Uber vs. Bolt

We used Uber in Portugal in the Fall. Every driver we had was a driver for Uber and Bolt. On average Bolt was slightly cheaper when we compared but I was used to Uber and used it. An example of cost comparison, when I was comparing prices the night before I needed a ride to the Porto airport Bolt came it at about €13.50 and Uber was €14.

I agree with Allen. If you already have Uber, stick with it.

Dennis

Just returned from 12 days in Portugal. I had both Bolt and Uber on my phone which worked fine with data only and my American phone number. We used Bolt in Lisbon and Coimbra with no issues. Use Uber once in Sintra when Bolt could not find a driver to accept our ride request.
The Uber driver spoke no English, drove in a very unsafe way from Monserrat to Pena Palace, and the ride took twice as long and cost twice as much as the original "quote" from Uber. I realize this was luck of the draw with that driver but we chose not to use Uber again after that. All the Bolt drivers were very helpful and drove safely. FWIW.

I was able to activate Bolt account while still in North America (Canada). This is recommended because Bolt needs to send an SMS text activating account. It is easier while you still have your home cell number working.

Bolt is a little bit cheaper than Uber. Also new bolt accounts get lots of discounts so there are more savings. Also, the commission charged to driver by bolt is less than commission by uber.

If you already have uber and can't get bolt to activate, just use uber.

Lots of warning to avoid taxis at the airport.

There is a slight difference in how the two work, not sure if it has any impact or one is better than the other, but Bolt shows you a bit more of the driver process, shows drivers looking at the fare, maybe accepting or declining, then a confirmation, Uber basically tells you it is working, then give you a confirmation or not. Bolt can be handier if you have what could be called an undesirable fare (too short, going to an out of the way place, so no return fare) that way you know, and maybe choose a higher class of fare.

But both work well, I had better luck with Bolt, but had good luck with Uber on a previous trip. If you have only one, use that, but it really was no trouble to use both for me.

I was able to activate Bolt in the US prior to the trip. You can also activate it in Portugal using verification code on WhatsApp or text. I like to have both options just in case but I think you will be fine with just Uber (can’t go wrong with either in Portugal).