Hero Care vs MapSwipe
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hero Care
This app provides military members, veterans, and their families with resources for emergencies, deployments, and accessing vital services. It facilitates emergency communication and offers information on benefits, mental health, and job resources.
- Emergency communication link
- Submit emergency requests
- Access Red Cross services
- VA benefits information
- Job and mental health resources
- Locate facilities
- Wellness plan creation
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Hero Care by the American Red Cross is a complete solution for members of the military, veterans, and their families to prepare for, cope with and respond to the challenges of military service. The Red Cross is the only civilian organization authorized to serve as the emergency communications link to service members with their families back home. Hero Care enables families to easily set up and submit an emergency request should circumstances at home require it - 24 hours a day, 365 a year, no matter where in the world service members are stationed. The app also guides users through the various services offered by the Red Cross to assist families before, during and after deployments, as well as containing a variety of other critical information:VA facilities locations, benefits information, mental health/substance abuse and job resources. Features: - Free and available in English and Spanish - Military members can use the app to easily complete and submit their Family Identification Card making the processing of any family member’s emergency request quicker - Military family members can initiate an emergency request at the touch of a button with the required information securely stored in the app - Learn of the extensive and non-emergency array of services the Red Cross provides to the members of the military, veterans and their families, including: Financial assistance, Reconnection Workshops, Pre-Deployment preparedness, etc. - Learn about the various benefits offered by Veteran’s Affairs for service members, veterans and their families, along with contact phone numbers and web addresses - Get help applying your military skills to a civilian job via Vets 2 Careers, substance abuse or mental health treatment via SAMHSA, and other local resources and opportunities via Unite US - Easily locate Red Cross shelters and offices in your community as well as a variety of VA facilities, including hospitals and benefit centers. - Families can capture a moment and share with service members using a variety of themed frames; military members can let all their friends and family back home know when its their service anniversary -Create mental, physical, and social wellness plans that help you build resilience and overall well-being.
MapSwipe
Contribute to humanitarian efforts by analyzing satellite imagery. Identify settlements, roads, and rivers in crisis-prone areas to help aid organizations locate vulnerable populations. Your contributions enable faster and more effective delivery of life-saving assistance.
- Analyze satellite imagery
- Identify settlements and infrastructure
- Support humanitarian missions
- Contribute to mapping projects
- Crowdsource data for aid organizations
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Make a meaningful impact from your phone, one swipe at a time. MapSwipe is part of the Missing Maps project. It is a free, open-source app that lets anyone contribute to humanitarian and development projects in just minutes a day. No mapping experience needed: review satellite imagery, identify features like buildings, roads, and waterways, and help validate map data used by organizations around the world. The data you generate supports humanitarian organizations, researchers, and local communities, making OpenStreetMap data more accessible for disaster response, public health, climate resilience, and sustainable development. How you can contribute: * Find Features: Swipe through satellite imagery to spot buildings, roadways, waterways, and more * Compare Dates: Review before-and-after imagery to detect environmental changes and assess damage * Validate Footprints: Check building footprints and flag areas that need remapping * Check Completeness: Compare mapped data against aerial imagery to find gaps * Assess Images: Review photographs to confirm features and improve machine learning tools * Locate Objects: Mark rooftops, solar panels, trees, and other features to help train machine learning models Your swipes have real impact. MapSwipe is managed by a volunteer-led team with support from the American Red Cross, British Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross, HeiGIT, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, Médecins Sans Frontières, and Togglecorp. Download MapSwipe and join a global community putting the world's most vulnerable places on the map.
Screenshots
Verdict
Hero Care and MapSwipe both sit at 4.3 stars, but that hides the real split: 76% of MapSwipe's written reviews are positive against 36% of Hero Care's. MapSwipe also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 4 months). On price, rating, ratings volume and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
MapSwipe holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 31 and 26 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 36% of Hero Care's written reviews are positive against 76% of MapSwipe's.
Hero Care ships an update every 4 months, MapSwipe every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hero Care | MapSwipe |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (31 ratings) | 4.5 (26 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 35.7% of reviews | 76.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 31 — better | 26 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 6 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 55 MB | 65 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | American Red Cross | British Red Cross |
Customer experience
Hero Care
MapSwipe
In-app purchases
Hero Care
No in-app purchases
MapSwipe
No in-app purchases









