Boat vs Hip Charts
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Boat
Access free nautical charts for Finnish waters, featuring live vessel tracking. Connect with agent software to display your boat's routes on the map. Utilizes official navigational data for accuracy.
- Free nautical charts
- Finnish waters coverage
- Live vessel tracking
- Vessel information display
- Route display with agent software
- Official navigational data
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Free nautical charts for Finnish waters. Includes live tracking of vessels in Finnish waters. Tap on a vessel icon to view further information. When used together with the Boat-Tracker agent software installed in a boat, routes driven with the boat are shown on the chart. Uses navigational markers from Finnish Transport Agency and public vessel identification data.
Hip Charts
Access NOAA nautical charts for free on your mobile devices. View charts online and download single areas for offline use. Additional features like multiple offline downloads and custom boundaries require a purchase.
- Unlimited online NOAA chart viewing
- Download single chart areas for offline use
- Automatic chart loading
- Cellular and WiFi chart downloads
- Custom download boundaries (paid)
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Hip Charts brings NOAA ENC nautical charts to your iPhone—completely free. Pan and zoom the map and official NOAA charts load automatically over Wi‑Fi or cellular. Download chart areas ahead of time for offline use on the water, including custom polygon boundaries. Measure distances right on the chart. Choose how charts look: • Default — NOAA’s standard chart tiles; fast and simple • Customized — adjust depth units, text size, harbor/shoreline structures (breakwaters, piers, docks), routes and marina info, and sharper rendering Need help reading symbols? Open Settings → Chart Legend for NOAA’s official U.S. Chart No. 1. Everything in the app is free. No subscriptions, no paywall. This app does not fulfill chart carriage requirements for regulated commercial vessels under Titles 33 and 44 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Hip Charts at 25% against Boat's 0%. Hip Charts also leads on rating (3.3 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (7 vs 1). Boat's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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.
Hip Charts holds the better App Store score, 3.3 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hip Charts has 7 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Boat's written reviews are positive against 25% of Hip Charts's.
Boat ships an update every 5 weeks, Hip Charts every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and September 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Boat | Hip Charts |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (1 ratings) | 3.3 (7 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 25.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 7 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 40 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Michael Skogberg | Walk About Apps |
Customer experience
Boat
Hip Charts
In-app purchases
Boat
No in-app purchases
Hip Charts
No in-app purchases
