Heathrow Express vs Step
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Heathrow Express
Plan and book your journey quickly and easily with live train times and instant ticket access. Manage your account details, payment options, and preferences for a personalized travel experience.
- Personalized travel information
- Quick ticket booking
- Live train times
- Mobile ticket wallet integration
- Account management
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The new improved Heathrow Express app has some great features and benefits to help make planning and booking your trip quick and easy. Personalized experience – Create an account and login to activate all the features of the app. Including presenting your travel day information with your tickets along with live train times on your home screen. Quick booking – Need a ticket in a hurry? Book a ticket in seconds. Once you are logged in you will have the option to activate this new feature, allowing you to book at ticket on the day of travel in just a few clicks. Live train times – In addition to the scheduled times and service information, you will now be able to see live train times on the day you travel, making your trip planning even easier. Accessing tickets – Your tickets can easily be accessed and managed in one place on the app, allowing you to view upcoming tickets for travel and manage past tickets. Plus, you can still add your Heathrow Express tickets to your mobile wallet. Manage your account – With all your details in one place, including payment options, personal details, language and currency settings it’s easy to create and manage your experience how you want it.
Step
Discover and share your favorite places globally. Create a personalized world map with recommendations from friends and trusted curators. Easily find new experiences based on categories like food, culture, and accommodation.
- Save and share favorite places
- Personalized world map creation
- Add photos and comments to places
- Follow friends and curators
- Filter map by categories
- Community feed for updates
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Save every place you find on TikTok, Instagram and Google Maps to one map you'll actually use. You screenshot the restaurant. You save the Reels. You paste the address into your notes. Then the trip comes around and it's all gone. Step fixes that. Share a post to Step and the places land on your map, tagged and sorted by city, waiting for you when you get there. IMPORT FROM ANYWHERE TikTok. Instagram posts and Reels. Google Maps links. Screenshots. Even the running list in your Notes app. Send it to Step and we pull the place, the address and the details. No copy-pasting, nothing lost. BUILT AROUND CITIES Your saves organise themselves by city automatically. Land in Lisbon, open Step, see every place you've been collecting for months. RECOMMENDATIONS FROM PEOPLE, NOT ALGORITHMS Follow friends and Step's Culture Curators, a network of writers, chefs, designers and travellers who publish guides to the cities they know best. Build a personally curated map of the world, populated by the people you love, respect, and admire. MADE TO BE LOOKED AT Step is designed like a magazine, not a directory. Clean typography, real editorial, none of the review-farm noise. WHAT PEOPLE USE STEP FOR - Collecting places from social media before a trip - Rescuing a years-old list of recommendations out of Notes - Keeping a running map of their own city - Sharing a list of recommendations with a friend in one link - Following creators they trust instead of trawling review sites Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Heathrow Express at none against Step's 4. Heathrow Express also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.4) and ratings volume (7.2K vs 232). Step's advantage is review sentiment (52% vs 30%) and chart position (#153 vs unranked). On price, update cadence, ads 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. Step sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Heathrow Express asks for nothing beyond the download.
Heathrow Express holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Heathrow Express has 7.2K ratings behind it against 232, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 30% of Heathrow Express's written reviews are positive against 52% of Step's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Heathrow Express ships an update every 3 weeks, Step every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Heathrow Express | Step |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (7.2K ratings) — better | 4.4 (232 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 30.3% of reviews | 52.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7.2K — better | 232 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #153 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 63 MB | 91 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Heathrow Express | Step Digital Holdings Limited |
Customer experience
Heathrow Express
Step
User reviews
Heathrow Express
From 7.2K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast & efficient
- 👍 Easy to use
- 💡 Convenient for booking tickets
- 🚀 Saves time
- 👍 Intuitive interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 App crashes frequently
- 🐛 Buggy and unreliable
- 🐛 Tickets not showing up in app
- 🐛 Payment issues
- 🐛 Login/account problems
Step
From 232 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💯 Amazing updates
- 🌍 Best travel companion
- 🍴 Great for finding hidden gems
- 👍 Brilliant app, recommend to everyone
- 🗺️ Fantastic for discovering new places
Room to improve
- 🔒 Subscription issues - can't cancel
- 🐛 Buggy, slow, and glitchy
- 🤔 Guides are guideless, lacking context
- 🤔 Can't see own steps
- 🤔 Privacy policy is extremely intrusive
Bugs and requests
Heathrow Express
Reported bugs
5 issues- App crashing on ticket viewing
- Incorrect ticket dates/directions
- Payment processing failures
- Account creation issues
- Ticket information not syncing properly
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to add/manage tickets in app
- Improved ticket downloading/syncing
- More payment options
- Better account management features
- Live service updates and notifications
Step
Reported bugs
4 issues- Locations not registering in certain cities
- Frequent errors, content not loading
- Profile and login issues
- Subscription charges not visible, hard to cancel
Requested features
4 requests- Allow users to add their own places
- Ability to separate places visited vs want to go
- Option to create custom categories
- Search by city to find local users
In-app purchases
Heathrow Express
No in-app purchases
Step
- Step Premium Monthly7 Days trial$5.991 Month
- Step Premium Monthly$5.991 Month
- Step Premium Annual7 Days trial$49.991 Year
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- Step Premium Annual$49.991 Year
Questions
Is Heathrow Express free?
Is Step free?
Which has better reviews, Heathrow Express or Step?
Do Heathrow Express or Step have ads?
Which is updated more often, Heathrow Express or Step?
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