Comparison

Pro Altimeter for Watch vs Virtual Dashboard

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

Head to head
About

Pro Altimeter for Watch

This app provides precise altitude readings using your Apple Watch's barometric pressure sensor. It offers multiple calibration methods, including GPS, manual entry, and airport data, ensuring accurate measurements for outdoor activities. The interface is designed for easy readability with customizable color schemes.

Highlights
  • Barometric pressure sensor utilization
  • GPS altitude display
  • Multiple calibration methods (GPS, manual, airport data)
  • Real-time accuracy estimates
  • Customizable color schemes
  • Calibration reminders
Features
Read full description

Pro Altimeter for Watch is the newest Watch app from Hunter Research, developer of the popular outdoors app Theodolite. Pro Altimeter uses the high-fidelity barometric pressure sensor in the Apple Watch to measure and compute altitude. Although this is a Watch app, it has the same features, capabilities, and accuracy as the Pro Altimeter app for iPhone and iPad, just in a smaller form factor on your wrist! Pro Altimeter has a dead simple interface. Barometric altitude and GPS altitude are displayed in large easy to read numbers, with available units of feet or meters, and realtime accuracy estimates from the hardware. At bottom are calibration and settings buttons. The display offers highly-readable color schemes of luminescent green on black, white on black, and midnight red on black. Proper calibration is necessary to measure altitude from barometric pressure (this is why a pilot "dials in" the cockpit altimeter before taking off). Pro Altimeter offers numerous methods for calibration -- choose the easiest and most convenient: 1. Use GPS altitude. This method correlates the measured local barometric pressure with the altitude measured by GPS. This method can be used when your device has a clear line of sight to the sky and a reliable GPS fix with good accuracy that you trust. 2. Manually enter altitude in feet or meters. This method correlates the measured local barometric pressure with known altitude from landmarks, elevation benchmarks, trail markers, topo maps, land surveys, etc. 3. Manually enter pressure. If you have a weather station, weather report, or METAR report with equivalent sea level pressure for a nearby location, this can be used to correlate local barometric pressure to altitude. Pressure can be entered with units of inches Hg, kPa, or mb. 4. Check local airports. With the tap of a button, Pro Altimeter will locate the five closest airports within 100 miles (160km) of your present location anywhere in the world, and pull in METAR data. From that list of five, pick the airport of your choice and Pro Altimeter will import pressure data for calibration. Once calibrated, Pro Altimeter keeps track of the time since its last calibration. Because weather and local barometric pressure change over time, the app will warn you when 6 hours have elapsed since the last calibration by flashing the "CAL" button. You should calibrate as frequently as practical -- for example, on a hike, calibrate whenever you pass a trail marker or elevation benchmark, or hourly. But at a minimum, calibrate at least every 6 hours or whenever weather changes in your area. Pro Altimeter runs on all Apple Watch models running watchOS 9.6 or later. NOTE: The app requires user permission to access Location Services and Motion & Fitness in order to operate properly.

About

Virtual Dashboard

Create custom dashboards using your device's sensors to display speed, altitude, and more. Navigate with a map featuring route planning, points of interest, and breadcrumb tracking. Customize units, themes, and map views for a personalized experience.

Highlights
  • Customizable sensor gauges
  • Speedometer and odometer
  • GPS and barometric altimeter
  • Artificial horizon
  • Navigational map with overlays
  • Route planning and ETA
  • Points of interest search
Features
Read full description

Bring your iPhone and iPad's sensors to life on Virtual Dashboard. Arrange a variety of different gauges to create your own custom dashboards. You can choose from: ○ Speedometer (with peak hold) ○ Odometer (distance travelled, resettable) ○ GPS Altimeter (absolute altitude) ○ Barometric Altimeter (relative altitude) ○ Accelerometer (with peak hold) ○ Artificial Horizon (pitch and roll) ○ Compass (with magnetic heading and true track indicator) ○ Elapsed time (with average speed) Swipe to display a navigational map with resizable gauge overlays. You can select from road, bike, nautical chart, satellite, topographic, and survey (blank) modes.  The map shows your current coordinates, track, and heading, and drops breadcrumb markers as you travel. Tap to set a destination and the map displays your distance, bearing, direction to steer, and ETA to the destination. Search the map for points of interest or street addresses. Customize your units, map features, and gauge behavior. Select from one of the many available themes (theme requires in-app purchase). Connect your external MFI GPS device and see faster updates. We currently support the Bad Elf GPS units.

Screenshots

Virtual Dashboard4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Virtual Dashboard at 100% against Pro Altimeter for Watch's 44%. Virtual Dashboard also leads on price (Free vs $0.99) and rating (4.5 vs 4.3). Pro Altimeter for Watch's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Virtual Dashboard is free to download; Pro Altimeter for Watch costs $0.99 up front. Virtual Dashboard sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Pro Altimeter for Watch asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Virtual Dashboard holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 13 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 44% of Pro Altimeter for Watch's written reviews are positive against 100% of Virtual Dashboard's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pro Altimeter for Watch ships an update every 7 months, Virtual Dashboard every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Pro Altimeter for Watch versus Virtual Dashboard: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPro Altimeter for WatchVirtual Dashboard
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.3 (4 ratings)4.5 (13 ratings) — better
Positive reviews44.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings413 — better
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 5 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPod, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.613.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB36 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCraig HunterKevinnovate, LLC

Customer experience

Pro Altimeter for Watch

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive44.4%
Neutral11.1%
Negative44.4%

Virtual Dashboard

All ratings12 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral8.3%
Negative8.3%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Pro Altimeter for Watch

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Virtual Dashboard

One-time2
  • Donate for Development$0.99
  • Unlock All Themes$2.99

Questions

Is Pro Altimeter for Watch free?
Pro Altimeter for Watch costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Virtual Dashboard free?
Virtual Dashboard is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pro Altimeter for Watch or Virtual Dashboard?
Virtual Dashboard is rated higher. Pro Altimeter for Watch averages 4.3 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while Virtual Dashboard averages 4.5 from 13 ratings.
Do Pro Altimeter for Watch or Virtual Dashboard have ads?
Neither Pro Altimeter for Watch nor Virtual Dashboard shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pro Altimeter for Watch or Virtual Dashboard?
Pro Altimeter for Watch ships an update every 7 months, and Virtual Dashboard every 5 months. Most recently, Pro Altimeter for Watch was updated on November 11, 2026 and Virtual Dashboard on November 3, 2026.

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