Coastal Explorer vs Bristol Maps
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.
Bristol Maps
Navigate commercial fishing grounds with up-to-date satellite imagery and tide data. Plan routes, log catches, and share information with private groups. Enhances fishing efficiency and safety.
- Latest satellite imagery overlays
- Tide and weather forecasts
- Digital logbook for catches
- Private groups for sharing
- Customizable boundary alarms
- Waypoint and route creation
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Bristol Maps is designed specifically for commercial fishermen to navigate using the latest satellite imagery. Currently serving Bristol Bay and Copper River watersheds. Say goodbye to outdated maps and inaccurate information - our app utilizes the latest, detailed images for increased efficiency, safer fishing trips, and a higher return on investment. As a fisherman like you, I've always used NOAA charts for the Bay. Given how fast the environment changes, these are at best, unreliable and at worst, dangerous. For this I developed Bristol Maps, an app that leverages curated satellite images taken during low tide, displaying the current bar locations, and allows for multiple images to be layered. For areas with multiple images at varying tides, this app allows you to see where there will, or won’t be navigable water. Additionally, these images can be overlayed onto the traditional NOAA charts. Beyond the core mapping functionality, tide and weather forecasts are also available. Weather can be pinpointed to a location as well as the nearest NOAA zone weather forecast. This information can be combined with the mapping functionality to create digital logs. Location, catch, weather, and tide data can be integrated into a log event. Logs can be overlaid onto the navigation page and analyzed to view catch data by area, gear type (4.75" vs 5"), and weather. Feature list: * Private groups for sharing location, custom routes and waypoints. * Private group chat. * Satellite overlays available for: Naknek/Kvichak, Egegik, Ugashik, Nushagak, and Copper River. Updated seasonally. * NOAA overlays available offline for all of Alaska. * Location grid layouts, organized by color and number, which can replace traditional paper maps or code tables shared by Groups. ie: "I'm over by green 22." A search tool is included to quickly find locations. * NOAA tide charts available offline for Bristol Bay tide stations. Other locations downloaded as they are used. * Pinpoint weather forecasts available as well as NOAA zone weather forecasts. * Boundary lines (with “alarm” functionality), for all major districts are preprogrammed along with the ability to create new boundaries. * Create Waypoints and Routes. These can also be exported/imported to/from other users to share data. * Online maps can be streamed with NOAA charts, custom satellite views, a high-res AK Government view, and street view. * Log entries for recording opener times, district, pictures, sets/deliveries, and automatic tide/weather history. Bristol Maps has been designed with an intuitive, user friendly interface to solve a common fisherman problem. Bristol Maps Pricing $200/Year A one-week free trial is included for testing and includes free cancellation. Subscription includes updates, bug fixes and seasonal imagery additions.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Bristol Maps at 4.0 against Coastal Explorer's 2.8. Bristol Maps also leads on review sentiment (50% vs 11%) and chart position (#149 vs unranked). Coastal Explorer's advantage is monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs subscription). On price, ratings volume, 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. Coastal Explorer sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month and Bristol Maps sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $200.00 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Bristol Maps holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 2.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 16 and 14 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 11% of Coastal Explorer's written reviews are positive against 50% of Bristol Maps's.
Coastal Explorer ships an update every 2 weeks, Bristol Maps every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Coastal Explorer | Bristol Maps |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.8 (16 ratings) | 4.0 (14 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 11.1% of reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 16 — better | 14 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Subscription |
| Best chart rank | — | #149 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 54 MB | 75 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rose Point Navigation Systems, Inc | Chris Hager |
Customer experience
Coastal Explorer
Bristol Maps
In-app purchases
Coastal Explorer
- Monthly Subscription$19.991 Month
- Yearly Subscription$49.991 Year
Bristol Maps
- Bristol Maps7 Days trial$200.001 Year
Questions
Is Coastal Explorer free?
Is Bristol Maps free?
Which has better reviews, Coastal Explorer or Bristol Maps?
Do Coastal Explorer or Bristol Maps have ads?
Which is updated more often, Coastal Explorer or Bristol Maps?
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