Swim Guide vs Ottawa Collection Calendar
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Swim Guide
Access up-to-date water quality information for thousands of beaches, lakes, and rivers worldwide. Easily find swimmable locations with clear indicators of water safety and detailed beach information. Discover new spots, get directions, and share your favorites.
- Real-time water quality status
- Beach amenity and parking information
- Map-based beach discovery
- Searchable beach database
- Directions to beaches
- Bookmark favorite beaches
- Share beach information
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** As seen on USA Today, CBC, CBC Radio, Radio Canada, Huffington Post, LA Times, Water Canada, ABC News, Men's Journal, National Post, and Mashable. ** Swim Guide is a website and smartphone app for iPhone®. Swim Guide delivers free up-to-date water quality information for over 8,000 beaches, lakes, rivers, and swimming holes in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, the Bahamas, Australia and New Zealand. Swim Guide provides you with current recreational water quality information for your favourite beaches and swimming holes. Every beach is marked with a Green or Red icon so you know when the water at your favourite beach is clean for swimming and when the water quality is failed to recreational water quality criteria. As of 2019, Swim Guide is the most popular beach information service in the world, with over 4-million all time users. Finding a beach with clean, swimmable water for you and your family is easy with Swim Guide: - Find the cleanest closest beaches to you by browsing the map or by searching - Beach descriptions tell you about amenities, lifeguards, where to park, and everything else you need to know to enjoy a day at the beach. - Green icon tells you your beach passed water quality tests - Red icon tells you the water quality failed water quality test - Date/time stamp tells you when a water quality status was last updated in Swim Guide - Historical status tells you percentage of time that a beach passed water quality tests in the last year - Source information section tells you who samples the water at each beach and what recreational water quality guidelines apply - Discover a wide variety of beaches, ranging from city parks to remote lakes ideal for camping - Get directions to the beach of your choice - Bookmark your favourite beaches for easy access - Use the app to share beaches with your friends and family - Original descriptions of 8,000+ different beaches, so you can learn a bit of history and geography as you explore Get involved! Use the Swim Guide to report pollution, support your local water organizations, and learn about the issues facing your homewaters. Swim Guide is the only charity app of its kind, made by Swim Drink Fish Canada (formerly Lake Ontario Waterkeeper). Visit us online for more info: www.theswimguide.org
Ottawa Collection Calendar
Access your garbage and recycling schedules for the City of Ottawa. Receive timely collection notifications directly through the app to ensure you never miss a pickup.
- Garbage schedules
- Recycling schedules
- Collection reminders
- City of Ottawa specific
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Garbage and recycling schedules and reminders for the City of Ottawa, Ontario. View your garbage and recycling schedule and receive collection notifications all from within this app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Ottawa Collection Calendar at 4.9 against Swim Guide's 3.6. Ottawa Collection Calendar also leads on review sentiment (84% vs 62%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.4). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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.
Ottawa Collection Calendar holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 39 and 109 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 62% of Swim Guide's written reviews are positive against 84% of Ottawa Collection Calendar's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 months. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.
| Parameter | Swim Guide | Ottawa Collection Calendar |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (39 ratings) | 4.9 (109 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 62.0% of reviews | 83.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 39 | 109 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 64 MB | 81 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Swim Drink Fish Canada | City of Ottawa |
Customer experience
Swim Guide
Ottawa Collection Calendar
Bugs and requests
Swim Guide
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Ottawa Collection Calendar
Reported bugs
6 issues- App crashes when accessing details or Waste Explorer
- Blank screen loading after splash page
- Address not found errors
- App unresponsive to user interactions
- Crashes on iPhone when clicking bin information
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- App crashes 50% of the time
Requested features
5 requests- Location/address locator integration
- Consolidated city services in one app
- Improved front screen with bin details displayed directly
- Calendar synchronization option
- Better support for special waste disposal items
In-app purchases
Swim Guide
No in-app purchases
Ottawa Collection Calendar
No in-app purchases






