Comparison

BeWize vs Bearings

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

BeWize

This app provides accurate safety information for areas across the USA, helping users make informed decisions when traveling or exploring. Users can contribute their own experiences to enhance the data and improve safety for others.

Highlights
  • Accurate US area safety data
  • User-contributed safety ratings
  • Statistical data for unbiased information
  • Safety planning for travel
  • Community safety contributions
Read full description

BeWize accurately displays the safety of any area in the USA. Use BeWize when you’re planning a vacation, meeting a friend for coffee or simply getting off the freeway to grab gas. You can also help keep others safe by leaving your own ratings. Why BeWize? • By using the power of statistical data, BeWize is able to provide very accurate safety information which helps take the bias out of user ratings. • Users can provide safety ratings to share their safe experience, dangerous experience or even if they were the unfortunate victim of a crime. • BeWize is consistent throughout the United States and as more and more users leave ratings, it will eventually be able to determine the safety of everywhere in the world. • BeWize is a brand-new app developed by the people who envisioned it. • As BeWize grows, more and more safety related information will be added to the app making it the best safety app in the world. End User License Agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Bearings

Discover the history, culture, and hidden stories of the world around you. This app personalizes your exploration based on your interests, offering unique insights without rigid routes. Understand places better by noticing details you might otherwise miss.

Highlights
  • Personalized exploration based on interests
  • Discover hidden stories and local legends
  • Explore by walking or driving
  • Thematic exploration lenses
  • No predetermined routes or rigid tours
  • Understand places more deeply
Features
Read full description

Walk or drive anywhere. Bearings tells you the story of the world around you, out loud, as you pass it. It's an audio tour with no route to follow and nothing to buy per city. It works wherever you are, and your first 20 stories are free. Personalized to your interests, it reveals the landmarks, history, culture, people, architecture, and hidden stories you might otherwise miss. PERSONALIZED TO YOU Everyone notices something different when they travel. Bearings learns what catches your attention and shapes each experience around it. Love history? Architecture? Movies? Art? Sports? Local legends? Choose your interests, add anything you're curious about, and hear more of what matters to you. Two people can explore the same place and discover different things. WALK. DRIVE. WANDER. Explore on foot and uncover what's hiding in the streets around you. Take a road trip and discover the places, events, and people connected to the landscape outside your window. Visit somewhere famous or wander somewhere you've never heard of. Bearings isn't a navigation app. It won't choose your route or tell you where to turn. Think of it as the passenger who knows the area: the one who points out the window and tells you why that hill has a name. There's no fixed tour and no checklist to finish. Go wherever looks interesting. Bearings comes with you. EXPLORE THROUGH ANY THEME Choose a theme and experience the world around you through an entirely different lens. Explore New York through its architecture. Discover London through rock & roll. Walk through Rome focused on the ancient world. Turn a road trip into a journey through local legends, famous movies, military history, or almost anything else you're curious about. You choose the lens. Bearings connects it to the places around you. ASK ABOUT ANYTHING Wondering about something out the window? Ask, and Bearings answers on the spot. Every answer knows exactly where you are and what you're looking at. TRY IT FROM HOME Pick a start, a destination, and a speed to hear the trip play out as if you were on it. You get up to two practice runs before your first real walk or drive. DISCOVER WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE MISSED The building you almost walked past. The event that shaped the landscape outside your window. The movie filmed around the corner. The remarkable story hiding behind an ordinary-looking street. Every outing is saved to your journal with its route and stories, ready to revisit or share. Don't just go places. Understand them. SUBSCRIPTIONS Bearings includes 20 free stories, plus up to two practice runs that don't count toward them. This allowance is included with the app and is not a free trial of a paid plan. No subscription begins automatically when it runs out. - Monthly Membership: $5.99 per month. Renews automatically each month until canceled. - Founding Explorer: $29.99 per year. Renews automatically each year at the same price until canceled. - Trip Pass: $9.99 one-time purchase. Includes unlimited access for one trip. It is not a subscription and does not renew. Prices are shown in U.S. dollars. Your local price is displayed before you confirm a purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the current period ends. You can manage or cancel a subscription at any time in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use: https://travelwithbearings.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://travelwithbearings.com/privacy ACCURACY AND SAFETY Most of what you hear comes from public sources, and AI turns it into narration as you go. Nobody checks each story first, so it can get a date, name or detail wrong. Don't rely on Bearings for directions, safety information, or decisions about whether a location is open, accessible, or safe to enter. Don't interact with the screen while driving. Set up Bearings before you go and let the audio do the rest.

Screenshots

BeWize4 screens
Bearings4 screens

Verdict

The call

BeWize and Bearings both sit at 4.2 stars, but that hides the real split: 83% of Bearings's written reviews are positive against 72% of BeWize's. BeWize's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. BeWize sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Bearings sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.2 for BeWize against 4.3 for Bearings. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 26 and 10 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 72% of BeWize's written reviews are positive against 83% of Bearings's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
BeWize versus Bearings: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBeWizeBearings
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (26 ratings)4.3 (10 ratings) — better
Positive reviews72.2% of reviews83.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings26 — better10
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size47 MB70 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperBeWize IncMcGlaflin Labs, LLC

Customer experience

BeWize

All ratings26 ratings
Positive80.8%
Neutral3.8%
Negative15.4%
Written reviews18 reviews
Positive72.2%
Neutral5.6%
Negative22.2%

Bearings

All ratings10 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.7%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

BeWize

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Renewing Subscription$0.991 Month
  • Yearly Renewing Subscription$9.991 Year
3 purchases

Bearings

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Membership$5.991 Month
  • Founding Explorer$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Trip Pass$9.99

Questions

Is BeWize free?
BeWize is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Bearings free?
Bearings is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, BeWize or Bearings?
Bearings is rated higher. BeWize averages 4.2 out of 5 from 26 ratings, while Bearings averages 4.3 from 10 ratings.
Do BeWize or Bearings have ads?
Neither BeWize nor Bearings shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BeWize or Bearings?
BeWize ships an update weekly, and Bearings weekly. Most recently, BeWize was updated on October 18, 2026 and Bearings on October 23, 2026.

Other comparisons