FREETOUR.com vs ExploreIRL
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
FREETOUR.com
Discover cities worldwide with free and budget-friendly guided tours. Connect with local guides to explore history, culture, and local life. Pay what you feel the tour was worth at the end.
- Find free and budget guided tours
- Book tours with local guides
- Explore history, culture, and local life
- Pay what you like at the end
- Browse ranked, rated, and reviewed activities
- Instant booking confirmations
- Thousands of activities in 115+ countries
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Explore cities through local eyes with FREETOUR.com FREETOUR.com is a global travel app for discovering and booking free walking tours, budget tours and authentic local experiences with passionate local guides. Find things to do in Europe and Worldwide, compare trusted tour providers, and book city tours in 140+ countries. Looking for free tours in Barcelona, Budapest, Rome, Venice, Vienna or Naples? Planning a city break, a backpacking trip, a weekend getaway or a longer vacation? Use FREETOUR.com as your walking tour app, city guide app and tour booking app to explore famous landmarks, hidden gems, local neighborhoods and real culture. Why use FREETOUR.com? • Free walking tours with local guides who know their city • Budget guided tours, sightseeing tours and local experiences • Day trips, night tours, pub crawls, bike tours, themed tours and excursions • Tours available in multiple languages • Ratings and reviews from travelers who have already joined • Easy booking with instant confirmation • Clear tour details: route, duration, language, meeting point and guide information • No booking fees or hidden charges • Free to download and free to use How free tours work Free tours are tip-based walking tours. You book your place for free, join a local guide, enjoy the experience, and decide what it was worth at the end. It is one of the easiest ways to understand a city's history, culture, stories and everyday life without paying high prices upfront. Find tours for every travel style Discover walking tours in historic city centers, food and culture tours, night walks, local neighborhood routes, day trips and unique activities. Whether you want a classic sightseeing tour in Rome, a local walking tour in Barcelona, a cultural route in Budapest, a romantic walk in Venice, an imperial history tour in Vienna or food trips through Naples, FREETOUR.com helps you find the right experience. Travel smarter in Europe and Worldwide Since 2014, FREETOUR.com has helped travelers connect with local guides and tour providers around the world. From Europe's most visited cities to emerging destinations across 140+ countries, our mission is to make meaningful travel easier, more accessible and more local. Download the FREETOUR.com app to search, compare and book free tours, walking tours, guided tours, budget tours and local experiences worldwide.
ExploreIRL
Turn your city into a deck of adventure cards with real-world challenges. Complete tasks, earn miles, and collect moments with photos. Play solo or with friends, with no account required.
- Real-world challenge cards
- Trivia and multi-step adventures
- Collect completed cards and photos
- Earn miles and level up
- Play solo or with a crew
- No account required for basic play
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ExploreIRL turns a city into a deck of cards. Open a pack for where you are — or for your own town — and it deals you a hand of real-world challenges. Go do them. Complete a card and it is yours to keep, filed in your collection with the Miles you earned and, if you want, a photo of the moment. WHAT'S IN A PACK CHALLENGES — go and do something specific in the real world. Some carry a bonus objective worth doing properly. TRIVIARUSH — test what you actually know about where you are, and find out what you didn't. Answer straight on the card. DUBDAREZ — the big ones. Bolder, multi-step adventures for Explorers who came to actually do something. HOW IT WORKS Finish a card and another is dealt, so the deck lasts as long as the trip does. Nothing expires. A pack you own is yours permanently, and closing out a trip never locks it — every card, Mile and Moment stays exactly where it is. Not going to happen? Some cards genuinely aren't — the place is closed, the weather turned, it isn't safe. Use an 86 to veto it and get a replacement dealt straight away. You get three free on every adventure. KEEP THE MOMENTS Attach a photo to any card you complete and it becomes a Moment, filed with that card and that destination. Your Passport tracks your Miles, your Level and everything you've collected. PLAY YOUR WAY — TOGETHER Solo, or with the people you're actually with. Add your Crew, split into two teams, name them and build a badge. Every card credits whoever earned it, the standings move as you play, and a lead change gets called the moment it happens. Call it when you're done and the winner gets the ceremony. Your Passport Miles are always your own — the team score never touches them. There is no timer, no streak to maintain, and nothing to lose by putting it down for a month. NO ACCOUNT REQUIRED Play the whole game without signing in. Your cards, Moments and progress stay on your device unless you choose to create an account, and the only reason to create one is so a lost phone doesn't mean a lost adventure. We use limited analytics to understand how ExploreIRL is being used and improve the experience. Analytics may include interactions such as destinations and cards played, and which challenges are started and completed, so we can provide a better UX, but we do not send names, emails, photos or precise location through our analytics. ExploreIRL does not use an advertising SDK, IDFA or cross-app tracking. PLAY SMART, STAY SAFE, FOLLOW LOCAL LAWS.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: FREETOUR.com at none against ExploreIRL's 10. FREETOUR.com also leads on ratings volume (1.2K vs 2). ExploreIRL's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 weeks) and review sentiment (100% vs 85%). On price, rating, ads and monetization model 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. ExploreIRL sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. FREETOUR.com asks for nothing beyond the download.
ExploreIRL holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: FREETOUR.com has 1.2K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of FREETOUR.com's written reviews are positive against 100% of ExploreIRL's.
FREETOUR.com ships an update every 5 weeks, ExploreIRL every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | FREETOUR.com | ExploreIRL |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (1.2K ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.6% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.2K — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 108 MB | 1.0 GB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Freetour.com GmbH | David Wieland |
Customer experience
FREETOUR.com
ExploreIRL
Bugs and requests
FREETOUR.com
Reported bugs
3 issues- Tours not showing up in the app
- Reservation confirmation issues
- Difficulty finding and booking tours
Requested features
4 requests- Improved booking and scheduling system
- More language options for tours
- Ability to provide feedback and ratings
- Loyalty program or discounts for repeat customers
ExploreIRL
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
FREETOUR.com
No in-app purchases
ExploreIRL
- BOSTON$4.99
- DALLAS$4.99
- ROME$4.99
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- SEATTLE$4.99
- PHILADELPHIA$4.99
- ATHENS$4.99
- PRAGUE$4.99
- ATLANTA$4.99
- CAIRO$4.99
- ExploreIRL All Access$99.99









