Comparison

FishDonkey vs CatchIQ

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

FishDonkey

Easily create and manage various types of fishing tournaments, from catch and release to competitive leagues. Features include live leaderboards, anti-cheating technology, and flexible customization options for organizers and participants.

Highlights
  • Create diverse tournament types
  • Live leaderboards with updates
  • Anti-cheating technology
  • Online registration and payment
  • Customizable tournament rules
  • Participant messaging
  • Works offline
Features
Read full description

Create and run fishing tournaments on a mobile phone: Catch and release,traditional tournaments by weight or length. You can run bracket (playoff style) head to head tournaments, multi day (Day 1 + Day 2 + Day 3), points based tournaments, photo or video. This is the best and easiest platform with the most options for running your event. FishDonkey is the Future of Tournament Fishing®. Conservation is an important aspect of tournament fishing. Not only do we enable our users to run fun and exciting fishing tournaments, but we also help conserve the fishery on your local lake. The app includes: - Online payment, online registration. - Live leaderboards with exciting updates all day long. - Anti-cheating technology (TM). - Digital Livewell®. - Boat Check-ins and Livewell Checks. - Cheating/fraud prevention tools. - Date and time stamped photos and videos. - Flexible tournament creation allows you to customize your tournament. Best at Tournament Creation The FishDonkey app has built in options to help you create and run an automated tournament just the way you want. Create a variety of tournament options such as biggest fish, largest stringer of fish, grand slam, multispecies tournaments, wildcard, or custom names. You can run a tournament anywhere. Specify any length of time, an hour, a month… easily define and manage the start and end dates. Track daily or weekly winners. Highlighted Features Works without an internet connection. Prevents cheating in catch and release tournaments. Send any participant (or all) messages by email, text, or phone call from the app. Enter your sponsors, prizes, rules, logos and welcome message. Define multiple divisions for children, kayak, boat fishing, angler, co-angler, etc. Potential uses Local fishing leagues World-wide tournaments High School Tournament Trail Team practice sessions Ice fishing tournaments, boat tournaments, shore tournaments, team tournaments Multi-species tournaments Tournaments with divisions (veterans, children, etc.) Cost It is free to create a tournament. Anglers pay a small fee when they join. (All pricing policies are subject to change.)

About

CatchIQ

Analyze your fishing trips with detailed logs and powerful analytics. Discover patterns in species, weather, lures, and more to improve your catch rate. Your data is private and synced securely via iCloud.

Highlights
  • Detailed catch logging
  • Seven analytics views
  • Weather and solunar auto-fill
  • Historical photo import
  • Voice input for hands-free logging
  • iCloud sync across devices
Features
Read full description

Spot the patterns in your own fishing data. Most fishing apps want you to share your spots. CatchIQ doesn't. Your catches stay on your phone, synced privately through your iCloud — nobody at CatchIQ sees them, and neither does anyone else. What you get instead is a tournament-grade analytics engine built on top of your log. Every catch you record — species, weight, lure, weather, depth, structure, solunar conditions — feeds seven analytics views that surface the patterns most anglers feel but can't prove. Your best time of day. Your best lure in stained water. The pressure trend that turns your bites on. The water bodies where you actually catch your biggest fish, not just the ones you remember. CatchIQ is built for anglers who treat fishing like a craft: - Detailed catch logging with weather, and solunar auto-filled - Seven analytics tabs — Timing, Weather, Equipment, Environment, Solunar, Location, and Overview - Historical photo import — pull years of past catches in from your photo library - Personal bests tracked by species, ignoring time filters - Voice input for hands-free logging on the water - Apple Maps and Google Maps support - iCloud sync across your devices, encrypted end-to-end through Apple's infrastructure - No ads in Pro, no social feed, no data sold, ever Free to download and log unlimited catches. Upgrade to Pro to unlock the full analytics suite. Built solo by an angler who got tired of fishing apps that wanted his data more than they wanted to help him fish. Terms of Use: https://www.catchiqapp.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://www.catchiqapp.com/privacy

Screenshots

FishDonkey4 screens
CatchIQ4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: CatchIQ at 5.0 against FishDonkey's 4.0. CatchIQ also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 69%). FishDonkey's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (87 vs 8). On price, update cadence, ads and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. CatchIQ sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. FishDonkey asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

CatchIQ holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: FishDonkey has 87 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 69% of FishDonkey's written reviews are positive against 100% of CatchIQ's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

FishDonkey ships an update monthly, CatchIQ fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
FishDonkey versus CatchIQ: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFishDonkeyCatchIQ
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (87 ratings)5.0 (8 ratings) — better
Positive reviews68.9% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings87 — better8
Update frequencyMonthlyFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB41 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFishery Innovations, LLCCIQ, LLC

Customer experience

FishDonkey

All ratings86 ratings
Positive73.3%
Neutral2.3%
Negative24.4%
Written reviews45 reviews
Positive68.9%
Neutral4.4%
Negative26.7%

CatchIQ

Written reviews6 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

FishDonkey

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • Video portion crashes
  • Bump board ad close button is hidden
  • Server crashes
  • Digital live well not allowing fish entry
  • Cannot check results/leaderboards if not the payer
Show 2 more
  • App won't move past divisions during setup
  • App did not work for multiple users

Requested features

6 requests
  • Easier one-handed camera controls
  • Local/private tournament setup option
  • Camera picture delay function for solo fishing
  • Geographic specific feature for tournament search
  • Add more countries and fish species
Show 1 more
  • Improve boat education about AIS

CatchIQ

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

FishDonkey

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

CatchIQ

Subscriptions2
  • CatchIQ Pro$9.991 Month
  • CatchIQ Pro (Annual)$59.991 Year

Questions

Is FishDonkey free?
FishDonkey is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is CatchIQ free?
CatchIQ is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, FishDonkey or CatchIQ?
CatchIQ is rated higher. FishDonkey averages 4.0 out of 5 from 87 ratings, while CatchIQ averages 5.0 from 8 ratings.
Do FishDonkey or CatchIQ have ads?
Neither FishDonkey nor CatchIQ shows ads.
Which is updated more often, FishDonkey or CatchIQ?
FishDonkey ships an update monthly, and CatchIQ fortnightly. Most recently, FishDonkey was updated on November 2, 2026 and CatchIQ on November 5, 2026.

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