Christie's vs Bonhams
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Christie's
Access the world's leading art and luxury business. Browse and bid on extraordinary items across over 70 categories, including jewelry, handbags, and precious artifacts. Track your favorite items and manage your account.
- Browse auctions
- Explore works to buy
- Search upcoming and sold lots
- Follow favorite lots
- Bid in auctions
- View auction results
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The world’s leading art and luxury business at your fingertips. With the Christie’s app, you can browse and bid on extraordinary art and luxury objects in over 70 categories, including jewellery, handbags and precious artefacts. • BROWSE auctions of the finest art, collectibles and luxury brands • EXPLORE works to buy now • SEARCH upcoming and sold lots • FOLLOW your favourite lots from any auction • BID in our auctions • VIEW RESULTS from past auctions and monitor results of live auctions in real time • MANAGE your Christie’s online account and keep track of all of your purchases, bids and registered auctions Founded in 1766, Christie’s is a world-leading art and luxury business with a physical presence in 46 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific. Renowned and trusted for our expert live and online-only auctions, as well as bespoke Private Sales, Christie’s unparalleled network of specialists offers clients a full portfolio of global services.
Bonhams
Explore and bid on fine art, antiques, collectables, and motor cars from a global auction house. Discover valuations and sales advice across 60 specialist areas worldwide.
- Fine art auctions
- Antique auctions
- Collectables auctions
- Motor car auctions
- Valuation services
- Global sales network
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Bonhams Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers: auctioneers of art, pictures, collectables and motor cars. Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street and Knightsbridge; and a further three in the UK regions and Scotland. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Carmel, New York and Connecticut in the USA; and Germany, France, Monaco, Hong Kong and Australia. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 60 specialist areas.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Bonhams at 3.1 against Christie's's 2.6. Bonhams also leads on ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Christie's's advantage is review sentiment (36% vs 19%). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Bonhams holds the better App Store score, 3.1 against 2.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 57 and 150 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 36% of Christie's's written reviews are positive against 19% of Bonhams's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Christie's ships an update every 2 months, Bonhams monthly. Both last shipped on October 23, 2026.
| Parameter | Christie's | Bonhams |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.6 (57 ratings) | 3.1 (150 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 35.7% of reviews — better | 18.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 57 | 150 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 119 MB | 25 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Christie's Inc. | Bonhams 1793 Limited |
Customer experience
Christie's
Bonhams
User reviews
Christie's
From 57 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast and intuitive navigation
- 📷 High-quality images and detailed lot information
- 🔒 Secure login and account management
- 💡 Useful features like tracking lots and placing bids
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- ⏱️ Slow loading times and performance issues
- 🔍 Lack of advanced search and filtering options
- 📱 Poor iPad optimization and portrait-only layout
Bonhams
From 150 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great UI (mentioned once)
- 👍 Great images (older review)
- 👍 Easy to navigate (older review)
- 👍 Good entry to art world (older review)
Room to improve
- 🐛 App fails constantly
- 🐛 Does not connect with website
- 🐛 Requires constant re-login
- 🐛 Does not work with facial recognition
- 🐛 Lost connection frequently
Bugs and requests
Christie's
Reported bugs
4 issues- Login screen freezes or crashes
- Inability to view or manage tracked lots
- Incompatibility with newer iOS versions
- Unreliable connection and offline mode issues
Requested features
4 requests- Add search functionality for upcoming and past auctions
- Implement landscape mode support for iPads
- Improve stability and reduce crashes
- Introduce more customization options (e.g., dark mode)
Bonhams
Reported bugs
72 issues- App fails constantly
- Does not connect with website
- Requires constant re-login
- Does not work with facial recognition
- Lost connection frequently
Show 67 moreShow fewer
- Missed lots due to poor UX
- Hard to follow items
- Logged out everyday
- Not showing historical bids
- Constantly 'unable to connect'
- Photos not loading
- App keeps trying to load after update
- Error loading more auctions
- Spinning progress arrows annoying
- Laggy and unstable
- Impossible to follow lots
- Every lot shown from beginning of time
- Forces email account for condition report
- App doesn't update with upcoming auctions
- No customer service responses
- No invoice available on app
- Tedious scrolling for auctions
- No way to search auction location
- No filter for item category
- App is unusable
- Many functions unusable
- Get stuck in search screen
- Login difficult
- Requires re-creating account
- Cannot enter app with iOS 17.4.1
- Rubbish app
- Never get reply
- No longer select sales by location
- No Italian language option
- Bad customer support replies
- High user charge (28%)
- Telephone support on hold/hangs up
- No digital payment interface
- Icons too small
- Bidding not fit for purpose
- Fails to send bids
- Cannot save favorite artists
- No notification for favorite artists
- Malfunctioning watch sold
- App does not show current bid
- Not notified when outbid
- No filter to exclude US auctions
- Insensitive customer service for pickup
- No obvious way to sort auctions by location
- Location not shown upfront
- Cannot create account on iPhone (button hidden)
- App initializing for over a month
- Constantly crashing and unreliable
- Can't find specific auctions (NY, type)
- Outrageous buyer's premium (30%)
- Difficulty changing password/account issues
- Wrong descriptions and bottles shown
- Slide bar wouldn't work for bidding
- Always lag, lose for the lot
- Misrepresented lot with wrong registration mark
- Difficult to navigate
- Impossible to sign off
- Keeps asking to sign up for newsletter
- No one responds to email
- Password doesn't work / account doesn't exist
- Unorganized and poorly run business
- Terrible, temperamental, unreliable, confusing
- Not user friendly
- Browsing auctions almost impossible
- No search function
- Cannot access today's sale results
- Cannot get auction details
Requested features
17 requests- Most recent followed lots on top
- Embed condition report in app
- Search for auction location
- Filter by item category
- Sort auctions by location
Show 12 moreShow fewer
- Save favorite artists and get notifications
- Filter available auctions to exclude specific regions
- Italian language option
- Ability to sort auctions by location
- Display auction location upfront
- Functionality to register for auction via app
- Functionality to bid through the app
- Load online auctions onto the app
- Search function for artists
- Improved UI for viewing artworks (like Christie's)
- Dark mode option
- Advanced analytics dashboard
In-app purchases
Christie's
No in-app purchases
Bonhams
No in-app purchases
