Afloat Plan Home vs SmartCraft Manager
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Afloat Plan Home
This app allows water sports enthusiasts to submit a plan for their activity, including details about their watercraft and emergency contacts. It tracks your location and sends alerts if you don't return on time, with offline capabilities and a first aid guide.
- Submit float plans via text
- Watercraft description
- Emergency contact notifications
- 10-minute location tracking
- Offline GPS data archiving
- SOS eVDSD signal control
- On-water first aid guide
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Afloat Plan Home for anyone who boats, kayaks, canoes, jet skis, or paddles Purpose: To submit a plan while recreating on the water. Let others know you arrived home safely. Have someone search for you if you don’t come back. Submit via text message all the details of your planned water sports activity. Choose 5 contacts to receive a description of your boat, kayak, jet ski, paddleboard, or canoe. Setting up the app is easy, and you only do it once. • Enter your name, address, phone number, and contact information. • Complete the description of your watercraft—hull numbers, registration, size, and colors. • List your emergency contacts so they are contacted if you are late and do not end your trip. File a float plan in just a few easy steps. Type in your starting location, what your destination is, and what the arrival or return time are. When you push submit, it sends a description of your watercraft, with your starting location and a Google map link, to your contacts. During the course of your activity, your location will be captured every 10 minutes and stored in the cloud. The app continues to acquire your GPS location via satellite and track your trip even when you are out of LTE range. When you are out of range, trip location data is archived locally on your smartphone or tablet. As soon as you reenter LTE range, your offline trip locations are synchronized with the cloud. In the event you don’t end your trip at the scheduled time, the app will send a notification for you to end your trip. After 15 minutes, it will remind you again to end your trip. If after 30 minutes you have not ended the trip, the app will send your trip map to your contacts with route information and your last known location. If you have a Sirius Signal model C-1002 SOS eVDSD, you can test and turn on your signal remotely. The app also shows the light’s battery status. The app also includes an offline interactive looped audio first aid treatment guide for common on-water emergencies.
SmartCraft Manager
This app allows authorized Mercury dealers and boat builders to remotely configure SmartCraft-powered vessels. It offers an intuitive dashboard for setup, cloud-integrated IoT features, and over-the-air updates, streamlining the configuration process.
- Remote vessel configuration
- Intuitive dashboard
- Cloud-integrated IoT features
- Over-the-air firmware updates
- Repeatable configurations
- CAN H functionality control
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The Mercury Marine SmartCraft Manager is a one-stop solution available exclusively for authorized Mercury dealers and boat builders to configure SmartCraft-powered vessels using a mobile device. The app unlocks many industry-first features, including … - An intuitive dashboard that helps set up vessels remotely without the need for interacting with multi-function displays on the vessels, saving setup time and resources for boat builders, dealers and consumers - Industry-leading cloud-integrated IoT-type features along with easy over-the-air firmware and software updates - Easily repeatable configurations that save time and resources while configuring vessels - Ability to turn off CAN H functionality through the app on vessels equipped with SmartCraft Connect SmartCraft Manager serves as a central connection point to devices that link into the growing Mercury SmartCraft ecosystem.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Afloat Plan Home at 60% against SmartCraft Manager's 0%. Afloat Plan Home also leads on rating (3.3 vs 1.2). SmartCraft Manager's advantage is monetization model (free vs ad-supported) and iOS requirement (12.2 vs 15.0). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Afloat Plan Home holds the better App Store score, 3.3 against 1.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 15 and 26 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 60% of Afloat Plan Home's written reviews are positive against 0% of SmartCraft Manager's.
Afloat Plan Home ships an update every 2 months, SmartCraft Manager every 3 months. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Afloat Plan Home | SmartCraft Manager |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (15 ratings) — better | 1.2 (26 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 60.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 15 | 26 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 20 MB | 50 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sirius Signal, LLC | Mercury Marine LLC |
Customer experience
Afloat Plan Home
SmartCraft Manager
In-app purchases
Afloat Plan Home
No in-app purchases
SmartCraft Manager
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Afloat Plan Home free?
Is SmartCraft Manager free?
Which has better reviews, Afloat Plan Home or SmartCraft Manager?
Do Afloat Plan Home or SmartCraft Manager have ads?
Which is updated more often, Afloat Plan Home or SmartCraft Manager?
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