McMaster vs Bring a Trailer Auctions
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
McMaster
Access a vast catalog of industrial and maintenance supplies from your mobile device. Browse and order over 800,000 products for your plant and facility needs.
- Extensive product catalog
- Order from mobile
- Plant and facility supplies
- Over 800,000 products
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McMaster-Carr is the complete source for everything in your plant. Order over 700,000 products from the palm of your hand. Terms and Conditions: https://www.mcmaster.com/#terms
Bring a Trailer Auctions
Discover, discuss, and buy classic and collector vehicles through transparent auctions. Engage with a knowledgeable community and receive real-time updates on your favorite listings. Bid with confidence thanks to community vetting and sniping protection.
- Browse and bid on vehicles
- Transparent auction listings
- Community vetting and discussion
- Custom alerts and notifications
- Sniping protection
- Watchlist functionality
- Explore results with charts
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Bring a Trailer Auctions are the best way to discover, discuss, and buy classic, collector, and enthusiast vehicles. We curate vehicles submitted by our users and craft transparent auction listings that present the vehicles as they are—without superlatives or dubious used-car-lot language. BaT’s knowledgeable community of more than 900,000 users and over 400,000 registered bidders help vet each listing so potential buyers can bid with confidence. The BaT app now makes it easy to browse and bid on vehicles anywhere, anytime–with streamlined vehicle submission functionality coming soon for sellers. DISCOVER AND BROWSE Find out what’s trending, see what’s ending soon, and watch the latest bids roll in on the Discover page. Know what you’re looking for? Search and filter in the Auctions tab to narrow down hundreds of listings. VARIETY OF VEHICLES BaT’s curation mirrors our eclectic taste: off-roaders are mixed with track cars, domestic makes with foreign brands, motorcycles with vintage RVs, parts with projects. We even auction re-creations, kit cars, boats, and automobilia! COMMENT THREADS We’re known for our knowledgeable and active community of enthusiasts. Easily tag other users in the app to keep the conversation going. TRANSPARENT BIDDING Place bids quickly and easily, with no surprise fees. The BaT buyer fee is 5% of the final bid price on top of the winning bid, with a minimum of $250 and a maximum of $7,500. Any additional dealer fees required by the seller will be clearly stated in the listing when applicable. SNIPING PROTECTION Each time a bid is placed at the end of an auction, the clock is extended by two minutes–giving everyone a fair chance to place their maximum bid. CUSTOM ALERTS AND NOTIFICATIONS Push notifications and the Activity Feed keep you up to date on your favorite topics, so you can stay on top of the action in real time. We can let you know when a seller adds more photos to a listing, when your favorite models go live, and when you’ve been outbid, among other things. Update settings for these events, as well as emails and sounds for bids and comments, in the More tab. NEW ENDING SOON EXPERIENCE Now you can keep an eye on multiple auctions simultaneously as they count down in the final minutes. In the new Ending Soon section, watch the comments and bids roll in for all auctions ending in the next 24 hours. EXPLORE RESULTS WITH INTERACTIVE CHARTS See the big picture or focus on what matters to you. Easily find results by adjusting the bid amount, timeframe, or vehicle year, or by making a selection right on a results chart. WATCHLIST The watchlist is home base for all of your favorite auctions, makes, models, categories, eras, and origins–just hit the bell or star to save items. We’ll even let you know when you’ve been outbid on a watched auction so you can quickly place another bid! SELLER TOOLS Quickly upload photos, reply to bidders, adjust your reserve, and see stats for your live listings. Submissions and more seller features are coming to the app soon!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Bring a Trailer Auctions at 4.8 against McMaster's 4.3. Bring a Trailer Auctions also leads on ratings volume (7.6K vs 220) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 5 weeks). McMaster's advantage is review sentiment (68% vs 35%) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Bring a Trailer Auctions holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bring a Trailer Auctions has 7.6K ratings behind it against 220, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 68% of McMaster's written reviews are positive against 35% of Bring a Trailer Auctions's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
McMaster ships an update every 5 weeks, Bring a Trailer Auctions fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | McMaster | Bring a Trailer Auctions |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (220 ratings) | 4.8 (7.6K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 68.5% of reviews — better | 35.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 220 | 7.6K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 76 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | McMaster-Carr Supply Company | Bring A Trailer |
Customer experience
McMaster
Bring a Trailer Auctions
User reviews
McMaster
From 220 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use and navigate
- 🚀 Fast search and filtering
- 💡 Excellent catalog and product descriptions
- ⭐ Great company and customer service
- 📦 Quick shipping and delivery
Room to improve
- 🐛 App is broken/only header loads
- 🐛 App freezes and becomes unresponsive
- 🐛 Navigation is confusing and awkward
- 🐛 App is not phone-friendly
- 🐛 Font size cannot be increased
Bring a Trailer Auctions
From 7.6K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great marketplace and app
- 👍 Excellent for car enthusiasts
- 💡 Continues to improve
Room to improve
- 🐛 Glitchy and buggy
- 🔍 Lacks important search filters
- 💻 Poor design and UX
Bugs and requests
McMaster
Reported bugs
25 issues- Payment method stays loading indefinitely
- Only header loads
- App is broken
- Navigation tools are in awkward locations and don't work half the time
- Screen shifts slightly
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- Occasionally freezes and doesn't respond to touch
- App is a little buggy
- Latest update won't load
- No estimate of shipping costs before completion of purchase
- App hijacks clicked URLs
- App will not open
- Shows 'No internet connection' when using the app
- Checkout screen has bugs
- Asks to enter ship to address even if shown
- Cannot enter credit card information
- Placing an order is a real pain
- Kept asking for the same things to be entered over and over
- Cart is terrible, no clear way to view items
- Shipping methods don't have predetermined options
- Forward parts request doesn't work
- Cannot save a copy on phone
- App doesn't show saved orders from website
- Missing order history and tracking
- Cannot print item page
- App doesn't show saved orders
Requested features
11 requests- Re-optimize app for phone use
- Add Apple Pay as a payment option
- Add a toolbar or ribbon for easier navigation
- Make navigation buttons at the top left like other apps
- Add a "is this page helpful?" link
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- Add links for CAD files like on the website
- Add general search functionality
- Add ability to print
- Add order history and tracking
- Add PDF drawing download
- Add access to saved orders
Bring a Trailer Auctions
Reported bugs
3 issues- Login issues
- Slow loading and freezing
- Notifications overload
Requested features
3 requests- Add filter by location/distance
- Improve bidding interface
- Optimize for iPad
In-app purchases
McMaster
No in-app purchases
Bring a Trailer Auctions
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is McMaster free?
Is Bring a Trailer Auctions free?
Which has better reviews, McMaster or Bring a Trailer Auctions?
Do McMaster or Bring a Trailer Auctions have ads?
Which is updated more often, McMaster or Bring a Trailer Auctions?
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