SmarTrip vs TrailSign
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SmarTrip
Manage your SmarTrip card and account with this optional tool. Register your card for balance protection, check benefits, set up auto-reload, or purchase transit passes. It can also be added to Apple Wallet for easy tap-to-pay.
- Manage SmarTrip card and account
- Add SmarTrip to Apple Wallet
- Register card for balance protection
- Check SmartBenefits
- Setup Auto-Reload
- Buy unlimited transit passes
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This app is an OPTIONAL tool that allows you to manage your SmarTrip® card and account. This app can NOT be used to pay your transit or parking fares. You do NOT need to setup a SmarTrip account to use SmarTrip in Apple Wallet. Add SmarTrip to Apple Wallet: - Open Apple Wallet on iPhone or Apple Watch - Tap “+”, choose “Transit Card”, select “SmarTrip” - In less than a minute you’ll have a new SmarTrip card in your Apple Wallet and be ready to tap to pay for rides or parking anywhere SmarTrip is accepted. If you need to do account management, then: - Install this optional SmarTrip app to register your card for account balance protection, check SmartBenefits, setup Auto-Reload, or buy money-saving unlimited transit passes. Chat with us at WMATA.COM/CHAT or call 888-SMARTRIP (888-762-7874)
TrailSign
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Trailsign is the trip companion for Scout units that plan with What2Pack. Your leaders build the trip on the web. Trailsign puts it on every phone in the crew and keeps it there when the signal is gone. Sign in with the email on your unit's roster. One tap on the link and the app lists every trip you're on: the high adventure trek, next month's campout, summer camp. Parents can sign in for their Scout. WHAT'S IN A TRIP • The whole trip, day by day. Stops, meals and drive times in order, with today's plan on the dashboard. • Hikes that mean something. Distance, climb, high point, an elevation profile, the route on the map and your leaders' trail notes, right where the hike falls in the day. • Offline maps. Topographic maps of the places you're going, downloaded ahead of time, with the trip's stops and trails drawn on them. • Packing lists you can tick off. Your own list, plus the troop gear committed to the trip with its tag numbers, so loading the trailer is a checklist. • Summer camp. Your class schedule by period, the camp's program, and where every Scout is this hour for leaders. • Campouts and day trips. Who's going by patrol, patrol menus with full recipes, duty rosters and who is riding with whom. • Headcount. Count every group at a checkpoint in seconds. • Safety at hand. Rally points, emergency contacts and safety cards for the places you're visiting. • Care flags. Food allergies, who takes daily medication and any condition the crew should know about, entered by your leaders and shown to the people on the trip. Trailsign does not hold medical records. BUILT FOR THE BACKCOUNTRY Everything downloads when you open a trip and stays on the phone. Pull to refresh when you have signal and changes your leaders made on the web arrive in seconds. No signal, no problem: the schedule, maps, lists and contacts are all still there. FOR ADULTS ON THE TRIP Driver phone numbers for the ride home are shown only to adults on the trip and to parents of Scouts on it. PRIVACY There are no passwords and no ads. Trailsign shows a trip only to people on its roster. Your location is used on your phone to show where you are on the map and is never sent anywhere. Trailsign needs a unit that plans its trips in What2Pack (what2pack.org).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: TrailSign at weekly against SmarTrip's every 5 months. SmarTrip's advantage is chart position (#192 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
SmarTrip ships an update every 5 months, TrailSign weekly. Both last shipped on October 14, 2026.
| Parameter | SmarTrip | TrailSign |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.5 (57 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 10.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 57 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Best chart rank | #192 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 66 MB | 21 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority | Robert Landrigan |
Bugs and requests
SmarTrip
Reported bugs
3 issues- Unable to activate account due to missing activation email
- Password reset process not working
- Inconsistent behavior when adding value to card
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to transfer balance between cards
- Real-time balance updates
- Improved trip planning tools
- Apple Watch support
TrailSign
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
SmarTrip
No in-app purchases
TrailSign
No in-app purchases









