Comparison

soal vs MapChat Social

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

Head to head
About

soal

Discover art daily with curated walks and personalized recommendations. This app offers a calm, guided experience to connect with creativity, making art accessible and inspiring for everyone.

Highlights
  • Daily curated art walks
  • Personalized recommendations
  • Emerging and established artists
  • Thoughtful context provided
  • Calm, guided experience
  • Art discovery ritual
Features
Read full description

Welcome to your personal art portal. Forget the stuffiness and the long-winded lectures. soal makes discovering art fun again. No experience required, no pressure, just a few minutes a day for you to connect with creativity. We curate daily art walks that introduce you to emerging artists and classics alike, with context that makes it all click. Think of it as your personal guide to the art world, minus the intimidation factor. What you'll get: - Daily curated art walks designed for reflection and inspiration - Personalized recommendations based on what moves you - Emerging artists and established names, all with thoughtful context - A calm, guided experience (not endless scrolling) - A ritual that actually fits into your day Why it works: Art can ground you, shift your perspective, spark something new, and make you feel inspired — especially when it's presented in a way that invites you in. soal makes art discovery accessible, personal, and refreshingly welcoming. Whether you're art-curious or already a regular at galleries, we meet you where you are.

About

MapChat Social

Discover local nightlife and connect with people in real life. Find venues, see who's there, and join coordinated meetups to make new friends and experience your city.

Highlights
  • Map of bars, venues, and events
  • Filter by venue features (happy hour, music, patio)
  • See who is currently at venues
  • In-app chat for making plans
  • Organized meetups and bar crawls
  • Connect with new people in your city
Features
Read full description

Your city is full of people you'd love. You just haven't met them yet. MapChat shows you where they are tonight. Open the map, see which spots near you are busy right now, check in, and wave at someone. If they wave back, a chat opens. Then you go say hi in person. No endless feed. No swiping. Just a reason to go out and people to go out with. HOW IT WORKS See who's out tonight. A live map of the places near you, with live headcounts so you know who's there before you commit. Check in when you want to be seen. You show up at a venue only when you choose to check in, and you can hide anytime. Wave to break the ice. A wave is a low-pressure hello. Chats open only when it's mutual, so nobody gets cold-messaged. Play games with the room. 14 games you play with the people around you, including Who Wants to Be a Butterfly, Imprompto, Emoji Off, Pair Play, trivia, poker and spades. A new live game every day. Make plans. Bar crawls, trivia nights, themed nights, spontaneous meetups. Join one or start your own and pack the bar. FIND YOUR SPOT A curated catalog of bars, lounges, restaurants, cafes and third places, filterable by happy hour, live music, karaoke, trivia, dog-friendly patios, dance floors and more. No fake reviews, no star ratings, no pay-to-play rankings. Just what each place is actually like, checked by real people. BUILT FOR PEOPLE WHO MOVED HERE New to LA, DC, Boston or New York? Finished college and discovered that making friends as an adult is weirdly hard? MapChat is for people who want their city to feel like theirs. PRIVACY FIRST Your exact location is never shown to strangers. You appear only at venues you check in to, only while you want to. Block or hide anyone at any time. We use your location to help you find things, not to track you or sell your data. NOW LIVE IN Los Angeles, Washington DC, Boston and New York City, with more cities on the way. Request yours in the app. WHY WE BUILT THIS Loneliness is the defining problem of our generation, and the apps built to connect us mostly made it worse. Every other app wants more of your attention. We want less of it. MapChat wins when you close the app because you're busy being with people. Free. Come out and play.

Screenshots

soal4 screens
MapChat Social4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: MapChat Social at fortnightly against soal's every 6 weeks. MapChat Social also leads on monetization model (free vs ad-supported) and device support (3 vs 1). soal's advantage is ratings volume (23 vs 5). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for soal against 5.0 for MapChat Social. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 23 and 5 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

soal ships an update every 6 weeks, MapChat Social fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
soal versus MapChat Social: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametersoalMapChat Social
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (23 ratings)5.0 (5 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings23 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supportedFree — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.515.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size29 MB89 MB
Age rating4+17+
DevelopersoalBenjamin Boehlke

Customer experience

soal

All ratings23 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews19 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

MapChat Social

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

soal

No in-app purchases

None

MapChat Social

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is soal free?
soal is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MapChat Social free?
MapChat Social is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, soal or MapChat Social?
soal and MapChat Social are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 23 and 5 ratings respectively.
Do soal or MapChat Social have ads?
Neither soal nor MapChat Social shows ads.
Which is updated more often, soal or MapChat Social?
soal ships an update every 6 weeks, and MapChat Social fortnightly. Most recently, soal was updated on October 23, 2026 and MapChat Social on October 25, 2026.

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