Metro Pulse
Track your bus or train
How much does Metro Pulse cost?
Prices are current as of 9 Sept 2026.
Metro Pulse has no in-app products on record in the United States.
10+ alternatives to Metro Pulse
| Metro Pulse |   DC Metro and Bus - Tracker |   CharmPass |   Washington DC Metro Route Map |   Ride On Trip Planner |   ParkRTC |   Capital Bikeshare |   DC Transit • Metro & Bus Times |   MarcMap: Track MARC Trains |   ParkDC Permits |   ANC Explorer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating / 5 | 2.8 | 4.5 | 4.9 | 4.6 | 4.4 | 3.7 | 3.4 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 1.4 | 3.0 |
| Reviews | 115 | 38K | 32K | 14K | 983 | 814 | 739 | 731 | 341 | 94 | 59 |
| Released | 2025 | 2012 | 2018 | 2013 | 2023 | 2016 | 2017 | 2023 | 2023 | 2021 | 2012 |
| Weekly price | — | $1.99 | — | — | — | — | — | $4.99 | — | — | — |
| Monthly price | — | $3.99 | — | $1.99 | — | — | — | $8.00 | — | — | — |
| Annual price | — | $23.99 | — | — | — | — | — | $29.00 | — | — | — |
| One-time price | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | $89.00 | $2.99 | — | — |
The going rate for each plan in United States, in its own currency, shaded from the cheapest price on the row to the dearest.
Metro Pulse reviews
2.8 out of 5, based on 115 reviews.
What people like
- Developers fix bugs very quickly
- No annoying ads interrupt you
- Offline maps work as a bonus
What they complain about
- Removes critical system status info
- Keeps crashing when you open it
- Bus tracking is often completely wrong
- Arrival times are confusing and unclear
Works great
I use it most days.
useless
the most frustrating and useless app...doesnt even show bus stops which exist. It used to be fairly usable till they "updated" the app and now it's completely useless and counter intuitive
Daily user—Reliable info! ui needs some work
I love this app so much, I use it multiple times a day. It’s definitely going through some ui changes right now but I think once the tweaking is done it’s going to be great. It’s a little hard to navigate after its most recent update, I definitely preferred having the first page (explore) organized by stop and not line. It requires a little finagling to get to the information you want to receive so it’s not super intuitive. The plan a trip section needs a little bit of work too, it’s not clear if you’re supposed to/able to type in an actual address or location or if you have to know what stop you’re headed to ahead of time. Overall though, very reliable when it comes to arrival times and as I said I use it at least twice a day if not more. Can’t wait for what comes next :)
It rarely works properly
Even after updates, it won’t open. It rarely works properly. Even though I allow it to look at my location, it’s still refuses to identify the station that I’m actually in at the time.
2.01 majorly improved, still needs work
Writing a new review after the 2.01 update. This update was hugely needed and allowed the app to pass a major milestone : it is now often faster to check the arrival of your train on metro pulse than on google maps. I’m very happy that WMATA is investing resources in this. The favorites section is useful now and allows you to see the arrivals at your most used stations very quickly. I also love the new design language. One perplexing issue that I hope is fixed very soon is that the amount of arrivals shown for each station is only 2. This means if a station services multiple lines, you can easily end up in a situation where your train is 6 minutes away, but two arrivals on the other line prevent you from being able to see that. I really don't think saving vertical screen space is an issue here. When I open the app I am usually only interested in the arrivals at one station, so if it took up my entire screen I still would not mind. Also, being able to select the default tab that shows up on the homepage would be amazing (I would prefer to always see the favorites tab first instead of the explore tab, if I am exploring I would probably choose google maps, but where I see this app really shining is during the daily commute)
So impressed
I travel all over the place and never have I seen such an amazing app that has streamlined my travelling . Love the new updates super easy to use
Embarrassing for an Official App
I recently switched from Pixel to iPhone and as someone who lives in DC and actively uses the metro, I need an app that actually works consistently. There seems to be some nice features, but that means absolutely nothing if the app is unable to connect to the network, even with a strong 5g signal. Out of nearly three weeks with this app, it has only worked twice. That’s wild. Wild that an Android app from a defunct company works more effortlessly than one from official agency, WMATA, that was supposedly updated within the last month. If this app is not in the beta phase, WMATA should really be embarrassed. I hope yall fix this soon.
Where do I see bookmarked stations?
App looks great and I appreciate the lack of ads, the only thing missing is a tab at the bottom to quickly look at your bookmarks instead of looking through the nearby stops
excited for this app but needs improvement
I think there is a lot of room for improvement but these are the few changes i think would have the biggest impact on usability 1. display bookmarked stations in the “nearby” page even if they are not nearby. This is the biggest thing that would allow me to see the important things without having to tap anything after opening the app. Especially because the location displayed is often not up to date and instead a location i was at yesterday 2. save preferences for filtering by bus / rail in the nearby tab after closing the app. for commuting to work only take the train and it would be great to not have to do those extra selections every time 3. please let us add specific station tiles like they appear in the nearby section as widgets on the home screen, this would be amazing
Getting better
The app is a lot better, however, if I’m trying to schedule trips to plan my day out, the arrival function isn’t working properly. It will plan me leaving at 11 AM instead of arriving at 11 AM.
The best app for DMV Metro
Super convenient. I love how it provides a snapshot for all available means of publishing transportation seamlessly and with great precision.
