AusFuel - Ad Free native iPhone App would love some feedback

MarketingLJjohnny @ Johnny Lee on 05/04/2026 - 22:10
Last edited 07/04/2026 - 23:42 by 1 other user

Built this as a hobby for fun and thought it'd a good time to release this to the public for FREE and AD-FREE

Quick demo of the App and some info on the app

Direct link to the Apple Play Store

You are probably thinking "Not another fuel app" and "Why should I use yours?"

Many fuel apps on the iOS App Store are just web-based apps wrapped in a container, clunky UI/UX or an overload of ads (2.3MB for this app, FuelCheck NSW is 50MB) and this is mainly for states without their own fuel app.

I've built a native iPhone app (requires minimum iOS 26) using native iOS controls with performance and UI/UX in mind:
- Cheapest Station Finder: Dynamically shows the cheapest station on the map for your fuel type as you move around the map
- Favorites: Easily add your favorite stations for quick access
- Widgets: iPhone and iPad Home Screen widgets to monitor your favorite stations at a glance
- Push Notifications: Get alerted when prices change at your favorite stations
- CarPlay Support: Native CarPlay integration (currently fixing minor compatibility issues with a few manufacturers)
- Smart Diesel Filtering: Automatically combines Premium and regular Diesel, with an option to separate them
- Advanced Filters: Filter by fuel type or brand, and search by location
- Price Trends: View daily price increases/decreases compared to previous days for any station in Australia
- Price History: Access a 7-day price history for your specific fuel type at every station
- Official Data: Sourced directly from official State Fuel APIs (sorry no Canberra yet)

Still on the TODO list:
- Quick Report Button: This will allow users to quickly report incorrect prices if the app doesn't match the station's signage. I've only heard back from one state regarding this and hope to get more on board soon.
- Android App: Version with widgets and Android Auto support is coming soon.

I would love some feedback on any features you think are missing!

Automotive Fuel iOS App

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Johnny Lee
Johnny Lee

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  • Onemoredeal on 05/04/2026 - 22:39
    +6

    I use fuel check in nsw, no ads, govt owned, does what I need it to do which isn’t much, just show me the prices so I can rort 7/11 fuel lock somewhere along the train line into town

  • Gunnar on 05/04/2026 - 23:01
    +6

    FFS can’t we have a dedicated section on Ozbargain for apps and website development

    • KangaDrew on 06/04/2026 - 07:38
      +2

      OZB better not turn into a dumping ground for AI slop like Reddit has become 😣

      • pegaxs on 06/04/2026 - 08:20
        +2

        Too late… it has already turned into OzVibeCoding. And none of them are original ideas. They are just website scrapers and reorganisers. They just harvest existing webpages and apps and just re-present it.

        The only real vibe coded AI slop app presented here was at least the guy who made a “find free motorcycle parking in Sydney” app. It wasn’t a copy of an existing app idea.

        • KangaDrew on 06/04/2026 - 10:44

          Ooooh I missed that! Knowing where all the parking is before riding would be great. I'll have to hunt that down, thanks.

    • tenpercent on 05/04/2026 - 23:03

      There is a suggestion thread.

    • Clear on 06/04/2026 - 12:16

      That other guy posted his app in the free software/apps forum and people still had a big sook. This post is posted under the Automotive forum that says:

      Discussions related to cars, motorbikes, petrol price, etc.

      Boom it's right where it belongs.

      Perhaps stop browsing the New forum posts section that combines all forums into one and you won't have this problem.

  • simplystu on 05/04/2026 - 22:18
    +2

    TLDR
    OP as you said yourself - ""Not another fuel app"

    But that is what is - a clone like the many others.

    • MarketingJjohnny @ Johnny Lee on 05/04/2026 - 22:43
      -1

      Would love any feedback you have on the app so I can improve it so it is not just a clone.

      • cerealsmok3r on 06/04/2026 - 15:36

        usually this is something that you think of and plan out before you create the app. its misleading though i dont see anything wrong with having another app.

