Nautical Calculator Preview vs Binnacle
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Nautical Calculator Preview
This app provides comprehensive tools for marine navigation, including real-time ship movement, route planning, and advanced sailing calculations. It also offers features for collision avoidance, maneuvering, and learning maritime regulations and signaling.
- Real-time ship movement
- Route planning
- Mercator and Great Circle sailing
- Collision avoidance
- Maneuvering calculations
- COLREGs and maritime signaling
- Offline GPS
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The application to assist in solving the most important marine problems. - For Marine Navigation +Real-Time Ship Movement; +Route Plan; + Mercator Sailing. + Greate Circle Sailing. + Meridional parts. + Plane Sailing. + Traverse Sailing. + Wheel over. + Current and wind sailing. + Allowing for current and wind. + Calculate true wind and apparent wind on a ship running. + Nautical Almanac + Two Lop Fix + Three Lop Fix + Correcting marine sextant altitude of sun and stars. + Probability Distribution Function. + Standard Deviation and Error. + Offline GPS. - For Maneuvering : -Avoid collisions -Change of station in cases: + with time specified + with speed specified + with course specified + Course and speed of another ship. + Closest point of approach(CPA). + Ability to reach another ship going faster. + Close or open to another ship in cases : - as quickly as possible. - on a constant bearing. - with time specified. + Maneuver to intercept a target ship going faster. + Maneuver to intercept ahead a target ship. + Close to another ship as close as possible. +Keep watch for a target ship within a range of distances; +Maneuvering with added calculating of turning. +Bearing and distance to another ship in advance. - For Learning : +International regulations for preventing collisions at sea (COLREG) include Rules; Lights signs; Shapes signs and Sounds signs. + Marine signalizations include Flag signaling; Morse signaling by hand; Morse code. + Maritime buoyage system. + Unit Conversion for Maritime. + Glossary of Marine Navigation. +Maritime Theory. +Global Lighthouses System. author Vu Cong The. vucongthe@gmail.com - Các tính toán hàng hải và vận động tàu, bao gồm : +Dịch chuyển của tàu theo thời gian thật; +Lập kế hoạch hành trình; +Hành trình theo hải đồ Mercator +Hành trình theo cung vòng lớn. +Vĩ độ tiến +Dự tính vị trí tàu một hướng và nhiều hướng. +Tính và đè độ dạt gió dòng. +Tính toán lượn vòng của tàu. +Tính toán gió thực và gió biểu kiến trên tàu đang hành trình. +Lịch thiên văn hàng hải. +Phương pháp hai đường vị trí. +Hiệu chỉnh độ cao mặt trời và sao đo bằng sextant hàng hải. +Tính hàm phân phối xác suất. +Tính sai số chuẩn và độ lệch chuẩn. +Hướng đi, vận tốc của tàu mục tiêu. +Tránh va. +Các thông số ở điểm tiếp cận CPA. +Các thông số trận địa với thời gian hoặc khoảng cách cho trước. + Xác định khả năng tiếp cận tàu mục tiêu có vận tốc lớn hơn. +Thay đổi khoảng cách tới một tàu khác với : - Thời gian ngắn nhất. - Thời gian cho trước. - Phương vị không đổi. +Vận động cắt mũi hoặc lái một tàu mục tiêu có vận tốc lớn hơn. +Vận động cắt mũi một tàu mục tiêu. +Tiếp cận một tàu khác ở cự ly ngắn nhất. +Tính các yếu tố trận địa với thời gian hoặc cự ly cho trước. +Thay đổi trận địa trong các trường hợp: -với thời gian cho trước. -với vận tốc cho trước. -với hướng đi cho trước. +Vận động trong dải khoảng cách. +Tính toán lượn vòng trong vận động. -Tra cứu hàng hải bao gồm : + Qui tắc tránh va quốc tế (COLREG) : Nội dung các điều luật, Tín hiệu đèn, Dấu hiệu, Tín hiệu âm thanh +Thông hiệu hàng hải : Thông tin cờ hiệu, thông tin cờ tay, mã morse +Hệ thống phao tiêu hàng hải +Thuật ngữ Tiếng Anh Hàng hải. +Chuyển đổi đơn vị trong hàng hải. +Lý thuyết hàng hải. +Hệ thống hải đăng toàn cầu. Các giao diện hiển thị hai ngôn ngữ : Tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt Tác giả : Vũ Công Thế. vucongthe@gmail.com
Binnacle
This navigation app provides tools for maritime professionals and sailing enthusiasts. It offers features like true wind calculation, celestial navigation, ETA estimation, logbook management, and port search. Stay informed with real-time NavArea warnings for safer voyages.
