SpareRoom vs OnHand
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SpareRoom
Find your ideal room or flatmate with the UK's leading platform. Browse thousands of listings across the UK, connect with potential housemates, and secure your perfect living situation on the go.
- Room and roommate search
- Thousands of UK listings
- On-the-go access
- User support
- Connect with housemates
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As the UK’s number 1 flatshare site, we’ve helped over 13,000,000 people to find their perfect room or roommate. With our apps, you can do it all while on-the-go. Repeatedly featured by Apple as App Of The Day and in the categories of Your New Home, Apps for the Weekend, What’s Hot, and Popular Apps and Games. Rated by The Sunday Times as one of the top apps on the App Store. SUITABLE FOR EVERYONE Whether you’re starting university, relocating to the UK, tired of living alone, weighing up what to do with an empty room, or, quite simply, searching for another flatmate or flatshare, we’re the service for you. UNRIVALLED CHOICE With thousands of flatsharing opportunities to choose from in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and right across the UK, you’ll be able to find your perfect flatmate or flatshare. OUR PHILOSOPHY Experience has taught us that flatsharing is as much about the people as it is about the property. To help you find the best of both, we provide unparalleled tools, choice, and support. As a result, on average, every 3 minutes someone finds a flatmate through SpareRoom. HELP & SUPPORT Our award-winning customer support team are here to help you with your search. If you require support, come across a problem, or want to provide feedback, you can get in touch by email (support@spareroom.co.uk) or phone (1 877 834 2909).
OnHand
This app connects users with local causes and environmental initiatives to make a positive impact. It offers curated missions, climate-positive pledges, and tracks your contributions, allowing you to earn points and grow a virtual forest.
- Find local causes and missions
- Take climate-positive pledges
- Track volunteer hours and CO2e reduction
- Earn Hero Points and climb leaderboards
- Grow a virtual forest with completed missions
- Connect with your team for impact
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OnHand makes it easy for people to do more good in the world. We’re the social and environmental impact app for employees everywhere. We’re helping you learn and take action on the issues that really matter by connecting those in need with those who want to give. FIND LOCAL CAUSES CURATED FOR YOU Take part in local and remote missions around the topics of youth mentoring, food poverty, homelessness, elderly help, and loads more. Choose how you make a difference today! TAKE CLIMATE-POSITIVE PLEDGES Wash your clothes at 30°C, eat vegan for a week, go plastic-free… we’re giving you the tools to fight the climate emergency using our ever-growing list of sustainable lifestyle pledges. SHOUT ABOUT YOUR IMPACT Earn Hero Points for every good deed you do, climb a leaderboard, and show off to your friends! The OnHand app has automated volunteer and CO2e reduction tracking, with impact pages to shout about the good you’re doing. GROW YOUR OWN FOREST Every good deed you do helps to grow a forest. Not only do you get to make a real difference in your local community, we’ll plant a tree for every 10 missions you complete. It’s simple to get started: Download the app Verify your details Join your team to start completing missions! Make the impact you want with mini missions that suit you. Make a global impact, fight the climate crisis, and meet your responsible business goals. It really is that easy. Do good and feel great today.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: OnHand at 93% against SpareRoom's 49%. OnHand also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 13) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). SpareRoom's advantage is ratings volume (4.2K vs 3). 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. SpareRoom sells 9 one-off in-app purchases. OnHand asks for nothing beyond the download.
OnHand holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SpareRoom has 4.2K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 49% of SpareRoom's written reviews are positive against 93% of OnHand's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SpareRoom | OnHand |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (4.2K ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 48.7% of reviews | 93.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4.2K — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 60 MB | 95 MB |
| Age rating | +4 | 4+ |
| Developer | Flatshare Ltd | BEONHAND LIMITED |
Customer experience
SpareRoom
OnHand
User reviews
SpareRoom
From 4.2K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy to use
- 👍 Great for finding rooms/flatmates
- 💡 Useful features like filters
- 🌟 Positive overall experience
Room to improve
- 🐛 Bugs and glitches
- 💰 Expensive paid features
- 🤖 Fake/unresponsive listings
- 🚫 Discrimination in listings
OnHand
From 3 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use and intuitive navigation
- 🌱 Motivating tree-planting rewards system
- 💡 Flexible missions for all commitment levels
- 🎯 Gamification with leaderboards drives engagement
- 🤝 Fosters community and team bonding
Room to improve
- 🐛 App crashes during login
- 🐛 App crashes when clicking 'impact' feature
- 🔍 Poor search and filtering functionality
- 📝 Vague mission descriptions lacking detail
- 🧭 Navigation challenges finding specific actions
Bugs and requests
SpareRoom
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashes and sign-outs
- Inconsistent behavior between app and website
- Issues with updating and editing listings
Requested features
4 requests- Better messaging/communication tools
- More advanced search and filtering options
- Improved verification of listings and users
- Feedback/review system for landlords/tenants
OnHand
Reported bugs
5 issues- Login crashes and app shutdown
- Impact feature causes app crash
- Registration completion failures
- App crashes during startup
- Functionality issues in version 9.5.0
Requested features
8 requests- Improved search bar for missions
- Better filtering options for actions
- Enhanced mission descriptions with more detail
- Custom team league table functionality
- More consistent point system
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- Improved navigation for locating missions
- More mission availability in regional areas
- Optional photo uploads for sensitive missions
In-app purchases
SpareRoom
- Boost$9.99
- 7-Day Upgrade2 variants$12.99
- 1-Week Upgrade2 variants$15.00
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- Verification$15.00
- 30-Day Upgrade$15.49
- 14-Day Upgrade$23.99
- 2-Week Upgrade$25.00
- 30-Day Upgrade2 variants$25.99
- 4-Week Upgrade2 variants$30.00
OnHand
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is SpareRoom free?
Is OnHand free?
Which has better reviews, SpareRoom or OnHand?
Do SpareRoom or OnHand have ads?
Which is updated more often, SpareRoom or OnHand?
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