Comparison

Hotham vs PowderRun

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Hotham

Get real-time weather, snow reports, and live snow cams for the ski resort. Track friends, monitor your ski day and season stats, and compete on leaderboards. Purchase lift tickets, lessons, and rentals directly through the app.

Highlights
  • Real-time weather and snow reports
  • Live snow camera feeds
  • Friend tracking and group creation
  • Ski day and season statistics
  • Resort leaderboard
  • Online ticket and rental purchases
Features
Read full description

REAL-TIME WEATHER DATA No more guessing how many layers you’ll need with real-time weather including minimum temperature, wind speeds and how much snow has fallen in the last 24 hours. VIEW LIVE SNOW CAMS Keep an eye on snowfalls and see real time mountain views with live cams from various locations around the resort. FIND AND TRACK YOUR FRIENDS Stay connected with friends by creating your own private group. See their current location in real-time on the resort map, what run or lift each person in your group is riding and the difficulty rating. TRACK YOUR DAY AND SEASON Keep track of all the details about your ski day and season. How many days skied, runs completed and vertical kilometres logged are all at the touch of a button. If you have an Apple Watch, record your runs as a workout and see your workout in the Health app. LEADERBOARD Compete for the top spot on the Hotham Leader board through days skied, lifts ridden, and vertical metres logged. SHOP ONLINE Buy early and save on lift tickets, lessons, rentals and more. Created exclusively for Mount Hotham Alpine Resort by the Resorts Tapped LLC. Note: Location and Logging services require a GPS-equipped device. Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

About

PowderRun

Features
Read full description

PowderRun scores every ski run 0–100 using live weather data so you always know where the best snow is. Scores update every 30 minutes based on fresh snowfall, temperature, wind, sun exposure, freeze level, and ice risk. Open the app, pick your resort, and instantly see which runs are firing. HOW IT WORKS Each run gets a powder score from 0 to 100. The score combines real-time weather — snowfall in the last 24 hours, current temperature, wind speed and direction, solar radiation on the slope, and freeze level — with the run's aspect, elevation, and terrain features. North-facing sheltered runs score higher on sunny days. Windward slopes get penalised in a gale. It all happens automatically. FEATURES • Run-by-run scores — not just a resort average, but a score for every individual run • 10-day forecast — scrub through time to see how conditions will change hour by hour • Interactive terrain map — tap any run on the map to see its score and conditions • Detailed conditions — fresh snow, temperature, wind, freeze level, sun exposure, and ice risk for every run • Lift status — see which lifts are open and which runs they access • Filter by difficulty — show only green, blue, or black runs • Powder alerts — get notified when fresh snow drops overnight • Compare resorts — see scores across all your favourite mountains at a glance 86 RESORTS ACROSS 14 COUNTRIES Australia — Perisher, Thredbo, Mt Buller, Mt Hotham, Falls Creek New Zealand — Cardrona, Coronet Peak, Mt Hutt, The Remarkables, Whakapapa, Turoa Canada — Whistler, Lake Louise, Revelstoke, Fernie, Big White, Kicking Horse, Sun Peaks USA — Vail, Park City, Jackson Hole, Alta, Snowbird, Aspen, Mammoth, Telluride, Steamboat, Breckenridge, Stowe, Killington, Palisades Tahoe, Heavenly, Taos Japan — Niseko, Hakuba, Furano, Myoko, Nozawa Onsen, Rusutsu, Zao, Shiga Kogen France — Chamonix, Val Thorens, Courchevel, Tignes, Val d'Isère, Méribel, Les Arcs, La Plagne, Morzine, Avoriaz, Alpe d'Huez, Les Deux Alpes, Serre Chevalier Switzerland — Zermatt, Verbier, St Moritz, Davos, Saas-Fee, Wengen, Grindelwald, Crans-Montana Austria — Kitzbühel, Lech, Ischgl, Mayrhofen, Schladming, Sölden Italy — Cortina, Cervinia, Livigno, Val Gardena, Courmayeur, Sestriere, Campiglio Spain — Baqueira, Grandvalira, Sierra Nevada Norway — Trysil, Hemsedal Scotland — Cairngorm, Glencoe Argentina — Cerro Catedral, Las Leñas Chile — Portillo, Valle Nevado More resorts added regularly. Weather data sourced from Open-Meteo. Lift status via liftie.info.

Screenshots

Hotham4 screens
PowderRun4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Hotham at every 10 days against PowderRun's monthly. PowderRun's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hotham ships an update every 10 days, PowderRun monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Hotham versus PowderRun: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHothamPowderRun
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews40.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size86 MB109 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperMount Hotham Skiing Company PTY LTDLuke Pipolo

Bugs and requests

Hotham

Reported bugs

16 issues
  • Trail status inaccurate
  • Grooming status incorrect
  • App often doesn't work early morning
  • Snow report/weather conditions not dated
  • Lift status shows 'unknown'
Show 11 more
  • GPS tracking issues (stops working, deletes runs)
  • App fails to load sometimes
  • Slow to show trail and lift status
  • Cameras mislabeled or not showing
  • Tracking auto-disables after inactivity
  • Stats failing to update
  • Login issues
  • App redirects to web browser for snow report
  • Trail map out of date
  • New app is not iPad friendly
  • Cannot open properly on iPad

Requested features

19 requests
  • More specific weather information
  • Ability to book ski school on the day
  • More resort/personality skiing footage
  • Link with Epic Passes
  • See all resort trails under each lift (older version functionality)
Show 14 more
  • App for Hotham, Falls, and Perisher
  • Comment on terrain park status
  • Add expected opening time for closed lifts
  • Better webcams
  • Include speed in stats
  • Add road conditions alerts
  • Add a 'help!' button for emergencies
  • Leaderboard fairness
  • iPad compatibility
  • Phone list feature
  • Night skiing tracking
  • First Tracks availability
  • Back country trail information
  • Grooming information for cross-country trails

PowderRun

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Hotham

No in-app purchases

None

PowderRun

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hotham free?
Hotham is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PowderRun free?
PowderRun is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Hotham or PowderRun have ads?
Neither Hotham nor PowderRun shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hotham or PowderRun?
Hotham ships an update every 10 days, and PowderRun monthly. Most recently, Hotham was updated on October 12, 2026 and PowderRun on October 3, 2026.

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