Our Experience
We used Grab throughout our 2026 Southeast Asia trip and I did not like the app.
Its core business already takes commission from drivers, much like Uber, yet the app constantly interrupted us with advertising. Am I trying to order a car or watch an ad? I would choose Uber every time if both were available.
You might excuse the adverts if they funded lower driver fees. A Singapore driver told us Grab charged us 40 SGD and paid him 30, which would mean a 25 percent commission on that ride. That is his statement about one trip, not a verified universal commission rate, but it did not improve my opinion.
The compensation rules also felt petty. A scheduled driver in Singapore arrived late, so the app issued a 10 SGD voucher. Our ride was to the airport and we continued to Thailand, where the voucher turned out to be valid only in Singapore. Grab appeared to compensate us while designing the compensation so narrowly that we could not use it.
The service itself was useful and widely available. The app experience still made Uber look a hundred times better.