Horrible
Issues every day
Inaccurate and Misleading
Caught the 6:50 am metro at Vienna on 3/20/2026. Exited at Federal Triangle at 8:01 am. That’s 71 minutes for a trip that takes about 34 minutes when there are no service issues. This trip: train out of service at Vienna, followed by a long wait on the platform and then single tracking; then, train out of service at Courthouse, followed by a long wait on the platform and more single tracking. The app was showing a service gap of 16-20 minutes (6-10 longer than expected). Average difference between expected v. actual of 1-3 minutes. Basically, sunshine rainbows and lollipops. Refreshed the app multiple times.
Update
You updated the whole UI but didn’t fix the issue with Rosslyn not showing blue line trains correctly the way it shows the orange/silver. That would be more helpful then changing the look.
Good v1
So far so good. Generally seems to have parity with the website features, at least for rail, but offline maps appear to be a helpful bonus. I appreciate the regular updates.
Consistently wrong
I rely on this app almost every day for bus arrivals. It’s consistently wrong by 3-4 minutes, causing me to consistently miss the bus and have to wait anywhere from 10-20 minutes for the next one. Either don’t have bus tracking or make it right. Inexcusable.
Not intuitive
I think there’s a lot of functionality, but so far it seems like it takes a lot of swipes and selections and typing in addresses to get there. How I about a “next train at your nearest station” button on the front page?
It’s alright
The app is alright and is helpful for me to catch a certain train, but there should be a way to get notifications through the app for train/bus delays, single tracking etc. through the app instead of having to sign up for email or text alerts.
App Team Responds Quickly
I must say, you really take feedback seriously and get the changes or fixes in fast! This app just keeps getting better. Thanks!
Memory Leak
There’s some kind of memory leak or issue with the current version of the app and the latest version of iOS. Every time, I open the app, do anything, and switch apps, it slows down my phone to a crawl after several minutes. I know it’s this app because I’ll remove it and a few minutes later, my phone is back to normal. iPhone 13 Mini, iOS 26.5
Sleek But Not Useful
I tried the app for a few days. It is essentially the trip planner on your phone. I was hoping for an app that I can create and save preferred routes and at a glance quickly find out the next bus or train for each route. If that’s available it was not conveniently made clear.
The web version is so much better. I only use this app to plan trips and calculate fare
Only use this app to trip plan cause the MetroPulse function is so not user friendly unlike the website :/ but at least they improved trip planner!
Loss of functionality with update
A focus on tracking only arrivals? That theoretically works for most stations. I’m even willing to forgive the hoops it takes you to now sort out the arrival times, instead of simply glancing at a screen. BUT ARRIVAL TIME ALONE MAKES LITTLE SENSE FOR STATIONS AT THE END OF THE LINE. End stations operate differently from other stations where arrival and departure times are basically the same. For end stations, 99% of daily users would want to know when the next train will depart, not arrive. It’s a complete guess as to when trains depart now.
From decent to terrible
The old app worked it was a bit glitchy but now it’s terrible I have to change the selection to bus to see bus stops the mix doesn’t work at all and now when I click a bus stop I can’t physically see where the busses are if it works at all. The former UI was way better than this one. It is almost non-usable. Also the long opening scene often freezes when I’m trying to make quick decisions on bus options. Please at least go back to the usable but not great option before. And yes I am sure it’s the most recent version.
Made a bad app worse
Well WMATA has done the impossible. They’ve made the previously glitchy app now entirely inoperable. For one, when you open the screen, it takes a few for the screen to show you a whole song and dance before getting to what you are there for. What a great use of time for all us riders. Second, the app now is unbelievably unreliable as it fails to connect to the internet 50% of the time I try to open it the first time around. Again, great feature for a transit app. Third and perhaps the worse of it all is that the app does not seems to be designed to help commuters actually gauge information. For trains, you can no longer see multiple trains in your direction of choice when it comes to the countdown. Additionally, the app does a horrendous job indicating the directionality of the trains. As for buses, the app is totally unhelpful bc of these same issues. But to make it worse, this app update seems to have broken the track a bus feature. These issues barely scratch the surface of what’s wrong with this app and people have made their complaints to WMATA to no avail. I highly recommend not relying on this hot garbage until WMATA takes people’s complaints more seriously.
Next to useless
Doesn’t reliably refresh, difficult to navigate, does not present information in an intuitive way (all I want to know is when MY next bus/train is coming), controls are not responsive… and that’s if you can get the app to even open…
June 2026 update removes useful info
The new version removes system status info so you can no longer see which lines are having issues (including service gaps). This is critical for sophisticated Metro riders who have multiple ways to get from A to B.
Metro Pulse FAQ
- Is Metro Pulse free?
- Yes. The app is free, in all 175 countries it sells in, and it sells nothing inside it.
- Does Metro Pulse have a free trial?
- No. None of its offers (US) come with a free trial.
- What are the best alternatives to Metro Pulse?
- DC Metro and Bus - Tracker (4.5 from 37,624 reviews, premium from $1.99), CharmPass (4.9 from 31,827 reviews) and Washington DC Metro Route Map (4.6 from 13,504 reviews, premium from $1.99).
Metro Pulse download
Last updated 1 month ago.
Metro Pulse sells in 175 countries. It was released 1 year and 4 months ago, on 16 May 2025. It holds a 2.8 rating from 115 reviews.
Supports 1 language: English.
How much does Metro Pulse make?
Third-party estimates for the last 30 days, worldwide — not the store's own figures, which Apple publishes for nobody.