Comparison

Handbid vs Smarthunts

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

Head to head
About

Handbid

This app allows users to participate in silent auctions from their mobile devices. Bid on items, manage your bids, purchase items, and complete checkout and payment seamlessly. It's designed to enhance the silent auction experience for bidders and event organizers.

Highlights
  • Mobile bidding on auction items
  • Manage bids and proxy bids
  • Purchase items directly
  • Integrated payment processing
  • Digital receipts
  • iPad kiosk app for non-smartphone users
Features
Read full description

Mobile iOS Client for the Handbid® Silent Auction service. This client allows bidders who are invited to Handbid® powered silent auctions to bid on items from their mobile device, manage bids and proxy bids, purchase items, checkout, issue payment, and get a receipt. Handbid has powered hundreds of events and delighted thousands of bidders in the process. With native apps for iPhone well as a kiosk app available for the iPad for non-smartphone users, there is not a better experience and solution for running your silent auction or fundraising event. Here are 3 great reasons to use Handbid for your next event: 1. Our mobile app experience is second to none. Your bidders will love it! And yes, they WILL download an app on their phone! 2. Handbid is built for AUCTION HOSTS by AUCTION HOSTS. Handbid has been powering silent auctions since 2011 and we have been running auctions ourselves much longer than that. We know how hard it is and we have built this system to make it EASY for you, your volunteers, and your guests. 3. Our commitment to service is as great as our software. We get as many (if not more) compliments on our customer service as we do on our software. You can be assured we will do everything we can to make your experience as smooth and easy as possible. Common questions about Handbid: - Can people pay though Handbid Yes! We have integrated payments in the app so that at the end of the night, your guests can view and pay their invoice without having to stand in line. Our system supports all major credit cards as well as Apple Pay! Can you accept payments outside of Handbid? Sure (cash, check or your own CC system) - Do you provide on-site support? Yes we can do that. We have built Handbid to be easy enough to use where you can train and do it yourself, but we certainly do offer onsite experts who can do it all for you or even just provide extra "tech support" the day of your event. - How much does it cost? We offer a number of fixed price packages that are based on the size and number of events you run. Please contact us or visit our website to view all of our pricing. - It looks cool, but is it worth the investment? Absolutely. Sure, you expected to hear us say that. But remember, we run auctions for our own organizations. We know you are on a tight budget and you want to maximize dollars for your program services. Handbid more than pays for itself. Most of our clients see anywhere from a 30% to 50% increase over what they did before on paper. Some even higher. Put it this way, this is one investment that will generate more revenue at your event. You can't say the same for your caterer, venue or even the band. What are you waiting for? Download the app already? Sign up! It's free to check out. Just go into our demo auction and start to bid around. Trust us, we won't make you pay for what you bid on there! Check out our iPad kiosk app, also in the iTunes App Store. Play with both of them! Have fun, play around, then give us a call and lets get started! Your bidders are waiting for an awesome auction experience. Don't deny them what they deserve! With love - The Handbid Team

About

Smarthunts

Engage in high-tech group touring hunts using iPads or iPhones to explore points of interest and landmarks. This platform offers fun photo and video challenges, augmented reality, and video conferencing for competitive team-building activities.

Highlights
  • High-tech group touring hunts
  • Photo & video challenges
  • Augmented reality features
  • Competitive team building
  • Scavenger hunt activities
  • Facilitator monitoring tools
Features
Read full description

SmartHunts® are fun, high-tech, corporate group touring hunts where teams, armed with iPads® or iPhones®, explore your destinations points-of-interest, historic landmarks and cultural venues in a competitive team building activity. The SmartHunts® platform utilizes fun photo & video challenges, augmented reality, ZOOM® video conferencing and Google® Maps to produce the best scavenger hunts ever! Teams use the SmartHunts® App to complete the various challenges of finding locations, solving clues, answering trivia, searching for items, performing stunts, and photographing/recording video of activities during the event. Your event host has access to facilitator features which help monitor all team-submitted content to ensure accurate scoring during the event. Event hosts may monitor team progression including scoreboard, photo and video submissions, track of locations of teams, as well as produce a slideshow with music from the your groups photo and video submission during game play. The SmartHunts App provides your group with a full suite of tools designed to deliver a fun and engaging scavenger hunt for teams of all sizes.

Screenshots

Handbid4 screens
Smarthunts4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Smarthunts at free against Handbid's free with in-app purchases. Smarthunts also leads on update cadence (weekly vs monthly) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). Handbid's advantage is ratings volume (27K vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

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

Smarthunts holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Handbid has 27K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Handbid ships an update monthly, Smarthunts weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and June 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Handbid versus Smarthunts: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHandbidSmarthunts
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (27K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings27K — better1
Update frequencyMonthlyWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size126 MB119 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperHandbidSmart Hunts, LLC

Customer experience

Handbid

All ratings27,086 ratings
Positive97.4%
Neutral2.0%
Negative0.6%
Written reviews85 reviews
Positive70.6%
Neutral12.9%
Negative16.5%

Smarthunts

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Handbid

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Losing bids after auction closes
  • Inability to clear badge notifications after auction ends
  • Inconsistent login/registration experience across devices
  • Compatibility issues with older devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to favorite/save items for later
  • Clearer display of auction end times
  • More user-friendly error messaging during sign-up/login
  • Option to disable Dynamic Island time display on new iPhones

Smarthunts

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Handbid

No in-app purchases

None

Smarthunts

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Handbid free?
Handbid is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Smarthunts free?
Smarthunts is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Handbid or Smarthunts?
Smarthunts is rated higher. Handbid averages 4.8 out of 5 from 27K ratings, while Smarthunts averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Handbid or Smarthunts have ads?
Neither Handbid nor Smarthunts shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Handbid or Smarthunts?
Handbid ships an update monthly, and Smarthunts weekly. Most recently, Handbid was updated on September 24, 2026 and Smarthunts on June 5, 2026.

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