Comparison

WhereFam vs PearCircle

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

Head to head
About

WhereFam

This app offers continuous, real-time location sharing with trusted contacts using peer-to-peer technology. It prioritizes privacy by avoiding servers, accounts, and phone numbers, ensuring your location is only shared directly with chosen individuals.

Highlights
  • 24/7 Real-Time Location Sharing
  • True Peer-to-Peer Connectivity
  • Privacy-First Design
  • No Signups or Phone Numbers Required
  • Continuous Location Tracking
Read full description

WhereFam is a privacy-focused live location sharing app designed for real-time, continuous tracking between trusted contacts — without relying on servers, accounts, or phone numbers. Whether you're coordinating with friends, keeping family in the loop, or ensuring safety during travel, WhereFam makes it easy to share your live location securely and effortlessly. Built on peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, WhereFam offers a direct connection between devices, eliminating the need for centralized servers or data storage. Your information stays on your device and is shared only with the people you choose. Key Features: 24/7 Real-Time Location Sharing Share your live location continuously, without time limits or restrictions. True Peer-to-Peer Connectivity Direct device-to-device communication ensures faster, more secure sharing — no servers involved. Privacy-First Design No tracking, no cloud storage, and no third parties. Your location is only shared with trusted contacts. No Signups or Phone Numbers Required Just open the app and start sharing — no account creation or personal information needed. Terms : https://www.wherefam.com/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://www.wherefam.com/privacy.html

About

PearCircle

Read full description

Share live location and presence with the people you trust, your family, your friends, the people on your road trip. No accounts. No tracking. No subscriptions. Your circle's location data lives only on the devices you pair. PearCircle has no central server storing it, no analytics and no telemetry, and PeerLoom holds no key that could read a single thing about you or your circle. KEY FEATURES - Private circles: create a circle, invite people via a link or QR code, share live location directly with them - Multiple circles: one identity, many circles such as family, friends, or partners on a trip; switch between them or see everyone at once - Places and geofences: long-press the map to drop a Place; everyone in that circle gets a notification when someone arrives or leaves - Trips: your motion timeline records each drive or walk; opt in per-circle to let members see each other's trips on the map - Motion at a glance: pins surface walking, driving, flying, or stationary state, with battery and last-seen time - Sharing pause: one tap silences your location for the rest of the day; peers see "Sharing paused" instead of stale dots - Offline map tiles: tiles you've viewed stay cached so the map keeps working without a network connection; download an area in advance for trips into dead zones - No accounts: your identity is a cryptographic key pair generated on your device - No data collection: PeerLoom, Apple, and no third party ever sees your location data HOW IT WORKS PearCircle uses peer-to-peer technology powered by Hypercore Protocol. When devices in the same circle are online at the same time, they find each other using a distributed hash table, the same kind of technology that powers BitTorrent. Once connected, they sync directly, device to device, with no middleman. All sync traffic is encrypted in transit. Each location update, place change, and trip is cryptographically signed by the writing device, so circle members only apply updates they can verify came from a paired member. Place transitions such as "arrived at Home" or "left School" are computed locally on each device. When you cross a geofence, your device writes a signed transition that replicates to peers, and their devices fire the local notification. No service in the middle decides what you are told. PRIVACY - No accounts or sign-up required - No analytics, tracking, or telemetry - No third-party SDKs - All sync traffic is end-to-end encrypted - Location data stays on the devices in your circles, never uploaded to a service that can read it - Optional connection relay: when a network stops two phones connecting directly, PearCircle can fall back to a relay PeerLoom runs. It forwards encrypted data it has no key to read and stores nothing, though it can see that two devices are talking and how much data passes. Direct connections are always tried first, and one switch in Settings turns it off - Map tiles come from a public tile provider as stateless tile-coordinate requests; they don't identify you or your circle - Trip history is local-only by default; per-circle sharing is opt-in PERMISSIONS PearCircle asks for location permission on first launch and explains why each step is needed. "Always" lets the foreground worklet keep sharing while the app is in the background. "While Using the App" works only when PearCircle is foregrounded. If you previously declined, an in-app banner offers a direct link to your iOS Settings. LIMITATIONS - Both devices in a circle must be online at the same time to sync in real time. Changes made offline replicate the next time devices can reach each other. Open source. No vendor lock-in. Built by PeerLoom.

Screenshots

WhereFam4 screens
PearCircle4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PearCircle at none against WhereFam's 1. PearCircle also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs fortnightly) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. WhereFam sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.79 per month. PearCircle asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

WhereFam ships an update fortnightly, PearCircle every 5 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
WhereFam versus PearCircle: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWhereFamPearCircle
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.5 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size54 MB77 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNish PatelTimothy Hudgins

In-app purchases

1 purchases

WhereFam

Subscriptions1
  • Monthly$1.791 Month
None

PearCircle

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is WhereFam free?
WhereFam is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PearCircle free?
PearCircle is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do WhereFam or PearCircle have ads?
Neither WhereFam nor PearCircle shows ads.
Which is updated more often, WhereFam or PearCircle?
WhereFam ships an update fortnightly, and PearCircle every 5 days. Most recently, WhereFam was updated on October 24, 2026 and PearCircle on October 24, 2026.

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