Bluesky Social vs BirdingApp.
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bluesky Social
This social app focuses on better conversations and community building. Discover trending topics, explore curated feeds, and control your experience with powerful moderation tools. It offers a streamlined interface and a positive community environment.
- Community-built explore feeds
- Customizable content filters
- Starter Packs for quick setup
- Open, community-driven foundation
- Ad-free experience
- Powerful moderation tools
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Bluesky is the social app built for better conversations. Find your people, follow what you care about, and have fun online again — without ads or engagement traps. JOIN THE MOMENT See what people are talking about right now. From breaking news to big cultural moments, jump into conversations as they unfold and be part of what's happening. EXPLORE FEEDS Choose from thousands of community-built feeds covering news, art, pets, science, fandom, investing, culture, and everything in between. Stay updated with people you care about in your Following feed, or dive into new perspectives and trends in Discover. CONTROL YOUR SCROLL Use powerful moderation tools and content filters to shape exactly what you see. Hide what you don't want, follow what you do, and decide who can interact with you. JUMP RIGHT IN Starter Packs help you get going fast. Follow curated lists of interesting people with one tap and start building your community instantly. AVOID THE BILLIONAIRES The internet is too important to be controlled by a handful of powerful people. Bluesky is building an open, community-driven foundation for the social internet. With one account, you can use the Bluesky app and take your identity anywhere on the growing ecosystem of apps built on the same protocol.
BirdingApp.
Connect with fellow birdwatchers, organize your birding activities, and stay updated on sightings. Discover local guides, plan routes, and receive real-time alerts for rare birds. Engage in friendly competition and challenges.
- Create user profiles and connect with friends
- Location-based chat for local sightings
- Real-time rare bird alerts
- Plan birding routes and trips
- Bird quizzes and leaderboards
- Offline chat and location sharing
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BirdingApp is here to help you connect with other birders in the field and keep your birding life organized. Whether you're looking for a local guide, want to plan your daily birding routes and trips, or just want realtime updates on birds being seen, we've built tools to help you out! -Connect with Nearby Birders: Introduce yourself, link your eBird stats, and discover friends to follow and connect with. Also mark patches you're familiar with birding and regions you're interested in visiting. Our privacy settings allow control over who can see your details. -Convos and Chats: Enjoy familiar chat app functionality with a range of features, like support for location pins, photos and emoji reactions. We automatically detect and link eBird checklists and Macaulay Library references. Create your own private chat groups or engage with various public topics. -- Nearby Birder Chat: A geospatial chat room where messages are stored based on location and can be interacted with based on your proximity. Stay informed about recent birding conditions, sightings, and hotspot details, and connect with local birders wherever you are! No need to fret about how to join the local birding group and what app they might be using. -- Rare Bird and Hotspot Chats: Tapping on an RBA in your activity feed or directly from hotspots on maps will transport you to a view of the chat focused on a radius around that location. Find out if the bird is still being seen and discuss strategies for relocating it before making the trip! -- BirdChirp: We also include an off-grid chat and location sharing feature for those of you going into remote areas without cell coverage. Check our website for more info! -Robust Bird Alerts: Rarity notifications can be highly customized to your preferences. Never miss out on a nearby Slaty-backed Gull again! Post RBAs in BirdingApp to send out local or state-level rarities instantly and get feedback about who is chasing or seeing the bird. Set your interested radius, and optionally mute notifications for continuing birds or specific species. Through the Birding Arena section we also offer alerts for your target birds that may not be considered "rare". -Birding Arena: This is a place for friendly competition and solo challenges. Take on daily hotspot challenges and complete bird quizzes to earn points for spending on target bird alerts nearby or in other regions! Leaderboards keep track of rankings for daily birding in your region and total points earned on the app. -Hotspot Insights: From clear county lines to color-coded markers, our maps make it easy to find the best hotspot for your next stop. Photos and tips from birdinghotspots.org are integrated, and we've added both ratings and reviews so you can quickly check the quality or leave your assessment for others. -Routes, Itineraries, and Trips: Create and share birding routes, with the app displaying rarities from eBird near your chosen route! Utilize the itineraries feature to design routes and schedule multiple trips, while keeping track of all your planned adventures on a convenient calendar. Don't forget to invite your friends to join you! -Trip Chats: Once you book a birding trip, our app automatically adds you to a dedicated trip chat. This feature is perfect for discussing trip details, staying connected with fellow birders, and sharing corrections on your eBird lists afterward. -User Supported, Ad-free: We don't like ads either, so please consider supporting our mission and help cover the costs of the app by signing up for a quarterly or yearly subscription. Some extra perks include additional RBA preferences, viewing rarities anywhere on the map, getting notified about specific target birds and ABA-level rarities, more media uploads, and priority notifications. We are always working on new features, so let us know what you'd like to see! iOS Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: BirdingApp. at 83% against Bluesky Social's 33%. BirdingApp. also leads on rating (4.9 vs 3.9). Bluesky Social's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ratings volume (14K vs 35). 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. BirdingApp. sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per 3 months. Bluesky Social asks for nothing beyond the download.
BirdingApp. holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bluesky Social has 14K ratings behind it against 35, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Bluesky Social's written reviews are positive against 83% of BirdingApp.'s.
Bluesky Social ships an update every 8 days, BirdingApp. fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bluesky Social | BirdingApp. |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (14K ratings) | 4.9 (35 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 33.3% of reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 14K — better | 35 |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #78 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 112 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Bluesky PBLLC | Epter LLC |
Customer experience
Bluesky Social
BirdingApp.
Bugs and requests
Bluesky Social
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes when tapping the retweet button
- Feed not refreshing properly, showing outdated content
- Inconsistent behavior when rotating iPad device
- Inability to edit or delete posted content
Requested features
4 requests- Add support for direct messages, video uploads, and bookmarking
- Improve iPad app experience with full-screen support
- Enhance algorithm and content filtering capabilities
- Implement private account and block list privacy options
BirdingApp.
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Bluesky Social
No in-app purchases
BirdingApp.
- Supporter - 3 Months, renewing$6.993 Months
- Supporter - 1 Year, renewing$24.991 Year
- Supporter - 1 Year only$24.99









