note. Your visits build into a timeline of your coffee life, chaptered by trip. That flat white in Lisbon two years ago? Still there. SET YOUR YEARLY CHALLENGE How many coffee shops will you visit this year? Pick a number and watch the count climb, visit by visit, with a home-screen widget that keeps score. TAKE A SHIFT BEHIND THE BAR Shake your phone for Coffee Run: a 60-second shift at the counter. Take the order, carry the cup, don't spill a drop. Everyone plays the same floor each day. Your best, your regulars and your Barista Path are yours. TRAVEL LIKE A COFFEE PERSON Roasters was built for the specialty coffee traveller. One reviewer put it best: "It changed the way I travel. I started looking for accommodation only near a coffee shop." Plan the trip around the coffee. This is the map for it. RATE, REVIEW, BELONG Rate the coffee, the service and the place separately, and tag the drinks you tried so the next person knows what to order. See what your city is drinking, follow reviewers around the world, and climb the leaderboard, or quietly read along. AND THE REST Lists to build, public or private. Roasters as first-class citizens, not just cafés. Coffee jobs and events, posted by the shops themselves. Keeps working on a weak signal. Roasters is free to explore and free to log. Roasters Pro adds the power tools: Best Near Me, the open-now and nearest filters, review translation, and unlimited map searches. Great coffee inside. Go find it. Privacy Policy: https://g2.getterms.io/view/IlGR1/privacy/en-us Terms of Service: https://g2.getterms.io/view/IlGR1/tos/en-us
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Th3rdwave at none against Roasters's 19. Th3rdwave also leads on rating (4.6 vs 4.3) and review sentiment (79% vs 65%). Roasters's advantage is ratings volume (109 vs 30). On price, update cadence, ads 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
Both are free to download. Roasters sells 16 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Th3rdwave asks for nothing beyond the download.
Th3rdwave holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 30 and 109 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of Th3rdwave's written reviews are positive against 65% of Roasters's.
Th3rdwave ships an update every 3 weeks, Roasters every 10 days. Both last shipped on September 23, 2026.
| Parameter | Th3rdwave | Roasters |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (30 ratings) — better | 4.3 (109 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 78.9% of reviews — better | 65.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 30 | 109 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 122 MB | 72 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Reseau Social Walkin Inc. | Roasters Technologies |
Customer experience
Th3rdwave
Roasters
Bugs and requests
Th3rdwave
Reported bugs
8 issues- Cannot log back in after logout
- No coffee shops available in user's city
- Map function not working
- Order button location inconsistent
- Location services inaccurate
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- Loading screen issues
- Technical problems and bugs
- Slow chat communication
Requested features
8 requests- Color-coded map for visited places
- Search for boroughs
- Filter for '3rd wave' cafes
- Add rating on map
- Consistent location for 'Order' button
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- Show reason for unavailable ordering
- Edit posts after publishing
- More intuitive loyalty card interaction
Roasters
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Th3rdwave
No in-app purchases
Roasters
- Become a PRO member$2.991 Month
- Become a PRO member$3.991 Month
- Become a PRO member$4.991 Month
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- Become a PRO member3 Days trial$14.991 Year
- Business PRO7 Days trial$19.991 Month
- Become a PRO member$19.991 Year
- Become a PRO member$29.991 Year
- Business PRO$99.991 Year
- Business PRO$149.991 Year
- Business PRO$249.991 Year
- Pro Club$7.99
- Lifetime$9.99
- Lifetime$11.99
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- Lifetime$14.99
- Lifetime$19.99
- Lifetime$24.99









