Anchor Basic vs Smooth Trailering
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Anchor Basic
This app provides a reliable anchor alarm for boats, offering drift warnings and low battery alerts. Users can pause the alarm and resume monitoring later, or set the anchor by current location, bearing, and distance. It also allows remote monitoring of other users' Anchor Plus alarms.
- Drift warning alerts
- Low battery alarms
- Pause and resume alarm function
- Set anchor by location, bearing, or distance
- Remote monitoring of Anchor Plus alarms
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A fully functional anchor alarm designed for iPhone & iPad. - Simple and reliable with user selectable units, drift warning and low battery alarms. - Pause the alarm and take your device with you; simply continue drift monitoring when you return. - Set the anchor at the current location or a bearing & distance to the anchor. - Use Anchor Basic to remotely monitor Anchor Plus. Go ashore for dinner and monitor your friends Anchor Plus alarm using Anchor Basic. - If you like this version, try Anchor Plus with a host of additional features
Smooth Trailering
Navigate towing routes with confidence. This app offers GPS guidance avoiding low clearances and restricted roads, plus finds boat ramps and marinas. It also includes trailer maintenance reminders and trip planning for a safer towing experience.
- Towing-specific GPS routes
- Avoids low clearances and weight restrictions
- Boat ramp and marina locator
- Trailer maintenance reminders
- Trip planning tools
- Customizable trailer profiles
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Smooth Trailering is a mobile app designed to simplify and optimize the towing process for boat, RV, and trailer owners. It provides GPS routes specifically designed to avoid low clearance areas, weight-restricted roads, and sharp turns, ensuring safe and comfortable navigation. The app also provides boat ramp and marina location information, trailer maintenance reminders, and trip planning tools. With an intuitive interface and customizable profiles for different trailers, Smooth Trailering makes every tow safer, more thoughtful, and smoother. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Smooth Trailering at Free against Anchor Basic's $0.99. Smooth Trailering also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.5) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). Anchor Basic's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 6 months). On 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
Smooth Trailering is free to download; Anchor Basic costs $0.99 up front. Smooth Trailering sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Anchor Basic asks for nothing beyond the download.
Smooth Trailering holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Anchor Basic has 17 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Anchor Basic ships an update every 6 weeks, Smooth Trailering every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Anchor Basic | Smooth Trailering |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.5 (17 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 17 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 108 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Roy Cadman | SMOOTH TRAILERING LLC |
Customer experience
Anchor Basic
Smooth Trailering
In-app purchases
Anchor Basic
No in-app purchases
Smooth Trailering
- Premium monthly14 Days trial$7.991 Month
- Premium yearly14 Days trial$59.991 Year
