Comparison

Farcaster vs Beaconaut

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

Head to head
About

Farcaster

A decentralized social network where users control their identity and data. Connect with a global community by creating a profile, posting public messages, and engaging in private conversations. Experience a new way to socialize online.

Highlights
  • Decentralized social network
  • User-controlled identity
  • Create public profile
  • Post public messages
  • Send private messages
  • Discover users and profiles
Read full description

Sign up requires an in-app purchase. Farcaster is a new type of social network. It's decentralized, like email, which means you control your account and identity. It's an ever-growing community of interesting, curious people from all over the world. Connect with others by creating a profile and posting public messages. What can you do with Farcaster: - Create a Farcaster account and public profile - Post and reply to public messages - Send private messages to friends - Find other users and visit public profiles You can keep updated by following us on (@farcaster) or on X (@farcaster_xyz). If you need to contact support, please send an email to support+ios@neynar.com.

About

Beaconaut

This app facilitates spontaneous social connections by allowing users to share their current location with trusted friends. It focuses on low-pressure invitations and a sense of shared presence, rather than direct navigation or performance metrics.

Highlights
  • Send temporary location beacons
  • See friends' general presence on a globe
  • Invite-only circles
  • No public profiles or performance metrics
  • Temporary beacons expire automatically
  • Shared gallery within circles
Features
Read full description

Beaconaut is for the friends you'd see far more often if seeing them took no planning. Somewhere between a text you never send and an evening nobody gets around to organising, there is a much smaller thing: letting your people know you're around. THE INVITATION Send up a beacon and your circle sees where you are — I'm here, come find me. There is no note to write and nothing to arrange; the place and the moment are the whole message. Answering costs one tap. So does saying you can't. Saying nothing costs nothing at all, and nobody is ever told you stayed quiet. That lightness is the point. An invitation this cheap to send gets sent on an ordinary Tuesday, which is exactly when you needed it. YOUR PEOPLE, OUT THERE Atlas is the globe on your home screen: everyone you share a circle with gathered around it, the threads between you lit where you have been talking lately. It will not help you find anybody, and it is not trying to. It is there so that on an evening when nobody is free, you can still see that your people exist, somewhere, getting on with their lives. Company rather than navigation. CLOSER, ONLY IF IT'S OFFERED The app gets more precise only as people choose it. Atlas is a feeling. The compass is an approximation — roughly which way someone is, roughly how far, never a route, and enough to feel them nearby without being enough to arrive at them. A beacon is the one exact thing, and it exists only because somebody decided they wanted to be found. Nothing sharpens on its own. THE CIRCLE Circles stay small, and they are invite-only. That limit isn't a tier you can pay to raise; keeping a circle small is what makes it a circle. One shared thread, a shared gallery, and the people already in your life. No feed. No followers. No public profile, no like counts, nothing to perform for. IT ENDS ON ITS OWN A beacon is temporary by design. It closes itself, with nothing to cancel and nobody notified that it lapsed. What stays is the warm part — who came, who sent love — and that is what makes the next one easy to send.

Screenshots

Farcaster3 screens
Beaconaut4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Beaconaut at none against Farcaster's 10. Beaconaut also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6). Farcaster's advantage is ratings volume (1.1K vs 1) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, update cadence and ads 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. Farcaster sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Beaconaut asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Beaconaut holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Farcaster has 1.1K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Farcaster versus Beaconaut: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFarcasterBeaconaut
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (1.1K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.1K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size92 MB15 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperMerkle ManufactoryFutureNow, Inc

Customer experience

Farcaster

All ratings1,131 ratings
Positive90.5%
Neutral0.5%
Negative9.0%
Written reviews585 reviews
Positive50.4%
Neutral3.2%
Negative46.3%

Beaconaut

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Farcaster

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Registration issues
  • Inability to upload photos
  • Crashes and app instability
  • Problems with in-app purchases
  • Sync issues between devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Multi-language support
  • Improved notifications
  • Expanded content sharing options
  • Better integration with web3 tools
  • Enhanced analytics and metrics

Beaconaut

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Farcaster

One-time10
  • Warpcast Gas Fee$1.00
  • Warpcast Gas Fee$2.00
  • Warpcast Gas Fee$3.00
Show 7 more
  • Onchain Gas Fee$5.00
  • Onchain Gas Fee$9.00
  • Warpcast Gas Fee$12.00
  • Onchain Gas Fee$18.00
  • Warpcast Gas Fee$24.00
  • Onchain Gas Fee$27.00
  • Onchain Gas Fee$45.00
None

Beaconaut

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Farcaster free?
Farcaster is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Beaconaut free?
Beaconaut is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Farcaster or Beaconaut?
Beaconaut is rated higher. Farcaster averages 4.6 out of 5 from 1.1K ratings, while Beaconaut averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Farcaster or Beaconaut have ads?
Neither Farcaster nor Beaconaut shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Farcaster or Beaconaut?
Farcaster ships an update every 5 days, and Beaconaut every 5 days. Most recently, Farcaster was updated on November 7, 2026 and Beaconaut on October 31, 2026.

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