UCSC Dining vs UCSC Menu
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
UCSC Dining
Access detailed menus for all five UCSC dining halls, covering breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night options. Search for specific foods, view nutrition facts, ingredients, and allergens, and even preview upcoming menus.
- Dining hall menus
- Nutrition facts
- Ingredient information
- Allergen details
- Future menu previews
- Food search across halls
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Menu app for UCSC Dining halls: - Includes 5 dining halls for ten colleges - Provides dining hall menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night - Explore the menu from cafés on campus - Search for your favorite food across all dining halls - Find more information about nutrition facts, ingredients, and allergens - Preview future menus * Data provided by UCSC Dining. Due to the dynamic nature of the current situation, menus may change without notice. You may find item substitutions in the dining halls that are not reflected online.
UCSC Menu
This app provides UC Santa Cruz students with organized dining hall menus, including nutrition information and future date options. It also features an hours tab, a points calculator, and integration with GETMobile for easy dining hall access.
- Dining hall menu summaries
- Detailed college menus
- Nutrition information
- Future date menus
- Dining hall hours
- Slug points calculator
- GETMobile integration
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Organized dining hall menu app for UC Santa Cruz students. Includes a summary page for each college's main food, a detailed menu for each individual college with nutrition information, ability to see menus for future dates, an hours info tab, and a remaining slug points calculator. Also, we integrated GETMobile to easily swipe into the dining hall. Keep the app on the App Store by supporting us at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/christiantknab Contact us at ucscmenuapp@gmail.com for feedback, bug fixes, and new features. Please include relevant screenshots.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: UCSC Menu at 100% against UCSC Dining's 67%. UCSC Menu also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). UCSC Dining's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 4.2) and ratings volume (306 vs 17). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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.
UCSC Dining holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: UCSC Dining has 306 ratings behind it against 17, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 67% of UCSC Dining's written reviews are positive against 100% of UCSC Menu's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
UCSC Dining ships an update every 6 days, UCSC Menu fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | UCSC Dining | UCSC Menu |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (306 ratings) — better | 4.2 (17 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 306 — better | 17 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 45 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chai Jie | Christian Knab |
Customer experience
UCSC Dining
UCSC Menu
Bugs and requests
UCSC Dining
Reported bugs
2 issues- Inaccurate opening hours
- Incorrect menu information (e.g., waffles)
Requested features
5 requests- Add Owl's Nest cafe
- Allow viewing nutritional value for cafe items
- Option to search by food and see dining hall serving it
- Update hours for dining halls
- Update status for dining halls (e.g., open/closed for renovations)
UCSC Menu
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
UCSC Dining
No in-app purchases
UCSC Menu
No in-app purchases