      • joka on 06/04/2026 - 07:12
        -2

        If you can’t think of your own ideas then why even bother?

        • topherboi on 06/04/2026 - 12:15
          +2

          Why are you being so rude? OP clearly stated their intentions and how their app compares to others.

          Member Since
          10/03/2018
          Statistics
          0 posts / 972 comments

          Try contributing something positive to the site for once.

          • joka on 10/04/2026 - 13:21
            -1

            @topherboi: I must have missed the rule which states I need to post in order to comment. Should I make a post which asks the community to rate my new app? Maybe someone will provide some good ideas while they're at it.

  • tenpercent on 05/04/2026 - 23:03
    +2

    This doesn't seem to do anything that the government provided sites/apps do.
    At least the other two recently shared vibe coded fuel sites/apps have additional features.

  • KangaDrew on 06/04/2026 - 07:39
    +1

    How much of this was vibe coded? 🤔

    • pegaxs on 06/04/2026 - 08:13
      +4

      My guess… with the current influx of posts about “hey try my app and give me ideas on how to make it better with more features” this site has exploded with, I’m guessing that it’s a 100% chance it is vibe coded.

      AI truely is the bleeding edge of enshitification of the human race.

  • Zemuch on 06/04/2026 - 07:45
    +1

    Is the app good? Maybe, I didn’t install it as it feel like another vibe coded app where even dev doesn’t know what’s under the hood with potential serious security issues.
    Will it have ongoing support and bug fixes? Likely no, as claude is great creating from scratch and terrible at fixing/adding/editing (fix one thing, break 2 others)
    Finally:
    Does it belong on OzBargain? No. Where is the bargain? It’s new and it’s free, so what bargain are we getting as opposed to regular day? Or us the bargain that OP gets a free advertisement and exposure?

    • MarketingJjohnny @ Johnny Lee on 06/04/2026 - 13:18
      +3

      Holy smoke I didn't think I'd get this sort of backlash from posting this, I don’t browse the forums section on OZB much I didn’t realise there were so much Vibe Apps being put up for display. I definitely didn't want to post this up as a deal and thought a forum would would be more ideal for feedback.

      I’m a SwiftUI and .NET backend developer in my day job, the SwiftUI app and .NET API was mostly done by hand which is why the UI looks better than the Vibe stuff out there but I'd be lying if I didnt have AI assistance(especially the carplay stuff and I use SwiftUI subagents) and yes I can fix it myself without AI assistance. The HTML demo webpage was 100% vibe coded I'm horrible at web stuff.

      Unlike vibe apps that are mostly connected to the government sources directly and have their keys/secrets exposed within the IPA, I have my own .NET API which accumulate price data on a schedule which is how I can have historical data for each station on a graph (this isn't just state price data this is per station price data that no one provides) that data isn't really even that important and is available to the public anyway and I'm not taking login credentials/emails etc etc.

      A few people have asked how can you host it for free?: It can be ad-free/free because I'm a developer in my day job and I already have the Apple Developer license and extra credits for Azure where the cost is like nothing because it's hosted on a $20 linux box at the moment. The API is quite basic and the front end app is also quite basic (it's only 2.3mb compared to PetrolSpy/FuelCheck which are ~50mb I have no idea what they are doing)

      This was made with the idea to assist with government auditors to help submit audits for petrol stations (this is still in ongoing talkes with some of them) and to provide people in states where they don't have a State Fuel App (people keep saying just using the state one but not every state has an app).

      • tenpercent on 06/04/2026 - 15:00

        How does yours stand out from others like petrolspy?
        You mentioned per station price history. Could be useful so I will check it out just to see how that looks.
        Anything else?

  • WookieMonster on 07/04/2026 - 08:53
    +1

    I had a quick look at the app and had some thoughts:

    • I like the UI. It is definitely cleaner than a lot of other fuel apps I have previously used.

