CompareMe app review: a price comparison shopping calculator

Introduction

CompareMe by codedifferent is a simple and innovative app designed to help you make the right shopping decisions. Let’s face it what looks like a bargain doesn’t always turn out to be. When you’re presented with those bulk packages of paper towels at the end of an aisle, and what looks like a great price tag on them, your first instinct is to grab one and throw it in your shopping cart. This pretty much sums up how most consumers go about making their decisions, but in more cases than we’d like to admit this isn’t the best way to do our shopping. The problem is most of us can’t be bothered doing price comparisons, or putting in any extra effort into our shopping.

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With the CompareMe app price comparisons are made easy, which can turn any one of us into a savvy shopper. This app is available for purchase from the App Store at a cost of $1.99 and is compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Compare before You Buy

There are all kinds of apps available to help you compare prices when shopping, but most of these compare like to like – for example if you’re buying a pair of Nike runners, you can use the app to compare the cost of that specific shoe at one store as opposed to another. CompareMe is actually more of a calculator, it doesn’t include a vast catalog of different products at your favorite stores, instead it provides you with the tools for inputting the prices of your favorite products in different quantities and packages. If what you’re really looking for is an app that will show you what an iPad costs at Walmart compared to what an iPad costs at Kmart this isn’t the app you’re looking for.

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One of the great things about this app is the fantastic walk-through it includes to get you started. It explains each aspect of the app in detail and shows you samples of each tool in action. You can choose to have this run each time the app opens, or you can turn this feature off once you’re comfortable with the apps tools. I also liked the simple color coding used in this app and the spreadsheet style graph interface that makes it easy to understand the price comparison breakdowns. If there is one improvement I would like to see in this app, it would be the introduction of the ability to add actual product names and the option to save your comparisons for later use. This app will require 6.8 MB of available space on your iOS device.

How It Works

Getting started with CompareMe is a pretty straightforward process – you simply tap on the + to the left of the graph and a simple calculator will appear in the middle of the screen. On this calculator you can indicate the amount of items, the amount of packages, the size of the item, and its price. You can do this for several different items at one time – making it easy to compare products at all your favorite stores. The simplicity and versatility of this app are simply stunning.

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Once you’ve entered all the items that you’d like to compare you simply tap on the big CompareMe button in the middle of the screen and the app automatically does the calculations for you. By default the cheapest option will be listed at the top of the screen color-coded in green, and the second best option will be listed below it and so on. It may take a little bit of time to input all of your calculations, but once you’ve entered to the information the app goes to work for you – it’s actually quite cool how well this works.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Simple and graph style user interface
• Effective color coordination
• Excellent introductory walk-through
• Can enter several different products pricing information at one time

Cons

• Can’t input product names
• Can’t save price comparisons

Final Words

CompareMe is an excellent shopping comparison and pricing calculator app. The great thing about this app is its simplicity and its user-friendly interface. Each product you enter is color-coded and easy to distinguish from other products. The only thing that would make this better is if you could actually name each product – perhaps this is an improvement they can make in the app down the line. This is definitely an app you want to have in your iOS device.