PingPod vs VATER
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PingPod
Book and play table tennis at automated, 24/7 facilities. Reserve private or open tables, join leagues, or take lessons from coaches. Enjoy features like instant replays and automated scoreboards.
- 24/7 automated table tennis booking
- Private and open play table reservations
- Join leagues and open play sessions
- Attend group classes
- 1-on-1 coaching lessons
- Instant replays
- Automated scoreboards
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PingPod is a fully automated table tennis space open 24/7 currently located across 5 locations in New York City, further locations on the East Coast coming soon! Simply book a table on the app, invite your friends, let yourselves in to play and enjoy. Features include instant replays, automated scoreboards, music controls (private tables), open 24 hours in most locations. • Reserve Tables - either a table in an open environment or a private tables with ample space. • Join Open Play or League - weekly leagues and open plays to meet people of similar skill levels. • Attend a Class - small group lessons for people of any skill level. From someone just starting out to an advanced players. • Take Lessons - from world-class coaches to local club coaches who provide 1 on 1 instruction.
VATER
Engage in a social movement to "VATE" and reclaim your "light." Earn Vates by completing challenges, creating events, and inspiring others to move. Climb leaderboards and discover new challenges on a dynamic map.
- Earn Vates through challenges
- Create events to "VATE" places
- Climb leaderboards
- Discover challenges on a map
- Daily Vate gifting
- Community movement focus
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Think RedBull meets Pokemon GO! Every single skater, baller, LARPer in a Huge Group Chat per Sport/Activity split by Borough, City, School, Squad, Skill Level. VATER is where humans build community to evolve their Game. There is a Leaderboard who is the Most VATED at every park, court, corner, gym, field, event. Do Challenges to Earn Vates, first to 1000 gets $1000 Keep each other accountable and challenge each other, submit challenges to VATER for Vates. It Gets the People Going...
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: VATER at none against PingPod's shown. VATER also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and review sentiment (100% vs 91%). PingPod's advantage is ratings volume (980 vs 9) and rating (4.9 vs 4.6). On price, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
PingPod holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PingPod has 980 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 91% of PingPod's written reviews are positive against 100% of VATER's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
PingPod ships an update every 6 days, VATER every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PingPod | VATER |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (980 ratings) — better | 4.6 (9 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 90.9% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 980 — better | 9 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 66 MB | 62 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | PINGPOD INC | WUON LLC |
Customer experience
PingPod
VATER
In-app purchases
PingPod
No in-app purchases
VATER
No in-app purchases
