Comparison

Helmsman's Kit vs Sextant

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

Head to head
About

Helmsman's Kit

This navigation app provides essential yacht cockpit features, including a spherical compass, man-over-board alerts, and anchor watch. It offers offline charts, weather overlays, and marine instrument displays for a comprehensive sailing experience.

Highlights
  • Spherical compass display
  • Man-over-board button with direction/distance
  • Anchor watch with forwarding
  • Offline chart caching
  • Weather overlay (wind, waves, temp, pressure)
  • Marine instruments display (position, heading, speed)
  • Track export in GPX format
Features
Read full description

This app combines the essential features you need in the cockpit of your yacht, optimized for easy and fast usage. β€’ Display of a spherical compass as you are used to. β€’ Man-over-board button, display direction/distance with compass. β€’ Anchor watch with forwarding to a second device. β€’ Bearing compass. β€’ Charts with sea signs. β€’ Offline charts by caching of all chart access. β€’ Weather overlay: wind, waves, temperature, pressure. β€’ Tracking optimized for boats. β€’ Full access to and export of the tracks in standard format (GPX). β€’ Post images of your tracks on social media. β€’ Marine instruments display with the standard values: Position, Heading, Speed over ground, Course over Ground, Heel, Log, Average speed, Time. No account or registration required, even not for forwarding the anchor watch alarm to a second iPhone or iPad!

About

Sextant

This app provides a comprehensive celestial navigation toolkit for sailors and enthusiasts. It allows users to navigate using celestial bodies like the sun, moon, planets, and stars, even when GPS is unavailable. The app guides users through taking sextant readings, performing calculations, and plotting positions on a map.

Highlights
  • Celestial body identification using camera and ephemeris
  • Sextant sight reduction with manual correction checks
  • Offline celestial navigation
  • Noon sight for latitude calculation
  • Line of position plotting on a real map
  • Polaris one-shot latitude
  • Solar Compass for deviation checks
Features
Read full description

A complete celestial navigation toolkit for sailors, students, and the curious. When the GPS quits, the sun, moon, planets, and stars still work. Sextant takes you all the way from a single sextant reading to a line of position on a map β€” with every correction shown, so you can check the math by hand if you want to. Point the camera at the sky The Sky tab labels every navigational body in view β€” the sun, the moon, all four navigational planets, and 58 navigational stars β€” using the magnetic compass and on-device ephemeris. Spot a star, tap its name, and a sight starts with that body identified and the time stamped. Sight with your camera, or a real sextant The camera flow uses gravity-based altitude with a roll lockout so a tilted phone can't slip a bad shot through. Multi-shot mode takes a series and saves the trimmed mean. Or just type your altitude from a brass sextant and let the app do the reduction. Every body you'll ever shoot Sun, moon, all four navigational planets β€” Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn β€” and all 58 standard navigational stars. Positions computed from astronomical models (Meeus, VSOP87, JPL Keplerian elements), not stale tables. Works fully offline. Noon Sight in one tap Take the sun's altitude at meridian passage; the app gives you latitude. It also predicts the exact UTC of local apparent noon so you know when to look. Plot your fix Every sight draws a line of position on a real map. Take more than one, apply dead reckoning between them, watch your running fix come together β€” exactly like the paper-chart workflow. Tools sailors actually use - Polaris one-shot latitude - Solar Compass β€” true bearing of the sun, for compass deviation checks - Starfinder β€” what's above the horizon right now - Reduction tables (dip, refraction, semi-diameter) - DMS / decimal converter Learn celestial navigation as you go Step through your first sight with a guided walk-through. Every screen has inline help, and every correction in the sight reduction β€” dip, refraction, semi-diameter, parallax β€” has an explanation a tap away. Check the app against your hand calculations, or let it do all the work. Share your work Export sight records as CSV or as a printable PDF work-form in the classic HO 229 layout. No subscription. No ads. No internet. One purchase, everything included.

Screenshots

Helmsman's Kit4 screens
Sextant4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Helmsman's Kit at 100% against Sextant's 0%. Helmsman's Kit also leads on price ($1.99 vs $9.99) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 26.0). Sextant's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 7 months). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Helmsman's Kit costs $1.99 and Sextant $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Helmsman's Kit ships an update every 7 months, Sextant every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences Β· 4 level
Helmsman's Kit versus Sextant: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHelmsman's KitSextant
Price$1.99 β€” better$9.99
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews β€” better0.0% of reviews
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 3 weeks β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod β€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 β€” better26.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size5 MB2 MB
Age rating4++4
DeveloperDr. Harald MerkelStolk.cc

Customer experience

Helmsman's Kit

Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Sextant

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

In-app purchases

None

Helmsman's Kit

No in-app purchases

None

Sextant

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Helmsman's Kit free?
Helmsman's Kit costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sextant free?
Sextant costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Helmsman's Kit or Sextant have ads?
Neither Helmsman's Kit nor Sextant shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Helmsman's Kit or Sextant?
Helmsman's Kit ships an update every 7 months, and Sextant every 3 weeks. Most recently, Helmsman's Kit was updated on September 20, 2026 and Sextant on September 24, 2026.

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