Comparison

PennTransit Mobile vs Colby GO

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

Head to head
About

PennTransit Mobile

Navigate campus and surrounding areas with real-time transit information. Plan trips, view schedules, and track shuttles for easy travel to, from, and around campus.

Highlights
  • Advanced Trip Planner
  • Real-time Vehicle Locations
  • Accurate Arrival Times
  • Schedule & Route Review
  • Intelligent Notifications
  • On-Demand Shuttle Tracking
Features
Read full description

PennTransit Mobile helps you travel to, from, and around campus and the surrounding neighborhoods easily. See all of your options in one place: Penn Bus East and West, On-Demand Shuttles, and specialty services like the Pennovation Works Shuttle and Penn Accessible Transit. This app provides you accurate vehicle locations and arrival times, ensuring you have the information you need when you need it so you can arrive safely and on time. Simply download the app, login securely with your PennKey, and you're ready to go! KEY FEATURES: Advanced Trip Planner—from your start location to your final destination, know the route you’re going to take and determine whether our fixed-route buses or on-demand shuttles will get you there faster. Schedule & Route Review—view route schedules on a stop-by-stop basis on all available routes so you can plan every trip ahead of time. The app also lets you know our service area boundaries so you can see if you need to use complimentary transportation such as SEPTA, LUCY, or Drexel Bus to get you to your final destination. Intelligent Notifications—subscribe to routes or stops to get arrival, departure, and delay information sent directly to your device. On-Demand—When using our on-demand shuttles, you can get a real-time view of your shuttle. Alerts – Check the app for updates from Penn Transit Services. Questions? Email transit@upenn.edu.

About

Colby GO

Track real-time bus locations, schedules, and estimated arrival times for select transit agencies. The app also facilitates vehicle tracking and passenger counting for transit operators, tagging data with GPS coordinates and time.

Highlights
  • Real-time bus locations
  • Schedules and ETAs
  • Vehicle tracking
  • Passenger counting
  • GPS data tagging
Features
Read full description

With Passio GO you have the ability to see real time bus locations, schedules, and ETA. This is available for select agencies and different agencies choose to show or not show the schedules, but you can always see where the buses are and on which routes. As an operator of a system that moves people (transit buses, shuttles, vans, etc.), you need to count them and track them. Passio applications quickly and seemlessly track your vehicles and easily count passengers tagging them with GPS coordinates and time/day as they enter and exit, including different passenger types or groups. N.B. You can run Passio GO without any registration, use for free. Please contact us at: sales@passiotech.com to setup a Passio Account to operate your own bus system.

Screenshots

PennTransit Mobile4 screens
Colby GO3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: PennTransit Mobile at 4.8 against Colby GO's 2.0. PennTransit Mobile also leads on review sentiment (25% vs 0%) and ratings volume (883 vs 4). On price, update cadence, 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PennTransit Mobile holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PennTransit Mobile has 883 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 25% of PennTransit Mobile's written reviews are positive against 0% of Colby GO's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PennTransit Mobile ships an update every 8 months, Colby GO every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
PennTransit Mobile versus Colby GO: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPennTransit MobileColby GO
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (883 ratings) — better2.0 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews25.0% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings883 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 8 monthsEvery 5 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size55 MB21 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperUniversity of PennsylvaniaPassIO Technologies

Customer experience

PennTransit Mobile

All ratings760 ratings
Positive93.9%
Neutral1.7%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive25.0%
Neutral25.0%
Negative50.0%

Colby GO

All ratings4 ratings
Positive25.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative75.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Bugs and requests

PennTransit Mobile

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • App not working properly
  • Frequent route changes causing longer trips

Requested features

3 requests
  • Add notifications when buses arrive
  • Provide more transparent bus schedules
  • Improve security by calling users who don't show up

Colby GO

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

PennTransit Mobile

No in-app purchases

None

Colby GO

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PennTransit Mobile free?
PennTransit Mobile is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Colby GO free?
Colby GO is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, PennTransit Mobile or Colby GO?
PennTransit Mobile is rated higher. PennTransit Mobile averages 4.8 out of 5 from 883 ratings, while Colby GO averages 2.0 from 4 ratings.
Do PennTransit Mobile or Colby GO have ads?
Neither PennTransit Mobile nor Colby GO shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PennTransit Mobile or Colby GO?
PennTransit Mobile ships an update every 8 months, and Colby GO every 5 months. Most recently, PennTransit Mobile was updated on October 24, 2026 and Colby GO on October 19, 2026.

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