First Bus
69
Quality Score
Solid
First Bus
Medium confidence
✍️ bumetric analysis
“
First Bus is an iOS app from FirstGroup Plc in the Travel category, currently rated 4.7★ across 2,016 ratings. Initial signal reads as mostly critical sentiment so far: users flag rough edges and unmet expectations.
Quality Score is 69: Solid (established niche player). For a Travel app, that means established niche player. The full BU Investment Matrix below scores 8 dimensions including monetisation, growth, and operational risk.
Track changes month-over-month in the Performance section below: live snapshot history and revenue forecast included.
💰 Monthly revenue · now vs forecast
● Right now
$5.0K
per month
→
12-mo forecast
$5.2K – $10.8K
per month
→
24-mo forecast
$6.4K – $19.2K
per month
MID tier
💡 Grow this revenue
Free AI audit of this app’s store listing
- Title & subtitle keyword fit
- Description hook & conversion structure
- Screenshots, ratings, reviews strategy
Typical impact: +2-5× organic installs
📊 Performance Tracking LIVE
Loading…
Rating
—
Reviews
—
Forecast Revenue / mo
—
Snapshots tracked
0
since first record
🤖Also on Android
$250/mo · 146 ratings · 3.3★
View →
ONE-TIME · BUILD
💰 Estimated build cost
$120K
↳ What it cost to build · not monthly revenue
Likely range $90K – $160K
$25K · MVP floor
$100K · indie scale
$500K+ · studio build
📈
Pays back in ~3.8y at current MRR
Synthetic estimate. Inputs: category complexity, file size, screen count, monetization layer, platform reach, age × team-size proxy. Calibrated against 2024-2026 indie-agency rate surveys. Full math + source list on /methodology.
Where the money goes
| 🧱 MVP baseline (design + 1-store ship) | +$28K |
| 📱 5 unique screens × $4.5K | +$22K |
| 📦 Asset bundle (157 MB) | +$40K |
| ⚙ Travel complexity ×1.30 | +$27K |
Total estimate
$120K
ONE-TIME · EXIT VALUE
💵 Estimated acquisition value
$45K
↳ What it would sell for · not monthly revenue
Marketplace range $35K – $50K · 17× MRR multiple
💸
~0.4× build cost (under-water)
Synthetic estimate. Multiple band derived from ad-supported + age, rating quality, category demand, and user-base maturity. Calibrated against 2024-2026 indie-app-marketplace closed-deal medians. Full math + comparable deal list on /methodology.
How the multiple was built
| 📺 Ad-supported base | 15× MRR |
| ⭐ ★ rating ≥ 4.7 (premium) | +15% |
Final multiple
17× MRR
👥 Estimated audience size
220K
Lifetime downloads (US-equivalent)
Monthly active
22K
Daily active
3.3K
Synthetic estimate from ratings × category benchmarks. Calibrated against 2024-2026 mobile-attribution retention + DAU/MAU reports. Numbers are US-storefront-equivalent — true global audience can be 5-10× larger for international apps. Full math + source list on /methodology.
How we sized it
| 📲 Travel engagement | ~110 installs / rating |
| 🔁 Travel D30 retention | 10% |
| 📍 DAU / MAU stickiness | 0.15 |
DAU / MAU
15% sticky
🔬
How we forecast this revenue
MEDIUM CONFIDENCEBaseline
$5.0K/mo · ML-estimated from 234 triggers
Growth rate
+4.0% MoM · MID tier baseline (compound monthly)
6 months
$4.7K – $7.9K
12 months
$5.2K – $10.8K
24 months
$6.4K – $19.2K
Compound growth at +4.0% MoM (tier baseline for MID). Range widens with horizon — typical noise band ±25% at 6mo.. Ranges widen with horizon — distant futures carry more uncertainty.
📊
BU Investment Matrix
Below median · 47/100MID TIERunderperforming peersRevenue Strength
3.7
Product Quality
8.5
Market Position
1.8
Growth Velocity
5.0
Defensibility
4.5
Operational Safety
10.0
Founder Strength
3.0
Monetization Maturity
1.0
- 💰 Revenue: Modest — $3K - $7K/mo · MID tier · medium confidence, trajectory unclear.
- ⭐ Quality: 4.72★ across 2,016 reviews — strong (top 10%).
- 📍 Market: Not yet charting in any of the 9 monitored markets.
- 📈 Growth: dev shipping weekly.
- ⚠️ Risk: Low — no material risk signals detected.
🎯 For competitors: Mixed picture. Worth competing if you have a clear UX or pricing edge — otherwise crowded segment.
