Comparison

BirdGuides vs WildOtter

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

Head to head
About

BirdGuides

Access comprehensive bird news and sightings with an interactive map and advanced search. Submit your own observations and receive personalized notifications for desired species. Discover local and rare birds with detailed information and navigation assistance.

Highlights
  • Interactive BirdMap with sightings
  • Filter sightings by rarity
  • Sophisticated search of sightings database
  • Submit bird sightings from the field
  • Personalized species notifications
  • Detailed sighting information and directions
Features
Read full description

Whether you're the keenest of twitchers, a local birdwatcher or someone with a passing interest in what birds are being seen near you, the newly updated BirdGuides app gives you all the information you need โ€“ and plenty more besides. Major new features include: โ€ข New and improved design โ€“ delivering sightings to you in sleek format, with reports now colour-coded by rarity and individual sighting details with added map view; โ€ข Enhanced BirdMap โ€“ view all sightings on an interactive full-screen map, either for the current day or any past date; โ€ข Quickly filter sightings by rarity level on both list and map view; โ€ข Sophisticated search function โ€“ you can now explore our entire sightings database, stretching back to November 2000, on a map as well as in list format; โ€ข A wider range of notification sound options are now available. Using the BirdGuides app, you can: โ€ข View all sightings from today or any previous date in order to help you see great birds; โ€ข Submit your sightings quickly and accurately from the field with our submissions form โ€“ all sightings are proudly shared with BirdTrack; โ€ข Update and create Filters within the app to get notified about the species you want to see. Each sighting can be expanded to give full location details and further information, such as time seen, number of birds, detailed directions and parking instructions. A single click will load the best route to the bird in your map provider. Birding has never been so easy!

About

WildOtter

This app provides reliable water safety information for recreational users, including routes, points of interest, and river levels. Content is user-generated and team-moderated to ensure accuracy. It aims to remove the worry associated with outdated information.

Highlights
  • User-generated content
  • Team-moderated information
  • Latest routes
  • Wild swimming spots
  • Points of interest
  • River level information
Features
Read full description

The app for all recreational water users to help you get out on or in the water safely using quality and reliable content that is added by users and moderated by our team who will go out to marked locations and reported hazards creating a reliable information source all for the low price of ยฃ10 per year! Your subscription includes access to all our latest routes, point information such as wild swimming spots, points of interest and river level information for our river users. We are passionate about both paddling and wild swimming and are creating this resource to allow you to find all of the information you need in one place and to help remove the worry that out of date unreliable information can bring.

Screenshots

BirdGuides4 screens
WildOtter4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: BirdGuides at none against WildOtter's 1. WildOtter's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.1). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. WildOtter sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $14.99 per year. BirdGuides asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

BirdGuides ships an update every 2 weeks, WildOtter every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 7, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 5 level
BirdGuides versus WildOtter: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBirdGuidesWildOtter
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews60.8% of reviews โ€” better60.0% of reviews
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks โ€” betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo โ€” betterYes
MonetizationFree โ€” betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” better
Requires iOS17.115.1 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size5 MB46 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWarners Group Publications PLCShoothill

Customer experience

BirdGuides

Written reviews51 reviews
Positive60.8%
Neutral9.8%
Negative29.4%

WildOtter

Written reviews5 reviews
Positive60.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative40.0%

Bugs and requests

BirdGuides

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notifications not working
  • Sightings not updating properly
  • Crashes and freezes after updates
  • Subscription issues after updates

Requested features

4 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Improved map with precise locations
  • Ability to set alerts for specific counties
  • Better sorting and filtering options

WildOtter

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

BirdGuides

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

WildOtter

Subscriptions1
  • WildOtter Full Subscription$14.991 Year

Questions

Is BirdGuides free?
BirdGuides is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is WildOtter free?
WildOtter is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do BirdGuides or WildOtter have ads?
Neither BirdGuides nor WildOtter shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BirdGuides or WildOtter?
BirdGuides ships an update every 2 weeks, and WildOtter every 3 weeks. Most recently, BirdGuides was updated on September 7, 2026 and WildOtter on June 1, 2026.

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