Comparison

PacketMessage vs bushwhackr

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

Head to head
About

PacketMessage

This app enables licensed amateur radio operators to send reliable messages directly over RF using their radio and a compatible TNC interface. It leverages advanced error correction protocols for robust communication in a decentralized network.

Highlights
  • FX.25 forward error correction
  • AX.25 bit-flip error correction
  • Software TNC or KISS TNC interface support
  • Direct RF message transmission
  • Decentralized communication
Read full description

PacketMessage fully supports FX.25 forward error correction and AX.25 bit-flip error correction. Send reliable messages over software TNC or KISS TNC interfaces. Decentralized solution, messages travel directly over RF via your radio. PacketMessage is intended to be used by licensed amateur radio operators. A valid amateur radio license, assigned callsign, and a compatible radio are required to send and receive messages. This app does not function as a standalone messenger.

About

bushwhackr

Connect with fellow outdoor enthusiasts, track your adventures, and share your wilderness skills. Discover new trails, review gear, find local events, and build your knowledge of the wild.

Highlights
  • Trail tracking and community trails
  • Social feed for photos, videos, and notes
  • Gear reviews and recommendations
  • Event discovery and creation
  • Customizable packout builder
  • Plant and field guide
Read full description

Bushwhackr is the social platform built for the bushcraft and wilderness community — a place to track your trails, share your skills, discover gear, find events, and connect with fellow outdoor enthusiasts who actually get it. Whether you're a seasoned woodsman or just starting your wilderness journey, Bushwhackr gives you the tools to document your adventures and grow alongside a community that shares your passion for the wild. TRAIL TRACKING & COMMUNITY TRAILS Record your hikes and backcountry routes with GPS precision. Every step is logged with altitude, coordinates, and timestamps so you can review, replay, and share your adventures. Publish trails to the community for others to discover and clone, or keep them private for your eyes only. Browse the Community Trails feed to find new routes, explore where fellow bushcrafters are venturing, and build a personal library of places worth returning to. COMMUNITY FEED & SOCIAL FEATURES Post photos, videos, field notes, and stories to a community that gets it. Follow other bushcrafters, like and comment on posts, and discover content across every corner of the craft — foraging, shelter building, fire craft, navigation, water sourcing, plant identification, and wilderness survival. Share what you've learned, what you've built, and where you've been. The Bushwhackr feed is the campfire everyone's gathered around. GEAR REVIEWS Your kit matters. Share honest reviews of the tools and gear you've tested in the field. Rate axes, knives, ferro rods, tarps, packs, pots, headlamps, and more. Browse the community's collective wisdom before your next purchase. Real reviews from real people who actually use this stuff in the backcountry — not a sponsored blog post. Find out what holds up before you find out the hard way. EVENTS Find bushcraft events, workshops, meetups, and skill-building sessions happening near you. Create your own events and bring people together. Whether it's a local fire-starting clinic, a weekend wilderness camp, a foraging walk, or a shelter-building session, Bushwhackr Events connects you with experiences and people worth showing up for. The outdoors is better with others. PACKOUT BUILDER Plan your kit before you head into the field. Build custom packout lists tailored to any mission — a weekend overnight, a survival training weekend, a foraging day trip, or a long-distance backcountry trek. Save your templates, refine your loadout over time, and never forget a critical piece of gear again. Share your packout with the community or keep it as your own personal system. PLANT & FIELD GUIDE Access a growing reference of plants, fungi, and field resources curated specifically for the bushcraft and foraging community. Identify what you're finding in the wild and build your wilderness knowledge one entry at a time. The field guide grows with the community. DIRECT MESSAGING Connect with other users through private messaging. Coordinate a meetup, share hard-won field advice, swap gear recommendations, or build real relationships with people in the community. The built-in messenger keeps conversations where they belong — inside the app, not scattered across platforms. BUILT FOR THE COMMUNITY Bushwhackr was built from the ground up by people who believe that bushcraft is more than a hobby — it's a lifestyle and a set of skills worth preserving and passing on. Every feature is designed around how people actually learn, practice, and share wilderness knowledge. No algorithm chasing. No ads. No noise. Just a focused community of people who love the outdoors and want to get better at living in it. Create your free account and start exploring. The woods are waiting.

Screenshots

PacketMessage4 screens
bushwhackr3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: bushwhackr at none against PacketMessage's 3. PacketMessage's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). On price, rating, ratings volume 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. PacketMessage sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. bushwhackr asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for PacketMessage against 5.0 for bushwhackr. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PacketMessage ships an update weekly, bushwhackr fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
PacketMessage versus bushwhackr: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPacketMessagebushwhackr
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyWeekly — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB25 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperLukasz SkierkowskiShawn-Patrick Bland

In-app purchases

3 purchases

PacketMessage

One-time3
  • Small Tip$1.99
  • Medium Tip$4.99
  • Large Tip$9.99
None

bushwhackr

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PacketMessage free?
PacketMessage is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is bushwhackr free?
bushwhackr is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, PacketMessage or bushwhackr?
PacketMessage and bushwhackr are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do PacketMessage or bushwhackr have ads?
Neither PacketMessage nor bushwhackr shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PacketMessage or bushwhackr?
PacketMessage ships an update weekly, and bushwhackr fortnightly. Most recently, PacketMessage was updated on October 14, 2026 and bushwhackr on October 2, 2026.

Other comparisons