We analyzed this app across 3 independent signals and corroborated nothing unfair. That is a signal, not an audit.
This analysis describes version 3.13.1 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-04 . The app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version 3.13.1, updated 2026-09-30.
What the analysis found
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.
What reviewers said
Verbatim excerpts from public store reviews, shown as corroborating user reports. They are not Appworthy audit evidence, and a quotation is not proof of the finding it sits under.
Hard to cancel
Can’t cancel at all — Hard to use, very expensive membership plans and not possible to cancel in the app at all!
Charged $100 for a subscription I never agreed to, no phone number for customer support, lied — As the title says, I was charged a reoccurring $100 fee for “premium family membership” despite opting out of the “free” trial and having…
Scam — Bought 2 of these for family and the secretly add on a $130 subscription then make it nearly impossible to unsubscribe. No one gets back to you.. save your money
Paywall blocks the basics
False advertising — We bought this feeder two years ago for a family member (who has since passed) and recently set up our own account. Half of the features we paid extra for this feeder are now locked behind a paywall. The value of…
Warning: Livestream is now behind a paywall! — I just set up my new feeder. When I tried to watch a livestream of my feeder, it would send me to a page with my subscription options. The live chat bot said the livestream is free for the…
Not a good gift, deteriorating experience — I WOULDN’T BUY BIRDBUDDY AS A GIFT! Update: I just had some deep thinking and felt compelled to further downgrade this app to one star 1️⃣ ⭐️ Overall, I’ve enjoyed using the feeder and app but…
Reports that the ads misrepresent the app
False advertising — We bought this feeder two years ago for a family member (who has since passed) and recently set up our own account. Half of the features we paid extra for this feeder are now locked behind a paywall. The value of…
Hid features behind paywall — When I first got Birdbuddy, it was great but now I can’t filter out unwanted sightings because it’s no longer automatically tells you what kind of bird is on the feeder. Shameless cash grab and it amounts to…
I’ve owned Bird Buddy for two years, and the new update is a straight-up bait-and-switch. — I paid a premium price for the hardware, and now they’re trying to force a $100/year subscription just to access features that were originally…
How the automated analysis works
This assessment is produced automatically. Three independent signals are read — user reviews, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure — and each candidate finding is filed under the sources that support it.
No charge stands on one kind of evidence — with one published exception. A finding is either a measured fact that anyone can reproduce (an ad SDK is in the package; every subscription bills weekly; the privacy label omits a tracker we can see), or it is an interpretation — and an interpretation needs independent sources to agree before it reaches the catch list. The exception is a harm only users can see: a charge may publish from reviews alone, as “Reported by N users”, once enough reviewers raise it to clear that charge’s own published bar. That agreement rule is what replaced the human reviewer, not a model’s confidence.
There is no overall score, on purpose. A 0–99 number was published here until 2026-09-15. It was withdrawn because it discriminated too weakly to be the instrument — 44.7% of every pair of apps tied — and because a single number is a verdict where a count is an observation. What publishes instead is a row of measurements, each of which says what was counted and, where we could not look, says that instead.
Findings under One source only are real reports we do not stand behind as findings. They are shown because withholding them entirely would hide a genuine complaint, and labelled because publishing them as charges would be an accusation off a single source.
Several measurements above say “Not assessed” because no artefact we hold can answer them. A human review is what resolves those — and it can remove a favourable band as easily as add one.
Hands-on inspections are not yet open.