Next Ascent vs BoulderBot
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Next Ascent
Discover climbing destinations worldwide with detailed maps, GPS navigation, and high-definition topos. Access comprehensive route descriptions, area history, and first ascent information for crags and bouldering spots. Download complete guidebooks for popular climbing areas.
- Real-time maps and GPS navigation
- High-definition topos and pictures
- Detailed route descriptions
- Crag and bouldering area information
- Downloadable guidebooks
- Route and area history
- First ascent information
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Next Ascent Guidebooks, rock climbing guidebook app is the most comprehensive rock climbing and bouldering app available. Real-time maps, GPS, and navigation guide you to crags all over the world. Hi-def topos, pictures, and the most detailed route descriptions available are what sets this app apart from the rest. Download complete guidebooks for the most popular climbing destinations. This rock climbing app will get you the most information you can find on local crags, bouldering areas, and climbing destinations. Expect to see arial drone topos, route and area history, first ascent information, and detailed descriptions of every route. End User License Agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
BoulderBot
Generate and track bouldering routes on your home climbing wall. Features procedural generation for infinite climb variations, manual creation, and progress logging. Supports various wall types and works offline.
- Procedural climb generation
- Manual climb creation
- Progress tracking and logging
- Wall setup wizard
- Offline functionality
- Search and filter problems
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BoulderBot is your personal bouldering Spray Wall setter, tracker and organizer. Challenge yourself and find new inspiration by using the experimental Procedural Generation algorithms, quickly creating an infinite number of new climbs on your wall! You can customize parameters like Difficulty and Length to create problems suited to your needs. The generation algorithms are experimental and under active development, but even if they don't produce perfect results, you can immediately edit the generated problems in a few seconds (which is also a great way to improve your setting skills). You can also easily create your own custom problems from scratch. Problems can be saved for tracking your progress and logging ascents, and functionality like searching, filtering and sorting is available to find problems for your training sessions. ADDING YOUR WALL An interactive wizard procedure will allow you to add your wall in the application, guiding you in specifying all required information (this procedure will take around 5 to 10 minutes): - An image of the wall (specific instructions are given to ensure the best generation results) - Attributes like height and angle - The position of the holds on your wall, and their relative difficulty rating This procedure needs to be performed only when you add a new wall or reset the current one. Once a wall is added, all other functionality (like generating problems, or creating them manually) is immediate and takes no extra set up time. An in-app help system is also available if you have any doubt about the application. The application supports Home Climbing Walls, Spray Walls, Woodys, and Training Boards. The generation algorithms work only on generally flat walls which can be pictured in a single image; highly featured walls with many different angles, corners and roof sections are not supported at the moment. NO MANDATORY INTERNET CONNECTIVITY The Application can work completely offline: you can choose to use the App without an account, making the image you select and the Boulder problems you create all stored on your device's internal storage. PROBLEM RULES The boulder problems should be climbed by starting with both hands on green "Start" holds (either one hand per hold if there are two holds, or with both hands matching the single hold). Blue "Hold" holds can be used with both hands and feet, while yellow "Foot" holds cannot be touched by hands. The problem is considered complete once you hold for a couple of seconds onto the red "End" holds (either one hand per hold if there are two holds, or with both hands matching the single hold). DISCLAIMER Climbing is an inherently dangerous activity. Climbs shown in the App are random in nature, there is no guarantee about their safety, quality or correctness, please always judge the safety of the climbs before attempting them.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: BoulderBot at 4.4 against Next Ascent's 3.9. BoulderBot also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (75% vs 50%). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and in-app purchases 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. Next Ascent sells 36 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and BoulderBot sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
BoulderBot holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7 and 11 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Next Ascent's written reviews are positive against 75% of BoulderBot's.
Next Ascent ships an update every 2 months, BoulderBot every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 3, 2026 and August 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Next Ascent | BoulderBot |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (7 ratings) | 4.4 (11 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 75.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7 | 11 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 14.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 64 MB | 74 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Next Ascent, LLC | Luca Dellana |
Customer experience
Next Ascent
BoulderBot
In-app purchases
Next Ascent
- Next Ascent Pro Monthly$9.991 Month
- Next Ascent Pro Annual$59.991 Year
- Free Traxx GuideFree
- Free Eliot Creek GuideFree
- Larch Mt Bouldering$3.99
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- Climbing & Bouldering Montdale$5.99
- Allentown Bouldering Guide$5.99
- Whiskey Springs Bouldering$5.99
- Chickies Rock Routes Guide$5.99
- Mid Valley Guidebook$5.99
- French's Dome Guide$6.99
- Mountainside Park Bouldering$6.99
- Forest City Bouldering Guide$6.99
- Allamuchy Climbing Guidebook$6.99
- Lost City & Boulder Mt, OR$7.99
- Ozone Guidebook$9.99
- Gunks: Near Trapps$9.99
- Northern NJ Bouldering$9.99
- Allamuchy Guidebook$9.99
- The Garden Bouldering Guide$9.99
- Allentown Bouldering Guidebook$9.99
- Broughton Bluff Climbing Guide$9.99
- Route 26 Crags Guidebook$9.99
- Lost Lake Bouldering Guidebook$9.99
- Pocono Bouldering Guide$12.99
- Peter's Kill Climbing Guide$12.99
- Mocanaqua Climbing Guidebook$12.99
- Boxcar Rocks$12.99
- Mocanaqua Bouldering Guidebook$12.99
- Carver Bouldering Guidebook$12.99
- Smith Rock Climbing Guide$14.99
- Safe Harbor Climbing Guidebook$14.99
- Sourland & Somerset$14.99
- Swan Falls Bouldering Guide$14.99
- Sugarloaf Climbing Guidebook$17.99
- Eldorado Canyon Climbing Guide$17.99
BoulderBot
- BoulderBot Pro Pass - 3 Months$7.99
- BoulderBot Pro Pass - 1 Year$17.99
- BoulderBot Pro$27.99
Questions
Is Next Ascent free?
Is BoulderBot free?
Which has better reviews, Next Ascent or BoulderBot?
Do Next Ascent or BoulderBot have ads?
Which is updated more often, Next Ascent or BoulderBot?
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