Comparison

Pharo Guide vs Urban Manual

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

Head to head
About

Pharo Guide

Features
Read full description

Locate, listen, explore and enjoy our guides. Forget traditional audio guides. All you need is in your pocket. Essential and immediate, the app that will guide you during your visit without diverting your attention. Easy and smart access to info Discover points of interests through the exploration page and find them grouped by common features or locations. Use textual research to find them typing the name. Add contents to your favorite collection to find them quickly and to share them with your friends. Image, Audio, Details Wear headphones or bring your phone to your ear and let yourself be guided by narrations. Look at the images or discover the details of the contents to better appreciate them. Interactive maps Check the position to better move around and locate yourself. Find areas and points of interests and explore each detail. Accessible Accessibility is one of the issues we most cherish. This app can be used the same way by sighted people and people with visual impairments: nobody shall be left behind!

About

Urban Manual

Features
Read full description

Urban Manual is a city guide with a point of view — a curated collection of restaurants, cafes, bars, stays and cultural spots, handpicked and written up properly, in Tokyo, Paris, London, Taipei, New York, Barcelona and beyond. THE MAP IS HOME Open the app and you are already somewhere. Every place in the Manual, pinned on one map, with the filters that actually decide a night out: open now, a fifteen-minute walk, on your transit line, worth the detour. THE GUIDE The whole list, honestly. Browse city by city or category by category — Eats, Drinks, Coffees, Culture, Shopping, Stays — and read down as far as you like. No infinite feed of sponsored noise. Just the places, in order. EVERY PLACE, TOLD PROPERLY Each place gets a real write-up: what it is, why it is worth your time, who designed it, who cooks there, what it costs, when it closes. Photos, the address, the phone number, and the way in. ASK ABOUT ANY PLACE The concierge reads the reviews so you do not have to, and tells you what people actually say — the queue, the room, the thing to order. Summaries are generated on device with Apple Intelligence. TRIPS THAT HOLD TOGETHER Build a trip day by day: places, times, flights, hotels and the notes between them. See the day on a map, move a stop to tomorrow with one tap, and share the whole thing with whoever is coming. TODAY Your week at a glance — what is booked, what closes soon, and what still needs a yes. SAVED, VISITED, YOURS Save what you want to see, mark what you have been to, keep notebooks of places that belong together, and watch your travel record fill in behind you. Your trips and saved places stay with you offline.

Screenshots

Pharo Guide4 screens
Urban Manual4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Urban Manual at every 3 weeks against Pharo Guide's every 11 months. Pharo Guide's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 26.0). On price, 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pharo Guide ships an update every 11 months, Urban Manual every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 3 level
Pharo Guide versus Urban Manual: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPharo GuideUrban Manual
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 11 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS14.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size30 MB38 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperITCares s.r.l.AVMLO, LLC

In-app purchases

None

Pharo Guide

No in-app purchases

None

Urban Manual

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pharo Guide free?
Pharo Guide is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Urban Manual free?
Urban Manual is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Pharo Guide or Urban Manual have ads?
Neither Pharo Guide nor Urban Manual shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pharo Guide or Urban Manual?
Pharo Guide ships an update every 11 months, and Urban Manual every 3 weeks. Most recently, Pharo Guide was updated on November 7, 2026 and Urban Manual on October 17, 2026.

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