CharmPass vs Places by Data
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
CharmPass
Purchase and use transit fares instantly from your phone. Securely register payment methods and buy tickets for local services, trains, and buses. Avoid paper tickets, cash, and ticket machines.
- Instant fare purchase
- No paper tickets
- Multiple transit options
- Secure payment options
- Group fare purchase
- Offline ticket activation
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The CharmPass app lets you purchase and use fares instantly on your phone—anywhere, anytime. Just download the free app, register your debit/credit card or PayPal account in our secure system, and you're ready to go. WHY YOU'LL LOVE THIS APP: • No paper fares to track. • Purchase BaltimoreLink Local Service, MARC Train, and Commuter Bus tickets all from one app. • No need to carry cash, count exact change, or find a ticket machine. • Buy and use fares instantly using a debit/credit card or your PayPal account. • Pay a single fare or multiple fares for a group of riders. HOW IT WORKS: 1. CHOOSE SERVICE 2. CHOOSE FARE 3. SELECT TICKET TYPE 4. CHOOSE QUANTITY 5. CHECK OUT COMMON QUESTIONS: Q: Do I need to be connected to the Internet? A: Cellular network or a wireless Internet connection is required to purchase tickets, but you can activate your pre-purchased tickets offline. Q: What if my battery dies? A: Just like with paper tickets, you're responsible for making sure you have a valid fare at all times, so be sure to plan ahead! IMPORTANT REMINDERS: • Don't uninstall the CharmPass app or erase your phone while you have active tickets on it. Your tickets are stored on your phone (which makes it possible to use them without a cellular network or a wireless Internet connection), so uninstalling the app can permanently erase your tickets! • Purchase your ticket anytime and activate your fare as you’re boarding. • Show your ticket to the operator of the vehicle. • Watch your battery level! Just like with paper tickets, you're responsible for making sure you have a valid fare at all times.
Places by Data
Automatically creates a private map of your life from your iPhone's existing data. Visualize your travels, photos, health metrics, and device encounters on a single, interactive map.
- Automatic travel mapping
- Photo library integration
- Health metric visualization
- Wi-Fi & Bluetooth device tracking
- On-device trip stories
- Interactive map layers
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Your phone quietly knows where you've been. Places by Data turns that into a beautiful, private map of your life, built automatically from the data your iPhone already has, and kept entirely on your device. Scan your photo library and watch your travels appear: every place you've been, clustered on one living map you can scrub through time. Pinch into a year, a month, a single day, and press play to watch your world fill in. WHAT IT MAPS • Photos - your library becomes places and trips, automatically • Location - the spots you visit and the paths between them • Wi-Fi & Bluetooth - the networks and devices you encounter, and where • Health - steps, distance, heart rate, sleep, workouts and more • Motion - a live look at your phone's orientation, compass, and altitude TRIPS, WRITTEN FOR YOU Your photos and visits are grouped into trips automatically, and each one gets a short story composed by Apple's on-device intelligence — private, personal, and never sent to the cloud. ONE MAP, EVERY SIGNAL The Atlas composites everything into place "bubbles" you can explore. Tap one to burst it open into an interactive web of what happened there. Toggle live layers — earthquakes, aircraft overhead, weather radar, nearby Wikipedia places - right on top of your own map. TRACE A DEVICE Pick a Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth device and see everywhere you've crossed paths with it, plotted across the map over time. DEEP INSIGHTS A dashboard for every sensor: your visits, the networks and devices around you, your health metrics with charts, and a live motion instrument panel with posture, movement, and elevation readouts. PRIVATE BY DESIGN This is the whole point: your data never leaves your iPhone. There are no accounts, no servers, no tracking, and nothing is collected. Want a copy? Export an encrypted backup file that only you can open, to Files or iCloud Drive — your choice. FREE, FOR EVERYONE Every feature is free. If you love it, an optional tip helps keep new features coming. Places by Data is your world, mapped privately.
Screenshots
Verdict
CharmPass and Places by Data both sit at 4.9 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of Places by Data's written reviews are positive against 61% of CharmPass's. CharmPass's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and ratings volume (33K vs 2). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. Places by Data sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. CharmPass asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for CharmPass against 5.0 for Places by Data. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CharmPass has 33K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 61% of CharmPass's written reviews are positive against 100% of Places by Data's.
CharmPass ships an update every 2 months, Places by Data every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 15, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CharmPass | Places by Data |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (33K ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 61.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 33K — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 26.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 32 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Maryland Transit Administration | Picture This Parties |
Customer experience
CharmPass
Places by Data
Bugs and requests
CharmPass
Reported bugs
4 issues- Tickets disappearing from the app
- Tickets not activating properly
- Compatibility issues with newer devices
- Unreliable location tracking
Requested features
5 requests- Loyalty program or incentives
- Improved ticket management and refund options
- Real-time transit updates and alerts
- Apple Watch integration
- Better offline support
Places by Data
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
CharmPass
No in-app purchases
Places by Data
- Coffee Tip$2.99
- Lunch Tip$4.99
- Generous Tip$9.99
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- Big-Hearted Tip$19.99
- Huge Tip$49.99









