TV Buses vs Southeastern
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TV Buses
Plan your travel and purchase tickets for buses in the Thames Valley area. View live bus locations, real-time departures, and detailed timetables. Save favorite routes and stay updated on service disruptions.
- Mobile ticket purchase
- Live bus tracking
- Real-time departures
- Journey planning
- Timetables
- Contactless journey history
- Favorite routes
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Our new app has everything you need to get around the Thames Valley area with Thames Valley Buses. It’s packed full of everything you’ll need to get mobile on the bus. Mobile Tickets: Purchase mobile tickets securely with Apple Pay or a debit/credit card and show the driver when boarding - no more searching for cash! Live Buses and Real Time Departures: Browse and view buses and stops on the map, explore upcoming departures, or check out the routes from a stop to see where you could travel next. Journey Planning: Plan your commute, trip to the shops or night out with friends. It’s now even easier to plan ahead with Thames Valley Buses. Timetables: We’ve squeezed all of our routes and timetables into the palm of your hand. Contactless Journeys: View the journeys you have made using your contactless cards and a breakdown of charges and savings. Favourites: You can quickly save your favourite Departure Boards, Timetables and Journeys, with quick access from one convenient menu. Disruptions: You’ll be able to keep up to date with service changes directly from our disruption feeds inside the app. As always, we welcome your feedback. You can send it to us via the app or email us at customerservices@thamesvalleybuses.com.
Southeastern
Purchase train tickets for any UK railway station with no booking fees. Get real-time updates, digital railcards, and automatic delay compensation claims. This app offers a user-friendly interface with accessibility features.
- Buy train tickets to any UK station
- eTickets and Key Smartcard options
- Personalized common journeys
- One-click delay compensation claims
- Real-time journey alerts
- Digital Railcards
- SeatFinder busy train information
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Travel anywhere: buy train tickets to and from any UK railway station, getting you where you need to go. eTickets and Key Smartcard tickets: offer more sustainable alternatives to paper tickets. Common Journeys: personalise your home screen and receive real-time updates on journeys you regularly make. One Click Delay Repay: making delays easier! We’ll automatically generate a delay replay claim and tell you about the compensation you’re entitled to if your train is delayed by 15 minutes or more. Journey alerts: get real-time notifications for journeys you are about to make straight to your phone. Digital Railcards: save money with the convenience of a Digital Railcard on your phone. Check how busy your train will be with SeatFinder information. Powered by data from Southeastern, National Rail Enquiries and Transport for London. Built with accessibility in mind: the user-friendly interface helps those with accessibility needs, and makes booking travel assistance easy.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: TV Buses at free against Southeastern's free with in-app purchases. TV Buses also leads on review sentiment (59% vs 43%) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). Southeastern's advantage is ratings volume (79 vs 7). 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for TV Buses against 4.6 for Southeastern. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Southeastern has 79 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 59% of TV Buses's written reviews are positive against 43% of Southeastern's.
TV Buses ships an update fortnightly, Southeastern every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | TV Buses | Southeastern |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (7 ratings) — better | 4.6 (79 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 58.8% of reviews — better | 42.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 7 | 79 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 41 MB | 85 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Courtney Coaches LTD | The Go-Ahead Group plc |
Customer experience
TV Buses
Southeastern
Bugs and requests
TV Buses
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Southeastern
Reported bugs
5 issues- Inability to load tickets onto key card
- Inconsistent behavior when purchasing tickets
- Errors and crashes when trying to claim delay repay
- Issues with recognizing and applying railcard discounts
- Problems with syncing ticket purchases across devices
Requested features
6 requests- Ability to save and reuse common journeys
- Offline support for accessing tickets
- Integration with mobile wallets like Apple Pay
- Improved accessibility features
- Better tracking and management of purchased tickets
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- More intuitive and streamlined user interface
In-app purchases
TV Buses
No in-app purchases
Southeastern
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is TV Buses free?
Is Southeastern free?
Which has better reviews, TV Buses or Southeastern?
Do TV Buses or Southeastern have ads?
Which is updated more often, TV Buses or Southeastern?
Other comparisons