- True Wind Calculation
- Celestial Navigation Tools
- ETA Estimation
- LogBook Management
- UNLOCODE Search
- NavArea Warnings
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Binnacle is a set of bridge instruments for merchant marine deck officers. Thirteen tools, most of them working with no signal, and none of them pretending to be more certain than it is. ON WATCH • Navigational warnings, plotted. NAVAREA and the coastal services drawn on a chart where they actually are, instead of read as a wall of text at three in the morning. Set a radius from your position and follow only the services that concern the passage. • Weather for a position and a time you choose — wind in forces, the barometric tendency, fog risk. Forecast data from MET Norway. • True wind from course, speed and apparent wind. • Manoeuvring board — CPA and TCPA for two to five contacts at once, and one alteration that clears all of them. POSITION AND CHECKS • Compass error by amplitude or azimuth, worked against celestial data for the moment you observed. • Celestial fix — reduce two or three sights and see the cocked hat plotted, with its residuals, not just a number. • ETA and passage timing in UTC, with the arithmetic shown. • Heel, trim and roll period from the phone's own sensors, with GM estimated from the roll period. RECORDS AND REFERENCE • Log book for bridge events, kept for the whole contract and handed over as a PDF. • 17,998 ports by UN/LOCODE, and 11,728 port facilities with their GISIS codes, searchable by name or code — the reference is bundled, so it works alongside. • Manoeuvring miles — passage legs with sea and manoeuvring totals kept apart. • Unit converter for the units a bridge actually uses: knots, cables, fathoms, hectopascals, tonnes and the rest. WHAT IT WILL NOT DO It is an aid, not an authority. It does not replace corrected charts, official publications, the ship's procedures or the officer's judgement. Every screen states its own limits rather than hiding them, and every export says on its face what it is. WHAT STAYS FREE True wind, ETA, compass error, the manoeuvring board, heel and trim, weather and the unit converter are free, with no limit and no trial. The log book keeps ten entries free. Celestial reduces one sight free. Port search and the match count are free. ONE PURCHASE, NOT A SUBSCRIPTION • Navigational warnings — NAVAREA and the coastal services, with the chart and the radius • The facility's own record in Port Facilities • Fixes from two or three lines of position, and the plot • PDF export, on every screen including the free ones One payment of $5.99 unlocks all of it, on every device signed in to your Apple Account. There is no subscription, nothing renews, and there is nothing to cancel. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy and Terms are also in the app, under More.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Binnacle at none against Nautical Calculator Preview's shown. Binnacle also leads on monetization model (free vs ad-supported). Nautical Calculator Preview's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Nautical Calculator Preview against 5.0 for Binnacle. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
Nautical Calculator Preview ships an update every 3 weeks, Binnacle every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on August 7, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Nautical Calculator Preview | Binnacle |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 36 MB | 32 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | The Vu Cong | Danylo Budylkin |
Customer experience
Nautical Calculator Preview
Binnacle
In-app purchases
Nautical Calculator Preview
No in-app purchases
Binnacle
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Nautical Calculator Preview free?
Is Binnacle free?
Which has better reviews, Nautical Calculator Preview or Binnacle?
Do Nautical Calculator Preview or Binnacle have ads?
Which is updated more often, Nautical Calculator Preview or Binnacle?
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