Return Direction vs Marinate
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Return Direction
This app helps you find your way back to a previously saved location. It displays the direction and distance to your chosen spot, with the option to add a photo for visual reference. Ideal for remembering meeting points or return destinations.
- Save current location
- Display direction to saved location
- Show distance to saved location
- Add photos to saved locations
- Useful for meeting points
- Helps find return paths
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When you want to return to your current location later, this app will show you the direction and the distance. Let this app remember the place you are and check it later. If you register a photo, it will help you remember the place. - When you want to meet again at the place you part with others at an amusement park or a zoo - When you get off at the station and want to return to the same station again after visiting the destination such as shopping - On a bus trip, when you want to return to the bus after sightseeing
Marinate
Navigate the seas with offline charts, depth shading, and an anchor alarm that ensures your safety. Access worldwide charts, vessel traffic, and essential marine references without an internet connection. This app provides crucial navigation tools for any boater.
- Offline worldwide charts
- Anchor alarm with safety radius
- Man overboard marker
- Plain language chart symbol explanations
- Global depth shading and seabed relief
- GPX import/export
- Offline marine reference library
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Marinate is the chartplotter that works when nothing else does, no signal, no marina wifi, thirty miles offshore. Download your cruising area before you slip the lines and the whole app keeps working: charts, routes, depth shading, reference tables. Nothing phones home mid-passage. No account, no sign-up. Open it and you are navigating. WORLDWIDE CHARTS, NOT CHART PACKS Every coast on earth is included. No region to buy, no chartbook to add, no upgrade when you cruise somewhere new: the Aegean this summer and the Caribbean next winter on the same subscription. • Seamarks, buoys, lights, depth contours and soundings as vectors, sharp at any zoom • A fraction of the storage image tiles need • Download by area or along a route corridor AN ANCHOR WATCH THAT ACTUALLY WAKES YOU Set your anchor and a safety radius, and Marinate watches your position in the background, with the screen off and the phone in your bunk. If the boat drifts outside the circle it raises a continuous siren, not a single polite notification. We spent the most time on this, because a dragging anchor at 3 a.m. is when an app either earns its place or does not. SAFETY, NOT UPSELL Man overboard is one tap: a marker, the frozen position, and range and bearing back to it. MOB and the anchor drag alarm are free forever. NEW TO CHART SYMBOLS? Tap any buoy, beacon or light and Marinate says what it is in plain language: which side to leave it, which side to pass, what Fl.G.4s means. DEPTH YOU CAN READ AT A GLANCE • Global depth shading and contours: the blue gradient showing the bottom rise long before a sounding does, worldwide and offline • Seabed relief shading for the shape of the ground beneath you • Optional NOAA overlay in US waters, high-resolution survey depth in European seas SATELLITE AND HYBRID Satellite imagery of the whole planet, plus 10-metre coastal imagery for reading an anchorage before you commit: the sandy patch, the weed, the reef edge. Hybrid mode lays roads and place names over it. ROUTES, TRACKS AND MARKERS • Distance, bearing and ETA at your speed • Record and replay tracks • Markers for anchorages, hazards, dive sites and fishing marks, with photos • GPX import and export to swap with any other chartplotter MARINAS AND WHAT IS ASHORE Search marinas and harbours by name or near you, details kept offline: berths, fuel, water, contact. Search around your anchorage too: fuel, chandlery, pharmacy, supermarket, bus stop, by walking distance. A REFERENCE THAT KNOWS THE SEA Collision regulations in plain language with diagrams, code flags A to Z, day shapes, night lights, sound signals, IALA buoyage, emergency card. All offline, in your language. WEATHER, TRAFFIC AND FISHING • Live rain radar, so you see a squall coming and reef before it arrives. Free, no account • Wind forecast, pressure isobars, tides and currents • Shipping lanes and restricted areas you can tap to see what is restricted and why • AIS traffic (with a free aisstream.io key) • SignalK connects the boat's instruments (depth, wind, speed) with a shallow-water alarm • Sea-surface temperature and plankton layers: fish hunt the fronts and plankton edges, so look where the colour changes FOUR LANGUAGES English, Hebrew, French and Spanish, including the reference tables and the collision rules, not just the buttons. FREE AND PREMIUM Free forever: charts, GPS, routes, tracks, markers, MOB, anchor alarm, rain radar and one offline area. Premium adds depth shading and contours, satellite and official chart overlays, wind and pressure, sea temperature and plankton, AIS, SignalK, unlimited offline downloads and the extended forecast. 14-day free trial, with special launch pricing, cancel any time. IMPORTANT Marinate is an aid to navigation, not a replacement for official charts, a proper lookout, or your own judgement. Carry the charts your flag state requires. Continued use of GPS in the background can decrease battery life. Terms of Use: https://getmarinate.com/terms.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Marinate at 4.0 against Return Direction's 1.0. Return Direction's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.0). On price, ratings volume, ads 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. Marinate sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Return Direction asks for nothing beyond the download.
Marinate holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 1.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
| Parameter | Return Direction | Marinate |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.0 (1 ratings) | 4.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 13 months | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 26 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ryohei Minowa | Ofer Kamrat |
Customer experience
Return Direction
Marinate
In-app purchases
Return Direction
No in-app purchases
Marinate
- Premium Monthly14 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Premium Annual14 Days trial$14.991 Year