    • Your comment of sorry no Canberra yet is confusing, because the ACT leverages NSW FuelCheck. When I set my state to NSW on your app, I can see prices for all ACT service stations.

    • Do I have to set my state when using the app? For example, when I set my state to NSW, I find that I can only see service stations in NSW and the ACT. However, when I move the map over to Albury (NSW), I cannot see any service stations across the border in Wodonga (VIC). I once was actually passing through Albury/Wodonga and needed to get fuel in one of these towns, so using your app would have required me to manually switch between NSW to VIC to compare prices of service stations on either side of the border. I know that checking fuel prices across state/territory borders is not a common occurrence, but other apps (e.g. Petrol Spy) seem to be able to handle this situation seamlessly. My guess is that the app has been set up so that setting the state also sets the data source for prices in the app?

    • Your search suggestions requires some refinements. For example, when I typed in 2000, 2601 and 3000, I got random addresses each time, rather than the name of a suburb/town corresponding with that postcode. Also, when I typed in 2617, the third result was for some random place in the Philippines!

    • Are you able to consistently use brand logos to help differentiate between different operators with the same network? I use brand logos on other fuel apps to quickly figure out which service stations accept the fuel discounts and/or gift cards I have on hand and therefore which one is best priced for me. This would be necessary if you implement the "fuel discounts" feature request in the comment above.

    For example, for Ampol service stations, you appear to only use the Ampol logo. However, there are a number of different operators within the Ampol network, and they may run their fuel discount offers and/or accept different payment methods. For example, Ampol Foodary is operated by Ampol themselves, EG Ampol is operated by EG, Ampol Bennett's Petroleum is operated by Bennett's Petroleum, etc. I think having an Ampol Foodary logo, EG Ampol and regular Ampol logo will suffice, as I doubt you want to end up with 20 different Ampol logos…

    Additionally, I am confused with how you handle service stations in the Shell network. For example, for Shell in NSW, Shell Reddy Express, Shell OTR and independent Shell service stations use the Shell logo, but when I move over to the ACT, Shell Reddy Express service stations use the (outdated) Coles Express logo. When I move over to VIC, Shell OTR service stations use the OTR logo, but the Shell logo for everything else. (The Shell fuel finder says three OTR service stations in VIC are co-branded with Caltex rather than Shell, so keep that in mind before deciding on how to use the OTR logo in the app.)

    • MarketingJjohnny @ Johnny Lee on 07/04/2026 - 11:27

      Thanks for your feedback!

      - Do I have to set my state when using the app?: I had thought about this and I figured the % of people travelling between borders was quite low and I wanted a smaller data set so that app would be more efficient. I'll have to test out the performance if I brought in every state's data in one go (I need to enable some compression it's pretty big without it) or just bring in bordering state's data.

      - Your search suggestions requires some refinements: Thanks I didn't pick this up I only tested my local suburbs because of regardless what you type it injects additional parameters to try makes sure the location is based in Australia which is probably causing the issue, I probably need to prioritise recongition of a postcode to let the API know it's a postcode first to get more accurate results.

      - Are you able to consistently use brand logos to help differentiate between different operators with the same network?: I definitely want to fix this up (it's also a lot of manual work because of the logos) for when I implement fuel discounts and offers as @tenpercent suggested. The AMPOL stuff is something I definitely want to fix up because that confuses me IRL as well.

      The Shell and other co-branded stuff was a bit of a nightmare because I think I remember there were some WA/NT(?) stations that still use the Coles Express name and that probably had flow on effects to other states, the co-branded stuff is also a pain and as for the Caltex/Shell/OTR co-branded stations seem to be a bit different for every state, anyway I'll have to sit down and sort this out before I introduce the discounts to the app.

      Also thank you for keeping the Fuel - Discounts & FAQs page updated I had a look after @tenpercent suggested it.

