Fandango Vs Flixster

Which is the movie app for you?

By Kyle on July 5, 2009 at 2:37 pm

Fandango and Flixster are probably the most downloaded movie apps out there. Their basic purpose is to show what movies are out and their showtimes, but which one does it better?

First thing is the icon. You aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover but don’t you want your screen full of apps to look pretty? The winner here in my opinion is Flixster because it is much more colorful and gets the point of the app across better.

Design of the app is always important. Fandango looks a lot better on the inside than Flixster does. It more than makes up for its plain looking icon.

Next thing that is important to most users is speed. I preformed this unscientific tests on an iPhone 3G.

Fandango

Edge Startup To Movie Loading: 10 seconds
3G Startup To Movie Loading: 13 seconds
3G Startup To Movie Loading (second test): 9 seconds

Flixster

Edge Startup To Movie Loading: 10 seconds
3G Startup To Movie Loading: 10 seconds
3G Startup To Movie Loading (second test): 7 seconds

Flixster wins by a hair, but really they both open up and have a list of movies for you in about 10 seconds.

Both of the apps have a ratings for all the movies. Fandangos ratings are just user ratings with a colored icon, the greener the better. Flixster offers Flixter’s ratings but also Rotten Tomatoes ratings. This is great for me because I always like to check out the scores for movies on Rotten Tomatoes.

Unfortunantly Flixster has ads inside the app. This wouldn’t be a big deal if there wasn’t another app out there without advertisements (Fandango).

Fandango is the only app that can purchase movie tickets in app, so if you are on the go and don’t want to wait in line Fandango has got you covered.

Both apps give you trailers. They are both very good quality but Flixster offers an option for a lesser quality trailer for faster loading.

Other things that Flixster offers are DVD listings and Facebook integration.

There isn’t a clear winner here in my opinion. Fandango looks great and you can buy tickets and Flixster has Rotten Tomatoes ratings, more settings, and DVD listings. I’m going to stick with Flixster because I don’t need to buy tickets in app but if you do then Fandango is a clear winner for you.