VATER vs The Program by Bandit Running
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
VATER
Engage in a social movement to "VATE" and reclaim your "light." Earn Vates by completing challenges, creating events, and inspiring others to move. Climb leaderboards and discover new challenges on a dynamic map.
- Earn Vates through challenges
- Create events to "VATE" places
- Climb leaderboards
- Discover challenges on a map
- Daily Vate gifting
- Community movement focus
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Think RedBull meets Pokemon GO! Every single skater, baller, LARPer in a Huge Group Chat per Sport/Activity split by Borough, City, School, Squad, Skill Level. VATER is where humans build community to evolve their Game. There is a Leaderboard who is the Most VATED at every park, court, corner, gym, field, event. Do Challenges to Earn Vates, first to 1000 gets $1000 Keep each other accountable and challenge each other, submit challenges to VATER for Vates. It Gets the People Going...
The Program by Bandit Running
This app offers a free guided training experience for marathon and half marathon runners. It generates personalized training plans based on your race, goal time, and weekly mileage. Get instant answers to training questions with the integrated coach feature.
- Free guided training plans
- Marathon and half marathon focus
- Personalized plan generation
- Interactive training schedule
- Instant coach answers
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The Program is a 100% free guided training experience for marathons and half marathons powered by Bandit Running. Select your race, goal finish time, and weekly mileage, and an interactive training plan will be automatically generated for you. Plus, access Coach for instant answers to all your fundamental training questions.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: VATER at 4.6 against The Program by Bandit Running's 3.9. VATER also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 73%). The Program by Bandit Running's advantage is ratings volume (112 vs 9) and iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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.
VATER holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Program by Bandit Running has 112 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of VATER's written reviews are positive against 73% of The Program by Bandit Running's.
VATER ships an update every 3 weeks, The Program by Bandit Running every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | VATER | The Program by Bandit Running |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (9 ratings) — better | 3.9 (112 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 72.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 9 | 112 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 62 MB | 31 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | WUON LLC | Bandit Running |
Customer experience
VATER
The Program by Bandit Running
Bugs and requests
VATER
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
The Program by Bandit Running
Reported bugs
3 issues- Login screen freezes
- Incompatible with older devices
- Account creation problems
Requested features
2 requests- Dark mode option
- Advanced analytics dashboard
In-app purchases
VATER
No in-app purchases
The Program by Bandit Running
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is VATER free?
Is The Program by Bandit Running free?
Which has better reviews, VATER or The Program by Bandit Running?
Do VATER or The Program by Bandit Running have ads?
Which is updated more often, VATER or The Program by Bandit Running?
Other comparisons
