Chicago CTA Bus Tracker vs EL Tracker
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chicago CTA Bus Tracker
Track Chicago CTA buses in real-time. Select your route, direction, and stop to view upcoming bus arrivals. Save favorite stops for quick access to arrival times.
- Live bus tracking
- Route and direction selection
- Stop arrival predictions
- Save favorite stops
- Fast and easy to use
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Live bus tracker for Chicago CTA buses. Simply select a route, direction and stop to see the next bus arrivals. Save your favorite stops to see upcoming arrivals with a single touch. - CTA buses - Save unlimited number of favorites - Easy to use - Fast This is not an official app.
EL Tracker
This free Chicago transit app provides real-time departure information with customizable widgets and smart delay calculations. It offers tailored alerts, Siri integration, and accessibility features for low-vision users and multiple languages.
- Customizable departure widgets
- SmartWalk delay calculation
- Siri support
- Low-vision accessibility
- Multiple language support
- Tailored push notifications
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EL Tracker is an app by CTA riders, for CTA riders. We are the only completely free Chicago transit app that offers: - Customizable widgets displaying departures, with SmartWalk delay - Siri support and low-vision accessibility - Multiple languages (including Spanish and Polish) - Tailored alerts with push notifications We are Chicagoans, who were irritated by the lack of a simple Chicago transit app. One night, we said, "Why can't I have a widget that shows me when the train is coming?" And from there, EL Tracker was born. We strive to create technology that has a positive impact on the lives of everyday Chicagoans. We also want to make traveling around the city as accessible as possible, which is why we provide low-vision support, ADA accessibility notations, elevator outage push notifications, and multiple languages. EL Tracker is not an official CTA app, nor are we endorsed by the CTA.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: EL Tracker at 4.9 against Chicago CTA Bus Tracker's 4.2. EL Tracker also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (90% vs 60%). Chicago CTA Bus Tracker's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On price, ratings volume, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
EL Tracker holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 184 and 83 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 60% of Chicago CTA Bus Tracker's written reviews are positive against 90% of EL Tracker's.
Chicago CTA Bus Tracker ships an update every 37 months, EL Tracker every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 4, 2026 and September 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chicago CTA Bus Tracker | EL Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (184 ratings) | 4.9 (83 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 59.6% of reviews | 90.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 184 — better | 83 |
| Update frequency | Every 37 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 21 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Naiara Albaina | Davit Khachatryan |
Customer experience
Chicago CTA Bus Tracker
EL Tracker
User reviews
Chicago CTA Bus Tracker
From 184 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use and navigate
- 🚀 Fast and efficient
- ✅ Accurate time estimations
- 👍 Helpful for planning trips
- 👍 User-friendly for seniors
Room to improve
- 🐛 App doesn't update or refresh
- 🐛 Home page sometimes doesn't load
- 🐛 Inconsistent loading
- 🐛 No train tracking available
- 🐛 Ads are intrusive and annoying
EL Tracker
From 83 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🔥 Reliable and intuitive app
- 🖼️ Gorgeous and customizable UI
- 🔍 Detailed CTA information and train arrival times
- 🔌 Convenient widget feature with nearby station and arrival updates
- 🗺️ Helpful map view
Room to improve
- ⚠️ Widget sometimes doesn't update automatically
- 🔍 Widget doesn't open directly to the displayed station
Bugs and requests
Chicago CTA Bus Tracker
Reported bugs
8 issues- App doesn't update
- App doesn't refresh
- Home page doesn't load
- No information available when searching
- App freezes sometimes
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- No real-time info refresh
- Doesn't load consistently
- Takes a while to upload
Requested features
6 requests- Ability to rearrange favorites
- Add a refresh button
- Improve user-friendliness on the go
- Add train tracking
- Fix discrepancy between app and website
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Allow users to refresh current input
EL Tracker
No bugs or feature requests surfaced in reviews.
In-app purchases
Chicago CTA Bus Tracker
No in-app purchases
EL Tracker
No in-app purchases
