TailWind Smart vs Pool Captain
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TailWind Smart
Automate your garage door with smart technology. This app allows you to remotely open, close, and check the status of your garage doors. It can also automatically open as you arrive and close as you leave, enhancing security and convenience.
- Automatic opening and closing
- Remote control from anywhere
- Vehicle detection for specific door opening
- Customizable alerts and schedules
- Activity history log
- Unlimited user access
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Don’t just open your garage door with your smartphone. Automate it. Tailwind can close your garage door as you leave, open it when you arrive – all automatically. No buttons. No keypads. Just drive. The Tailwind app allows you to open, close, or check the status of your garage doors from anywhere using your mobile device, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and our iQ3 smart garage door controller (purchased separately). Check out the list of things you can do with Tailwind: Automatically open the door as you approach Automatically close the door as you leave (if you forget to close it) Detect which vehicle you’re driving so it knows which door to open or close (can even work with motorcycles, ATVs, etc)* Automatically close all your garage doors at night, even if someone opens them again! Receive customize alerts telling you who opened the garage door and when See a history log of all activity for the last 30 days Create alert schedules so you only receive alerts at certain times of the day Unlimited users * may require optional Tailwind Vehicle Sensor
Pool Captain
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Your handicap is what the league assigned you. Your scoring pace is what you are actually doing. Pool Captain logs your matches and works out the level you are really playing at. Yours, and everyone else's on the roster. Seven tools. No account, no ads, no tracking, and it all works in airplane mode. Every screen links to a plain-language guide explaining how its number is worked out, including where a figure is a calibrated estimate rather than a rule off the scoresheet. THE CAPTAIN'S VIEW Log a match in about twenty seconds: innings, defensive shots, points, match points, win or loss. The app turns that into a scoring pace, then grades the pace against the level each player was assigned. • Every player on one axis, so an SL3 and an SL7 can be read side by side • Color says who is pushing up, who is holding and who is soft • Graded on the best 10 of the last 20, and it flags which matches count • That is your lineup conversation, settled before you get to the table APA 9 BALL LOGGING Your pace is points per inning. • Charted against the skill bands, so you can see the level you are tracking toward • Defensive shots taken out of innings, the way the scoresheet does it (probably?) APA 8 BALL LOGGING • Innings per win, innings per rack, and win percentage • Innings shared between both players, handled properly • The same best-10-of-20 window as 9-ball BREAK SPEED: YOUR PHONE AS A RADAR GUN Put the phone on the rail and break normally. All it needs is how far the cue ball travelled and how long it took. • The mic times two sounds, tip on cue ball then cue ball on rack, and turns the gap into mph or km/h • Reads the room's noise floor first, so a loud bar does not fool it (I hope anyway) • Shows you the waveform it heard, with a marker on each sound. Drag one if it guessed wrong • Warns you when it is not sure, rather than quietly reporting a wrong number • Save each one and your break becomes a trend: best, average, and a speed-over-time chart APA 8 BALL: WHAT THE MATCHUP IS WORTH Set two skill levels and the app fills in the rest. • The race each player is on, off the Equalizer chart • Single-game odds, and every score line with its own probability • The match points each line pays, so you can see expected value FARGO MATCH • The same odds engine, driven off two Fargo ratings • Race lengths you set yourself, up to a race to 50 • A BCA-style games handicap, so you can propose a fair spot (17 point style) TABLE DIFFICULTY (Credit: Dr. Dave Alciatore) A bar box and a tournament table are not the same game. • Four tape-measure numbers give a Table Difficulty Factor • A verdict from Too Easy to Too Tough • A plain sentence like "about 12% tougher than a standard table" • Save every room you play in and see them ranked on one bar WHERE YOUR DATA LIVES On your phone. • No sign-up, no network requests of its own, no ads, no analytics, no crash reporting • Logs, break history and saved tables sit in the app's private storage • Every log exports to a JSON file you can restore on another phone. This is handy if you are changing team or want to analyze your team using AI The microphone is used only on the break-speed screen, and only while it is listening. Audio is analyzed in memory to find two impacts; no recording is saved or transmitted. What persists is a number. A NOTE ON THE NUMBERS The race charts and 9-ball point requirements are transcribed from APA's own materials. The skill-level bands the comparison screens grade you against are calibrated estimates from match data, not official figures, and the guide says so wherever they are used. Pool Captain is an independent app, not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the American Poolplayers Association, FargoRate, or any league operator or rating service. Table difficulty ratings use Dr. Dave Alciatore's Table Difficulty Factor system. (Who seems like a great guy who probably wouldn't force me to remove this.)
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Pool Captain at every 9 days against TailWind Smart's every 5 weeks. 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
TailWind Smart ships an update every 5 weeks, Pool Captain every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | TailWind Smart | Pool Captain |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (89 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 51.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 89 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 124 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 1931085 Ontario Ltd | Joe Eaton |
Bugs and requests
TailWind Smart
Reported bugs
34 issues- Cannot enable Bluetooth during setup
- Location services need manual enabling
- App prompts to download unavailable update
- Auto open no longer works
- App can't diagnose or update firmware
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- App no longer allows adding a vehicle
- App always signed out after update
- Location triggers rarely work
- Update broke auto-close
- Settings changed to auto-close unexpectedly
- iOS widgets no longer work
- Frequently signed out and have to re-authenticate
- Garage doors deleted from app after sign-out
- Unable to close door, shows 'lockout'
- Clicking on one door opens/closes the other
- Massive battery drain for iOS users
- Auto open/close feature works sporadically for iPhone users
- App is buggy
- Garage door shows up sometimes, sometimes not
- Vehicle shows up sometimes, sometimes not
- Garage door shows as 'null'
- Notifications about turning sensor off/on incorrectly displayed
- Horrible battery drain
- Background battery drain issue
- Auto open/close doesn't always work on iPhones
- Auto open feature through IFTTT no longer works after iOS 13
- App crashes on iPad when clicking login
- Consistent backgrounding problem, requires app kill to connect
- Logs out user, password reset fails
- Registration of email didn't work
- App testing severely lacking
- Signs you out all the time at random
- IFTTT integration doesn't work with Apple
- App can't use Bluetooth from iPhone but can with Android
Requested features
8 requests- Clearer setup flow with firmware update check
- Documentation matching latest UX
- HomeKit integration release
- Siri Shortcuts improvement
- Watch face complication for watch app
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- Disable notifications while home using location services
- Manage 'admin' settings
- Fix iPad crash on login
Pool Captain
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
TailWind Smart
No in-app purchases
Pool Captain
No in-app purchases









