Drinking Waters vs Portyl
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Drinking Waters
Locate public drinking water sources across Italy with an interactive map. Get GPS navigation, report issues, and contribute new locations to a community-driven database. Find the nearest water point quickly and easily.
- Interactive map of 24,000+ water points
- GPS navigation to water sources
- Report non-functional water points
- Add new water points to the map
- Automatic search for nearest water
- List water points by distance
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Drinking Water - Find Drinking Water Anywhere! DRINKING WATER is the number one app in Italy for easily finding a public drinking water, with over 24,000 water points mapped across the country. With an interactive map, you can quickly locate the nearest drinking water and get useful information to reach them. The integrated GPS navigation makes it even easier! • More than 24,000 drinking water visible on the map • GPS navigation to your selected drinking water • Real-time reporting of non-functional drinking water • Add new drinking water to improve the map with the community • Automatic search for the nearest drinking water with one tap • List of drinking water sorted by distance Join over 106,000 users already using DRINKING WATER and help us make the map even more accurate! Download the app and find the nearest drinking water now!
Portyl
Experience historical sites brought to life with advanced XR and 3D graphics. Walk through ancient cities and witness daily life, citizens, and even animals as they once were. Explore meticulously recreated environments with expert historical consultation.
- Advanced XR high-resolution 3D recreations
- Fully animated creatures and characters
- 18 languages supported
- Full audio support with narration
- Integrated map with navigation
- On-site and off-site XR experiences
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The Portyl app uses state of the art Extended Reality (XR) combined with incredible 3D graphics to recreate historical sites the way they looked thousands of years ago. The magic of Portyl is how precise it places the reconstructed sites over the top of the current ruins enabling tourists to walk around and experience history through their phone/tablet screen. In Rome, for instance, you not only see the reconstructions, but also the citizens, soldiers, war elephants, chariots – the daily life and spectacle that was ancient Rome. For historical accuracy, all portal venues are created under the consultation of prominent Roman Historians and Archeologists. PORTYL FEATURES: • Advanced XR high-resolution 3D recreations • Fully animated creatures and characters • 19 languages currently supported (more languages every month!) • Full Audio support including sound effects and spoken narration • Integrated Map with navigation HOW TO USE PORTYL: • Getting started with Portyl is easy! • After installing the app, tap any location thumbnail and choose a TOUR PASS. Some experiences, such as Largo Argentina, can even be explored for free when you’re off-site. • Before heading out, download the venues you want to explore from the TOURS page. We recommend using Wi-Fi whenever possible. • Use the map to find your way to a Portyl location. Not on-site? No problem - you can still explore the XR recreation from your home, office or hotel. • When you arrive at a supported venue, Portyl will let you know that a Live Experience is available. The location will appear as a large thumbnail on the Live Tours page. • Tap the thumbnail and follow the on-screen instructions. Simply point your device toward the site from wherever you are standing. Portyl’s KAIROS ENGINE will identify your location and the direction you’re facing, usually within just a few seconds. • If KAIROS needs another view, Portyl will simply ask you to point your device in a different direction. • Then you’re ready to STEP INTO THE PAST! MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: Portyl is a geo-located real-time rendered 3d environment. It requires a lot of horsepower! In general the higher-end device you have, the better experience, certainly something less than 5 years old, and a higher-end model. RECOMMENDED: iPhone 11 or newer with at least 4GB RAM PERMISSIONS REQUIRED: • Location: Portyl requires access to your device's location to place you in the virtual world as well as for map navigation. • Microphone: Portyl needs to "hear" your questions for some AI features. • Camera: Portyl needs to "see" where you are in the real world to launch XR scenes and place you in the virtual world.- Data Services: Not a permission, but a requirement for use. WiFi or 5G PERMISSIONS REQUESTED: • Notifications: For instance, notifications when a user comes within 50 km of an available site or when a venue has finished downloading. Occasional app updates, etc. No spamming and incessant notifications. Photos and Videos: As we add features like the Portyl Selfie feature, screenshot sharing, etc.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Portyl at weekly against Drinking Waters's every 6 months. Portyl also leads on review sentiment (75% vs 48%). Drinking Waters's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.4). On price, ratings volume, ads 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. Drinking Waters sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $8.99 per year and Portyl sells 12 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Drinking Waters holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 20 and 11 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 48% of Drinking Waters's written reviews are positive against 75% of Portyl's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Drinking Waters ships an update every 6 months, Portyl weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Drinking Waters | Portyl |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (20 ratings) — better | 4.4 (11 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 48.0% of reviews | 75.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 20 — better | 11 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 410 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Giulio Mollica | Histoury |
Customer experience
Drinking Waters
Portyl
In-app purchases
Drinking Waters
- UNLIMITED$8.991 Year
- NO BANNER$6.99
- MAP LOCATION$6.99
- ILLIMITED$9.99
Portyl
- Rome Pass$6.00
- Herculaneum Pass$6.00
- Pompeii Pass$6.00
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- Paestum Pass$6.00
- Espresso Tour$6.00
- Solo Tour$29.00
- Rome Tour$29.00
- Herculaneum Tour$29.00
- Couples Tour$50.00
- Family Tour$95.00
- Super Tourist$149.99
- Maximus Barbarus$179.99