      • WookieMonster on 07/04/2026 - 22:45

        I had thought about this and I figured the % of people travelling between borders was quite low and I wanted a smaller data set so that app would be more efficient.

        Fair enough. It is a weird edge case, especially with the price of fuel these days likely dissuading a lot of people - including myself - from doing cross-border journeys. The one cross-border scenario that is relatively common is NSW/ACT, but that is not an issue for your app.

        I know you said in a comment below that you will remove the states soon, but I would have understood if you kept states in due to it making the app noticeably faster.

        I think I remember there were some WA/NT(?) stations that still use the Coles Express name and that probably had flow on effects to other states

        "Coles Express" appears to be dead as a brand.

        • The Reddy Express website removed most references to "Coles Express" a while ago.

        • The Flybuys website removed references to "Coles Express" many months ago.

        • I just had a look at the Shell fuel finder (which I take as the source of truth for Shell service stations across the country), and it only lists two service stations across Australia with "Coles Express" in the location name (Shell Coles Express Glass House Mountains Outbound (QLD), Shell Coles Express Glass Woolloomooloo). However, quick Google searches indicate that Glass House Mountains service station was demolished in 2025 (and it looks like it will eventually re-open as a Shell OTR), and the Woolloomooloo service station was re-opened as a Shell OTR a number of weeks ago.

        the co-branded stuff is also a pain and as for the Caltex/Shell/OTR co-branded stations seem to be a bit different for every state

        I think it is safe to say all fuel pricing apps struggle to deal with co-branded service stations!

        I think you have two options:

        • Create two separate brands (Caltex OTR, Shell OTR) and apply it to the relevant service stations, or
        • Create one brand (OTR) and apply it to all OTR service stations.

        Some points for you to mull over:

        • There are 205 Shell OTR service stations, but only ten Caltex OTR service stations across Australia. (There also used to be BP OTR service stations, but after Viva Energy bought out OTR, BP OTR appear to have been converted to Shell OTR.)

        • There is very little difference between the brands in terms of how they operate: both accept Shell eGift Cards and Shell Cards, both do not accept Viva Energy fuel discount offers nor physical Shell gift cards, etc. The only points of difference are that all Caltex OTRs accept Caltex StarCard and some Caltex OTRs accept Caltex Rewards, but I doubt this is something you would be too worried about.

        If I had to choose, I would have Caltex OTR and Shell OTR under the same brand.

        Also thank you for keeping the Fuel - Discounts & FAQs page updated

        No worries!

        I wrote the vast majority of that wiki, so if you ever get confused about brands or discounts, etc and the wiki does not help, let me know and I will see where I can help.

        • MarketingJjohnny @ Johnny Lee on 07/04/2026 - 23:52
          +1

          Ah yea I had a change of mind, I will keep it the regular state setup just for lean data and have an option to load stations for all states for people who cross states often in the settings.

  • perhaps on 06/04/2026 - 08:24

    Honestly, I appreciate the thought of the app. I know the functionality is the same as other apps but I do like the UX being apple-esq. My concern is it being free with no ads… If its free then you are the product.

  • A Banana4scale on 06/04/2026 - 08:46

    Have a look at Arevo, should be able to able to suggest the cheaper prices with the discounts from Wilson parking, Cole’s, Woolies, afl app etc

    • MarketingJjohnny @ Johnny Lee on 06/04/2026 - 13:56

      Thanks I'll check it out!

  • Wiadro on 06/04/2026 - 09:43

    More spam apps made by AI

  • cpool on 06/04/2026 - 13:02

    I quite like the app. Here are some suggestions that could make it more useful to me.

    • My car uses U95, but very often I'm like to search across U95 and U98 in the same filter. For example, today, if I search in Daylesford, Victoria, I can see one petrol station with U95 at 241.00, but if I change the filter to U98, I can see another petrol station with U98 at 235.9, which is cheaper. So if I'm in Daylesford, I'd probably fill up with U98 instead. So I'd love to filter on U95/U98 or U95+

    • This might be due to the data source, but sometimes it can be hard to read the figures. For example, when viewing around BP Calder Highway Inbound in Calder Park, Victoria, there appear to be 2 info sources at the same location. The prices overwrite each other, and you have to keep clicking until luck changes the location price.

