“Micro transaction landmine — Bad app and ads ruin other games that I play too.”
Independent automated assessment · 3 signal sources · 509 reviews scanned · analyzed 2026-10-05.
4.7 ★135,625 ratings
—Downloads
4+Age rating
167 MBApp size
FreeIn-app purchases
About this app
SwingU is the top-rated golf GPS rangefinder and scorecard app, trusted by more than 8 million golfers worldwide to play smarter, shoot lower scores, and get more out of every round. Rated 4.7 stars from 131,000+ reviews.
GPS, scoring, and handicap tracking are always free, no subscription required. Upgrade when you're ready — it's always your call.…
Preview
Real screenshots from the store listing.
Independent evidence report
Evidence and review signals
This is where the page changes from an app-store listing into an evidence report: findings, important reviews, pricing and a dated history.
Which version this describes
When we ran this analysis, and what the store lists now.
This analysis describes version 8.8.6 (4307) of the app, analyzed 2026-10-05 . The app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version 8.8.6 (4307), updated 2026-09-15.
What we measured
Each line is a measurement published as a measurement, never a verdict.
Each line is a measurement, published as a measurement. Where we have not looked, the line says so rather than reading as a zero.
Developer replies to reviews
Replies to fewer than 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
States no price and billing period
Cancelling, in the store description
Says how to cancel
Themes reported by reviewers
3 or more themes reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
80–89% five-star
Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.
In the package we scanned
No package has been scanned for this app, so nothing is published about what it ships. That is an absence of evidence about the app, not a finding about it.
Graded bands · predicate set 1.4 · how these are measured
What the analysis found
App-specific findings, grouped by what each one rests on. How they are graded lives on its own page.
One source only — shown, not confirmed 3
A single kind of evidence. We publish these because withholding them would be the bigger distortion, and we do not treat any of them as a finding we stand behind.
Reported by users: Aggressive ad load
Advertising volume or placement that interrupts normal use: ads between every action, unskippable or forced full-screen ads.
What we saw: Aggressive ad load: raised by 7 distinct reviewers (1.4% of 509 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Price keeps rising
The price of the paid tier has been raised on existing users.
What we saw: Price keeps rising: raised by 14 distinct reviewers (2.8% of 509 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Upgrade prompts use guilt-trip wording
Declining an upgrade is written as a loss ('No thanks, I don't want to improve'), or users report being repeatedly pushed to subscribe during normal use.
What we saw: Constant upsell pressure: raised by 5 distinct reviewers (1.0% of 509 reviews scanned)
Highlighted reviews
Representative public review excerpts shown as user reports, not Appworthy audit evidence.
“Too many ads — I pay for your app and then you pound me with upgrade adds all the way around the course EVERYTIME I use it. If I pay, get rid of adds. I’m doing GHIN app next year.”
“Swing app user — Drains my phone battery. Too many ads.”
Assessment & version history
App changes and Appworthy events in one timeline.
Store listing updated to version 8.8.6 (4307).
What this app sells
Useful store-disclosed pricing, kept below the app listing.
Business modelFree
Prices and terms as disclosed by the store listing.