NOVA vs Beaconaut
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
NOVA
This platform connects creative professionals with clients seeking talent. It allows artists to build their network, showcase their work, and find job opportunities. Clients can discover and hire top freelance creative talent.
- Build creative network
- Display artwork
- Access job opportunities
- Hire freelance talent
- Application-based platform
- Community guidelines
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NOVA is the curated freelancer platform for the next generation of creatives. Our mission is to provide Network, Opportunity, and Visibility to Artists. For creatives, NOVA is a first-of-its-kind multi application platform for artists to build their network, display their work, and easily access job opportunities. For clients, NOVA is the next evolution of creative hiring, providing a direct link to top freelance creative talent. _ At NOVA, our priority is community, which is why we are an application-based platform. Prospective members should download the mobile app here and submit an application. As a creative, we'll ask you to include information like skills and past project work. As a client, we'll ask you to include your company name and job title. Once you've submitted an application, it will be placed into the queue to be reviewed by our board of creatives and internal team. You could receive your acceptance at any time, so keep your push notifications on! Once admitted, creatives and clients will have full-access to the platform. Users must continuously abide by our community guidelines of integrity, professionalism, and privacy. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Beaconaut at 5.0 against NOVA's 4.3. Beaconaut also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and update cadence (every 5 days vs monthly). NOVA's advantage is ratings volume (1.2K vs 1) and chart position (#194 vs unranked). On price, ads, 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
Both are free to download. NOVA sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $12.99 per month. Beaconaut asks for nothing beyond the download.
Beaconaut holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: NOVA has 1.2K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
NOVA ships an update monthly, Beaconaut every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | NOVA | Beaconaut |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (1.2K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 36.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1.2K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #194 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 170 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | +12 | 12+ |
| Developer | Nova Network Inc. | FutureNow, Inc |
Customer experience
NOVA
Beaconaut
Bugs and requests
NOVA
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes
- Freezing
- Buggy application process
Requested features
4 requests- Web Access
- Saved filter settings
- Notifications
- Profile customization
Beaconaut
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
NOVA
- Nova Pro (Monthly)7 Days trial$12.991 Month
- Nova Pro (Yearly)7 Days trial$99.991 Year
- Nova Pro (Day Pass)$3.99
Beaconaut
No in-app purchases