    • When I go to the list tab, it only shows the three nearest locations (even if they don't have the fuel type I'm interested in). This seems to be independent of the Map tab. I kinda expect the list tab to list the stations that are shown on the Map tab.

    • MarketingJjohnny @ Johnny Lee on 06/04/2026 - 13:44

      Thanks for the feedback, the first one I can definitely look into that the diesel combination is a similar thing.

      The second one - It looks like for Diesel they have it as BP Calder Highway Outbound and the other ones as BP Calder Freeway Outbound I'm not sure why they have it as separated data, but the ideal fix is if the location is the same I can make the UI stack Map Annotations on top of each other.

      The third one - yea this was a bit of a weird one to implement and I got different feedback for this from my friends. For the MapView I wanted to always show the all map annotations regardless of distance cause it looks cool and practical to use when you move around a map.

      The ListView it's kinda useless being able to see like 50 stations on a list, so the ListView is filtered by a Station Range in the settings (default is 5km) people were saying sometimes they don' t want to travel more than X km for their petrol so they wanted a setting to set that. There's also a fall back of a default fuel type (I might remove this it's adding more confusion I think). This list also syncs with Apple Car play so you'd want minimal stations on the list when you loaded up in the car.

  • powerhead on 06/04/2026 - 21:19

    Thanks OP, will try it out just for the Carplay support

  • tenpercent on 06/04/2026 - 21:24

    Feature request: incorporate fuel discounts. Have a list of all fuel discounts (e.g. coles / woolies 4c/L, NRMA, RACV, Toyota Go, etc etc). Users can toggle on/off individual fuel discounts available to them. Keep in mind not all fuel discounts can be stacked but some can be. There's a wiki page here on Ozb about various fuel discounts.

  • mckaul on 07/04/2026 - 15:58

    I actually whipped up a basic self-hosted fuel map over the weekend to dust off my dev skills. My main drivers were no ads, dark mode and a not so ugly UI. I never used anything but the map in the other apps.

    I'm going to give your app a go though. I like the UI, especially highlighted pins for the lowest price. But I live right on a state border, I foresee having to manually swap state data-sources is going to get tiring.

    I feel your pain with collecting the logos.

    • MarketingJjohnny @ Johnny Lee on 07/04/2026 - 16:54

      Yea Wookie just mentioned the crossing states issue as well, I have an update which will remove the requirement for States soon and the CarPlay issue too (my car was throwing low 12V battery warning when I spent too long debugging in the car) I just need to do some testing and then pending Apple review for the update.

      • mckaul on 10/04/2026 - 10:29

        I gave the CarPlay function a go.
        I had an issue with no prices/pins loading till I opened the app on my phone.
        Also in my car there was overlapping of the map control buttons. In particular arrows for moving the map and the static buttons on the left. Maybe imitate the Maps apps design for this.

        • MarketingJjohnny @ Johnny Lee on 10/04/2026 - 16:03

          Thanks for this feedback! I'll have a look into the pin/prices not loading when the phone is locked I suspect it is because I am syncing your preferences with Car Play I'll see if I can find another way around it.

          I'll look into the overlap, my car has a pretty big and wide screen so I didn't notice the issue and the simulator for carplay is pretty rubbish.

          On another note, I have a new version coming out soon (just pending Apple approval), has fixed majority of the bugs people have mentioned e.g. postcode issue, Canberra, overlapping map annotations and some of the branding/sub-branding issues, after this is approved I can work on showing discounts.

  • ak47wong on 07/04/2026 - 20:42

    I’d love to try it but it requires iOS 26 and I’m sticking with iOS 18

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