💵 For acquirers: Estimated asking range 18-32× monthly = $90K-$160K.
Composite of 8 dimensions computed deterministically from public signals — no LLM, every score traces back to a measurable input. Default weights shown; "compete" / "acquire" / "invest" lenses re-weight without re-fetching.
Range:
💰 Forecast Revenue / mo
MODELRevenue forecast computed from BU's 234 trigger model on each snapshot. Calibrated against ground-truth from 58 verified-revenue apps.
🔬Forecast Breakdown — Why This Estimate?Top 8 of 8 triggers
Our ML model uses 200+ signals from public data. These are the most influential for this app:
| Excellent rating (4.7★)METRIC | +$2,200 | |
| bugsREVIEW | −$1,800 | |
| 5 starREVIEW | +$1,800 | |
| Low install base (2,016 ratings)METRIC | +$1,500 | |
| Mature app (13y old)METRIC | +$1,500 | |
| slowREVIEW | −$1,200 | |
| Ad-supported / freemiumMETRIC | +$600 | |
| Single-language (English only)METRIC | −$400 |
METRIC = structural app data · REVIEW = mined from user reviews · ✓ VERIFIED = Stripe-verified anchor (TrustMRR)
📈 Reviews Growth
LIVECumulative review count from first BU snapshot. Each point = a tracked update.
⭐ Rating Trend
LIVEAverage rating evolution. Updates with each new review batch.
🆕 What's New · v7.0.7
Enhanced Purchasing Experience
We’ve improved every element involved in exploring tickets, reviewing details, and completing purchases, making the overall process smoother, clearer, and more reliable.
Updated Account Profile… Full release notes →
We’ve improved every element involved in exploring tickets, reviewing details, and completing purchases, making the overall process smoother, clearer, and more reliable.
Updated Account Profile… Full release notes →
Profile & Insights
Everything we know — and don't — about this app and its company.
Identification
- App name
- First Bus
- Developer
- FirstGroup Plc
- Bundle ID
- com.firstgroup.first.bus
- App Store URL
- Open in App Store
- Category
- Travel
- Content rating
- 4+
- Languages
- EN
Company
- Website
- Not found
- Tagline
- First Bus Home Page
- Description
- Our UK Bus division operates around a fifth of local bus services in the UK and is one of the largest bus operators with a fleet of approximately 6,400 buses around the England, Scotland and Wales. We have bus routes serving 40 of the UK’s largest towns and cities providing great value public transport for students, commuters, leisure travellers and concession travellers.
- Founded
- Not found
- HQ / Address
- Not found
- Employees
- Not found
- Logo
- Not found
Revenue
- Verified revenue / mo
- Not found
- AI revenue estimate / mo
- $30.9M ($27.8M – $34.0M)AI medium
- AI annual estimate
- $371.2M/yr
- ML model estimate / mo
- $2.7K/mo
- Top-grossing rank
- Outside top 100 in US Travel
- All-time revenue
- Not found
- Pricing
- Not found
Founder
Founder data not yet collected for this app.
Funding
Funding data not yet collected for this app.
Press & Links
Press & Links data not yet collected for this app.
Contacts & Socials
- Socials
- Not found
- Not found
- Phone
- Not found
- Contact page
- firstbus.co.uk/buy-tickets/ways-pay/c…
- About page
- firstbus.co.uk/about-us/about-us
✨AI Revenue EstimateCONFIDENCE: MEDIUM
The First Bus iOS app is estimated to generate approximately $30.93 million in monthly revenue, leading to an annual estimate of $371.20 million. This is based on First Bus's reported total passenger revenue of £785.6 million in FY 2025 and the company's statement that 35% of its ticket revenue comes from app and platform usage.
Sources mentioned: FirstGroup Plc, Sensor Tower, Statista, Xe.com
⭐Recent App Store Reviews27 latest · avg 2.26★ · 18.5% 5★ · 51.9% 1★
5★5 (19%)
4★1 (4%)
3★4 (15%)
2★3 (11%)
1★14 (52%)
+47 ratings/week
Praise: recommend ×1 great ×1 love ×1 amazing ×1 best ×1Complaints: terrible ×1 bug ×1 broken ×1
Top positive
★★★★★ Nice app
Nice…
★★★★★ Amazing but a few errors!!!
