Comparison

Explore Illinois Route 66 vs Roadside Strange

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

Head to head
About

Explore Illinois Route 66

Plan your ultimate road trip along America's most iconic highway. Discover attractions, find upcoming events, and build a personalized itinerary to share with loved ones. Experience the essence of American highway culture.

Highlights
  • Discover activities and attractions
  • View upcoming events
  • Add events and places to custom trip
  • Share itinerary with friends and family
  • Personalized vacation planning
Features
Read full description

Route 66 is the most famous road in America. Generations of travelers have romanticized this highway as a symbol of unlimited mobility and freedom of the road. Its iconic status is enhanced by the unprecedented volume of music, books, films, and other art forms that depict it as the essence of America's highway culture. The Explore Illinois Route 66 app is designed to help you plan the perfect vacation, trip or getaway along Route 66. • Discover activities and attractions that match your interests • View upcoming events near you • Add events and places to your custom trip • Share events, places and your itinerary with friends and family

About

Roadside Strange

Discover unusual and unexplained locations near you. Explore hauntings, cryptids, and strange stories with an interactive map, directions, and trip planning features. Turn everyday drives into adventures with curated or randomized road trips.

Highlights
  • Interactive map of strange locations
  • Discover cases near you
  • Hauntings, cryptids, UAPs, ghost lore
  • Directions and public access info
  • Save cases and mark found locations
  • Build and manage road trips
  • Randomized adventure generator
Features
Read full description

Roadside Strange helps you discover the weird, unexplained, and unusual hiding just off the road. Explore thousands of locations and cases including hauntings, ghost lore, cryptids, UAP sightings, strange stories, and other unusual history. Use the interactive map to find cases near you, explore the details behind each location, get directions to safe public access points, save cases for later, and mark the places you’ve found. Want to make a day of it? Roadside Strange can turn the strange places around you into a road trip. Premium members can build routes automatically, add locations to trips, and use Surprise Me to generate a randomized adventure based on distance or the amount of time available. Features include: • Explore strange locations on an interactive map • Find cases near your current location • Hauntings, cryptids, UAPs, ghost lore and strange stories • Directions and public-access information • Save cases and mark locations as Found • Community comments and case submissions • Build and manage Road Trips • Premium Surprise Me randomized road trips • Achievements for exploring and contributing Roadside Strange is built for curious travelers, paranormal fans, history lovers, cryptid hunters, UAP enthusiasts, and anyone who would rather take the weird way home. Some locations and stories involve folklore, legends, alleged paranormal activity, or other claims that may not be independently verified. Always respect private property, posted restrictions, local laws, and your surroundings while exploring. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Roadside Strange4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Roadside Strange at 100% against Explore Illinois Route 66's 33%. Roadside Strange also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Explore Illinois Route 66's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ads (none vs shown). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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. Roadside Strange sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.49 per month. Explore Illinois Route 66 asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Roadside Strange holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Explore Illinois Route 66 has 128 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Explore Illinois Route 66's written reviews are positive against 100% of Roadside Strange's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Explore Illinois Route 66 ships an update every 3 months, Roadside Strange weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Explore Illinois Route 66 versus Roadside Strange: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterExplore Illinois Route 66Roadside Strange
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (128 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings128 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.115.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size78 MB60 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperILLINOIS ROUTE 66 HERITAGE PROJECT, INC.nathan wood

Customer experience

Explore Illinois Route 66

All ratings83 ratings
Positive94.0%
Neutral3.6%
Negative2.4%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral33.3%
Negative33.3%

Roadside Strange

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Explore Illinois Route 66

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Roadside Strange

Subscriptions2
  • Roadside Strange Premium Monthly$4.491 Month
  • Roadside Strange Premium Yearly$24.991 Year
One-time1
  • lifetime premium$8.99

Questions

Is Explore Illinois Route 66 free?
Explore Illinois Route 66 is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Roadside Strange free?
Roadside Strange is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Explore Illinois Route 66 or Roadside Strange?
Roadside Strange is rated higher. Explore Illinois Route 66 averages 4.7 out of 5 from 128 ratings, while Roadside Strange averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Explore Illinois Route 66 or Roadside Strange have ads?
Roadside Strange shows ads; Explore Illinois Route 66 does not.
Which is updated more often, Explore Illinois Route 66 or Roadside Strange?
Explore Illinois Route 66 ships an update every 3 months, and Roadside Strange weekly. Most recently, Explore Illinois Route 66 was updated on November 3, 2026 and Roadside Strange on November 6, 2026.

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