Constant WX Brief vs FD Viewer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Constant WX Brief
Plan your flights with instant weather summaries and personal minimums. Quickly view icing and turbulence forecasts to find optimal departure times and altitudes. Access up to 48 hours of hourly forecasts and 72 hours of downloaded data for offline use.
- Instant weather summaries
- Personal minimums support
- Icing and turbulence viewer
- Hourly forecasts up to 48 hours
- Offline functionality
- Supports phones and tablets
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Instant weather planning with support for your personal minimums. Weather is summarized using simple icons to make decision making easier. Find the best time and altitude for departure with the fastest and easiest icing and turbulence viewer available. See hourly forecasts for up to 48 hours. Makes finding the best departure time easier. Full support on both phones and tablets. Whatever device you have handy is all you need to brief weather instantly. Once data is downloaded (for up to 72 hours) all functionality is implemented right on your device. No big brother watching and no need for internet connectivity. We take airplane mode seriously.
FD Viewer
Access and read detailed text weather products from the National Weather Service. This app reformats Area Forecast Discussions into a user-friendly interface, allowing easy navigation through sections and offices.
- Read Area Forecast Discussions (AFDs)
- View NWS offices on a map
- List offices by distance or alphabetically
- Paginated section navigation
- User-friendly reformatting of weather data
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Area Forecast Discussions (AFDs) are a text weather product released by the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Offices to inform and elaborate on the public forecast. FD Viewer presents each office on a map and also displays a list of offices sorted by distance or alphabetically. Selecting an office will display the latest Forecast Discussion paginated by section. Swipe right or left to navigate through each section. This app merely reformats the web-based AFD information in a user-friendly format. All credit for the forecast information goes to all the hardworking people at the NWS. TBD: I plan to support in-app glossary popups that will describe some of the more arcane acronyms and phrases used in the forecast text.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Constant WX Brief at 110 against FD Viewer's 1. Constant WX Brief also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). FD Viewer's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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.
FD Viewer holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Constant WX Brief has 110 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Constant WX Brief | FD Viewer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (110 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 110 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 153 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | David Lederman | Neil Cormia |
Customer experience
Constant WX Brief
FD Viewer
In-app purchases
Constant WX Brief
No in-app purchases
FD Viewer
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Constant WX Brief free?
Is FD Viewer free?
Which has better reviews, Constant WX Brief or FD Viewer?
Do Constant WX Brief or FD Viewer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Constant WX Brief or FD Viewer?
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