I would still rate this a 5 star rating because it’s amazing and its reliable but so far it’s a slow app and sometimes the stops go into each other but I love this…
Top negative
★☆☆☆☆ Simply could not be worse
Ive traveled internationally before, used 6 other transportation apps, and ive never experienced something with such horrible UI. Cant track your routes, buses and stops are confusing, cannot purchase individual tickets, hell the zone restr…
★☆☆☆☆ Awful
It freezes, it is inaccurate. What else can i say.…
📈Ratings growth2,016 ratings+201500% lifetimeShow 3-year history estimate ▾
Tracked (31 weeks) Pre-tracking estimate (37 weeks) · model-based, ±5% noise · anchored to release date and current value
🌍Geographic ReachNot ranked
This app is currently outside the top 100 grossing in all 9 countries we monitor (US, UK, DE, FR, JP, CA, AU, BR, IN). Niche or new apps often launch this way — popularity rankings appear once daily revenue clears the regional threshold.
🚀Version Release Timeline5 releases tracked
Profile is built from iTunes Lookup + developer site scrape + ML revenue model. Empty fields show "Not found" — additional sources (Crunchbase, X, IndieHackers, Acquire.com) coming.
📝 About this app
Plan your journey, track your bus, and travel with confidence using the First Bus app. With real-time updates, mobile tickets, and personalised tools, getting around by bus has never been easier.
Bus travellers can buy, gift, and activate digital bus tickets, manage secure payments, and save favourite locations, stops, and services for quicker access. The app also supports account management, consent management, while providing access to help and support features.
Whether you’re commuting, exploring, or travelling occasionally, the app helps you stay in control from door to door.… View full description on the official store →
Bus travellers can buy, gift, and activate digital bus tickets, manage secure payments, and save favourite locations, stops, and services for quicker access. The app also supports account management, consent management, while providing access to help and support features.
Whether you’re commuting, exploring, or travelling occasionally, the app helps you stay in control from door to door.… View full description on the official store →
App Specs
🔐 Own this app? Claim & verify MRR →💾 157 MB🔞 4+📱 iOS 16.0+🔖 v7.0.7🔄 updated 0d ago🌐 EN📂 Travel💰 Free
📅
What Worked™ · Development Pipeline
9 EVENTS TRACKEDDetected changes in this app over its tracked lifetime — each event links cause (what changed) to effect (what moved). Sorted newest first.See full history →Version history →
2026-05
🔄
Monetization changed: freemium → free
2026-03
⭐
Rating ↑ 2.32 → 4.60 (improved 2.28★)
2026-03
📈
Crossed 50 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
2022-07
📈
Crossed 10 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
2019-11
⭐
Rating ↑ 2.57 → 2.88 (improved 0.31★)
2019-07
⭐
Rating ↑ 2.17 → 2.57 (improved 0.40★)
2015-05
⭐
Rating ↓ 3.00 → 2.33 (dropped 0.67★)
2014-09
⭐
Rating ↓ 4.00 → 3.00 (dropped 1.00★)
2013-09
🚀
First tracked snapshot — initial data captured
🌍
Multi-Country Performance
Available in 6 of 9 monitored markets| Market | Rating | Reviews | Current version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇩🇪 DE | 4.51851★ | 378 | 4.51851★ this version |
| 🇯🇵 JP | 4.64562★ | 206 | 4.64562★ this version |
| 🇨🇦 CA | 4.59197★ | 299 | 4.59197★ this version |
| 🇦🇺 AU | 4.62212★ | 217 | 4.62212★ this version |
| 🇧🇷 BR | 4.79851★ | 134 | 4.79851★ this version |
| 🇮🇳 IN | 4.77026★ | 1,271 | 4.77026★ this version |
🔔
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📝 Description
95
BU Score · Transcendent
Full revenue analysis
Read the article-style breakdown for First Bus: category rank, percentile, growth signal, comparable apps, and how the forecast is calibrated against verified-MRR anchors in this niche.
About this analysis
Why medium confidence: 2,016 ratings · no founder-verified revenue (model estimate only).
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
4 answers · auto-generated from this app's public dataHow much does First Bus make per month?▴
Based on our ML-calibrated revenue forecast, First Bus earns approximately $2.7K/mo. This is a US-storefront-equivalent estimate; global revenue can be several times larger for internationally-distributed apps. See the methodology page for the full formula and confidence bands.
What apps are like First Bus?▴
Browse the full Travel category catalog to find similar apps with revenue, build cost, audience and tech stack data. Each /p/{slug} page also shows a Compare side-by-side widget with three peer apps from the same niche.
Who makes First Bus?▴
First Bus is published by FirstGroup Plc on the Apple App Store. See the full publisher portfolio (other apps by the same developer) via the More by developer block on the product page above.
What is First Bus's BU Score?▴
First Bus has a BU Score of 69/100 (Solid). The score combines App Store rating, ratings count, monetization model and revenue signals calibrated against founder-verified MRR anchors. See the BU Score formula.