Comparison

BirdingApp. vs Forum, a Facebook app

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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/

About

Forum, a Facebook app

This app offers a dedicated space for engaging in deeper discussions within your Facebook groups. It focuses on shared interests and real conversations, allowing you to ask questions and get answers from people with relevant experience. Group admins also receive AI assistance for moderation.

Highlights
  • Dedicated group discussion space
  • Sign in with Facebook account
  • Post with a nickname option
  • Group feed based on conversations
  • Ask and get answers from real people
  • AI assistant for group admins
  • Connect around shared interests
Read full description

Facebook is great for keeping up with friends, watching videos, and staying connected. Forum is where you go deeper in groups. It's a space designed for real discussions, shared interests, and the people who’ve been there. Dedicated space for your groups Sign in with your Facebook account and your groups, profile and activity carry over. You have the option to post with a nickname. Your groups still exist on Facebook and anything you share on Forum will be visible in your groups on Facebook. This is just a space built around them. Stay in the loop on conversations you care about Your feed is built around conversations from groups. See what real people are saying, not just what’s trending, and easily jump back in where you left off. Ask and get answers from real people Looking for opinions, advice or recommendations? Ask pulls together responses from across groups, so you can get answers right away from people who've been there and join the conversation. Built for the people who run groups Admins still have access to all their tools on Facebook, and now they also have an admin AI assistant on Forum to help manage their groups, moderate content, and keep their communities healthy — all while maintaining control. Dive into topics that interest you Forum brings people together around the things they care about, from niche hobbies to local recommendations to support groups. Share your take, join the conversation and connect with your communities. Some features may not be available in your country or region.

Screenshots

BirdingApp.4 screens
Forum, a Facebook app4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Forum, a Facebook app at none against BirdingApp.'s 3. Forum, a Facebook app also leads on ratings volume (11K vs 35) and update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). BirdingApp.'s advantage is ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (83% vs 53%). On price and rating 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. BirdingApp. sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per 3 months. Forum, a Facebook app asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

BirdingApp. holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Forum, a Facebook app has 11K ratings behind it against 35, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of BirdingApp.'s written reviews are positive against 53% of Forum, a Facebook app's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

BirdingApp. ships an update fortnightly, Forum, a Facebook app weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
BirdingApp. versus Forum, a Facebook app: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBirdingApp.Forum, a Facebook app
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (35 ratings) — better4.7 (11K ratings)
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews — better53.4% of reviews
Number of ratings3511K — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyWeekly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesAd-supported — better
Best chart rank—#13 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB115 MB
Age rating17+12+
DeveloperEpter LLCMeta Platforms, Inc.

Customer experience

BirdingApp.

All ratings35 ratings
Positive97.1%
Neutral2.9%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral16.7%
Negative0.0%

Forum, a Facebook app

All ratings9,727 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral3.0%
Negative3.7%
Written reviews189 reviews
Positive53.4%
Neutral7.9%
Negative38.6%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

BirdingApp.

Subscriptions2
  • Supporter - 3 Months, renewing$6.993 Months
  • Supporter - 1 Year, renewing$24.991 Year
One-time1
  • Supporter - 1 Year only$24.99
None

Forum, a Facebook app

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is BirdingApp. free?
BirdingApp. is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Forum, a Facebook app free?
Forum, a Facebook app is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, BirdingApp. or Forum, a Facebook app?
BirdingApp. is rated higher. BirdingApp. averages 4.9 out of 5 from 35 ratings, while Forum, a Facebook app averages 4.7 from 11K ratings.
Do BirdingApp. or Forum, a Facebook app have ads?
Forum, a Facebook app shows ads; BirdingApp. does not.
Which is updated more often, BirdingApp. or Forum, a Facebook app?
BirdingApp. ships an update fortnightly, and Forum, a Facebook app weekly. Most recently, BirdingApp. was updated on October 24, 2026 and Forum, a Facebook app on November 3, 2026.

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