Bay Transit vs Cal
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bay Transit
Plan BART trips, view real-time train departures, and receive instant service alerts. This app provides multiple trip options with fare details and displays your route on an interactive map.
- Route planning with fare details
- Real-time train departure estimates
- Interactive route map
- Service disruption alerts
- Clipper, regular, and discount fare options
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Bay Transit — BART Companion Bay Transit is the smarter way to ride BART. Plan your trip, track real-time departures, and stay ahead of service alerts — all in one beautifully designed app. * Route Planning Enter your departure and arrival stations and instantly see your options. Bay Transit shows you multiple trip choices with travel times and fares — Clipper, regular, and discount rates included. Your route comes to life on an interactive map with color-coded BART lines, clearly marking every stop, transfer, and destination along the way. * Real-Time Departures See live estimated arrival times for every train at any BART station. Know exactly which platform to head to, how many cars the train has, and whether it's running on time. Trains that are arriving now show up front so you never miss your ride. * Service Alerts Active service disruptions appear the moment you open the app. When everything is running smoothly, you'll know that too.
Cal
Provides real-time train tracking and estimated arrival times for specific transit corridors. Access live train status and journey information for multiple commuter rail lines.
- Live train tracking
- Real-time status updates
- Estimated arrival times (ETA)
- Supports CCJPA, SJJPA, ACE, NCTD corridors
- Station information
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Tracks live trains and display their status and ETA information for stations within the CCJPA, SJJPA, ACE and NCTD corridors. Terms of Use: https://xt-calpids-production-legal.azurewebsites.net/terms.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Bay Transit at none against Cal's 1. Bay Transit also leads on ads (none vs shown). Cal's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 4 months) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On price, rating, ratings volume 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. Cal sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.99 per year. Bay Transit asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Bay Transit against 5.0 for Cal. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.
Bay Transit ships an update every 4 months, Cal every 10 days. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.
| Parameter | Bay Transit | Cal |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 45 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ho Won Kim | XenaTech Software Integration Services, LLC |
Customer experience
Bay Transit
Cal
In-app purchases
Bay Transit
No in-app purchases
Cal
- Cal-Ride Pro$4.991 Year
