Comparison

Shinkansen smartEX App vs Bhopper

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

Head to head
About

Shinkansen smartEX App

Easily reserve Shinkansen seats, hotels, and activities. Enjoy discounts for early bookings and flexible changes. Access station and train service information, and use QR tickets or designated IC cards for seamless travel.

Highlights
  • Reserve Shinkansen seats
  • Book hotels and activities
  • Early booking discounts
  • Free reservation changes
  • Select seats from map
  • QR-Ticket and IC card boarding
  • Fingerprint authentication login
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

▼With the EX app, you can: - Reserve Shinkansen seats through the app easily - Discount for early booking - Reserve Shinkansen seats up to 1 year in advance - You can make as many changes as you need, free of charge, before getting on the train - Reserve a set of Shinkansen seats and hotel rooms! - Reserve activities, hotels and car rentals! - Select any seat from the seat map (*reserved seats only) - Information on services available in stations and trains - You can log in quickly by using fingerprint authentication. (only for compatible models) ▼ Main features - Membership registration - Purchase ticket/Reserve seats (time designation, train name designation, easy free seat reservation)) - Confirm reservation - Change and refund reservation (reducing the number of persons) - Display purchase history and receipt - Check, change member information - Display QR-Ticket for boarding - Designate or register IC card for boarding - Service status information (Link) ▼ Notes - Membership registration is required to use this app. For registration, personal information is required, such as member name, date of birth, and a valid credit card, etc. - Ticket purchase (reservation) payment will be taken from the credit card registered on the account. -- You need to register or designate IC card for public transportation (*) to travel ticketless with IC card. (*) Kitaca, PASMO, Suica, manaca, TOICA, PiTaPa, ICOCA, Hayakaken, nimoca, SUGOCA - You need the pickup code to pick up tickets from ticket vending machines, etc., at main stations of Tokaido Sanyo Kyushu Shinkansen, such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Shin-Osaka, Hiroshima, Hakata, Kumamoto etc. - Please do not use this app to make a seat reservation for Japan Rail Pass. - This service is available only in English. - For more details on this service, please see the website. *The email address below is for inquiries about application specifications. Please note that we cannnot answer inquiries about the service.

About

Bhopper

Discover real-time cover charges and wait times at Boston bars. See what's happening live and make informed decisions before you go out. Share your own reports anonymously.

Highlights
  • Live cover charge and wait time feed
  • Map view of bars by status
  • Anonymous report posting
  • Bar detail with individual reports
  • Favorite bars for quick access
  • User data privacy controls
Features
Read full description

Bhopper shows you what's actually happening at Boston bars right now. Pull up the Feed and see the current cover charge and wait time at every open bar in town - reported in real time by the people standing at the door. No more guessing whether it's a $5 night at The Black Rose or a $20 cover at Lookout Rooftop. No more circling the block just to find out the wait at Cisco is forty-five minutes. Two taps to share what you see. Two taps to know before you go. WHAT'S INSIDE • Feed - tonight's live cover and wait Badges across every open Boston bar, sorted by what's freshest. • Map - every bar in the city as a pin colored by its current state. Active, quiet, or closed at a glance. • Post - two taps to drop a Cover or Wait report. Anonymous; no account, no email, no phone number. • Bar detail - see the individual reports behind the Badge so you can read the testimony directly instead of trusting an average. Flag any single report as inaccurate and it drops out of aggregation. • Favorites - pin the bars you actually go to and they float to the top of the Feed. HOW WE TREAT YOUR DATA • No accounts. Your identity is an anonymous UUID stored in the iOS Keychain. It never leaves your device except to label your own reports. • Your raw GPS is never stored. When you submit a Cover or Wait, the app classifies how close you are to the bar into a coarse tier (verified, nearby, remote) and discards the exact coordinates the moment that tier is computed. • No third-party analytics. No advertising SDKs. No tracking across apps. No selling, no sharing. • Delete everything with one button. Me tab ->Delete my data. Erases every report you've ever submitted from the backend, clears your favorites, and gives this device a brand-new anonymous identity. SCOPE Bhopper is Boston-only at launch - bars in Southie, Fenway, the Seaport, Faneuil Hall, the South End, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Allston, Dorchester, and the Greenway. More cities are on the roadmap. Privacy policy: https://petertimwalker.github.io/bhopper-site/privacy.html Support: petertwalker@gmail.com

Screenshots

Shinkansen smartEX App4 screens
Bhopper4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Bhopper at 5.0 against Shinkansen smartEX App's 1.7. Bhopper also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Shinkansen smartEX App's advantage is ratings volume (576 vs 1) and chart position (#117 vs unranked). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Bhopper holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shinkansen smartEX App has 576 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shinkansen smartEX App ships an update every 2 months, Bhopper weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Shinkansen smartEX App versus Bhopper: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShinkansen smartEX AppBhopper
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.7 (576 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews16.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings576 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#117 — better—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size51 MB3 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperCentral Japan Railway CompanyPeter Walker

Customer experience

Shinkansen smartEX App

All ratings576 ratings
Positive16.7%
Neutral1.9%
Negative81.4%
Written reviews370 reviews
Positive16.8%
Neutral3.5%
Negative79.7%

Bhopper

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Shinkansen smartEX App

No in-app purchases

None

Bhopper

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shinkansen smartEX App free?
Shinkansen smartEX App is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Bhopper free?
Bhopper is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Shinkansen smartEX App or Bhopper?
Bhopper is rated higher. Shinkansen smartEX App averages 1.7 out of 5 from 576 ratings, while Bhopper averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Shinkansen smartEX App or Bhopper have ads?
Neither Shinkansen smartEX App nor Bhopper shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shinkansen smartEX App or Bhopper?
Shinkansen smartEX App ships an update every 2 months, and Bhopper weekly. Most recently, Shinkansen smartEX App was updated on October 20, 2026 and Bhopper on September 27, 2026.

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