Comparison

BC Ferries vs PicnicStopMap

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

Head to head
About

BC Ferries

Plan and book personal ferry travel with ease. Manage your trips, check schedules, and view current conditions instantly. Receive timely alerts for service notices and booking reminders.

Highlights
  • Personalized dashboard
  • Set travel preferences
  • Book and manage trips
  • Express booking
  • Seamless check-in
  • View schedules and conditions
  • Push notifications for alerts
Features
Read full description

Introducing a new travel resource for planning and booking personal ferry travel. Book sailings, manage your trips, and check schedules and current conditions in a flash with the BC Ferries app. HOMEPAGE DASHBOARD Your personalized home screen features an at-a-glance view of your upcoming bookings, travel preferences, deals and offers and more. TRAVEL PREFERENCES Get quick access to schedules, current conditions and a faster booking experience on your frequently travelled routes by setting up travel preferences. Give your travel preferences nicknames, set departure and arrival terminals and add passenger and vehicle details on bookable routes. BOOK AND MANAGE YOUR FERRY TRAVEL Make your booking experience easier with personalized travel preferences. Quickly jump to the next available sailing with the new Express book feature, and change or cancel existing bookings on-the-go. SEAMLESS CHECK-IN AT THE TERMINAL Get quick access to your upcoming trips right from your home screen for seamless check-in with the app at the terminal. SCHEDULES Plan your trip with confidence with enhanced features on daily and seasonal schedules for all BC Ferries routes. Easily check sailing times for your favourite routes with travel preferences, and book directly from the schedules pages for bookable routes. Daily schedules now show the next sailing being ticketed and estimated deck space available. CURRENT CONDITIONS Route sailing status and estimated deck space are now easier to check with the updated Current Conditions layout. Travel preferences make it easier to find your frequently traveled routes, check which sailing is being ticketed, and view status of upcoming sailings. ALERTS Never miss any updates on the routes that matter the most to you. Opt-in to receive timely push notifications for service notices and upcoming booking reminders on your device. ADDITIONAL FEATURES AVAILABLE • Foot passenger bookings • Request accessibility products: boarding assistance, wheelchair at the terminal Note: Tablet landscape view is currently not supported in the app. If you are using a tablet, use the app in portrait view only. VISIT BCFERRIES.COM TO ACCESS THE FOLLOWING FEATURES • Booking BC Ferries Vacations packages • Commercial vehicle bookings • Group bookings of 10 or more passengers • To create an account

About

PicnicStopMap

Features
Read full description

Planning a road trip across Canada? PicnicStopMap finds every picnic stop, rest area, and public washroom along your route — before you leave the driveway. Enter your start and end city, and the app instantly calculates your route and shows thousands of stops along the way: highway rest areas, provincial and national parks, conservation areas, town parks, and public washrooms. Canada only. All data stored on your device — no subscription, no account needed. **PLAN YOUR ROUTE** • Enter any two Canadian cities as origin and destination • Add up to 4 via stops to route through specific cities or take the scenic road • Swap origin and destination in one tap for the return trip • The app finds up to 3 alternate routes and ranks them by how many stops they pass **FIND THE RIGHT STOPS** • Filter by type: Picnic only, Picnic with confirmed washrooms, or Toilet stops • Filter by confirmed amenities: BBQ grills, shelter, playground, drinking water, pets allowed, RV accessible • Adjust the corridor width (how far off the road to look) from 500 m to 50 km • Stop details show fee, hours, seasonal status, website, and notes **SEND TO APPLE MAPS** • Double-tap stops on the map to add them to your trip • Tap Open in Apple Maps to get turn-by-turn directions through all your chosen stops in route order • Share your planned stops as a text list with an Apple Maps link — AirDrop it to your travel companions **EXPLORE & NEAR ME** • Explore mode: browse any part of Canada and search stops by name or place • Near Me: see what's within 1–100 km of your current location with one tap • Nearest washroom chip always shows the closest toilet stop and distance **SAVE YOUR ROUTES** • Bookmark favourite routes and reload them any time • Your last 15 routes are saved automatically • Share saved routes with a formatted stop list and Apple Maps link **THE DATA** • Thousands of stops across every Canadian province and territory • Data sourced from OpenStreetMap, Ontario Parks open data, and provincial MTO datasets • Entirely offline — no internet needed to browse or filter stops (map tiles and routing require a connection) Canada only. Built for the open road.

Screenshots

BC Ferries4 screens
PicnicStopMap4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: BC Ferries at Free against PicnicStopMap's $1.99. BC Ferries also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On 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

BC Ferries is free to download; PicnicStopMap costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
BC Ferries versus PicnicStopMap: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBC FerriesPicnicStopMap
PriceFree — better$1.99
Rating2.2 (18 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews7.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings18 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size34 MB61 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBC Ferry Services Inc.Arctic Surf Designs

Bugs and requests

BC Ferries

Reported bugs

17 issues
  • Update loop requesting repeated updates despite being current
  • App crashes on launch, especially on iOS 26
  • Login screen freezes and authentication errors
  • Booking confirmation not displaying in 'My Bookings' section
  • Reverse direction button activates on accidental touch
Show 12 more
  • Payment page spinning indefinitely then failing
  • Session expiration and random logouts
  • Bookings showing as cancelled when they're active
  • App won't accept correct credentials despite website login working
  • Navigation buttons at bottom not functioning
  • Schedule direction inverted for certain routes
  • Current Conditions showing inaccurate space availability
  • Booking edit functionality not accepting changes
  • Account lockout with no recovery option
  • Foreign email addresses not receiving verification codes
  • Oversized vehicle selection cutting off edit buttons
  • Password authentication error during booking despite being logged in

Requested features

14 requests
  • Calendar integration for bookings
  • Dark mode option
  • iPad landscape mode support
  • Service notifications within app without email duplicates
  • Ability to view bookings beyond 45 days
Show 9 more
  • BC Experience Card reload functionality
  • Native iOS app design instead of web wrapper
  • Password manager support
  • Account creation option from app login screen
  • Booking reference number recognition for pre-made reservations
  • Ferry delay/lateness visibility
  • Grace period for accidental bookings without fees
  • Accessibility improvements for VoiceOver/screen readers
  • Better error messaging for failed transactions

PicnicStopMap

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

BC Ferries

No in-app purchases

None

PicnicStopMap

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is BC Ferries free?
BC Ferries is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PicnicStopMap free?
PicnicStopMap costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do BC Ferries or PicnicStopMap have ads?
Neither BC Ferries nor PicnicStopMap shows ads.

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