Comparison

e vs CicadaTAK

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

Head to head
About

e

Read full description

Read your Amusement IC/e-amusement pass card and get your ID. This app reads your e-amusement card, FeliCa card or Amusement IC card and calculates the matching e-amusement pass ID(and Amusement IC access code). Note that iPhone 7 series needs to be a japan model, as other country variant doesn't support reading FeliCa. Amusement IC is associated with KONAMI, SEGA, Bandai Namco, TAITO. e-amusement pass trademark is owned by KONAMI. FeliCa trademark is owned by Sony.

About

CicadaTAK

This app transforms your phone into a live tactical display for areas without cell service or internet. It connects to custom-built mesh radio nodes to create a self-healing network for real-time location sharing, encrypted chat, and push-to-talk voice communication.

Highlights
  • Live tactical display without cell service
  • Self-healing mesh network with custom radio nodes
  • Real-time teammate location and breadcrumb trails
  • Encrypted team chat and photo sharing
  • Push-to-talk voice communication
  • Offline map browsing and layer downloads
  • Node setup and management from the app
Features
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CicadaTAK turns your phone into a live tactical display for places with no cell service and no internet — backcountry, disaster response, large properties, search grids, event perimeters. It is the companion app for CicadaTAK mesh nodes: 900 MHz radio gateways you build yourself from a fully documented hardware recipe (parts list and instructions at cicadatak.com). Nodes form a self-healing mesh that reaches over a mile per hop and relays through every teammate, so coverage grows as the team spreads out. Your phone joins a node's WiFi and the radios do the rest. WORKS WITH ATAK AND iTAK • Nodes speak Cursor-on-Target in both directions — positions, chat and markers pass between this app and ATAK or iTAK devices on the same node • No TAK server, no data plan, no setup beyond joining the node's WiFi • Run this app, run ATAK, or run both side by side on one team LIVE TEAM MAP • Teammates update live with callsigns, colors and breadcrumb trails • A position that stops being current turns grey and shows its age instead of vanishing, so you always know how old the picture is • Offline maps — download aerial, topo and street layers onto the node and use them with zero internet • Drop markers, draw geofence zones, measure distance and bearing, save routes ENCRYPTED TEAM CHAT • End-to-end encrypted with your team passphrase — the key never leaves your team • Share photos from camera or gallery, carried over the radio, never through a server • Delivery receipts, canned quick replies, and roll call for fast accountability PUSH-TO-TALK VOICE • Live streaming PTT to the whole team — real voice traffic, not recorded clips • Tuned to stay intelligible on marginal links LONG-RANGE LoRa BRIDGE • Nodes fitted with LoRa hardware bridge to Meshtastic radios, carrying positions and text far beyond the main mesh • Three privacy modes, from open interoperability to fully dark RUN THE NETWORK FROM YOUR POCKET • Set up a new node from the app — no laptop, no terminal • Live topology graph of every radio link, colored by measured throughput • Node list with signal, battery and hardware status; one-tap ping for round-trip time • Trade speed for range across the whole team at once, with automatic revert if a node doesn't come back • Update node firmware over the air YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS • No accounts, no sign-up, no cloud, no analytics • Everything travels phone to your own radio to your teammates' phones • There is no server in the path, so there is nothing for us to see IMPORTANT • Full functionality requires CicadaTAK node hardware. Without a node the app runs in Standalone Mode: your own GPS on the map, offline map browsing, and every screen navigable — mesh chat, PTT and team positions activate when you connect to a node. • Nodes operate in the 902–928 MHz license-free ISM band on the United States channel plan, which is also licence-exempt in Canada,Mexico, and Australia. No radio license required. • Build your nodes at cicadatak.com — an open, fully documented hardware build on an open-source radio and mesh foundation.

Screenshots

e2 screens
CicadaTAK4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: e at Free against CicadaTAK's $2.99. CicadaTAK's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 34 months). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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

e is free to download; CicadaTAK costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

e ships an update every 34 months, CicadaTAK every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
e versus CicadaTAK: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametereCicadaTAK
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 34 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Paid
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS14.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB29 MB
Age rating4++4
DeveloperOh YunhoMerbella Studios Inc

In-app purchases

None

e

No in-app purchases

None

CicadaTAK

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is e free?
e is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is CicadaTAK free?
CicadaTAK costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do e or CicadaTAK have ads?
Neither e nor CicadaTAK shows ads.
Which is updated more often, e or CicadaTAK?
e ships an update every 34 months, and CicadaTAK every 3 days. Most recently, e was updated on October 14, 2026 and CicadaTAK on October 15, 2026.

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