West Coast Fish ID vs Catchzone
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
West Coast Fish ID
This app serves as a digital encyclopedia for identifying common fish species found along the North American West Coast. It uses high-quality images, illustrations, and key characteristics to help anglers quickly identify their catches and differentiate between similar species.
- Digital fish encyclopedia
- High-quality images and illustrations
- Key species characteristics
- Differentiate similar species
- Targeted fisheries information
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The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife in partnership with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission is excited to announce a new fish identification application for your mobile device - the West Coast Fish ID application! The North American West Coast offers anglers some of the most diverse fishing opportunities available anywhere in the world. Whether you are jetty fishing for Rockfish off the mouth of the Columbia River, angling for Salmon in the Sacramento, or longline fishing for Tuna 25 miles offshore, opportunities abound. To maintain this diverse and complex set of opportunities and fishery communities, anglers need to be able to identify the fish that they catch. The West Coast Fish ID application is a digital encyclopedia of common species that can be found on the North American West Coast. The application facilitates rapid identification of common fish species that are targeted in fisheries along the North American West Coast using high quality images, illustrations and lists of key characteristics. The application also provides tips for differentiating between similar species.
Catchzone
This app acts as a fishing guide, providing detailed information on fish seasons, regulations, and water bodies. It offers advanced features like auto-location, weather forecasts, tides, and offline access for anglers.
- Interactive water body maps
- Fish season and regulation lookup
- Auto-locating catch codes
- Personal best tracking
- Social feed for sharing catches
- Local weather and tide forecasts
- Offline map access
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Catch Zone is your very own fishing guide in the palm of your hand. It has mapping features for you to scroll and look at water body’s, you can then tap on the water body and see which fish is in season and out of season for that river, lake, stream, or pond. As well as the regulations for the individual fish in that waterbody. It has a search feature from the map screen for you to look up any regulated waterbody. Your catch code will populate and you can see all the information on the water body you want to fish or are currently fishing. Catch Zone comes complete with an auto locating feature that will tell you your catch code for any waterbody in Washington or Oregon. Track your personal best with our catch tags that save to your personal profile. We have a large social feed for you to share your greatest catch and stories with the world. At the bottom of every fish screen, we have made it easy to access emergency regulations with a clickable link. Subscriptions are required for complete functionality of our app. We offer two subscriptions a monthly subscription or a yearly subscription. Both of our subscriptions give full access to our app. We have added a new weather page to our app! On the weather page you will find your local forecast, a seven day forecast, as well as Tides, River levels, stocking reports , dam counts, ocean conditions, and moon phases. Our tide feature is great it auto locates your closest station and then you can also select different locations near you or even search for any station you want to know about. We have added tips and info for every waterbody on our app. These tips and info will tell you what fish are in that waterbody, the best time to fish for them, and in some cases tell you how to set up your rod, and tell you what works best . This feature is very helpful for a new angler . It tells you where bank access is as well as where boat access is. Tons of our users have been using this feature to explore new areas! We have implemented a new offline mode on our app!!! You can open the app when you don’t have service and when you go to the map screen you can still search any waterbody and get the info you need with no service! Catch Zone is a subscription based app which means a subscription is required for access to the app and its functionality. We offer two subscriptions currently: Our yearly subscription costs 69.99 which will be billed after your 7 day free trial. Our monthly subscription costs is 9.99 which will be billed monthly after your free trial ends. Please see our End user license agreement https://app.termly.io/document/eula/cd33fe37-763d-4d8e-92b1-f2599c27511a
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Catchzone at 80% against West Coast Fish ID's 17%. Catchzone also leads on rating (3.8 vs 2.3). West Coast Fish ID's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 8) and ratings volume (21 vs 4). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Catchzone sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. West Coast Fish ID asks for nothing beyond the download.
Catchzone holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 2.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: West Coast Fish ID has 21 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 17% of West Coast Fish ID's written reviews are positive against 80% of Catchzone's.
West Coast Fish ID ships an update every 10 days, Catchzone fortnightly. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.
| Parameter | West Coast Fish ID | Catchzone |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.3 (21 ratings) | 3.8 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 16.7% of reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 21 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Subscription |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 145 MB | 166 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife | Fish Washington LLC |
Customer experience
West Coast Fish ID
Catchzone
In-app purchases
West Coast Fish ID
No in-app purchases
Catchzone
- Monthly Subscription1 Month trial$7.991 Month
- Monthly Subscription7 Days trial2 variants$9.991 Month
- Monthly Bathmetry7 Days trial$12.991 Month
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- Yearly Subscription$29.991 Year
- Yearly Bathmetry7 Days trial$49.991 Year
- Yearly Subscription2 variants$69.991 Year
Questions
Is West Coast Fish ID free?
Is Catchzone free?
Which has better reviews, West Coast Fish ID or Catchzone?
Do West Coast Fish ID or Catchzone have ads?
Which is updated more often, West Coast Fish ID or Catchzone?
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