Lightning Tracker vs HamPulse
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lightning Tracker
Visualize real-time lightning strikes across North and South America on a dynamic map. Receive predictive alerts for strike patterns and intensity, with estimated arrival times for your location. Monitor current and historical lightning activity to stay informed and protected.
- Live lightning map
- Real-time strike visualization
- Predictive lightning alerts
- Estimated time of arrival (ETA) for strikes
- Monitor saved locations
- 6-hour strike history
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Stay safe from lightning! Lightning Tracker delivers real-time lightning strike data for North and South America, keeping you and your loved ones protected. Live Lightning Map: Watch real-time strikes across the Americas with color-coded visuals to track lightning movement. Lightning Alerts: Predict strike patterns and intensity, with ETAs for your location. Monitor Anywhere: Check strikes near you or saved spots, like home or family, in one tap. 6-Hour Strike History: Analyze past lightning trends to stay one step ahead. Protect what matters most with Lightning Tracker. Download now to track strikes and stay safe!
HamPulse
Visualize amateur radio propagation, DX maps, and space weather on your Apple TV. Monitor real-time HF conditions, track satellites, and receive weather alerts with customizable map layers and detailed dashboards.
- Real-time HF propagation dashboard
- World map with customizable layers
- Band condition predictions (VOACAP)
- PSK Reporter integration for digital modes
- Spot Browser for POTA, SOTA, DX Cluster
- Satellite tracking with pass predictions
- Space weather monitoring
- Severe weather alerts
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HamPulse brings the world of amateur radio to your Apple TV, transforming your living room screen into a real-time ham radio operations dashboard. Whether you are chasing DX, hunting POTA activators, monitoring propagation, tracking satellites, or keeping an eye on space weather, HamPulse puts everything you need on one beautiful display designed for the big screen and the Siri Remote. At the heart of HamPulse is a full-featured world map rendered on an equirectangular projection with a smooth day/night terminator overlay. The base map blends NASA Blue Marble imagery during daylight hours with Black Marble city-light imagery at night, giving you an instant sense of where the sun is and where HF openings are likely. Over 20 toggleable map layers let you customize exactly what you see. VOACAP-powered band condition predictions cover 80 meters through 10 meters across a full 24-hour timeline, letting you plan your operating schedule around predicted openings. The propagation rose provides a directional view of HF conditions from your grid square, showing which headings are open on each band. PSK Reporter integration pulls in live FT8, FT4, and WSPR reception reports so you can see digital mode activity unfolding worldwide. The Spot Browser brings together POTA, SOTA, DX Cluster, and pico balloon spots in one searchable, filterable list. Sort by distance, frequency, or time, filter by band and mode, and select any spot to set it as your DX target with a great circle path on the map. The dedicated POTA and SOTA dashboard shows all active activators with band breakdowns and top activator stats. The watchlist feature highlights callsigns you care about with alert badges. The Contest dashboard displays upcoming and active contests with a visual timeline, band activity breakdown, mode distribution, and exchange details so you can prepare for the next event at a glance. Satellite tracking covers the ISS and other amateur radio satellites with real-time ground tracks, a sky view polar chart, Doppler shift calculations for 2m, 70cm, and 23cm, and upcoming pass predictions with elevation and azimuth details. Favorite satellites for quick access and refresh TLE data on demand. The Space Weather dashboard gives you an instant read on HF conditions with a color-coded impact banner that tells you whether to get on the air. Solar flux, sunspot number, X-ray class, solar wind, Kp index, Bz, Bt, aurora probability, and a 3-day NOAA R/S/G forecast are all presented with plain-language descriptions readable from across the room. Weather alerts from Environment Canada, NOAA, MeteoAlarm, and OpenWeatherMap show active severe weather near your station with a severity-colored halo indicator on the map. The earthquake layer displays recent seismic events from USGS and EMSC with a full dashboard. Air traffic and pico balloon layers round out the situational awareness. HamPulse supports radio control through rigctld for beacon auto-tune and spot tuning. CQ zone overlays, grid locator overlays, and DXCC entity layers provide contest and DX reference directly on the map. No account required. No personal data collected. No ads. Your callsign and grid locator are stored locally on your device and never transmitted to our servers. All data comes from well-known amateur radio community services and public APIs. VOACAP predictions are computed entirely on-device. Built by VE4ELB from Winnipeg, Manitoba (grid EN19). 73 and good DX.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Lightning Tracker at 75% against HamPulse's 0%. Lightning Tracker also leads on price (Free vs $4.99) and ratings volume (604 vs 2). HamPulse's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.3) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). On 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
Lightning Tracker is free to download; HamPulse costs $4.99 up front. Lightning Tracker sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. HamPulse asks for nothing beyond the download.
HamPulse holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lightning Tracker has 604 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 75% of Lightning Tracker's written reviews are positive against 0% of HamPulse's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Lightning Tracker ships an update every 4 months, HamPulse daily. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lightning Tracker | HamPulse |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.3 (604 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 74.6% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 604 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Daily — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #38 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 127 MB | 31 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Elecont LLC | Jorge Fabian Lozano |
Customer experience
Lightning Tracker
HamPulse
Bugs and requests
Lightning Tracker
Reported bugs
3 issues- App not detecting lightning strikes even when visible
- Frequent crashes and freezes
- Issues with app updates and functionality changes
Requested features
4 requests- Add distance/radius information for lightning strikes
- Implement push notifications/alerts for lightning within a certain radius
- Provide historical data and the ability to view past lightning activity
- Improve overall app stability and performance
HamPulse
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Lightning Tracker
- Remove Ads & Limits$2.99
HamPulse
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Lightning Tracker free?
Is HamPulse free?
Which has better reviews, Lightning Tracker or HamPulse?
Do Lightning Tracker or HamPulse have ads?
Which is updated more often, Lightning Tracker or HamPulse?
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