Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

Dianping vs North

Dianping 4.7★ · Free + IAP 65
Winner Dianping
North 4.2★ · Free + IAP 75

Dianping is the better choice for users in China due to its extensive local information and discounts, while North is superior for international users who need a reliable way to organize and share travel recommendations without language barriers or technical issues.

Full reviews: Dianping · North

Dianping offers a vast array of local dining, shopping, and entertainment options with discounts, making it a powerful tool for users within China. However, it struggles significantly with international usability, translation, and technical bugs. North, while having a much smaller user base, excels in organizing and sharing personal recommendations with a user-friendly interface, though its development appears to be stalled.

Head to head

Features & Content edge: DianpingR11R17R25R29
Dianping Dianping is praised for its extensive local information, covering dining, shopping, and entertainment, with users finding it a 'must' for living in China and a 'good app for your daily life' . It offers discount packages, free trials, and cash cards R11. Users appreciate its ability to help them find good food and fun places R17R25R29.
North North is highly valued for its ability to organize and share personal recommendations, allowing users to create custom lists of places they want to visit or have been . Users can collaborate on lists with friends and easily share recommendations . It's seen as a 'game changer' for tracking places and planning trips .
Ease of Use & Accessibility edge: NorthR1R6R9R10
Dianping Dianping faces significant challenges with ease of use, particularly for international users. Many reviews highlight the inability to translate the app into English R1R9R14R15 and issues with registration using non-Chinese phone numbers R10. Recent updates have made the app 'really hard to use' by removing map filtering features and making the interface design unreasonable . Users also report issues with dark mode not working R6.
North North is consistently praised for being 'easy to use' and having a 'beautiful interface' . Users find it 'simple and intuitive' and appreciate its lack of 'unnecessary features' . It effectively replaces messy systems like Google Maps stars or phone notes for organizing places .
Reliability & Performance tieR26R42R46R52
Dianping Dianping suffers from numerous reliability issues and bugs. Users report content not loading after updates R46, frequent 'network error' messages even on good WiFi R42, and the app being 'extremely buggy' and not working 'half of the time' . There are also complaints about verification issues R26 and slow download speeds R52.
North North's reliability is a concern due to perceived abandonment by developers. Users report that the developers 'seem to have stopped working on it' and have not responded to bug reports or input for 11 months . This lack of updates suggests potential future reliability issues, though current users praise its functionality.
Support & Development tieR3R7R18R19
Dianping Dianping's support is criticized for being unprofessional, with staff allegedly punishing real reviews as fake and vice-versa R18. Users also express concerns about privacy and the app's aggressive blocking of users when traveling R7. There are requests for Vision Pro compatibility R3 and improvements to watch app design R19 and dark mode .
North North's development appears to be stalled, with users reporting no updates for 11 months and no responses from support to emails or bug reports . This suggests a lack of ongoing support and future development, leading users to consider switching to alternatives .
Pick Dianping if

you are located in China and need a comprehensive app for local dining, shopping, and entertainment, especially if you can navigate Chinese language content and want access to discounts and deals R11R17.

Pick North if

you are looking for a simple, intuitive, and beautifully designed app to organize and share personal recommendations for places, especially for travel planning or sharing with friends, and you are concerned about privacy and ease of use .

Evidence note: North has a significantly smaller number of reviews (30 vs 7010), which may skew its lifetime rating positively as satisfied users are more likely to review early. The negative reviews for North primarily focus on the perceived abandonment by developers, rather than core functionality issues. Dianping's reviews are heavily skewed by language barriers and technical issues for non-Chinese speakers.

Frequently asked

Can I use Dianping if I don't speak Chinese?
No, Dianping is not user-friendly for non-Chinese speakers as many users report there is 'no way to translate' the app into English and not all verbiage will translate R1R9R14R15.
Does North offer a free tier?
Yes, North is listed as 'Free + IAP,' indicating it has a free tier with in-app purchases, though specific details on free tier limitations are not mentioned in the reviews.
Is Dianping reliable for international travel?
Dianping is not reliable for international travel; users report it 'doesn't work outside China' and aggressively blocks access to pages when visiting China, making it difficult to find places R7R48.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 80 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R11] Dianping 5/5 · US Dianping constantly surprises! Discounted packages, free trials, cash cards... · translated
  2. [R17] Dianping 5/5 · US Dianping brings convenience to everyone: I've been using Dianping for many years. In the early days, I used the paper version of the "Beijing Handbook." Now with Dianping, no matter where I go, I can always find good food and fun places. · translated
  3. [R25] Dianping 5/5 · US My Dianping: After the pandemic, I hadn't used Dianping for a long time. With the arrival of summer in Chengdu, opportunities to work outside increased, and so did opportunities to eat out. Dianping has once again become an indispensable assistant and expert for us. With its guidance, I know where to find good food, beautiful scenery, entertainment, good friends, good moods, and good results! All good things will come! · translated
  4. [R29] Dianping 5/5 · US Great App: Really useful for locating local eats.
  5. [R1] Dianping 1/5 · US No way to translate: No way to translate app into English
  6. [R6] Dianping 3/5 · US Dark mode not working: The latest version has a bug, dark mode isn't working 😡😡😡 · translated
  7. [R9] Dianping 3/5 · US Translation: The App needs improvement for the translations, not all verbiage will translate.
  8. [R10] Dianping 1/5 · US Can’t even register: Can’t even register with an American phone number
  9. [R26] Dianping 2/5 · US Dianping became unusable lately: Dianping weirdly asked for verification repeatedly even though I am using the same phone and I am using only one device. The verification process is not normal - Dianping asks me to send verification code as a text message to a certain number, instead of sending me a code to verify. I have been using the app for its most basic functions like finding restaurants
  10. [R42] Dianping 1/5 · US Garbage app: Nothing opens, it says I have no internet. I'm really fed up, this garbage app can even load its own short videos but tells me I have no internet. · translated
  11. [R46] Dianping 1/5 · US Content doesn’t load: After the recent update, the content doesn’t load anymore. Now I’m getting blank pages all the time.
  12. [R52] Dianping 1/5 · US Trash: What a garbage app, it downloads so slowly. · translated
  13. [R3] Dianping 3/5 · US VP device compatibility: Please enable app support for Vision Pro compatibility. Even the iPad app version could be compatible on Vision Pro; it's just a matter of enabling downloads. It's very much needed and convenient for more consumers. · translated
  14. [R7] Dianping 1/5 · US Way too aggressive in blocking users: Can’t access a ton of pages when visiting China, and many places only have a dianping page. So I can never find good places to eat.
  15. [R18] Dianping 1/5 · US Very bad review app: It claims to be objective, but if you leave a bad review, it bans you. If you participate, it says you're not objective; if you don't participate, it says you haven't participated and aren't objective. It's purely a laughable app. · translated
  16. [R19] Dianping 4/5 · US Already give up the watch App?: The app is good and useful in many ways but still defects like: 1. Too big the size 2. The watch App looks like it’s already 10 years old…geez just work out something, or give it up so I don’t need to keep an ugly watch app in my watch or just update it with some modern design 😓
  17. [R14] Dianping 5/5 · US English version: Cannot find where to change language to english. Is there a separate english version app?
  18. [R15] Dianping 3/5 · US Good but not language friendly: I like the app, when I first downloaded it, it says English and simplified chinese but I still can’t figure out where or how yo switch the language and same for my friends who also downloaded. I think this feature should be accessible easily because I believe many foreigners do use this app in china
  19. [R48] Dianping 1/5 · US Doesn’t work outside China: Not working when you travel outside of China

Synthesized from 80 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store