Comparison

Grotu vs Yalla

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

Head to head
About

Grotu

Plan group trips and events with friends. Create surveys for destinations, dates, and activities, and manage potlucks or parties. Track shared expenses with receipts and maintain cloud-based ledgers for easy settlement.

Highlights
  • Group trip surveys
  • Event invitations
  • Potluck planning
  • Shared expense tracking
  • Receipt photo uploads
  • Group photo organizer
Features
Read full description

Patented GROTU app helps in Group Travel & Events Planning saving time & money for groups: A. Create New Trip Survey - Create a Trip survey from questions & answers provided by App, add additional survey choices, & invite a group of friends to pick travel choices that suit them including: Travel destinations, Dates, Companions, Transportation, Trip length, Stay, Preferred activities. Users can send Survey invitations to friends using Phone contacts, Emails and Telephone numbers. B. View Trips - Respond to the Trip surveys you created, and Trip survey invitations you received. Group survey results are presented as colorful Pie charts and Bar charts. This helps users arrive at a consensus on Group Travel. Members can also post comments and see a list of invited members and their suggestions. C. Potluck, Party, Event Planner - GROTU has advanced Invitation management capabilities: Event Invitation - This module lets you create Invitations to events where you can select event type (Lunch, Dinner, Sports Meet, Picnic etc.), specify date, time, address and invite a group of friends using email or phone contacts. Potluck Invitation – When you want to invite a group for a Potluck style meet where different people can pick from a list of food items, drinks, games or take on other responsibilities for event like decorations, booking venue etc., you can specify the list of items to be brought and any shared responsibilities for group. Invited members can pick from the list, and see what others picked, and also post their suggestions in a chat style. D. Create New Expense Report - Keep track of Group expenses when you are traveling, or any other time you spend money where one friend pays and others participate in the expense to be shared equally. Enter an Expense entry with date, amount, description, payer, and participants sharing the expense. Click a photo of Expense receipt & add to the Expense details accessible to all members. Friends can choose not to settle the Expenses and carry a ledger balance, adding future expenses while the App maintains an account in Cloud storage. E. View Expense Reports - Lists all Expense reports you created or were invited to. View Expense Summary detailing all expenses, receipts and participants. Add new Expense entries. Expense summary also details settlement amounts between participants and lets them specify if they have paid the amount. Users can specify their preferred payment collection method in Account settings. F. Group Photo Organizer - Upload Photos to a Gallery AND Hyperlinks to external websites where your photos maybe stored. Friends you invite to a Photo Gallery can view, share and upload photos. They cannot delete any photos uploaded by other members. Gallery creation and deletion is only available to members who upgraded GROTU app to GROTU Photo Premium version. Following upgraded versions of GROTU are available - Grotu Photo Premium - • Monthly auto-renewable Subscription. • This upgraded version has no advertising displayed. No banner or interstitial ads will be shown. Additionally, this version allocates 50 GB of cloud storage to let users create Photo folders to upload pictures and share these folders with invited members. Also, we allocate 3 GB memory for non-photo modules of app. • Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. • Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. • Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal. • Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. Grotu Premium - • Provides Ad free version of Grotu app. No banner ads or Interstitial ads are shown with this in-app purchase. Terms of Use - https://www.101islands.com/terms Privacy Policy - https://www.101islands.com/privacy-policy

About

Yalla

Features
Read full description

Yalla is an app that helps smoothen out the group planning process. Using Yalla one can create events and invite their friends, getting RSVPs quickly. Future updates of the app will continuously enhance the experience to make the experience of planning the smoothest possible. Yalla intentionally keeps it minimal to keep the planning simple.

Screenshots

Grotu4 screens
Yalla4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Yalla at none against Grotu's 2. Yalla also leads on update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 8 months). Grotu's advantage is iOS requirement (13.4 vs 17.6). On price, ads 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. Grotu sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Yalla asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Grotu ships an update every 8 months, Yalla every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Grotu versus Yalla: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGrotuYalla
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (20 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings20 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 8 monthsEvery 4 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.4 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size69 MB29 MB
Age rating12+4+
Developer101islandsTarek Sakakini

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Grotu

Subscriptions1
  • Grotu Photo Premium$4.991 Month
One-time1
  • Grotu Premium$9.99
None

Yalla

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Grotu free?
Grotu is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Yalla free?
Yalla is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Grotu or Yalla have ads?
Neither Grotu nor Yalla shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Grotu or Yalla?
Grotu ships an update every 8 months, and Yalla every 4 weeks. Most recently, Grotu was updated on October 24, 2026 and Yalla on October 25, 2026.

Other comparisons