Dtecto vs Detectorist
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Dtecto
This app helps metal detectorists track their hunts, log finds with photos and GPS data, and identify dug items. It also features a community for sharing discoveries and advanced LiDAR maps for terrain analysis.
- Track hunt distance, duration, and GPS routes
- Log finds with photos, GPS, notes, and categories
- Color-coded find map with private spot saving
- Community feed for sharing and interacting with detectorists
- LiDAR terrain maps for relic hunting
- On-the-spot identification of dug items
- Build a searchable library of hobby finds
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Dtecto is the metal detectorist's field companion. Track your hunts, share your finds, and connect with detectorists who get it. Everything the hobby needs in one app. TRACK EVERY HUNT Start a hunt when you step on site. Dtecto records your steps, distance, and duration, and with Pro, your full GPS route on a map you can study later. Your hunt routes are private, always. EVERY FIND, SEARCHABLE FOREVER Photo, GPS, notes, category. Build the permanent record of your hobby and find that silver dime from two summers ago in seconds. YOUR MAP Every find pinned, color-coded by category. Save private spots on productive ground. With Pro, see community finds on the map. READ THE LAND, FIND THE HISTORY One Layers button switches the map between Map and Satellite and stacks the overlays that matter. Public lands color-coded by managing agency (USFS, BLM, NPS, and more) with detecting rules and agency links a tap away. Rivers, streams, and lakes. Historic places from the National Register and OpenStreetMap with photos and Wikipedia summaries. Civil War, Revolutionary War, and 1812 battlefield boundaries. USGS abandoned mines across the West and Midwest. Density bubbles show the productive country from any zoom, and map search flies you to any address or coordinates. TIME-TRAVEL THE GROUND: HISTORIC MAPS (PRO) Drape century-old maps over the modern world and fade between them with an opacity slider. The full USGS Historical Topographic collection (178,000 sheets, 1879 to the 2000s) covers the entire US, plus historic surveys across France, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, and Germany, and old GLO plats for Minnesota and Iowa. Find the mill, homestead, schoolhouse, or road that isn't there anymore. Try it free with a 4-minute preview. A COMMUNITY OF DETECTORISTS ONLY Post your finds, or just share the story of the hunt with a text update, photos optional. Follow diggers whose ground produces, like and comment without the noise of a generic social network. Earn your spot on the Top Detectorists leaderboard: every public find and every like moves you up the monthly and all-time boards. Report and block tools on every post and comment keep it civil. KNOW BEFORE YOU GO A quick pre-flight strip reads the day at a glance: daylight left, current weather, and a detecting-conditions verdict from Ideal to Poor. Tap it for the full breakdown so you know whether it's worth grabbing the shovel. SEE THE GROUND LIKE NEVER BEFORE: LIDAR TERRAIN (PRO) High-resolution LiDAR hillshade reveals old roadbeds, foundations, terraces, and forgotten paths that satellite imagery can't show. Three rendering modes tuned for relic hunters. IDENTIFY WHAT YOU DUG Not sure what you pulled from the ground? Snap a photo and get a likely ID in seconds: what it is, the era, and a confidence score. Coins, buttons, relics, and jewelry, identified on the spot and saved to your library. FREE VS PRO Free includes hunt logging, your find library, the community feed, text posts, the Top Detectorists leaderboard, daily conditions, your personal find map, public lands and waterway overlays, map search, and 3 identifications per month. Dtecto Pro unlocks LiDAR terrain, historic map overlays, historic places, battlefields, and abandoned-mine overlays, GPS route maps for every hunt, community find pins, unlimited identifications, and the Pro badge. $9.99/month or $79.99/year after a 14-day free trial. Cancel anytime. Terms of Use: https://dtecto.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://dtecto.app/privacy
Detectorist
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Detectorist is the field logbook for metal detectorists. Record every find the moment you dig it — with GPS, photos, depth, and your detector's signal ID — then relive your hunts on a map and in your stats. Built for the field: big buttons, glove-friendly pickers instead of fiddly typing, high-contrast design that's readable in bright sun, and full dark mode. Everything works completely offline — GPS tagging and track recording need no signal. LOG FINDS FAST • One tap to add a find: auto-captures your GPS location • Snap photos with the camera or attach from your library • Quick pickers for category (coin, relic, jewelry, junk, other) and material (gold, silver, copper, iron, alloy) • One-tap VDI / target-ID presets from your detector profiles • Depth in centimetres or inches, plus free-text notes MAP YOUR DIGS • Every find as a colour-coded pin, clustered when you zoom out • Save sites with land-permission status (granted, pending, public) • Long-press the map to drop a new site TIME YOUR HUNTS • Start a hunt to time your session and record your walked GPX track • Live Activity on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island shows your timer and find count SEE YOUR STATS • Finds by category and over time, as clean charts • Your best site by finds-per-hour • "Junk ratio" per site, so you know where the good ground is YOUR DATA, YOUR DEVICE • 100% offline and private — no account, no tracking, nothing leaves your iPhone • Export every find as CSV or GPX waypoints, and any hunt track as a GPX route • Import finds from a CSV or GPX file to migrate or restore Free to use for your first 20 finds. DETECTORIST PRO Upgrade to Pro for: • Unlimited finds • The full Stats tab • CSV & GPX export Pro is an auto-renewing yearly subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase and renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Manage or cancel any time in Settings → Apple Account → Subscriptions. Happy hunting! Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Dtecto at 15.0 against Detectorist's 17.0. On price, ads, 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
Both are free to download. Dtecto sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Detectorist sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $9.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Dtecto | Detectorist |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (10 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 10 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 135 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | RICARDO ANDRES MEDINA SERRA | Artur Pahasian |
In-app purchases
Dtecto
- Dtecto Pro Monthly14 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Dtecto Pro Yearly14 Days trial$79.991 Year
Detectorist
- Detectorist Pro Yearly$9.991 Year








