Comparison

Ask vs Buddy List Messenger

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

Head to head
About

Ask

Features
Read full description

Ask A is a way to drive revenue to small businesses in the health, wellness, beauty, and transportation industries Gain more exposure and earn more revenue. As simple as 5 mins you can sign up and start taking on new customers. Keep control of your schedule, price and business. The only system that works with every booking platform in the world.

About

Buddy List Messenger

Easily send mass messages to your contacts. Friends can choose to receive your updates via text or push notifications. Share your ideas directly with the founders.

Highlights
  • Send mass messages
  • Push notification subscriptions
  • Text message subscriptions
  • Direct founder feedback channel
Read full description

A green dot next to a name. That's the whole idea. Buddy List brings back the one thing instant messaging got right and every app since has thrown away: you could look at a list and see who was actually there. Not who posted three hours ago. Who's around, right now. WHO'S AROUND Open the app and you have your answer before the screen finishes settling. Green means they're here. Amber means they stepped away. Every state carries a shape as well as a colour, so it reads the same if you can't tell green from amber. AWAY MESSAGES, IN YOUR OWN HANDWRITING "brb, mom needs the phone." Set a status and it goes out to your buddies as a notification. Pick the font. Pick the colour. Six real typefaces, eight colours, and whatever you want to say in them. This is the part where the personality lives. FRIENDS AND FAMILY Group your people and collapse the ones you're not looking at. Each group shows how many are around out of how many there are. YOU CONTROL THE LIGHT Go invisible and you appear offline to everyone. Hide your presence and you stop seeing theirs — it works both ways, always, and no screen in the app can get around it. Auto-away marks you away after 24 hours. We're also deliberately imprecise. "A few minutes ago," never a timestamp. Nobody needs to know you looked. WHAT'S NOT IN HERE No feed. No algorithm. No recommended accounts, no follower counts, no strangers, no ads. There is nothing to scroll and nothing to catch up on. You add the people you actually talk to, and that's the whole app. Buddy List needs a phone number to find your friends, and a notification permission to tell you when they're around. That's it.

Screenshots

Ask4 screens
Buddy List Messenger4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Ask at Free against Buddy List Messenger's $5.99. Ask also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). Buddy List Messenger's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 2 weeks). On ads and in-app purchases 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

Ask is free to download; Buddy List Messenger costs $5.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ask ships an update every 2 weeks, Buddy List Messenger weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Ask versus Buddy List Messenger: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAskBuddy List Messenger
PriceFree — better$5.99
Rating—4.7 (35 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—92.3% of reviews
Number of ratings—35 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size77 MB20 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperBeauty Match LLCSpark Limited Liability Company

In-app purchases

None

Ask

No in-app purchases

None

Buddy List Messenger

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Ask free?
Ask is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Buddy List Messenger free?
Buddy List Messenger costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Ask or Buddy List Messenger have ads?
Neither Ask nor Buddy List Messenger shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ask or Buddy List Messenger?
Ask ships an update every 2 weeks, and Buddy List Messenger weekly. Most recently, Ask was updated on October 19, 2026 and Buddy List Messenger on October 27, 2026.

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