Rock Garden vs Beta Direct
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rock Garden
Discover climbing routes with highly detailed 3D interactive maps of crags and climbing areas. Visualize routes overlaid on realistic rock formations to plan and navigate your climbs safely and efficiently.
- 3D interactive climbing walls
- Route and topo data overlay
- Realistic rock recreations
- Community notes
- Trip planning
- Navigation
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Find your climb with Rock Garden! Rock Garden brings ultra detailed, 3D interactive walls, crags and climbing areas with their route and topo data overlaid - directly to your phone. Trust us, this is not your typical climbing app or guidebook. These are near perfect recreations of rocks with their routes clearly aligned on them. Rock Garden makes it so easy to determine where you and a route are on any given wall at any given time that we humbly think this will change how you approach climbing outside. Download the app for free and start exploring our rapidly growing set of 3D crags, routes, and community notes to get stoked on new climbs, plan trips, prep gear, find climbs quickly and navigate them safely.
Beta Direct
Easily create and share climbing routes on any wall by uploading a photo. Draw climbs, track your progress, and collaborate with friends by sharing your wall and their routes. Update your wall's configuration as holds change.
- Upload and adjust climbing wall photos
- Draw and create custom climbs
- Track and sort all created climbs
- Update wall configurations with new photos
- Share walls and climbs with friends
- Climb friends' routes on your wall
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Beta Direct allows any climber to make the most of their climbing wall - a home wall or even any gym wall. Take a photo of a climbing wall, add it to Beta Direct, and start creating climbs. Share your wall with friends and let them add climbs too. When some climbing holds change - take a new photo, adjust it so the holds still line-up, and keep climbing. Features: * Easily upload a photo of a climbing wall * Adjust your wall photos to best fit the climbing holds * Create climbs by drawing over your wall photo * Track and sort all climbs on your wall * Update your wall at any time - adjust a new photo so that old existing holds still line-up * Share your wall with friends, including your wall photo * Climb your friend’s climbs on your wall
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Rock Garden at none against Beta Direct's 3. Rock Garden also leads on ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (57 vs 9). Beta Direct's advantage is review sentiment (60% vs 50%). On price, rating, update cadence 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. Beta Direct sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Rock Garden asks for nothing beyond the download.
Beta Direct holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Rock Garden has 57 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Rock Garden's written reviews are positive against 60% of Beta Direct's.
Rock Garden ships an update fortnightly, Beta Direct every 8 days. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.
| Parameter | Rock Garden | Beta Direct |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.8 (57 ratings) | 4.0 (9 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 60.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 57 — better | 9 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 359 MB | 67 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | RocK Garden Inc. | Robert Pierce |
Customer experience
Rock Garden
Beta Direct
In-app purchases
Rock Garden
No in-app purchases
Beta Direct
- Remove Ads$0.99
- Wall Image Credit$0.99
- Unlimited Wall Image Credits$4.99
Questions
Is Rock Garden free?
Is Beta Direct free?
Which has better reviews, Rock Garden or Beta Direct?
Do Rock Garden or Beta Direct have ads?
Which is updated more often, Rock Garden or Beta Direct?
Other comparisons
