Guru's App Platform vs other Free App Platforms

How We're Different and How We Help Your App Succeed

Author

Guru Experience
June 28, 2024

We’ve been fielding a lot of questions lately about multi-tenant app platforms and what makes Guru Experience different. We get it, free can be enticing when it comes to choosing your digital platform, but free of charge doesn’t always mean free of challenges. While you might not pay for your platform, you won’t have much say in it either. Moreover, you're left to manage content production and updates on your own, limiting your ability to advance your digital strategies effectively.

The Core Distinction:

Other options offer a free platform with audio tour capabilities and marketing support; they primarily serve as a shared platform where many institutions coexist. In contrast, Guru Experience provides a fully custom-branded app for each client, allowing for a unique experience that reflects each museum's specific identity and goals. With Guru, we are dedicated to helping museums and cultural sites advance their digital strategies, ensuring their visitor engagement is dynamic, tailored, and immersive.

As an employee-owned company, we understand the importance of helping our clients, and potential clients, in any way possible. That’s why we’ve addressed what makes Guru Experience unique when it comes to current digital guide experiences on the market.

Download our chart now to see the full comparison list and make an informed decision!1.69 MB • PDF File

In the remainder of the article, we discuss the following:

  • Continued Service

  • Brand Identity Recognition

  • Audio Features

  • Augmented Reality

  • Features, Features, and More Features

  • Wayfinding and Navigation

Continued Service

Guru Experience offers more than just the app platform; we are your strategic partner – YOUR app team dedicated to advancing your digital strategies. We work closely with you to ensure your app is always fresh and engaging, from creating and implementing to curating and managing your digital content. Unlike other platforms that only provide the empty shell, we collaborate with you to create, load, update, and maintain your content, eliminating the risk of stale tours and outdated calendars. While one of the multi-tenant apps out there will provide a one-time training, we offer professional content production and continued services.

Our comprehensive support places no additional burden on your staff. With Guru, your digital presence evolves seamlessly with your exhibits, reflecting your unique identity and goals.

Brand Identity Recognition

Free multi-tenant apps pose a high barrier to entry.

Visitors must first find and download an app branded to a philanthropic organization and then find & search for your museum amongst a sea of others. With Guru, we build your Museum app using our feature-rich app template representing your institution. This includes branding colors, splash pages, and even QR code deep linking, which allows visitors to directly access any page, tour, or item in the app. 

Audio Features

Free platforms work if your goal is a single, evergreen audio tour. However, your galleries and exhibitions change! With Guru, you can have unlimited audio in whichever format you choose. While others provide a one-size-fits-all approach to content, we offer linear tours, map-based tours, and even a 'what’s nearby' function that allows visitors to see content in their immediate vicinity. The best part? We will also produce the content. Your team can be involved as much or as little as they’d like. We ensure your app content is fresh and ready to change as your exhibits do. With Guru, we are here to help museums and cultural sites further their digital strategies, ensuring that your visitor engagement remains dynamic and relevant.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is a powerful tool when it comes to learning and making memorable museum moments. Our platform can not only support AR experiences but our team also creates and produces them as well. We work with your team to choose the best artworks or artifacts and determine the themes and takeaways visitors should encounter with each experience. With a free app platform, AR is not available and would require outside production and a separate app. It’s challenging enough to get visitors to download a single app. Imagine requiring two in order to have the full experience. With Guru, it’s all in one place and taken care of by your app team–Us!

Features, Features, and More Features

Basic audio tours. That’s it. That’s what you get with a free app. But with Guru your digital layer can span media, departments, and learning styles. From video and 3D models to scavenger hunts and quizzes, our app integrates diverse media and features to create an unparalleled digital layer for your museum. Plus, with support for events, sponsorships, ticketing, and memberships, Guru ensures your digital platform is as versatile as your institution's offerings.

Wayfinding and Navigation

Guru wayfinding not only shows visitors where the content is, but where they are in relation to it. Not to mention how to get where they want to be. We incorporate blue-dot navigation into our mapping to ensure visitors have a clear picture of their location and the steps to take get to their next.