FREE NOW reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
A European app for hailing licensed metered taxis — handy when a car actually shows up, but built around a constant tension between the price you're quoted and what you're actually charged.
What users love
When a car does come, the drivers and service genuinely delight
The standout positive is people: drivers are polite, help with luggage and the elderly, arrive on time, cars are clean. Many call FREE NOW more reliable than Uber in Athens and Dublin and praise the transparent locked-in price before you confirm.
absolutely gives peace of mind, excellent service, excellent drivers, excellent response time
Freenow is very reliable. They always come through when UBER does not a lot of the time in Athens. Their drivers are always polite and drive very safe.
it's fabulous not to be ripped off by taxi drivers quadrupling the rates as the app tells you the price before you agree to book it.
What users hate
The final charge is almost always higher than the quoted estimate
People are charged above the top of the range over and over: a 19-24€ estimate becomes 27€, a max-19€ estimate becomes 44€, and a second trip quoted at max 20€ becomes 60€. Excuses about "fee variations" don't convince anyone.
always seems significantly more expensive than booking direct
First trip quoted at MAX 19€, paid 44€. Second trip quoted at MAX 20€, paid 60€.
Each time I use the app, the final cost is significantly higher than quoted
The in-car meter shows one figure, but a larger sum leaves your card
The sharpest grievance: the driver or app puts through more than the taximeter reading. Meter 28€ — charged 47.80€; meter 17.40 — 29.20; meter 11.90 — but the locked-in 17.50 was taken anyway.
The Taxi meter said €28 and the bill was €47.80
The price on the meter was 17.40 Euro and the app charged 29.20 Euro, not happy
The meter in the taxi was only €11.90. I was still charged €17.50!!!
A pre-booking only starts hunting for a driver at pickup time — and often finds none
Booking a day ahead reserves nothing: the algorithm only starts searching minutes before pickup, and at 4am there are no drivers. People miss flights, ferries and trains, told of the cancellation exactly when the taxi was due.
Don't trust the airport prebook promise. 10 minutes before the travel time, the app starts looking for taxis.
my pre booked taxi to airport at 4 am never showed up. last moment they said there are no drivers available. almost missed my flight.
We booked a ride 2 days ahead and they told us 2 minutes before they were supposed to pick us up that they couldn't find a driver. As a result, we missed our ferry.
Drivers accept then cancel, and the passenger pays the penalty
A driver takes the trip, stalls a few minutes and cancels — yet the passenger is hit with a 3.99-6€ "waiting" fee. The rules, people say, protect only the driver, and there's no way to rate or report them.
Drivers cancel last minute all the time. Not reliable
what about if a taxi driver accepts my booking but cancels on me after 2 minutes? why are you only protecting the taxi drivers, with your new terms and conditions?
Drivers charging more than what the app says they will, drivers canceling on you and then the app charging you $5. Customer service nonexistent.
No car appears until you pay extra for "priority"
The standard search stalls for hours and shows zero cars, but pay the 4-5€ priority surcharge and a driver appears in seconds. Users read this as deliberate extortion, not a real shortage.
The basic charging fee when ordering a taxi is practically non existant. It will "search" for drivers for hours. But once you book priority and get charged an extra 4-5€ it will magically find one in seconds.
you can't even find a taxi unless you pay the high priority ones. really disappointed
Your chances of finding a ride if you do not opt for priority, are zero.
Support is a bot that promises a reply and then vanishes
When a charge is disputed, users meet an AI bot promising a reply within 24 hours — then silence for weeks. There's no human to reach, tickets close with an auto-reply, and refunds are nearly impossible.
Tried talking to a human and only got a bot giving irrelevant answers.
I filed an issue a week ago, and I still haven't received a reply. They promised a response within 24 hours, but it's been a week since I submitted it.
it's an AI bot that tells you someone will get in touch but no one does. AVOID!
Random extra charges trickle in after the ride
The charge doesn't come as one figure: half an hour to an hour after the ride, extra 50-cent, 3-7€ amounts land on the card with no explanation. A single ride shows up split into five separate charges.
it added between €3 and €5 to the fare after i got out of the taxi. then another random amount 30-50c half an hour later
One hour after finished the ride, I was charged 7 EUR extra, with no justification.
they charged me 5 different times 11 euro, 10 euro, 27 euro, 25 euro and 1 euro 65cent
Sign-up requires an SMS code — travellers abroad are locked out
An app meant for trips abroad demands phone-number verification, yet the SMS or call code never arrives on a foreign number or without roaming. Email sign-up is either missing or the fields simply won't activate.
how thoughtless to make verification via your cell number when it is literally an app FOR taxi rides in ANOTHER COUNTRY. how does one verify when they're travelling
I don't receive the authentication code either by SMS or by call, so I can't create an account.
Can't sign up without a mobile number, useless for people from other countries who don't buy a roaming package
The map moves your pickup point and won't let you zoom in
The app shifts the pickup point hundreds of metres and makes you walk to it, while the map can't be zoomed — it rubber-bands back out. The address locks in wrong, the driver gets the wrong spot, and there's not even a car colour.
Why does this stupid app overwrite my pickup location and wants me to walk to it's pickup point 2 minutes away from my address.
This app changes the pickup point randomly, sometimes 100s of metres away.
you can't zoom in on the map to see anything ever because it rubberbands back to a zoomed out view
The core function breaks: the app won't load and freezes
Sometimes the foundation itself breaks: a map opens where nothing is clickable, there's no keyboard, the app freezes and needs restarting. With a perfect connection you still can't order — the most basic thing fails.
doesn't even work, app loads with no keyboard nothing is clickable at all pointless app
app won't load Internet connection is perfect not able to order taxis.
Useless. Enter your destination and a map opens. That's it. Can't do anything else.
Double billing: the driver takes cash and the card is charged too
A distinct kind of fraud — the driver insists on being paid directly or hits "complete" early, and the app charges the same ride again. Sometimes one trip goes through as two payments with no refund.
the drivers charge you money at the end of the ride and insist on collecting payment themselves and then they also charge you on the app!!! Double charging for the same service.
Instead, he pressed complete early and charged us more.
took 2 payments for 1 trip and still haven't responded to my messages.