Coastal Explorer vs Cortex Onboard
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Coastal Explorer
Plan and log your cruises with detailed nautical charts and weather forecasts. Enhance your experience with a subscription for offline access, real-time navigation, and integration with marine electronics.
- View NOAA and USACE nautical charts
- Create routes and waypoints
- Cloud synchronization
- ActiveCaptain points of interest
- US Coast Pilot information
- Marine weather forecasts
- Tide and current predictions
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Coastal Explorer™ is a sophisticated, full-featured, easy-to-use cruise planning and logging tool designed specifically for the pleasure boater. And it becomes a complete navigation system with the purchase of a chart subscription. The free Coastal Explorer app provides these great planning features: * View NOAA and USACE nautical charts for the US in vector format * Create routes, waypoints, boundaries, and other navigation objects * Cloud-synchronization of your navigation objects * ActiveCaptain points of interest * US Coast Pilot information * Marine weather forecasts and observations for the US * Tide and current predictions for the US Purchasing a chart subscription turns Coastal Explorer into a complete navigation system that includes: * Downloadable charts, tide and current predictions, Coast Pilot, and ActiveCaptain places for offline use * Interfacing with compatible networked marine electronics devices, including GPS, compass, depth sounder, anemometer, AIS, autopilot, and more * Customizable instrument panels * Route following with cross-track error, distance and time to go, estimated time of arrival, etc * Track and event recording * Integrated blogging Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. See our Terms of Service at https://www.rosepoint.com/legal/terms_of_service.
Cortex Onboard
This app allows you to configure and update your marine electronics from your mobile device. Monitor vessel data, receive alerts, and manage features like Anchor Watch from anywhere on board.
- Configure and update Cortex devices
- View AIS information and alerts
- Manage Anchor Watch
- Monitor vessel sensors
- Connect NMEA 2000 instruments
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Cortex Onboard is free with your Cortex. Use it to configure your Cortex Hub and download updates to your Cortex devices with new features and improvements. You can also use Cortex Onboard to receive and manage alerts, view AIS information and instrument data anywhere on board your boat. View out-of-the-box sensors or NMEA 2000 networked instruments. - Setup is easy and free. - Use Cortex Onboard to configure and update your Cortex devices easily. - View AIS information and receive alerts on board direct to your device. - Manage Anchor Watch from the palm of your hand anywhere on board. - Use the Cortex Hub’s built-in sensors for battery level, barometric pressure and boat position. - Connect your Cortex Hub to NMEA 2000, or an external sensor, to add monitoring for wind, depth, bilge high water, temperature, shore power or security. - The Cortex Hub supports up to 10 WiFi devices (includes Handsets).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Cortex Onboard at 56% against Coastal Explorer's 11%. Cortex Onboard also leads on rating (3.8 vs 2.8) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). Coastal Explorer's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). 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. Coastal Explorer sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month. Cortex Onboard asks for nothing beyond the download.
Cortex Onboard holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 2.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 16 and 12 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 11% of Coastal Explorer's written reviews are positive against 56% of Cortex Onboard's.
Coastal Explorer ships an update every 2 weeks, Cortex Onboard every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 6, 2026 and June 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Coastal Explorer | Cortex Onboard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.8 (16 ratings) | 3.8 (12 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 11.1% of reviews | 55.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 16 — better | 12 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 54 MB | 376 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rose Point Navigation Systems, Inc | Garmin New Zealand Ltd |
Customer experience
Coastal Explorer
Cortex Onboard
In-app purchases
Coastal Explorer
- Monthly Subscription$19.991 Month
- Yearly Subscription$49.991 Year
Cortex Onboard
No in-app purchases









