Comparison

crcle vs Sync

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

Head to head
About

crcle

Connect with verified individuals in a secure and private social environment. This platform prioritizes genuine interactions without advertisements or data tracking. Enjoy a focused social experience with real people.

Highlights
  • Connect with verified people
  • Private and safe interactions
  • Ad-free experience
  • No user tracking
  • Focused social networking
Features
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Secure. Private. Verified Social

About

Sync

Features
Read full description

Sync is for people who would rather have one good conversation tonight than a week of typing that goes nowhere. Most social apps are built to keep you scrolling. Sync is built to get you off your phone and talking to someone who is actually in the room with you. There is no feed to scroll. There is no messaging in Sync. If you want to talk to someone, you go and talk to them. HOW IT WORKS 1. Find somewhere to go. Sync opens on what is on near you: venues, events and nights out you can actually turn up to. Browse the map, or scan today, this week and the weekend. 2. Check in when you get there. Checking in is the thing that makes you visible, and it puts you in front of the people checked in at the same place. 3. See who is in the room. Not a browsable list of the whole city. Not people who might show up later. The people who are here, now. 4. Wave. If someone looks worth talking to, you wave at them. It is a low-pressure "come say hi", not a message. 5. Go say hi. If they wave back, that is your green light. Sync tells you both, then gets out of the way. The conversation happens in person, or it does not happen at all. IF YOU NEED AN OPENER Profiles in the room carry a couple of icebreakers, pulled from something you and the other person actually have in common. And if the two of you share a friend, Sync will say so and let you guess who: an interest, then a first letter, then the name. Some events let the organiser open a short window beforehand, so people going that night can look through who else is going and match ahead of doors. That window is the one exception. Everywhere else it is the room you are standing in, or nothing. AFTER THE NIGHT Sync asks one question afterwards: did you have a good time, and did you meet anyone new. Answering it opens that night's people in Connections. From there you send a Sync request to anyone worth keeping, and swap whichever socials you choose to share. Anyone you do not convert quietly ages out. Sync does not keep a permanent roster of everyone you once stood near. WHAT SYNC DOES NOT DO No messaging. No feed. No browsing people who are not in the room with you. Those are not features we have not got round to. Each one is a place a normal app would try to hold on to you, and Sync would rather hand you back to the room. NOTHING TO BUY Sync is free to download and there is nothing to buy inside it. No subscription, no boosts, no paying to be seen. Where an event sells tickets, the organiser sells them; it is never an in-app purchase. YOUR CONTROLS You decide when you check in, and checking in is what puts you in a room. You can block or report anyone from their profile. You can export your data or delete your account from inside the app. Go somewhere. Check in. See who else showed up. Go say hi.

Screenshots

crcle4 screens
Sync4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Sync at none against crcle's shown. crcle's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.2). On price, update cadence, 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

crcle ships an update every 10 days, Sync weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
crcle versus Sync: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametercrcleSync
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews93.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysWeekly — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.2
Further details — not scored
Size82 MB36 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperCrcle LtdTom McGrath

In-app purchases

None

crcle

No in-app purchases

None

Sync

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is crcle free?
crcle is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sync free?
Sync is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do crcle or Sync have ads?
crcle shows ads; Sync does not.
Which is updated more often, crcle or Sync?
crcle ships an update every 10 days, and Sync weekly. Most recently, crcle was updated on October 9, 2026 and Sync on October 14, 2026.

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