UCSC Dining vs SlugDining
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.
SlugDining
This app provides real-time information on UC Santa Cruz campus dining options. Easily discover menus, nutritional details, and operating hours for dining halls, cafes, and markets. It also includes gym hours to help you plan your day.
- Real-time dining insights
- Discover current menus
- Detailed nutritional information
- Check operational hours
- Meal search by dietary needs
- Gym operating hours
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Explore UCSC Dining with SlugDining SlugDining simplifies your dining experience at UC Santa Cruz, offering comprehensive real-time insights into on-campus dining options. It’s designed to help you make quick, informed decisions about where and what to eat. With SlugDining, you can easily: • Discover Menus: Instantly access current menus from all campus dining locations. • Nutritional Insights: Get detailed nutritional info to eat smarter and healthier. • Operational Hours: Check open hours for dining halls, cafes, and markets. • Meal Search: Find foods that meet your dietary needs or cravings. • Gym Hours: View real-time gym operating hours to plan your workout schedule. SlugDining keeps you connected with the latest campus dining updates, helping you manage your meals efficiently and enjoyably. Whether you’re in a rush for a quick bite or planning a balanced meal, it’s all at your fingertips.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: SlugDining at none against UCSC Dining's shown. SlugDining also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 67%) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). UCSC Dining's advantage is ratings volume (306 vs 16). On price, rating, update cadence and in-app purchases 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 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: UCSC Dining has 306 ratings behind it against 16, 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 SlugDining'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, SlugDining every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | UCSC Dining | SlugDining |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (306 ratings) — better | 4.4 (16 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 306 — better | 16 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 29 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chai Jie | Ivan Del Rio |
Customer experience
UCSC Dining
SlugDining
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)
SlugDining
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
UCSC Dining
No in-app purchases
SlugDining
No in-app purchases
