Waterscope Weather vs SatSquatch
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Waterscope Weather
This weather app provides detailed water-centric conditions like tides, wave heights, and water temperatures. It also includes forecasts for air temperature, wind, and satellite imagery, drawing data from NOAA and NWS.
- Tide predictions
- Wave height and water temperature
- Wind speed and air temperature
- Moon phase and position
- Satellite imagery
- Hurricane forecasts
- Onshore observations
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Waterscope is a weather app for people who love being around water. Whether you're surfing, fishing, boating, or just taking the dog for a walk on the beach, Waterscope will keep you informed about your local conditions. The data presented comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Weather Service (NWS). This app would not be possible without the scientific contributions from the people at these valuable public institutions. The app uses a series of screens to present this information: HOME When you launch Waterscope, you'll be presented with a screen that shows a graph of high and low tides for the nearest measuring station. Below that are wave heights and water temperatures for the closest NOAA buoy. These are followed by wind speed and air temperature measurements for a nearby NWS weather station. Above the graphs, you'll see the current phase of the Moon and its position on the horizon. Below you'll see the sun's position relative to your location on Earth. The clock at the bottom shows the current time, or the time for past data samples and future forecasts. Tap on the clock to scroll back to the current time. Tap on any large blue ring to show more information. Smaller blue rings make adjustments to what you're currently viewing. Tapping on the icon in the upper-left corner will show an overlay that explains the symbols and markers. EARTH The Earth view shows the last 24 hours of satellite imagery near your current location (the small blue dot is you!) Tap the + button to see a larger version of the latest image. The hurricane symbol at the top of the view will show the latest forecasts from the National Hurricane Center. MOON The Moon view shows the phase and location of the Moon for the next year. The white dot shows the height above the horizon, and when you align the blue arrow with the centerline and look up you'll see Earth's biggest satellite :-) SEA This view of the sea shows markers for observations collected by the National Data Buoy Center. The arrow points in the directions waves are heading: tap it to show water temperature, wave height, and an average period between waves. To make any buoy's data show up on the home screen, tap the heart icon. LAND Like the view of the sea, but with onshore observations collected by the National Weather Service. The arrow shows wind direction and tapping the marker shows the air temperature, wind speed with gusts, and barometric pressure. Tap the heart to add it to home. TIDE This view shows nearby tide stations: tap on any marker to get the current prediction at that location. Like the other map views, the tide station can be added to the main screen using the heart icon. FORECAST If you move forward in time, you'll see a forecast for air temperature and conditions. Tap on the conditions to get an expanded view that includes wind speed and direction.
SatSquatch
Visualize detailed weather data with customizable maps. Access free satellite imagery and advanced layers with a subscription. Perfect for weather enthusiasts seeking beautiful, high-quality data.
- Customizable weather maps
- GOES weather satellite data
- Real-time high-res mesoanalysis
- MRMS data layers
- User-friendly interface
- Subscription for advanced features
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SatSquatch is your all-in-one professional weather data app: satellite data, full-resolution Level II radar, forecast models, mesoanalysis and more, layered however you like on a fast, GPU-drawn map. SATELLITE • All 16 GOES-East and GOES-West bands, Himawari-9 full disk, True Color and core composites • RGB composites such as Air Mass, Day Cloud Phase and Fire Temperature (Pro) • GLM lightning and LightningCast (Pro) • GOES fire detections RADAR • Level II radar from every NEXRAD and TDWR site: reflectivity, dealiased and storm-relative velocity, spectrum width and the dual-pol moments (ZDR, CC, KDP, PHI) • Every tilt, echo tops, VIL, MESH, azimuthal shear, rotation tracks, ZDR columns and a tornado debris overlay • Storm-relative velocity from the radar's own storm tracks • 15-second refresh, with live sweeps (Pro) • Radar cross-sections (Pro) • MRMS composite reflectivity and precipitation, plus hail, rotation, echo tops, rainfall totals and flash flood guidance (Pro) ARCHIVE MODE (PRO) • Replay any past date: GOES satellite back to 2017, Level II radar back to 1991, MRMS back to 2020, GLM lightning and fire detections • That day's warnings, watches, SPC outlooks and storm reports, as they stood at the time FORECAST MODELS • HRRR, RRFS, GFS, RTMA and URMA • ECMWF IFS and AIFS, RAP, AIGFS, NBM and the GEFS, REFS, AIGEFS and AIFS ENS ensembles (Pro) • Filled contours, labelled contour lines, wind barbs and animated wind particles • 18 built-in presets, from 500 mb heights and vorticity to reflectivity over updraft helicity tracks • Run-to-run trends and one-tap model compare • Point soundings with skew-T, hodograph and parameters, cross-sections and meteograms (Pro) • Ensemble probabilities, spaghetti and plumes (Pro) ANALYSIS AND OVERLAYS • NWS warnings and watches, SPC, WPC and CPC outlooks, METARs, storm reports, ProbSevere, WPC fronts and Nadocast • Mesoanalysis, observed soundings and VAD winds (Pro) • Tropical model tracks, with ensemble tracks (Pro) CUSTOMIZABLE MAPS • Stack any layers in any order, with per-layer opacity and display units • 49 colormap presets and a full colormap editor • GRLevelX colour table import and export (Pro) • Saved presets, saved locations, annotations and a satellite basemap (Pro) • Split screen with synced panes, a data inspector and measuring tools • Animated wind with a level slider from 10 m to 250 mb • Loops of up to 72 frames; export images, GIFs and videos • Settings and favorites synced across devices SatSquatch Pro is an auto-renewing subscription that unlocks the features marked (Pro). Also available on the web at satsquatch.wxbyte.com. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://wxbyte.com/satsquatch-privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Waterscope Weather at none against SatSquatch's 2. SatSquatch's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 5 months) and review sentiment (71% vs 47%). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. SatSquatch sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Waterscope Weather asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.2 for Waterscope Weather against 4.3 for SatSquatch. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 24 and 16 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 47% of Waterscope Weather's written reviews are positive against 71% of SatSquatch's.
Waterscope Weather ships an update every 5 months, SatSquatch every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Waterscope Weather | SatSquatch |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (24 ratings) | 4.3 (16 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 47.1% of reviews | 70.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 24 — better | 16 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| 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 | 15.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 76 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | The Iconfactory | WxByte LLC |
Customer experience
Waterscope Weather
SatSquatch
In-app purchases
Waterscope Weather
No in-app purchases
SatSquatch
- SatSquatch Pro7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- SatSquatch Pro$49.991 Year
Questions
Is Waterscope Weather free?
Is SatSquatch free?
Which has better reviews, Waterscope Weather or SatSquatch?
Do Waterscope Weather or SatSquatch have ads?
Which is updated more often, Waterscope Weather or SatSquatch?
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