Comparison

Around the Sticks Lite vs Hotham

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

Head to head
About

Around the Sticks Lite

This app provides yacht racers with essential course information, including mark bearings, distances, and turning instructions. It's designed for autonomous operation during races, requiring minimal user input so you can focus on sailing. Never lose your way on the course again.

Highlights
  • Mark bearing, distance, and turn shape
  • Autonomous race operation
  • Offline functionality
  • Accidental activation lock
  • Proximity mode for mark turns
  • Race start timer with audio cues
  • Custom mark and course creation
Features
Read full description

Around the Sticks is a richly featured yacht racing course app, providing clear and concise information on mark bearing, distance, shape of turn, side to pass and steering angle relative to mark. Optimized to perform autonomously in race conditions, the app requires very little user inputs, leaving you free to concentrate on the racing. Never get lost out on course again! Key features include: -Designed specifically for use in race conditions, and operated through a waterproof casing. Phone will not go idle whilst racing, rather the screen will dim and can be awakened by tapping anywhere on the screen (user settable) to save battery. -No internet connection is required whilst racing. -Buttons on main screen are automatically locked to prevent accidental activation. -One touch race: Once race is started (either with race timer or manually), no further inputs are needed from the user (if all mark positions are known to the app) mark rounding is automatic and the target moves automatically to the next mark. Laid marks, (without set/known coordinates) can be incorporated into courses to maintain the sequential structure. In these cases, once rounded an easily activated manual advance option advances to the next mark. -The main screen includes a link to course description, progress through the course, clear and easy to read bearing to and distance to, name and picture of the next mark, the side it must be left to, plus the name of the following mark of the course. Speed Across Ground and VMG to the mark are also included on the main screen. -Once near (distance user settable) to the next mark, proximity mode is activated. The shape of the turn and the bearing to the following mark are pre-emptively displayed, allowing the crew to prepare for the turn -Race start timer with sync signals for 5, 4 and 1 minutes to start, a user-settable timer button and clear audio cues. This can be used to trigger the start of a course within the app, or as a stand-alone feature -Clear help captions help explain features when you're getting started. Tap on a feature to display a caption explaining its function. Once you're familiar with the app, captions can be disabled in user settings -Create and store your own marks and courses, either by entering co-ordinates or "pinging" current location. User courses can be compiled with a combination of existing and custom marks, in a few moments. Ideal for race days where you're handed a new course at the last minute. It's also easy to enter into the app the entire course list for your club at the start of the season, so any course you may require is instantly accessible. Up to 200 courses may be compiled and stored in this way, however the full version of the app is required to navigate within user courses. Up to 3 user marks can be created and stored (200 in the full version of the app) -Around the Sticks free comes pre-loaded with marks and courses from Melbourne, Australia, this database will be extended regularly to include more territories/clubs. The first five courses of each club list are fully functional, the remaining courses can be used for reference purposes, however navigating within them requires the full version of the app. -Warning: As with all navigation apps, continued use of GPS may drain the battery life faster than normal. It is recommended that the app's easy to use timed screen dimming feature is activated to minimize this.

About

Hotham

Get real-time weather, snow reports, and live snow cams for the ski resort. Track friends, monitor your ski day and season stats, and compete on leaderboards. Purchase lift tickets, lessons, and rentals directly through the app.

Highlights
  • Real-time weather and snow reports
  • Live snow camera feeds
  • Friend tracking and group creation
  • Ski day and season statistics
  • Resort leaderboard
  • Online ticket and rental purchases
Features
Read full description

REAL-TIME WEATHER DATA No more guessing how many layers you’ll need with real-time weather including minimum temperature, wind speeds and how much snow has fallen in the last 24 hours. VIEW LIVE SNOW CAMS Keep an eye on snowfalls and see real time mountain views with live cams from various locations around the resort. FIND AND TRACK YOUR FRIENDS Stay connected with friends by creating your own private group. See their current location in real-time on the resort map, what run or lift each person in your group is riding and the difficulty rating. TRACK YOUR DAY AND SEASON Keep track of all the details about your ski day and season. How many days skied, runs completed and vertical kilometres logged are all at the touch of a button. If you have an Apple Watch, record your runs as a workout and see your workout in the Health app. LEADERBOARD Compete for the top spot on the Hotham Leader board through days skied, lifts ridden, and vertical metres logged. SHOP ONLINE Buy early and save on lift tickets, lessons, rentals and more. Created exclusively for Mount Hotham Alpine Resort by the Resorts Tapped LLC. Note: Location and Logging services require a GPS-equipped device. Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

Screenshots

Around the Sticks Lite4 screens
Hotham4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Around the Sticks Lite at 100% against Hotham's 41%. Around the Sticks Lite also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). Hotham's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs monthly). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Around the Sticks Lite ships an update monthly, Hotham every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on June 1, 2026 and September 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Around the Sticks Lite versus Hotham: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAround the Sticks LiteHotham
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better40.6% of reviews
Number of ratings1 — better
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS12.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB86 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperTim MetherallMount Hotham Skiing Company PTY LTD

Customer experience

Around the Sticks Lite

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Hotham

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews69 reviews
Positive40.6%
Neutral18.8%
Negative40.6%

Bugs and requests

Around the Sticks Lite

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Hotham

Reported bugs

16 issues
  • Trail status inaccurate
  • Grooming status incorrect
  • App often doesn't work early morning
  • Snow report/weather conditions not dated
  • Lift status shows 'unknown'
Show 11 more
  • GPS tracking issues (stops working, deletes runs)
  • App fails to load sometimes
  • Slow to show trail and lift status
  • Cameras mislabeled or not showing
  • Tracking auto-disables after inactivity
  • Stats failing to update
  • Login issues
  • App redirects to web browser for snow report
  • Trail map out of date
  • New app is not iPad friendly
  • Cannot open properly on iPad

Requested features

19 requests
  • More specific weather information
  • Ability to book ski school on the day
  • More resort/personality skiing footage
  • Link with Epic Passes
  • See all resort trails under each lift (older version functionality)
Show 14 more
  • App for Hotham, Falls, and Perisher
  • Comment on terrain park status
  • Add expected opening time for closed lifts
  • Better webcams
  • Include speed in stats
  • Add road conditions alerts
  • Add a 'help!' button for emergencies
  • Leaderboard fairness
  • iPad compatibility
  • Phone list feature
  • Night skiing tracking
  • First Tracks availability
  • Back country trail information
  • Grooming information for cross-country trails

In-app purchases

None

Around the Sticks Lite

No in-app purchases

None

Hotham

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Around the Sticks Lite free?
Around the Sticks Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Hotham free?
Hotham is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Around the Sticks Lite or Hotham have ads?
Neither Around the Sticks Lite nor Hotham shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Around the Sticks Lite or Hotham?
Around the Sticks Lite ships an update monthly, and Hotham every 10 days. Most recently, Around the Sticks Lite was updated on June 1, 2026 and Hotham on September 2, 2026.

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